Tag Archives: gull

End of Shift

Posted on by

The wind blew from the northeast at 13-26 knots.  A small swell with whitecaps blew in from the northeast.  The barometer dropped from 1024 hPa to 1015 hPa.  The temperature reached a high of 5oC at 15:00.

There were no boats seen within the reserve today.

Everyday there appears to be fewer gulls and sea lions in the reserve.  An official count will happen on Thursday with the census.  There are still a lot of cormorants congregating on the shores of Great Race, as well as Turbine Rock and North Rocks.  The harbour seals are hauling out at low tides on various rocky ledges close to the shoreline.

Today was filled with cleaning and wrapping up some tasks that I’ve been doing while here for the past five weeks: construction in the basement of the Marine Science Centre, sorting out photos, and cutting up firewood that was collected at the shore and piled up by the tank house to get the salt rinsed off by the rain. Tomorrow is a shift change that will see Alex arrive for the winter shift.  I’ve had a great time as the Ecoguardian, learning lots from the species and history of this beautiful piece of land and sea.

Peregrine, Eagles and Wind

Posted on by

The wind gusts reached 39 knots from the west this morning.  The general wind trend throughout the day was between 11 and 32 knots from the west, with slight fluctuations to the north and south.  The barometer generally went down from 1001 hPa to 997 hPa, with a few dips upwards as the sun broke through the clouds.

The approaching Arctic blast of cold weather will bring a chance that the thermometer might drop from 7oC to below 0oC tonight for the first time in a while.  Heating coils and warm thoughts have been deployed around the buildings to prevent pipes from freezing.

There was one whale watching boat seen in the reserve at 12:30.  A couple boats gathered to view humpback whales to the east of the reserve in the mid afternoon.

There were a couple of bald eagles around for most of the day, one adult and one juvenile. At 10:00 in the morning, a peregrine falcon was chasing after the juvenile eagle over the north of Great Race and Middle Channel.  The size difference of the eagle and peregrine took me by surprise.  I had never seen the much smaller peregrine next to a bald eagle. This might be the same peregrine that Pam Birley has seen over the past week.  It had dark chest feathers, which indicates it is a juvenile peregrine falcon.

The desalinator worked hard today to make about 800 litres of fresh water.  With a maximum output of 1.5 litres per minute, the desalinator is a very energy intensive way to create water.  Although, when the water is heated and added to a mix of leaves, spices and herbs, it makes great tea.  A necessity for Race Rocks.

Weekly Census

Posted on by

The wind varied in velocity and direction throughout the day.  Fog settled in overnight as the wind blew between 15-25 knots from the southwest.  In the daylight hours, the wind blew from the south and west between 7-32 knots.  The barometer dropped slightly from 1008 hPa to 1004 hPa.  It was overcast with patches of sun and rain throughout the day. The temperature reached a high of 12.8oC at noon.

There was one whale watching boat seen in the reserve, in the mid afternoon.

I saw humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) twice today, both times from the kitchen window.  The whales were surfacing just south of Great Race Rocks, within the boundaries of the Ecological Reserve.  At 9:30am, I saw two humpbacks blow, surface and dive westward.  At 3:20pm, I saw one humpback surface and dive eastward.  I am not positive if they were different whales, so I counted them as two in the census.

Two branded steller sea lions were seen seen today.  76Y was a pup in 2002 when it was branded in St. George Reef, California.  443Y was branded in 2013, when it was a pup at Rogue Reef, Oregon.

Here are the results of the weekly census:

Humpback Whale: 2
Steller Sea Lion: 244
California Sea Lion: 216
Harbour Seal: 39
Northern Elephant Seal: 4
Bald Eagle: 5 (2 adults, 3 juveniles)
Canada Goose: 18
Crow: 2
Harlequin Duck: 4
Double Crested Cormorant: 61
Pelagic Cormorant: 142
Black Oystercatcher: 25
Gull: 411
Black Turnstone: 8
Rock Sandpiper: 6
Surfbird: 11
Savannah Sparrow: 2
Fox Sparrow: 2

Bald Eagles and Sea Lion Bones

Posted on by

The wind blew from the south, switching around to the east and north, by the mid afternoon.  The velocity of the wind hovered between 9 to 15 knots, during the daylight hours.  The barometer dropped from 1027 hPa to 1018 hPa.  The sky was overcast, with rain in the afternoon.  The temperature was 8oC for most of the day, dropping from 10oC yesterday.

There were no boats seen in the reserve today.

This morning, nine bald eagles were in reserve at one time:  four adults and five juvenile. They made at least one kill of a gull, just below the high point of the island, northwest of camera 5.

During a beachcombing exploration this afternoon, I found a partially decomposed sea lion carcass.  It appeared to be a steller sea lion, based on the appearance of the fur and flippers.  It was near where I had found other sea lion bones a few weeks ago.  The bones had been mostly cleaned by gulls and insects.  It looked fairly recent, because the fur was still intact and attached to several parts of the skeleton.

