Tag Archives: harbour seal

July 15 and 16 – A Scoop of Pelicans

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Ecological Notes:

  • 12 brown pelicans flew around the island at 12:30 yesterday. They returned just before 14:00, flew by the South Islands, and landed on the South Seal Rocks. They moved to the east side of Race Rocks, where they remained for at least a couple hours. A group of pelicans is known as either a pod, pouch, scoop, squadron, or fleet.
  • The glaucous-winged gull chicks are growing quickly, with many meal deliveries happening throughout the day by their parents.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 15):
    • Sky: Part Cloudy
    • Wind: mostly W, 0-28 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 2′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 12oC, High 16oC
  • Today (July 16):
    • Sky: Overcast
    • Wind: W 15-25 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then 1′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 13oC, High 15oC

Visitors:

  • No visitors

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.

 DND Events:

  • Between 10:00 and 14:00 yesterday, there were five detonations on the nearby DND (Department of National Defence) training area on Bentinck Island, about 2km or 1NM from Great Race Rocks. The sudden explosions sent many birds into the air, as well as seals and sea lions into the water.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

July 13 and 14 – Weekly Census

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Ecological Notes:

  • The sea lion population is growing. For the past few days there have been 18 Steller sea lions hauled out on Middle Rocks. That is up from four sea lions one week ago. One of the sea lions has a brand. It appears to say 620R, although the researcher I contacted in Oregon mentioned it is what they call a bad brand and he was unable to determine the brand from the photos I sent. I will keep a look out for the sea lion and see if I can get a better view. The researcher will check his records to see if he can identify the sea lion and be able to record the resighting.
  • The super moon on Wednesday night rose in the southeast at 10:00pm. It was a big bright orange orb that looked more like the rising sun, than the moon.
  • Today’s extremely low tide of -0.2m or -0.7′ was at 10:13am. The overnight high tide at 00:55am was 3.0m or 9.8′. It is apparently the lowest tide in a decade. I was fascinated to see the extended edge of the water all around the many islands. I looked at the exposed intertidal zone from a distance and up on the jetty, so as not to disturb the many delicate species.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weekly Census Results from July 13:

  • Steller/Northern sea lions: 18
  • Sea otter: 1
  • Harbour seals: 133
  • Bald eagles: 2 (1 juvenile and 1 adult)
  • Canada geese: 9 (5 adults, 4 goslings)
  • Black oystercatchers: 11 (8 adults, 3 chicks)
  • Cormorant: 4
  • Glaucous-winged gulls nesting on the main island: 247
  • Glaucous-winged gull chicks: approximately 200 (it is hard to get an exact number due to their camouflage in the grass and hiding under their parents)
  • Gulls not nesting (some glaucous-winged and some other species) on the south end of the main island and outer islands: 96
  • Pigeon guillemots: 142
  • Black turnstones: 2
  • Western sandpiper: 2

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 13):
    • Sky: Part Cloudy
    • Wind: W 12-32 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 3′ waves in afternoon and evening
    • Temperature Low 12oC, High 16oC
  • Today (July 14):
    • Sky: Part Cloudy
    • Wind: W 15-27 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then up to 2′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 11oC, High 13oC

Visitors:

  • No visitors

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

July 11 and 12

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Ecological Notes:

  • I believe most of the gulls eggs have hatched, based on the nests I can see with one to three chicks and discarded empty eggs nearby. The gull parents feed fish to their young. I am impressed how many whole little fish a gull catch then regurgitate for their chicks.
  • I am seeing more nursing harbour seals and pups around the south and east sides of the island. Today, I heard a pup communicating with its mother by little grunting sounds.
  • This afternoon, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a river otter scurry along a path by Tank Shed. I could not see if it was heading for the water or underneath the boardwalk, as they are elusive.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 11):
    • Sky: Clear
    • Wind: W 1-33 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then 2′ chop in evening
    • Temperature Low 11oC, High 20oC
  • Today (July 12):
    • Sky: Clear, fog between 08:45-09:30 with foghorn
    • Wind: W 16-39 kts, gusts up to 44 kts (81 km/h)
    • Sea: 1′ chop in morning, then up to 4′ waves in afternoon and evening
    • Temperature Low 12oC, High 15oC

Visitors:

  • Yesterday, Greg came from the college to refill the diesel tank.

