harbour seal pup | Race Rocks Ecological Reserve-

Weather:

Visibility: 15-40 NM
Today we discovered that on the foghorn sensor there is a visibility reading display. Normally we base this off of which landmarks we are able to see (Victoria is around 10 NM, North rock is 1 NM, Port Angeles is roughly 15 NM).
Sky clear and blue, a few white clouds
Wind 25-30 knots W
Sea state: Rough. Waves up to .5 m, white caps
A climb in humidity today after a relatively calm and dry weekend

Marine Traffic/Visitors:

No visitors to the island since Saturday (Greg)
Only a few eco-tourism boats today (very windy), but a steady trickle over the nice weekend. We have been seeing an average of 7 boats every day, not including pleasure crafts.

Ecological Observations:

We noticed yesterday that the goose with a limp (affectionately dubbed “limpy”) is no longer here. We aren’t sure if it was attacked by an eagle or decided to move along (the 13 remaining adult geese are here).
We were happy to see an adult otter run across the jetty boardwalk yesterday, raising our hopes that the dead river otter seen with “Ollie” the sea otter last week may not have been one from under our shed (creating the possibility of abandoned young if this were the case).
The seagulls seem to have gotten even more aggressive as their young begin to venture away from the nest: attacking young of other gulls, diving at our heads, and attacking each other if their individual “territory” (the area around their nests) is invaded. We have to be extremely careful with our movements around the island to avoid scaring chicks into the open where they can be attacked.
Many small harbour seal pups today! They are particularly playful at this time of year as they learn to swim and fish with their mothers. We have been enjoying observing their movements from the top of the lighthouse where our presence doesn’t bother them and we can see directly downwards into the water around the island.

Monday’s Census:

Weather:

A fun link! Our weather station data can be publicly viewed Here.

Marine Traffic/Visitors:

On Friday Greg and a plumber visited
It has been quite windy but we have continued to see 5-10 whale watching boats per day on average
Quite a few fishing pleasure crafts outside of the reserve closer to Pedder bay, but no issues with fishing in the reserve this week so far.

Ecological Observations:

This week we noticed a pigeon guillemot carry fish into a crevice in the rock wall outside our back door. We are excited to keep an eye on it and see if it is nesting! We have continued to notice breeding pairs copulating and flying into/out of crevices around the island.
This week there are large amounts of shorebirds visiting.We have seen ruddy and black turnstones daily as well as the occasional sandpiper. The turnstones are particularly elusive and fly away before we notice them quite often.
An appreciated bird ID correction from Daniel: The bird which we photographed on June 20 was in fact a whimbrel and not a short billed dowitcher.
This week we have seen quite a few harbor seals with their pups swimming or resting on rocks. We haven’t seen any nursing, but they are still quite small (and cute!).
The goslings and two parents haven’t returned since we saw them leave by water last Thursday. There seem to be two more adult geese gone today. We wonder if the goose family left for the main island, as the seagulls have become very territorial and aggressive, or perhaps the geese are naturally beginning to leave as they do seasonally.
A steady increase of sea lions in the reserve this week. There are now both california and stellar sea lions, and a few younger ones mixed in with the huge stellars that appeared last week.