First sighting of Ollie the sea otter since I arrived. His new favourite location is in the kelp east of Great Race. I had seen him there on a boat trip on Aug 1.
First on-land passerines of my stay seen on Thursday, Aug 11: two juvenile Brown-headed Cowbirds. It is possible the bird I saw in the fog last week could have been one of these.
Sea lion numbers continue to climb.
Whale action must be in the Gulf Islands/San Juans, as fewer whale watching boats are coming this way.
Most of the young gulls are busy testing their wings, especially when the wind comes up.
Very low tides have revealed the eel grass beds and normally hidden intertidal zone.
See photos below for more ecological sightings.
Weekly Census observed on Wednesday, August 10:
Mammals
Elephant seals: 3 (1 adult male, two juvenile females)
Steller sea lions: 124
California sea lions: 40
Harbour seals: 186
Sea otter 1
Birds
Canada geese: 4
Harlequin ducks: 8
Black oystercatchers: 9 (8 adults 1 chick )
Killdeer 2 (only on island between dusk and dawn)
Black Turnstones: 194
Surfbirds: 17
Common Murres: 79
Pigeon Guillemots:183
Rhinoceros Auklets: 2
Heermann’s Gulls: 2
California Gulls: 353
Glaucous-winged Gulls: 341 adults 169 chicks (probably undercounted as wind caused a lot of chicks to seek cover)
Caspian Terns: 2
Pelagic Cormorants: 5
Brandt’s Cormorants: 12
Brown Pelican: 1
Weather:
Yesterday (Wednesday, August 10):
Sky: Overcast, with a few sunny periods
Wind: W 11-31 kts
Sea: up to 3′ chop
Temperature Low 12 oC, High 19 oC
Today (Thursday, August 11):
Sky: Overcast until mid morning, then partly cloudy
Wind: W 4-21 kts
Sea: calm to rippled
Temperature Low 14 oC, High 18 oC
Facility Work:
Solar panels cleaned daily. Some windows washed. Postponed on Wednesday due to brief electrical storm. North side of researcher building skipped on Thursday due to presence of large elephant seal.
Compost renewal project continues.
Vessel Traffic:
Many Canadian ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve. Cruise ship traffic is increasing
Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.
Eel grass
Race Rocks mussel beds appear unaffected by last year’s heat dome
Eel grass and mussel beds
Leatherback chitons
Bull Kelp
Many varieties of seaweeds exposed by the low tides
Tomorrow is a shift changeover and my last day on the Island. Ann Nightingale is coming to be the Ecoguardian. I have enjoyed my stay here for the past five weeks. The near constant west wind provided excellent air conditioning. I learned to live harmoniously with the nesting gulls and chicks. The marine mammals (elephant seals, sea otter, humpback whales, orcas, and Steller sea lions) provided me with plenty of entertainment. I fixed more things on the island than broke. Another successful Ecoguardian shift.
Ecological Notes:
The large male elephant seal spent the whole day today on the land, most of the time nestled against the north side of the Guest House.
The population of Steller sea lions has doubled in past week. The stench of sea lion poop is also growing down wind of Middle Rocks. There are even a few California sea lions showing up on the main island.
In the morning yesterday, myself and the two visitors took the station boat out for a trip to the closest land to the north. I enjoyed seeing a closer view of Bentinck Island, Rocky Point, Church Rock and Swordfish Island. There were many harbour seals hauled out on the rocks and little jumping fish along the way.
See the photo gallery below for the ecological happenings from the past two days.
Weekly Census observed on Wednesday, August 3:
Elephant seals: 3 (1 adult male, two juvenile females)
Steller sea lions: 95
California sea lions: 3
Harbour seals: 146
Bald eagles: 2 adults
Brown pelican: 1
Canada geese: 2
Cormorants: 5
Glaucous-winged gulls: 232
Glaucous-winged gull chicks: approximately 200 (They are hard to count due to their hiding in plants and rocks. Some chicks have died and new chicks have been born recently.)
Gulls (uncertain of species): 331 (around outer islands and congregating on the south end of Great Race Rocks)
Black oystercatchers: 8 adults (no chicks seen today)
Harlequin duck: 1 female
Pigeon guillemots: 132
Surfbirds: 12
Black turnstones: 148
Weather:
Yesterday (August 2):
Sky: Partly cloudy
Wind: W 11-28 kts
Sea: up to 1′ chop
Temperature Low 12 oC, High 15 oC
Today (August 3):
Sky: Overcast until mid morning, then partly cloudy
Wind: W 15-34 kts
Sea: up to 3′ moderate
Temperature Low 12 oC, High 15 oC
Visitors:
Abi and Jeremias, the two volunteers
9 visitors from Pearson College in the afternoon of August 2
Facility Work:
Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, poured cement to fix a broken section of sidewalk, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.
DND Blasting:
Just before 13:00, there was one large blast from the DND lands at Rocky Point.
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.
Hauled out harbour seals below the lighthouse.
Three oystercatchers near East Bay
Steller sea lion herd on Middle Rocks
I have notified a researcher in Oregon about a branded Steller sea lion (486Y) spotted on Middle Rocks
Female harlequin duck in East Bay
Jeremias and Abi cleaning the solar panels
Pigeon guillemots with an eel meal
Two young glaucous-winged gull chicks waiting for lunch
1 Male Elephant Seal, appears to be last year’s Beachmaster
First time I’ve personally noticed this type of tag …. On the Female Elephant Seal
Tag with holes in a pattern
harlequin ducks
Facility Work:
Cleaning and firewood prep for the next Ecoguardians
Looks like tomorrow morning will be all about clearing the pier area of debris and redoing the electric fence. The swells and incoming wind knocked concrete blocks right off the pier.
