Tag Archives: harbour seal

Visitors and census

Posted on by

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 and so many sea lions

Posted on by

Weather

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

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy, Greg and Travis came by to help finish putting up the fence and also fix a couple things in the house
  • Still a lot of ecotours cruising by each day

Maintenance

  • The fence is up and working better than the old fence for keeping the sea lions out of certain areas
  • the washer is now also working, which is great for me
  • had to run the generator quite a bit today, the batteries have been running low

Ecological

  • About a hundred more sea lions than there were last weak
  • also seems to be more gulls and harbour seals
  • havent see the geese around today
  • also a sea lion with garbage wrapped around its neck, will contact the right people and keep an eye on him

Census

  • California sea lion – 371
  • Stellar sea lion – 184
  • Harbour seal – 77
  • Elephant seal – 1 female , there was another female but she left a couple days ago
  • Cormorants – 30
  • Seagulls – 486
  • Black turnstones – 25
  • Fox sparrows – 12

Marine Mammals of Race Rocks

Posted on by

A slide show by Ron Bellamy of Sooke August 2018

Census, rain and whales

Posted on by

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

New Students

Posted on by

Weather

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

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, many ecotours, fishing boats and sailboats
  • Guy brought by a couple boat loads of the new first year students, as he did yesterday so we could give them a little tour of Race Rocks, its great when the students get to come out here and see another aspect of Pearson College, they don’t come out here that often and you can’t see it from the college

Maintenance

  • having some camera issues lately, will need to order a new SD card for the Race Rocks camera and the one in personal camera is not cooperating either, but hopefully we will be able to get more photos up soon

Ecological

  • still around 300 sea lion, mostly californias around the island.
  • plenty of harbour seals on the outer rocks, a few on the main island
  • also a few whale sightings, I saw two humpbacks by north rock yesterday morning and Guy said he also saw killer whales near there when he came he around 9:30am yesterday.
  • Also one of the younger seagulls I posted a photo of last week is dead, not quite sure what happened, just its body by the pathway
  • there are still about 4 of the younger ones all together

Its been an eventful week and hopefully I can start taking pictures again soon :)

Census and Visitors

Posted on by

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 and haze

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knts W
  • Sky: Hazy
  • Water: Ripply

Mammal Notes

  • More sea lions continue to arrive on the island – spotted a few branded ones, but could only make out one number (steller with brand 348R).

Bird Notes

  • The first of the juvenile seagulls have started to fly short distances (5-6 feet at a time). Most are still grounded though.

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 1
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 32
    • Steller = 38
  • Seagulls = 305 adults + 128 juvenile
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 67
  • Eagles = 0
  • Oystercatchers = 4 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 16 adults, 2 (maybe more) babies
  • Geese = 9
  • Black turnstone = 85

Seagull chicks growing and adult seagulls less aggressive

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-35 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: 1-2m waves, white caps
  • Some fog this morning to the south

Birds

  • The early seagull chicks have grown a lot, and are currently 2/3 the size of the adults.
  • Today was the first day the seagulls seemed to be (relatively) less aggressive – not sure if it was because of the strong wind or the fact that the chicks can now move themselves to safety.

Marine mammals

  • The californian sea lion that was earlier seen near the guest house, has returned there.
  • Saw a female elephant seal on the island after a while. That makes 3 males and 1 female on the island
  • I think there are more than 2 harbour seal pups near the island, although I haven’t been able to confirm yet. Attached is a picture.

River otters, an injured seal and a baby seal

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply
  • Some fog this morning

Birds

  • The 2 geese that had a nest near the crane have now abandoned their nest – haven’t seen them in a couple of days and one single egg remains unhatched.

Marine mammals

  • Lots of seal news!
    • After reports of an injured harbour seal in the area, I finally spotted one on the boat ramp today. While this seal has several scars and some bloody wounds, it doesn’t however match the description of the injured seal we received, so maybe it’s a different one. This one I spotted doesn’t seem to have any serious injures, just several small ones.
    • Spotted an adult and baby seal just behind the crane today! They were originally spotted the other day by Nikola from the top of the lighthouse when the Communications team came for a visit, but I couldn’t get a photo earlier. They are extremely adorable!
  • River otters
    • I caught a glimpse of a pair of river otters for the first time today, running down the jetty with what seemed to be either a seagull chick or an egg. There were two of them, but they were too fast for me to get a picture.

Technical

  • 10 days now without having to start up the generator! We are 100% solar!

Molting Harbour Seal

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knts W
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • An average number of ecotour boats today – the tourists were treated with quite a spectacular sunset!

Marine Mammals

  • Saw a single California Sea Lion on the jetty early this afternoon – the only sea lion to be visible in the last 3 days.
  • Spotted a molting harbour seal near the jetty that seemed to be in a lot of pain. It’s unusual for harbour seals to come to the main island, but this one seemed to be trying to stay out of the water, possibly due to sensitive skin. I kept an eye on it for the evening, and went to check on it this morning but it was gone.