Tag Archives: harbour seal

Animal Census First Sea Otter at Race Rocks

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Sea Otter in race ROcks Kelp Beds, photo by Adam Bird

Sea Otter in Race Rocks Kelp Beds, photo by Adam Bird on June 10/2012

Things have been fairly quite lately regarding birds and mammals here, though one of the eco-tour boats reported seeing a Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) in a kelp bed on Monday! The percussive blasts from Rocky Point military testing range scared off most of the Sea Lions last Thursday and only a few have returned in the last couple days. A large pod of orca passed through and near the reserve on Tuesday. Thanks to Suna, Doris and Ishmael for the census.

Elephant Seals: about 10
Steller Sea Lions: 2
California Sea Lions: 2
Harbour Seals: 204
Glaucous-winged Gull: 246
Surfbirds: 18
Pigeon Guillemots: 108
Canada Goose: 13
Bald Eagle: 3
Black Oystercatcher: 12
Northwestern Crow: 1
Raven: 1
Sparrow: 4
Sea Otter: 1
Caspian Terns: 6
Herring Gulls: 20

Project Week-part 3 (final)

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Yesterday was the last day of project week, in the morning I brought students back to campus in two trips on the whaler.  It has been great group to have out here for the past week, they have helped out with several projects and tasks, endured some stormy weather, survived without a shower, cooked their own food (and shared a few good meals with me), and experienced the isolation and richness of the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.  During their stay they were very conscious of the time and resources required for importing fuel and generating energy and fresh water and did a great job minimizing consumption and waste.

In the final days of the week students helped out with transferring diesel to the furnace tanks and cleaning cupboards in the science centre kitchen.  Throughout the week the group maintained a daily count of animals in the reserve, the count is included below.

 

Feb 27 Feb 28 Feb 29 Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 3
Harbor seals 45 50 10 22 20 16
Elephant seals 2 2 2 2 2 2
Sea lions 2 5 5 5 6 6
Gulls 57 23 33 43 31 26
Cormorants 60 27 29 40 56 32
Oyster Catchers 3 5 3 6 7
Bald Eagles 1 1 1
Brown Sandpiper 4 12 8 6
White Sandpiper 5 3 4
Pigeon Guillemots 22 150
Common Mergansers 2
Harlequin Ducks 12 7 6

Thanks to the group for their contributions and good company.

 

Animal Census Jan 2012

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Air Breathing Animal Census of Race Rocks Jan 2012

Stellar Sea Lions: 30

Elephant Seals: 6-7

Harbour Seals: 50

Bald Eagles: 5-15

Brandt’s Cormorants: 50

Glaucous-Winged Gull: 100

Herring Gull: 30

Black Turnstones: 50

Song Sparrow: 6

Peregrine Flacon: 1

Killdeer: 4

Dunlin: 2

Sandpiper: 6

Harlequin Ducks: 20

Human: 1

 

Misery, Harbour Seals, Weather

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Misery has been on Middle Rock Tuesday and Wednesday but was back by the boat house this morning.

There were over 40 Harbour Seals observed on the south side of the island and South Rock this afternoon.

Have had 3 days of grey skies and a sustained lack of precipitation.  The wind peaked just over 20 knots on Tuesday and has stayed around 10 knots yesterday and today.  Atmospheric pressure reached its lowest point in the past two weeks on Tuesday around 1015 hPa and has been on the rise today.

boats and planes!

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Human Interaction
At 0835hrs PDT a floatplane flew W to E over the south side of the Reserve under 1000 ft.

At 1035hrs PDT a small RHIB entered the east side of the Reserve near North Race at high speed. The vessel proceeded to transit the main passage to the south side of Middle Race where they approached within 30 metres of harbour seals on the Rocks. At least 25 seals took flight to the water.

At ~1100hrs PDT a vessel was spotted entering the Reserve from the east at high speed.