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island. With the clear days, the solar panels have been fully charging the batteries.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve. There were much fewer boats today, with the high winds.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

July 9 and 10

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Ecological Notes:

  • On Saturday afternoon, a southern resident orca pod went through Race Passage, just north of the ecological reserve. Someone was warning boats over the VHF radio to reduce their speed, as they were “in the path of endangered southern resident killer whales.” All boats appeared to oblige. For a while, the very large pod was spread out from the Bentinck Island, at the west side of the mouth of Pedder Bay to well past William Head to the east, at least 4km or 2NM. I watched the pod for a while through binoculars and saw an orca fully breach out of the water. I did not get a photo of the breach, but it was spectacular. Then the pod travelled south to the east of Race Rocks, based on the group of ecotour boats I could see watching the pod from a safe distance.
  • The gull chicks are still popping out, with many nests having one to three chicks. There are still some gulls tending to eggs.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 9):
    • Sky: Overcast, then cloudy throughout rest of day
    • Wind: W 15-30 kts
    • Sea: rippled, 1′ chop in evening
    • Temperature Low 13oC, High 16oC
  • Today (July 10):
    • Sky: Part cloudy
    • Wind: W 3-24 kts
    • Sea: rippled, 1′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 14oC, High 17oC

Visitors:

  • No visitors.

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, topped up water in battery bank, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

Census July 6

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Ecological Notes:

  • I am seeing more gull chicks everyday. Many gull parents are frequently feeding their two or three chicks.
  • I seem to have come to an understanding with some gulls. If I approach near them on the path at a slow speed, we both ignore each other. There are other gulls who freak out if I even look in their direction. As I do necessary work, I limit my movements around the island and avoid certain paths that have nearby nests and chicks.
  • See photo gallery and captions for more details on the ecological happenings over the past two days.

Weekly Census Results:

  • Elephant seal (juvenile male): 1
  • Steller/Northern sea lions: 4
  • Harbour seals: 113
  • Bald eagles: 6 (4 juveniles and 2 adults)
  • Canada geese: 11 (7 adults, 4 goslings)
  • Black oystercatchers: 10 (8 adults, 2 chicks – probably more that are camouflaged)
  • Cormorant: 2
  • Glaucous-winged gulls nesting: 172
  • Glaucous-winged gull chicks: approximately 50 (also hard to spot in the grass and under their parents)
  • Gulls not nesting (some glaucous-winged and some other species) on the south end of the island and outer islands: 97
  • Pigeon guillemots: 123
  • Surfbirds: 3
  • Killdeers: 2
  • Western sandpiper: 1

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 5):
    • Sky: Fog in morning, Part Cloudy in afternoon
    • Wind: W 0-12 kts
    • Sea: calm
    • Temperature Low 11oC, High 17oC
  • Today (July 6):
    • Sky: Overcast in morning, Part Cloudy in afternoon
    • Wind: W 8-22 kts
    • Sea: rippled in morning, 1′ chop in afternoon
    • Temperature Low 12oC, High 15oC

Visitors:

  • No visitors over the past two days

Facility Work:

  • Installed bird deterrents on new solar panels, scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, emptied composting toilet, fixed screen door at basement entrance.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

Gull Chicks Everywhere

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It is great to be back as the Ecoguardian at Race Rocks. I have been lucky enough to spend a total of almost seven months here between 2014 and my last shift which ended on September 1, 2020. I have been spending the past three and a bit days reacquainting myself with the island and infastructure. I have not stayed here before in July, so it is taking some adjustment to live in harmony and not disturb hundreds of nesting gulls. It drastically limits where I can go on the island.

