Census

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-20 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Not a lot of visitors lately, the ecotours are still going by but not as frequently

Maintenance

  • Running the generator more lately as is there is less sunlight

Ecological

  • Slightly less sea lions than last week
  • 1 large male elephant seal, I’m hoping its the same one as last year because that one was very protective over the pups, and 1 much smaller male, no females that I can see but there have been a couple small ones coming and going
  • The large male does seem to have a gash in his back and many scars as well
  • haven’t really seen any neck banded sea lions lately, they might have left by now but I’m still keeping an eye out for them

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 431
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 356
  • Harbour Seal – 38
  • Elephant Seal – 2 male
  • Cormorants – 140
  • Gulls – 360
  • Fox Sparrows – 12
  • Canada Geese – 18
  • Black Turnstones – 33
  • Eagle – 4
  • Raven – 1
  • Snow Bunting – 1
  • Oyster Catchers – 12
  • Harlequin Ducks – 8

Census

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-20 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Not a lot of visitors lately, the ecotours are still going by but not as frequently

Maintenance

  • Still working on pressure washing the buildings and walkways, takes a lot of water to get the buildings white again so I’m waiting on the desalinator fixes

Ecological

  • Slightly less sea lions than last week
  • one small female elephant seal and I think there is a big guy on one of the outer rocks

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 582
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 501
  • Harbour Seal – 56
  • Elephant Seal – 1 female and 1 male
  • Cormorants – 364
  • Gulls – 313
  • Fox Sparrows – 14
  • Canada Geese – 19
  • Black Turnstones – 22
  • Eagle – 2
  • Oyster Catchers – 8
  • Raven – 1

Got to the top of the tower before I realized no sd card in the camera, so I just counted them up there, so no photos this post

Also there is a chance DFO is coming by soon to help untangle the neck banded sea lions

21 Geese

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a couple visitors come by throughout the week, to check out the crane and desalinator

Maintenance

  • Now that the fresh water tank is almost full, will start pressure washing some of the lichen off the buildings

Ecological

  • Slightly less sea lions than last week
  • still no elephant seals on the main island but I think I spotted one on one of the outer rocks
  • a lot of Canada geese lately

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 674
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 702
  • Harbour Seal – 81
  • Elephant Seal – maybe 1 male
  • Cormorants – 388
  • Gulls – 293
  • Fox Sparrows – 16
  • Canada Geese – 21
  • Black Turnstones – 28
  • Eagle – 2
  • Oyster Catchers – 8

Over 1000 Sea Lions

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by

Maintenance

  • Fence needed a bit of a fix up today

Ecological

  • So many sea lions lately
  • I didn’t actually see the elephant seal today, I am just hoping she is still around
  • Haven’t seen the pup in a couple days either
  • As for the neck banded sea lions, they are difficult to keep track of with so many sea lions around but I’m sure they are still around

Census

  • Elephant Seal – 1
  • Harbour Seals – 60
  • California Sea Lions – 685
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 412
  • Harlequin Ducks – 4
  • Cormorants – 313
  • Gulls – 698
  • Fox Sparrows – 16
  • Geese – 10
  • Black Turnstones – 24

Census

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, some pressure washing

Ecological

  • Haven’t seen the pups today but am sure they are around, there are quite a few sea lions on all of the rocks
  • also some harlequin ducks today and plenty of cormorants
  • the past few days I’ve seen maybe 4 humpbacks

Census

  • Elephant Seal – 0
  • Harbour Seal – 178
  • California Sea Lion – 281
  • Stellar Sea Lion – 344
  • Sea Otter – 1
  • Harlequin Duck – 5 male 1 female
  • Cormorant – 117
  • Fox Sparrow – 12
  • Gull -421
  • Geese – 10
  • Black Turnstone – 15

Visitors and census

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy came by with Garry and David a Pearson alumni for a little visit
  • There are still plenty of ecotours around, also a lot of whales, I don’t think the ecotours are giving them enough space when they are cruising by

Maintenance

  • The fence is holding up very well, I still need to extend it though

Ecological

  • No elephant seals at the moment, haven’t seen any for a few days
  • saw two humpbacks today and an eagle so that was nice
  • the geese are also back today, they come and go day by day
  • not as many californias but even more stellars

Census

  • California sea lion – 311
  • Stellar sea lion – 264
  • Harbour seal – 70
  • Elephant seal – 0
  • Cormorants – 44
  • Seagulls – 297
  • Black turnstones – 12
  • Fox sparrows – 6
  • Geese – 8
  • Eagle 1
  • And I suspect 1 sea otter is in the north kelp bed

Census, rain and whales

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Flat calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, most of it being whale watching tours
  • Guy came by with a couple more boat loads of students to give them a tour around the island

Maintenance

  •  Didn’t have to do any pressure washing today thanks to the rain although I did have to run the generator a bit to make up for not getting any solar energy today

Ecological

  • An elephant seal showed up yesterday and she is still around today, so thats exciting
  • also there have been a few humpback whale sightings and Guy said he saw some killer whales on the way over here but I missed them unfortunately
  • plenty of sea lions, seems like there is more everyday
  • not as many gulls as last week and I haven’t seen any cormorants on the outer rocks today

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 132
  • california sea lions – 314
  • harbour seals – 94
  • gulls – 261
  • elephant seals – 1 female
  • black turnstones – 12
  • fox sparrows – 2

Census and Visitors

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, most of it being whale watching tours
  • Guy, Greg and Mike came by today to take the old washer and dryer in for repairs

Maintenance

  • did some pressure washing today, but will probably do more of the solar panels tomorrow, need to fuel up the pressure washer first

Ecological

  • Quite a few sea lions, and harbour seals around
  • Birds consist of seagulls and cormorants, haven’t seen any eagles or harlequinns around, there aren’t even any geese here today
  • it looks like one of the young seagulls, there are still about 7 maybe 9 around of the really young ones, but it looks like one of them was pecked at around its head

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 104
  • california sea lions – 198
  • harbour seals – 55
  • gulls – 289
  • cormorants – 26

Census

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-20 NE
  • Sky: Sunny all day
  • Water: Choppy 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • Saw some boats cruising by

Ecological

  • The pups are doing well, one of the younger males was attacking the oldest pup until Bernard came along and chased him off

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 80
  • California Sea Lions – 62
  • Harbour Seals – 28
  • Elephant Seals – 2 female pups, 3 males
  • Geese – 12
  • Oystercatchers – 16
  • Eagles – 6
  • Harlequinn Ducks – 9
  • Gulls – 283
  • Cormorants – 60
  • Black Turnstones – 35

Census and update on pup

Weather

  • Visibility: 10-15 miles
  • Wind: ranging 20-30 NE
  • Sky: cloudy
  • Water: choppy 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • Not much boat traffic, saw a couple helicopters though

Ecological

  • The pup born on tuesday is doing well
  • The larger male is keeping the smaller 3 males away from the mom and pup
  • still a few sea lions around

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 76
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 58
  • Elephant Seals – 6 (4 males, 1 female and 1 pup)
  • Harbour Seals – 32
  • Cormorants – 128
  • Gulls – 94
  • Oyster Catchers – 24
  • Black Turnstones – 27
  • Eagles – 4