DND events:
2 days of blasting with noticeable reactions from the Scea Lions.
Noted Vessel Traffic:
3 different Ecotourism vessels
Several Sailboats back and forth, cutting between the reserve and Bentinck Island
Feature Event:
Took a few Pictures from the top of the light while I was doing the animal Census.
Weather Events:
Mostly average winds from the west. Wednesday greeted us with 30-40 knot southeasterly wind, with very large swells!
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
2Elephant Seal pups, one spent much of the day soaking in the water at the end of the boat ramp
Although not right in the reserve, observed one Humpback whale, about 1 mile south, and Transient Orca between the reserve and Bentinck Island. Identified as the T101’s and T100B’s
Lots of courting behavior observed with the Pigeon Guillemots, and also the Harlequin ducks
Pigeon Guillemots
Harlequin Ducks
Facility Work:
Pressure washing main building
Noted Vessel Traffic:
5 EcoTourism boats, spread throughout the afternoon
3 separate sport boat went through the reserve at high speed, luckily no obvious disturbance of the animals other than noticeable wake
Weather Events:
Cloudy with sunny breaks, Calm seas
** All photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Weather Events: Wind went from 5 knots west to 40 knots in 1 hour. Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72 Weather–Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72
We are preparing for a large amount of rain over the next few days. Every year the “first big rain” on the west coast is quite an event!
Visitors:
Today Greg visited with supplies for the island and contractors
Few whale watching boats now that school in Canada is back in session.
Ecological Observations:
There have been quite a few more stellar sea lions this week. We will be completing our census tomorrow, weather permitting- we’ll see what the numbers show! (last week the fog delayed our census significantly)
The bird life has continued to change daily, with many sparrows and gulls migrating with the seasons. The pelican spotted previously stayed in the reserve for a couple of days but we did not see it today.
We observed a small pod of orcas passing outside of reserve yesterday evening. We have been seeing fewer humpback whales in the strait this week.
Elephant seal E103, or “Erica” has been enjoying the jetty with the sea lions. When we fence the island to prevent damage due to the sealions arriving we are mindful to leave space for the elephant seals to move through the island freely (the fence is high enough for them to pass underneath). Notably, Erica has chosen to remain with the sea lions nearer the jetty, as opposed to her preferred grassy areas at other times of the year. We wonder if she like the company, or if there may be a more survival based explanation for this behavior.
Other notes:
As wet winter weather approaches we have been mindful to collect firewood and store it in the dry areas available to ensure dry heat throughout the winter. It is still necessary to use the diesel furnace as it distributes heat to all areas of the residence but the dry heat from the woodstove just can’t be beat! This wood is collected from the ocean as winds in the winter season push logs fallen from barges into the jetty waters.
Wind: W 5-25 knots Sea State: calm in morning, rippled in afternoon Visibility: 0-15 NM Sky: fog until evening, then clear Temperature: 11-15 °C Atmospheric CO2: 411.99 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)
A harbour seal was seen this morning with a fishing lure flasher attached. The photo shows the green and white flasher as the seal was diving. It surfaced a few other times in different spots with the flasher. The Marine Mammal Rescue Centre was notified.
There have not been a lot of ducks around recently. This lone duck appears to be a female harlequin duck.
Wind: yesterday W-S 0-32 knots, today W-SE 2-17 knots Sea State: both days calm Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 15 NM Sky: yesterday partly cloudy then clear from mid morning, today clear Temperature: yesterday 8-14 °C, today 7-14 °C Atmospheric CO2: 416.33 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)
The lawn in front of the house got busier this morning with nine elephant seals, two more than yesterday. A tenth seal, the pup, was near the jetty. The two new arrivals have green tags on their tail flippers. One is a male tagged C887. The other is a juvenile tagged G512 on the right flipper and E779 on the right. I will update the information on age and past sightings when I hear back from the researchers. The green tags signify the elephant seals were tagged at Año Nuevo, south of San Francisco.
[UPDATED April 13: I heard back from Dr. Patrick Robinson, the researcher from Año Nuevo Reserve. The elephant seal with green tags E779 and G512 was tagged as a pup in February 2019, where he was born at Año Nuevo. This is the first time the male juvenile has been spotted outside of Año Nuevo, where he was last seen as a weaner in March, 2019. The elephant seal with the green tag C887 is a juvenile male that was born at Año Nuevo in February 2017. He has been seen at Race Rocks in the month of December in 2017, 2018 and 2019.]
There was one boat seen in the ecological reserve on each of the past two days, a pleasure boat yesterday and a sailboat today.
Census results observed this afternoon at low tide: 10 elephant seals (1 female pup, 1 female juvenile, 1 juvenile, 2 sub adult males, 5 female adults) 16 steller sea lions 91 california sea lions 1 sea otter 72 harbour seals 5 bald eagles (2 juveniles, 3 adults) 16 Canada geese 1 black brant goose 99 gulls (mostly thayer’s) 17 pelagic cormorants 4 brandt’s cormorants 5 double-crested cormorants 6 black oystercatchers 24 pigeon guillemots 7 harlequin ducks 2 surfbirds 5 black turnstones
Two eagles on Turbine Rock and a colourful sailboat passing through Race Passage.
Newly arrived juvenile elephant seal tagged G512 and E779
Green tags G512 and E779 on the juvenile elephant seal.
Newly arrived sub adult male elephant seal tagged C887
Green tag C887 on the sub adult male elephant seal
Black brant goose
Four elephant seals waiting for the water to come to them
Newly arrived juvenile seal exploring the boardwalk
A view from the top of the lighthouse this afternoon of the clear water of the east bay. A group of sea lions can be seen on the rocks.