Ecological Notes:

  • The glaucous-winged gull population is increasing everyday with lots of chicks hatching. I do my best to avoid getting close to the nests. I move quickly by the ones near doors and pathways on which I need to travel to get to the energy building, jetty and lighthouse.
  • A pod of orcas swam westward through the ecological reserve on Saturday, July 2, then went eastward in Race Channel. The orcas continued to head eastward, with at one point 14 ecotour boats viewing them from a safe distance.
  • A juvenile male elephant seal, tagged D018/D019, has been hanging around here for a while this spring and early summer. I noticed the tags this weekend, so I could confirm it was the same seal that Ecoguardian Joan spotted on the seal’s arrival on the island on May 19. Here is a link to the tagged resight histories, when I spotted this seal in April 2020 and reported the details to the Director of the Año Nuevo Reserve, in California. The brief version is he was tagged in February 2017 as a pup in Año Nuevo. He was first observed at Race Rocks in April 2018. He was again spotted here in April 2019, December 2019, and April 2020. His proboscis (nose) and body has grown a lot in the past couple years. I wonder what adventures he has gone on in that time.
  • I know of two black oystercatcher chicks that I have seen through the binoculars and  long lens of the camera. One is hanging out near the jetty with its parents. The other is hanging out near east bay with its parents. The dark grey fluff ball chicks are hard to spot, as they blend in well with rocks.
  • See the photos below for these and more ecological sights.

Weather:

  • The wind has been consistently coming from the west over the past four days that I have been here.
  • Friday and Saturday were part cloudly with lots of sun to fully charge the solar panels by 17:00 both days.
  • Sunday and Monday were overcast with periods of rain and fog.
  • The temperature in the past four days has ranged between 11 to 14 oC.

Visitors:

  • Greg drove the boat on the afternoon of Friday, July 1 to do the shift changeover between Jillian and I. Thanks, Jillian, for leaving the place in such great shape.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby throughout this long weekend.

Here are photo highlights from the past few days. Click on the photos for a larger view.

December 29th – A Break in the Snow

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Ecological Notes:

First things first: the new Elephant Seal pup is doing great! 8 days old today, very vocal and mobile; especially when compared to last years pups. The seal pup doesn’t seem to mind the cold, and we’re reached the point of nursing where the mom starts moving around throughout the day. Maybe to stimulate the pup to get moving and muscle-y, or maybe to get a break from the nursing.

The Beachmaster left the island after the first 2 days of snow. He was spotting wallowing around Race Rocks, so maybe just using the warmer ocean water rather than sitting on land getting snowed on.

Once the snow stopped falling we had a shift in birds, with 12-20 eagles spotted in the early mornings feeding on what looks like bits of other birds. Maybe the cold was enough to provide some good food for all those eagles. Prior to the snow we were seeing 3-5 eagles in the mornings.

The California and Steller Sea Lions have been moving around the islands trying to find spots where they can group up and keep warm. This has provided an opportunity for the Harbour Seals to haul out, something that we don’t see much with the available real-estate claimed by the larger sea lions. It’s funny to me that the seals choose to be on land when the sea lions choose to hang out in the water.

Facility Work:

We have been fighting to keep things unfrozen for the last week, with temperatures dropping the water pipes froze and we’re working to keep the desalinator and other infrastructure from freezing as well. Shovelling walkways and keeping things snow free.

DND events:

Real quiet on the DND front. No boats or blasting over the holidays.

Weather Events:

The snow showed up Christmas night, heralded by the foghorn. Not much snow lands on Race Rocks when it’s blowing, and the cold (around -5 to -7 for a few days) kept the snow nice and powdery, perfect to be swept!

30-40 knot winds and cold weather have made us VERY appreciative of the new windows in the Eco-Guardian house, significantly improving the insulation.

 

Weather – Current: 

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Leaving Race Rocks on a High Note

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It’s hard to believe a week has flown by!  The boat took me back to the “big island” shortly after 2 pm, but there was still plenty of time before they arrived to have an exciting moment. Daniel Donnecke from Rocky Point Bird Observatory persuaded me to do one last seawatch this morning, once again apparently showing that the birds that fly past Beechey Head do not come close by Race Rocks on their voyage east. It’s likely that they move across the strait over to the American side. It may be wind dependent, but we had no correlation at all the three days we did seawatches at the same time.

Seawatch is a fancy term for trying to identify little specks at the limit of your visual range. This is a Common Murre.

I cleaned the solar panels for the last time this week.  The gulls had been pretty reasonable the last couple of days except for that one section where it was bad every day.

Sparkling clean!

