Tag Archives: grape hyacinth

April 5 and 6 – Orcas

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Wind: yesterday variable 0-17 knots, today variable 0-22 knots
Sea State: both days rippled
Visibility: both days 15 NM
Sky: yesterday partly cloudy, today clear
Temperature: both days 5-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 416.03 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Yesterday morning, I noticed a pod of at least six orcas on the western edge of the ecological reserve. They swam east through Middle Channel, passing just north of the main island. What a treat it was for me to watch them from the front porch. See the photos below.

The older of the two female pups has been gone for the whole day. She left the island at some point early this morning. It’s been 14 days since the oldest of the three surviving pups left the island. Perhaps the pup who left today is following the strict schedule, as she is 14 day younger than the male pup who left 14 days ago.

Today, there were three boats in the ecological reserve: two pleasure craft and one local whale watching boat with two people on board.

  • This gull managed to snatch an egg from a goose nest
  • The large dorsal fin of a male orca and a smaller female.
  • A younger male orca swims by two california sea lions.
  • Orcas swimming by a juvenile bald eagle. The shorelines of Esquimalt and Victoria are in the background.
  • The older of the female pups was resting on this spot above the goose nest for two days, before she went for a swim at some point this morning. Notice the calendula flower in her mouth.
  • This tulip, surrounded by grape hyacinth is taking its time to blossom.
  • Blue bells are starting to appear in a few place.
  • The juvenile elephant seal scared away the goose from this nest with two eggs. The goose came back after the seal left.

 

March 24 and 25

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Wind: yesterday variable 1-11 knots, today mostly W 2-17 knots
Sea State: both days calm
Visibility: yesterday 5-15 NM, today 10-15 NM
Sky: yesterday overcast, rain then clearing in early afternoon, today partly cloudy then clear from mid morning onwards
Temperature: yesterday 5-6 °C, today 5-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.34 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

I heard back about more information on the recently arrived female juvenile elephant seal pup, with green tags E103 and E135. Dr Patrick Robinson, the Director of the Año Nuevo Reserve and Lecturer at University of California Santa Cruz, sent a report of the history of the seal’s sightings and said, “It’s always great to get these updates… we greatly appreciate it!” The seal was born in the 2018 winter season, which makes her just over two years old. She was seen a lot during the winter and spring of 2018 at Año Nuevo Reserve. Researchers took two blubber samples to study bioaccumulation. The seal wasn’t seen again until the fall of 2019, when she spent a month at Race Rocks between September 7 and October 11. Fast forward a few months, the seal came back to Race Rocks two days ago, on March 23. She appears to be in the early stages of her catastrophic moult of her fur and skin, judging by the patches on her sides.

The youngest elephant seal pup returned yesterday morning from her one day adventure in the sea. She spent the whole day sleeping by the wood pile. The oldest pup has been gone for the past two days. A new adult female elephant seal arrived yesterday. She is most likely one of the four mothers that was here in January and February. So far the three have come back a month and a half after they each weaned their pups, which happened on January 21, February 4 and February 9.

At today’s 16:31 high tide, after recording the salinity and temperature of the water, I hooked up the hoses and pump to top up the seawater in the cistern. The gas powered water pump sucks water through a hose with a strainer dropped off the end of the jetty. The water is pumped through 76 m (250′) of fire hose up to the cistern. Over a couple hours, tens of thousands of litres of water were pumped into the underground cistern, which should feed the desalinator for the next month and a bit.

Yesterday, there was one pleasure boat that zoomed through Middle Channel and stopped by the rocks to take photos of sea lions. This afternoon, the Canadian Coast Guard lifeboat Cape Calvert, appeared to be out for a cruise around Race Rocks from the base in Victoria. They came in for a closer look and a couple of the crew appeared to be snapping photos of Race Rocks with their phones. This is a very photogenic place. This afternoon, Guy, Corey and Christine from Pearson College delivered a new fridge and took away the old one that recently stopped working. They also brought some fresh food from the Pearson kitchen, which is closing down for a while.

Here are a few photos from the past two days:

Shoreline Debris

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Wind: yesterday N-NE 25-53 knots, today NE-S 9-45 knots
Sea State: both days rough with waves up to 2 m
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 0-3 °C, today 1-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.33 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The wind was strong all day yesterday until mid afternoon today, when it began to die down. The cool temperatures and winds blasted some of the plants that were exposed on the north side. The high pressure and clear skies were great for the solar power. For the first time this winter, the batteries recharged themselves today, reaching full charge just after 4:00 this afternoon. Normally, I top the batteries up with the generator for a few hours each evening. Hopefully the voltage of the batteries will remain at a good level until the sun rises at 7:24 and begins to feed the solar panels soon after.

For the past two and a half months, I have been combing the shoreline, picking up all the trash that washes ashore. I picked up a lot of pieces of plastic, rope, foam, fishing gear, buckets and other things that floated their way here. There are only three small beaches on the island that collect garbage: the boat ramp, east bay and the tombolo, which at low tide connects the south side of the island with the south seal rocks. There must be a massive amount of trash that floats by Race Rocks and doesn’t get captured by the shoreline. On the south side of the island, I found a lot of metal and pieces of ceramic that were mostly from the days when the old things and buildings on the island were disposed of by pushing them into the water. A few of the items I found are going to be reused: dog toys, floats and rope. The rest will be either recycled or sent to the landfill.

There were two tour boats in the ecological reserve this weekend, both today.