Black Brant Goose

Posted on by

Last night the anemometer was reading wind gusts of up to 53 knots from the southwest. That’s 100 km/h!  As far as I can tell, nothing blew away overnight.  There was a fresh load of driftwood delivered to the beaches.  Today, the wind continued to blow from the southwest and west.  The wind had low velocity in the morning, rising to the high twenties in the afternoon, and dropping to 11 in the evening.  The barometer continued to rise from 990 hPa last night to a high of 1018 hPa tonight.  The sky cleared up in the morning, with sun all day.

Four whale watching boats were seen in the reserve this afternoon.

This morning, I saw a black brant goose hanging out with the gulls on the northeast corner of Race Rocks.  It was my first time seeing one of these small geese, which rarely visit Race Rocks.  This goose might be making it’s way down to the Oregon, California or Mexican coast for winter, from it’s summer home in the Arctic.  For more information about black brant geese, see the taxonomy page.

The Barometer Begins to Dip

Posted on by

The wind blew between 8 and 18 knots from the northeast throughout the day, less strong in the afternoon.  The day began with occasional whitecaps and a small swell from the northeast, calming down in the late morning. The barometer dropped from 1030 to 1023 hPa, ushering away the high pressure system that has been around for the past week.

There were no boats seen in the reserve today.

At 13:00, a group of humpback whales were surfacing about one kilometre to the northeast of the reserve, with no whale watching boats in sight.

The usual daily tasks were performed: salinity test, running the generator, collecting wood, cleaning the solar panels and general maintenance.

Weekly Census of Race Rocks Fauna

Posted on by

The wind was gusting up to 33 knots from ENE overnight.  In the late morning, the wind settled to around 15 knots from the ENE, and has maintained that throughout the afternoon.  The gale warning for the Juan de Fuca Strait was lifted mid morning.  The barometer dropped slightly from 1018 to 1015 hPa, between overnight to the afternoon.

Two whale watching boats were seen in the reserve at 16:00.

There were a few differences noticed while doing today’s census, compared to last week. There were not as many smaller birds seen today.  The elephant seals are not hanging out near the jetty, where they have been for the past few weeks.  They are now a few hundred metres west, on Middle Rocks.  The harbour seals were easier to spot because they were basking in the sun on the many small islands that make up the ecological reserve.

Here are the results of today’s census:
Steller Sea Lion: 430
California Sea Lion: 359
Harbour Seal: 36
Northern Elephant Seal: 6
Canada Goose: 37
Double Crested Cormorant: 12
Pelagic Cormorant: 41
Gull: 756
Black Turnstone: 1
Savannah Sparrow: 1

Jeff Spears is coming to the Rock to relieve me for a few days, as I head to a meeting in Calgary.

The Sun is Shining

Posted on by

The wind dissipated over night. After 8:00am, the wind was calm, only blowing 3 to 5 knots from the southwest. The barometer rose to a high of 1030 hPa at noon, then slowly fell to about 1027 hPa. The temperature reached a high of 12.6oC

There were five visitors that came from Pearson College, on the boat Second Nature. Courtney brought two folks from Cullen Water to install the repaired desalinator pump. Tristan and Robin, volunteers from Wales, helped carry the many boxes that contain the new composting toilets. Each house will have the toilets installed soon.

There were two whale watching boats in the reserve this afternoon. Four halibut fishing boats were spotted to the west of the reserve for most of the afternoon. Many large boats passed within a few kilometres of the southern boundary of the reserve, including a submarine, tankers and HMCS Edmonton.

The harbour seals were difficult to spot for the census yesterday. With the sun and warm weather today, they were hauled out on the rocks to catch some rays. 32 were seen today, compared with only 7 yesterday.

Three branded sea lions were seen on South Seal Rocks, just south of the engine room. I have let Pat Gearin at NOAA know about the sightings and he will let me know where else they have been.

There are updates about the two branded sea lions spotted yesterday.

Pat Gearin wrote to me with the details about the Steller that was branded 966R as a pup at Rogue Reef, Oregon in July 2011.  It is a male and so far we have 9 resights from this individual, all from BC.  In 2011, he was sighted at Pachena Point once, and in 2012 he was sighted at Carmanah 8 times.

Matthew Tennis wrote that U596 was branded on August 15, 2014 in Astoria. At that time he weighed ~193 kg. He was seen in Astoria for a few days following the branding and again in the middle of October. This is the first resight for this animal outside of Astoria. They have high site fidelity and being a relatively young animal, it is very possible he will be seen at Race Rocks for years to come.

Maintenance tasks were performed today: moving propane tanks, pressure washing the algae and bird poop off the exterior of the houses, dismantling the old toilets, picking up garbage that has washed ashore and running generator and new and improved desalinator.