There were several other things to get done to prepare for my departure and Greg’s arrival, but I had plenty of time.  That is I had plenty of time until I turned the corner towards the house and saw a songbird on the ground.  There had only been a Song Sparrow and one or more Brown-headed Cowbirds on the island all week as far as passerines went, so this was good. And it got better when I realized the bird was a Yellow-headed Blackbird, an uncommon bird for Victoria. Normally, my camera is on my shoulder, but since I had been cleaning the solar panels, it was back at the generator building. I did have my phone with me, though, so I snapped a quick couple of documentation shots.  They were really bad, but showed some of the diagnostic features for the species. By the time I got back with the camera, the bird was gone. That just seemed weird, as normally a bird that lands on offshore islands does so because it needs to refuel.  I looked all around, but no luck. So I climbed the tower and searched the whole island from up there. Still no luck, so I came down and continued with my tasks. About two hours later, I looked out the window, and there it was!

Nice of him to stretch out a wing so you can see the white edges on the primary coverts.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds are common in the BC Interior. It’s possible that the smoke may have moved him to the coast.

I probably took 400 shots to make sure I got a few good ones. The time I took following him around, though, cut my packing and cleaning time down. I was just barely finished when the marine radio call came from the Second Nature that Greg and Jeff were only a few minutes away.

Greg’s stuff was unloaded and mine loaded, and before you knew it, we were headed back to Pearson College, leaving Greg on the dock-an unusual situation for him!

It’s been an amazing week, and I’m grateful to the folks at Pearson College for allowing me to serve as the relief Eco-guardian this week. I hope that I will get the chance to do this again!

Ecological Notes:

Mammals

1 Humpback Whale

2 Harbour Porpoise

Steller’s Sea Lion

California Sea Lion

Successful fishing!

Harbour Seal

Birds

5 Black Oystercatcher

10 Black Turnstone

41 Common Murre

65 Pigeon Guillemot

When in breeding plumage, the linings of the their mouths are as red as their feet.

6 Rhinoceros Auklet

1 Heermann’s Gull

60 California Gull

700 Glaucous-winged Gull

3 Pelagic Cormorant

15 cormorant sp.

1 Song Sparrow

1 Yellow-headed Blackbird

Facility Work: Cleaned all the solar panels and the dirty windows

Vessel Traffic: Shipping lanes were busy again today.  Several whale-watching boats ad 2 private fishing boats came by for the sea lions (which they saw) and the elephant seal (which they didn’t).

 Weather – Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

A Wild Gull Chase

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Today (Thursday) is my last full day as a relief Eco-guardian at Race Rocks, so it seemed fitting that there be a few interesting events. The first was waking up to a sky full of wildfire smoke. We’ve been so lucky with the westerly winds that kept all of the smoke away, but with the latest heat wave and drop in wind, it was on us before dawn today.

Smoke on the water

It was also eerily quiet.  The hundreds of California Gulls that have been somewhere around here each morning were missing.  What was present were tankers and bulk carriers. I’m sure they’ve been plying the waters of the shipping channel all week, but today was the first day I noticed them in such numbers.  There were 6 in quick succession in the first hour I was watching.

One of many vessels that passed by Race Rocks today.

It’s amazing how much traffic there is in the Juan de Fuca Strait. It’s possible to watch and get details on the ships in real time here.

I started the day by washing the solar panels–a necessary task given the amount of bird droppings on them.  They’ve been outfitted with bird spikes, but on my last panel today, I found this:

Yes, a gull demonstrating how clever he (or she) is in defeating the mechanisms we put in place to stop them. Just step on the flat side, not the pointy end!

A closer look revealed something else.  This bird is banded!!!  For bird banders, there’s little more exciting than finding out what has happened to birds you banded. That happens when others observe or find the bands, determine the band number, and report that information to reportband.gov  . Of course, I didn’t have my camera with me, and the bird also wasn’t going to stick around. In fact, it flew. The good news is that most of the gulls on the island are at least somewhat predictable as they are on territories right now. I saw him fly around the lighthouse but not come out the other side.  It was possible he was very close by.  When I finished the panel cleaning, I grabbed my camera from the generator room, and went off in search of a gull among 700. It didn’t take me too long to find him, but not in a very convenient spot.

Each bird band has a unique set of nine numbers.  You need them all to positively identify the bird.  This means you have to get a decent photo of all sides of the band, and that can take a bit of patience.  Fortunately, I have that! My presence riled the gulls enough that they were all yelling at me and the banded gull came in to help chase me off. That was good enough to get me a partial set of numbers.  Now I had to get him from the other side. I moved closer to the house and waited. After about 4 times of him coming to the ground and flying off, I finally had all the numbers!