Other photos from around the island over the past two days:

Elephant Seal Excitement

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Wind: yesterday 0-36 knots from W, E, S, W throughout the day, today 9-40 knots from W
Sea State: yesterday rippled changing in late afternoon onwards to chop up to 1 m, today calm in early morning then up to 1 m chop for rest of the day
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days overcast
Temperature: yesterday 5-9 °C, today 7-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.72 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The ecological highlights of the past two days were a bald eagle eating a bird and as usual the very entertaining elephant seals.

A new female elephant seal arrived on the main island this morning. She is tagged T563 on tags on each of her tail flippers. I contacted elephant seal researchers to check her history. She was tagged as a pup in the birthing season of 2010-2011, on the Farallon Islands, off the coast of San Francisco. That makes her just over nine years old. She hasn’t been seen by those researchers since. Last year, Ecoguardian Laas spotted her for the first time at Race Rocks on March 21. This morning, the alpha male was attempting to mate with her. Now she is hunkered down by the flagpole, shielded from the strong west wind. The adult males were bellowing at each other for most of the day. The beta male has an advantage of a high lookout point, on the helicopter pad. He has been up there since January without leaving. I am not sure he knows how to get down, as I have seen him attempt a few times before turning around. He must be getting hungry.

The oldest of the two female pups might have gone for a swim yesterday. I saw her with wet fur climbing up the rocks from the east bay.

The youngest female pup and oldest and only male pup have been hanging together, vocalizing with each other and appearing to play fight.

In between watching nature neatos, I did some maintenance around the island. I used a new two metre pressure washer wand to get the algae off the north side of the boat house, tank shed and Race Rocks sign. I hope to clean off the rest of the buildings over the next few weeks, now that the desalinator is pumping lots of freshwater. I also fixed the door on the freshwater shed with a new hasp and a piece of wood to stop the door from blowing inwards.

No boats or visitors were in the ecological reserve over the past two days.

Here are some photos from the past two days:

Visit from Cheanuh First Nations

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knots SW, later 5-10 West
  • Sky: clear
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • A new female elephant seal appeared this afternoon.
  • The weaner moved about 3 feet all day, snoozing on top of the cistern.
  • Watched some geese engage in battle.
  • Some nice flowers.

Maintenance

  • Month end report data collection.
  • Stacked some firewood.
  • Did some goose work.

Boats

  • Kyle came out in Second Nature with some visitors from the local First Nations Reserve.
  • While presumably checking out the harbour seals, they came across a boat with some of their friends in it.

Visitors

  • The chief from Cheanuh, his wife, and their two children came out with Kyle and Guy.

Very Windy

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: at 7:45, 10-15 knots East, then at 13:20 up to 35-40 knots West
  • A peak of 43 knots West at 14:15. Settled at 25-30 knots West after dark.
  • Sky: overcast, in the afternoon periods of sunshine, rain after dark.
  • Water: 1′ chop, later some monster waves from the west

Ecological

  • Just the weaner on Great Race.
  • Killdeer active as ever.

Boats

  • One eco-tour came by.

Flowers, Birds, and Stuff

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots East, later up to 20 from the West.
  • Sky: sunny
  • Water: calm

Blurry like a painting 2

Blurry like a painting!

Ecological

  • I believe there are at minimum 3 elephant seals out on Middle Rock, perhaps 5.
  • The seagulls continue their coupling and courting.

Maintenance

  • Added 36.5 gallons to the tidy tank from the one remaining diesel barrel.
  • It now has just under 82 gallons in it; should be good for a while.
  • Scraped the rust off the empty barrel and spray painted it blue.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.

Boats

  • One mostly empty eco-tour came by in the morning.
  • Lots of small fishing boats around the reserve today.
  • Only one passed through to my knowledge.

Almost empty eco-tour

Birds and Boats

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots NE
  • Water: rippled
  • Sky: clear

Sunset

Sunset

Ecological

  • Chunk and Chuckles still on Great Race.
  • Saw a northern sea lion branded with 354Y.
  • Saw a northern sea lion with a cooker cutter shark scar.
  • Noticed at least 50 harbour seals out on the south islands today.
  • Saw a common merganser wash itself on a rock close to shore. Apparently it is quite uncommon to see them at Race Rocks. Later some harlequin ducks swam nearby.
  • Saw a jellyfish floating around near the jetty. Not sure what variety it was.
  • Noticed some grape hyacinth for the first time today. By my estimate there are least 6 different species of flowers now in bloom out here.

Bald Eagles and Snowy Mountains

Maintenance

  • Stacked firewood until there was no remaining space. Will have to restart stacking once some of the stores have been burnt up to create space.

Boats

  • Jeff and his two Belgian volunteers came by with food supplies this morning. Eggs, milk, and bread. Surprised the Belgians didn’t bring me any Jupiler.
  • Quite a bit of traffic today out in the straight. Documented the more interesting looking ones with photographs.
  • One fishing boat went through the middle channel of the reserve.

Other

  • Heard 5 DND blasts today from Bentinck Island. A small one at 12:47, and then 4 medium blasts at 12:50, 12:55, 15:04, and 15:06. The animals didn’t make too much of a fuss.

One of today's DND blasts

March 20 – Spring Equinox

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Overcast with occasional light rain
Wind: NE 6-15 knots
Air Temperature: Low 9.2°C, High 11.2°C
Ocean Temperature: 8.8°C

The Spring Equinox brought more of the same weather. The daffodils, which have been in bloom for about a month, are beginning to die off. The canadian geese and gulls are still spending their days looking for their future nesting sites. They are getting more aggressive with each other. I don’t need an alarm clock in the morning, because the birds wake me up with the sun. The goose droppings are piling up in various deposits around the main island.

Courtney brought out a group on Second Nature from Pearson: Roman, Noemi, Roger, Catherine, Heather and Kim. They will be staying for the weekend and helping with some service projects on Saturday.