Tag Archives: gull

I am Back and the Census

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Sorry about my last 10 days being absent but I am back now and here is an updated census.

Weather

  • Visibility: Pretty clear 15 Miles throughout today
  • Wind:  0-5 SW with small range all day
  • Sky: Sunny all day
  • Water: pretty flat but the current is very visible and moving

Boats/Visitors

  • I came in today and so did a few students to have a look around, we also had an engineer to come look at the new generator

Ecological

  • quite a bit of sea lions, I don’t see the elephant seal sticking around anymore and I have not seen any oyster catchers today. Also the sea otter in the north kelp patch is back

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 142
  • California Sea Lions: 186
  • Elephant Seals: 0
  • Harbour Seals: 28
  • Unspecified Gulls: 153
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 0
  • Cormorants: 18
  • Canada Geese: 12
  • Oystercatchers: 0
  • Black Turnstones: 48

 

Foggy Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles sometimes less throughout the day
  • Wind:  10-15 SW sometimes a bit lighter sometimes a bit stronger
  • Sky: Cloudy this morning for a bit and then foggy for awhile, cleared up in the afternoon now you can see some blue sky and sunshine
  • Water: mostly flat a little choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a special visit at 6:30 this morning, the Parliament Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada and Minister of Youth dropped by for a quick visit

Ecological

  • Have to update my census, I saw an elephant seal this morning, a young female
  • the unspecified birds in the photo from yesterday are a type of gull that I still have not identified
  • There appears to be more sea lions everyday

Last day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-5 SE
  • Sky: overcast to partly cloudy
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours today

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals scattered around today

Other

  • Today is my last full day, I head out tomorrow but I hope to be back in the fall

Census Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  20-15 NW
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours today

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 33
  • California Sea Lions: 23
  • Elephant Seals: 11
  • Harbour Seals: 161
  • Unspecified Gulls: 212
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 53
  • Cormorants: 12
  • Canada Geese: 19
  • Oystercatchers: 8
  • Harlequinn Ducks: 0
  • Crows: 1

Notes

  • The harbour seal numbers have significantly increased but all of the other numbers seem to have gone down
  • The little elephant seal is back, I haven’t seen her for a few days

Seagulls vs Elephant Seals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  5-10 W
  • Sky: overcast some rain
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours came by today

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals today mostly in the front of the house but went down to the jetty, I see still don’t see the youngest female around
  • There are definitely more seagull eggs, an elephant seal got too close to one of their nests earlier and got into a fight with two of them, the gulls won, the seal wiggled away

 

Nesting and Fighting

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  15-20 SW
  • Sky: overcast some rain
  • Water: choppy, no more than 1 metre waves

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours came by today

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals today, 5 of them are male, and they have been fighting with each other all day the other 6 females have been pretty aggressive toward each other today as well
  • The gulls have started nesting and will get protective if you get too close
  • The geese are just at the end of nesting and are still pretty aggressive
  • I came across 2 oystercatcher nests while cleaning the solar panels today, thankfully they just get loud and try to distract you away from their nests rather than attacking
  • Also I have not seen the youngest female elephant seal around

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

Census Day, Thursday, May 25th

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-5 NW
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Many different boats around today

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Other

  • DND blasting continues

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 42
  • California Sea Lions: 44
  • Elephant Seals: 14
  • Harbour Seals: 36
  • Unspecified Gulls: 321
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 120
  • Cormorants: 23
  • Canada Geese: 16
  • Oystercatchers: 8
  • Harlequinn Ducks: 5 males (that I could see)

Notes

  • I have not seen any eagles today but I saw them yesterday and they have been hanging around so I am guessing they are around here somewhere
  • There is another Elephant seal
  • An increase in sea lions as well as gulls

 

 

Census day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles, a bit foggy this morning but burned off by noon to partly cloudy
  • Wind: 10-15 NW got continuously more calm through the day
  • Sky: partly cloudy throughout the day
  • Water: stayed consistently calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A lot of ecotours came through today
  • Had a couple visitors, come by with Kyle this morning and then had Kyle and Guy come back this afternoon to help me out with a couple things

Ecological

  • Census day!
    1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 35
    2. Harbour Seals: 44
    3. California Sea Lions: 23
    4. Elephant Seals: 13
    5. Seagulls unspecified: 291
    6. Pigeon Guillemots: 152
    7. Cormorants unspecified: 29
    8. Canada Geese: 14
    9. Savannah Sparrows: 0
    10. Harlequin Ducks: 8 (2 female, 6 male)
    11. Black Oystercatchers: 8
    12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)
  • There are 2 more elephant seals than usual! so thats exciting, they stayed scattered today on the path from the lighthouse to the jetty
  • As you can see there have been a decrease in sea lions, they are no longer on the southern rocks and have moved to the main island one group on the north side and another group on the southside
  • There have been an increase in gulls, pigeon guillemots and cormorants, also the harlequins are back, I did not see them last week
  • There has also been an increase in harbour seals, when I counted them they were mostly all on the Middle Rocks but have since scattered about the South Islands as well

Cenusus Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: Morning 0-5 NW picked up in the afternoon, varied between 10-20 knots NW
  • Sky: Overcast, bit of rain throughout the day
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 45
  2. Harbour Seals: 30
  3. California Sea Lions: 37
  4. Elephant Seals: 11
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 278
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 125
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 16
  8. Canada Geese: 19
  9. Savannah Sparrows: 12
  10. Harlequin Ducks: 0
  11. Black Oystercatchers: 8
  12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)

Boats

  • had a few eco tours come through morning and late afternoon

Maintenance

  • Scrubbed some of the solar panels