If you ever find or photograph a bird band, you should report it to reportband.gov. There are a series of questions to answer, but in the end, you will learn about the banding of the bird and receive a certificate of appreciation.

Ecological Notes:

Mammals

1 male Elephant Seal – departed today after molt. After he spent the night at the dock last night, I suspected this might happen.  He was in the water most of the day, and when I looked for him around suppertime, he was nowhere to be seen.

Steller’s Sea Lions – Good numbers now on Great Race Island

California Sea Lions – Numbers increasing dramatically on Great Race and surrounding islands

 

Harbour Seals – Many throughout the area

Birds

7 Black Oystercatcher, including young bird near the dock

18 Black Turnstone

5 Least Sandpiper

1 Western Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper in the lead, followed by Least Sandpiper

11 Common Murre

136 Pigeon Guillemot counted by clicker at around 8 am. There could be more, but no fewer.  Many catching gunnels or blennies (see last bird on right).

3 Heermann’s Gull

400 California Gull, mostly feeding on krill today

700 Glaucous-winged Gull, including 1 banded

Tussles like this are going on all the time

6 Pelagic Cormorant

1 Bald Eagle on Turbine Island at dawn

22 Purple Martin – biggest bird surprise of the day! Flock circled the lighthouse at 8:35 pm and continued south. Only flyovers I have seen this week.

1 Song Sparrow, rummaging in the compost

 

Facility Work: Cleaned solar panels. Not one window had gull droppings today, thanks to the calm winds.

Vessel Traffic: Many vessels in the shipping lanes today. Smaller than usual number of eco-tourism vessels, likely due to Biggs Orcas in other areas around the region. Several private fishing vessels came by the dock because of the sea lions.

Infractions: Private vessel coming through the reserve at too high a speed. Warned them to slow down, which they did.

Weather Events:  First day of noticeable smoke from fires on the mainland. Reduced visibility. Low winds from the south and east.

Wildfire smoke was present all day.

 Weather – Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

First Fog and Census

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Fog rolled in on Monday night, activating the signal from the beacon. It’s a piercing set of three tones every minute, and a sound that I am very familiar with from hearing it often while at Rocky Point. I had been warned to bring earplugs, which I did, but I didn’t need them.

Fog roll

I was actually welcoming the fog for several reasons. Recent Eco-guardian Joan Rosenberg shared a tip about cleaning the solar panels when they were still wet with fog. Great idea! That made things go much quicker. There were also some things I really needed to get to on the computer, but when the weather is good, I want to be out looking around. The panels got cleaned, but the fog cleared fairly early, so things that should be done are still waiting.

The fog clearing definitely made my planned census today possible. Here is my report:

Census

Mammals

Humpback Whale: 1

Elephant Seal: 1 male

Returning from his daily swim.

Harbour Seal: 191 including several pups

Steller’s Sea Lion: 27

Steller’s and California Sea Lions

California Sea Lion 23

California Sea Lions

Birds

Black Oystercatcher: 8

Killdeer: 2

Black Turnstone: 21

Surfbird: 1

Rhinoceros Auklet: 5

Common Murre: 1

Heermann’s Gull: 1

California Gull: 700 (mostly early morning, although some lingered through the day)

Glaucous winged Gull: 655 (by clicker–highest count for me so far)

Pelagic Cormorant: 5

Double-crested Cormorant: 4

Bald Eagle: 1

Song Sparrow: 1

Brown-headed Cowbird: 1

Unidentified passerine: 1 (right as the sun set, the bird flew in east of the lighthouse, but I couldn’t relocate it. I’ll be checking the area in the morning!

Facility Work: Solar panels and windows cleaned. Greg came by with a load of diesel. Arriving California Sea Lions prompted check and minor fixes to the fencing.  We also topped up all of the batteries with distilled water.

Battery bank. 24 needing juice!

Vessel Traffic: Ecotourism was big today with as many as five vessels in the reserve at once. Estimate more than 20 came through today. No private vessels noted.

Another beautiful sunset!

Sunset

Weather – Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?