At ~1330hrs PDT a vessel was spotted transiting the main passage at very high speed. Communication was made with the vessel and it slowed.

At 1510hrs PDT an Oak Bay Marine Group vessel was spotted fishing within the limits of the Reserve. Pedder Bay Marina was alerted. The vessel was halted by another recreational fishermen before PBM staff could respond.

At 1515hrs PDT an OBMG vessel was spotted speeding in the waters west of Great Race. The vessel eventually departed.

At 1515hrs PDT a recreational vessel was spotted fishing near West Race. The station vessel was launched to intercept the violators and they departed shortly thereafter.

At ~1900hrs PDT a recreational vessel was spotted speeding into the eastern portion of the Reserve in the direction of the North Race-Middle Race channel. The vessel slowed before entering the channel.

Divers from Ocean Educations arrived in the afternoon to dive off the front side of the island.

There were 18 visitors to the island today.

Pleasure: 10 Eco-Tour: 5

2 transient Orcas

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Orca’, 2, ‘Last night I returned to RR at about 1600hrs and was greeted by some great wildlife. A new female elephant seal had hauled up and was lying near the foot of the jetty. She was very, very nervous, especially as I tried to sneak around her and I later observed her getting quite agitated by the gulls as she hauled up on the grass and tried to find a comfortable sleeping spot for the night. Late in the evening she eventually settled close to Slash behind the boathouse. This was the first time I had seen this female, and she was definitely a very beautiful female. A few hours later, I went down to the jetty and a juvenile female was just beginning to haul up. However, a few minutes after I spotted her, she turned around and headed back to the ocean. She was not tagged so there was no possibility of her being Ninene or #4252. Around 1600hrs as I landed the boat, I looked up and saw two orcas breach in the channel between Middle Rock and Great Race, heading eastward on the flood current. They disappeared for a while, then breached on the other side of the kelp bed near Middle Rock. For the next minute or so, there was quite a commotion with tail fins flapping in the water and dorsal fins popping to the surface. I expect that these two orcas were hunting seals, which makes me assume that they were two transients passing through the Reserve. Sea lions are now beginning to make more and more of an appearance in the Reserve. There are several on the jetty each night, and some large northern sea lions out on the Rocks. Harbour seals are all now having their pups as well. Pam has caught some fantastic images of pups nursing and a possible placenta in the east bay a few days ago.’, ‘adam’, ’08:52:54 ,

Harbour seal pups

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Misery and Slash are still co-habitating on the Island these days, although Slash is definitely filling the alpha male role. It ”s quite interesting, as Misery is very aware that he is not the dominant one and may often be observed scooting down a path or taking the long way into the water in order to avoid a confrontation with Slash. More and more seagull nests are hatching every day. This week I ‘ve been noticing two or three per day. The ones that hatched first are now getting quite big! There are still oystercatcher babies over by the jetty, and they too are getting large. Along the baby line, I ”ve been noticing a number of baby harbour seals around the rocks. We ”re in prime pupping season for them now.’, ‘adam’, ’22:13:15 ,

Dead harbour seal

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A dead adult male harbour seal was found washed up today on the rocks beside the derrick. There were no trauma marks from predation or a boat strike and the corpse was still in good condition with no bloating or decomposition. It was removed and taken to Pearson College.

Erik and Al the plumber visited RR today. Ebony departed on the outgoing boat. David H. came later in the afternoon with some guests for a quick tour. There were 5 visitors to the island today. ( Mike Robinson)

Harbour seal decapitated by boat

Aside

rmboatkillsept1809This fall there seems to be an unusual amount of injuries showing up on the marine mammals: Ryan recorded some of them with images on his Flickr site:

See this link to the log pages with injured marine mammals.

 

This dead harbour seal pup was the first of two found in a single week in the waters near Race Rocks. A boat traveling at great speed decapitated this animal and left another slice on the neck in the tell-tale pattern of propeller wounds. Remember Buster?:

He has not been seen in weeks.