Tag Archives: fog

An Elephant Seal

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  10-15 SW
  • Sky: cloudy this morning had a bit of fog then cleared up in the afternoon
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a few ecotours and personal vessels cruise by today

Ecological

  • plenty of stubborn sea lions along with one female elephant seal mixed in with them

Notes

  • It was nice to see an elephant seal around, I walked around taking a few pictures today
  • The sea lions were very stubborn today, I couldn’t fix the fence by the student house because they would charge me whenever I got close

Caught in the Fog

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Weather

  • Visibility: from 0-15 throughout the day, mostly 0
  • Wind:  10-15 SW
  • Sky: overcast in the morning caught in the fog most of the day and overcast again around 5:30pm
  • Water: choppy less than a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Some ecotours today

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around

Notes

  • My fog horn was going off for hours today
  • ran the desalinator a bit, trying to get back up to a full tank
  • the electric fence was pretty tangled today but I got it back up

Sept 3, 4, 5 and 6th

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I am back on Race Rocks and am very happy to be here, I had some log in trouble so this post will be for the past few days.

Weather,

On the third it was nice and sunny with little breeze, it was so nice I could run the desalinator without the generator. Started getting cloudy the next couple days and this morning the fog horn went off for a few minutes.

Ecological

I will be doing the census tomorrow but so far the number of sea lions seem to be growing, I have not seen any elephant seals, the harbour seal are right in there with the sea lions and I saw a river otter or two running around last night.

Other

Plenty of whale watchers coming around everyday, a couple sailboats and other than that the DnD seem to be blasting consistently which the sea lions aren’t too happy about.

That sums up my first few days back, I will be doing the census tomorrow and here are a few pictures from the last couple days.

Foggy week and dead gull chicks

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Weather

These first days of August were pretty foggy:Everyday the fog was around Race Rocks from 3:00 AM to 9-10 AM and for the 2 last days it was all day long. One day was warm but the others not so much because of the wind. On the 6th the fog around the rock  was just like a thick wall…

Ecological

No more Elephant Seals and slowly the Sea lions are coming back .We saw the first one on the jetty and 2 big stellers on middle were pretty noisy like usual.The 3 last days many dead gull chicks around and gulls are really aggressive (they attack you)…I saw an amazing show:2 eagles and 4 vultures hunting the chicks together (the 2 eagles going to a dive and the vultures staying at the same level in the air). Many pigeons guillemots . 2 beautiful and big cormorants spend a full day on the same rock. and 2 times we had orcas in Race Passage around 11:00 AM followed by so many boats!The second time some were almost on them (10 to 30 meters) …disgusting!

Maintenance

The sea water pump has been repaired and is working well now. Cleaning days before the shift.

Other

Shift over done on the  6th in the afternoon. James got a full tour of the rock and has been introduced.

 

 

Another Foggy Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 0 Miles
  • Wind:  25-30 SW
  • Sky: Completely foggy from 1am until 7:30pm
  • Water: choppy, not too big

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours came by today despite the fog

Ecological

  • 12 elephant seals scattered around, mostly in the front of the house

Sunday, May 21st

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I lost connection to my wifi and phones on Sunday and got it back on Thursday so I will be updating the logs from Sunday May 21st to Thursday May 25th

Weather

  • Visibility: Dense fog until noon, could not see much past the jetty
  • Wind: 15-20 NW this morning increased a little bit through the day
  • Sky: Dense fog
  • Water: fairly calm

Boats/Visitors

  • No boats came by in the morning that I could see but once the fog cleared up in the afternoon there were quite a few boats

Ecological

  • 12 elephant seals scattered around today

The Census of Birds and Mammals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles, later 15 until…
  • 19:35 onwards foggy, 100 yards.
  • Fog horn sounded for over 3 hours.
  • Wind: 0-5 knots South East.
  • In the evening 15-25 West.
  • Sky: overcast, then sunny, then foggy.
  • Water: calm

Mount Baker near sunrise.

Strangely disturbed water.

Ecological

  • Census day! Counting stuff!
  • Found what to me is a solo mystery bird.
  • Surprised to see no Black Turnstones around today.
  1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 53
  2. Harbour Seals: 35
  3. California Sea Lions: 29
  4. Elephant Seals: 13 (11 on Great Race, 2 on Middle Rock)
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 304
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 225
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 21
  8. Canada Geese: 18
  9. Savannah Sparrows: 10
  10. Harlequin Ducks: 9 (6 males and 3 females)
  11. Black Oystercatchers: 7
  12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)
  13. Mystery bird: 1
  14. Black Turnstones: ZERO!

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator.

Boats

  • Lots of eco-tours cameth by today. Over 10!
  • Some of them were perhaps a bit too close to the mammals at times?
  • Kyle brought me my final food order; milk, red and green bell peppers, sour cream, and onions.
  • Eerily reminiscent of the Thin White Duke’s diet..

Visitors

  • Kyle with food stuff.

Foggy Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 0-5 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knots W, then around to NE
  • Sky: fog!
  • Water: calm
  • The foghorn was beeping off and on much of the morning and afternoon.

Ecological

  • 3 elephant seals on Great Race.

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator.

Boats

  • No boats that I’m aware of.

Various Boats

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 NE
  • Sky: clear
  • Water: calm
  • The fog horn went off from at least 4am-7am.

Ecological

  • Saw a great blue heron fly over the reserve around 11.
  • Was unable to get a photograph though.
  • 6 elephant seals on Great Race.

Maintenance

  • Added most of a diesel barrel to the tidy tank.
  • Ran the desalinator in the evening.
  • The usual chores.

Boats

  • Several eco-tours came by today.
  • A sailboat glided peacefully through middle channel.
  • One pleasure craft was observed travelling at a speed which was likely over the limit.
  • A rather peculiar looking craft spent much of the daylight hours near North Rock.

A Strong Breeze

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles with occasional fog interludes
  • Wind: 20-25 knots NE, later down to 15
  • Sky: showers
  • Water: choppy, especially in Middle Channel where waves and current collided.
  • The foghorn went off for a minute or so in the afternoon.

choppy-26-10

Ecological

  • Still lots of sea lions on and around the jetty.
  • Lots of Canada Geese on the island.

Maintenance

  • Yesterday at 21:30 the windspeed display showed 00.0 despite clear wind.
  • It started working again sometime in the early morning.
  • The usual chores.

Boats

  • A few eco-tours came by in the afternoon.
  • One of them was here when the foghorn went off.

hark-a-boat-26-10