Tag Archives: harlequin duck

Census and 3rd New Weaner

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-30 knots NE, later 15 W
  • Water: 2′ chop
  • Sky: overcast with showers

Ecological

  • Chunk and Chuckles were both on Great Race today, but I saw no interactions.
  • The mother is gone on Middle Rock, making her pup a weaner.
  • Conducted a census.
  1. California Sea Lions: 75
  2. Northern Sea Lions: 32
  3. Harbour Seals: 6
  4. Elephant Seals: 3
  5. Seagulls: 300
  6. Cormorants: 299 (142 on Great Race, of which 87 were Double Crested, 28 Pelagic, 8 male Brandt’s, and 19 unidentifiable to me. 157 on North Rock, too far away to identify.)
  7. Black Turnstones: 39
  8. Surfbirds: 18
  9. Canada Geese: 18
  10. Black Oystercatchers: 13
  11. Harlequin Ducks: 8 (6 male, 2 female)
  12. Bald Eagles: 3 (2 adults, 1 juvenile)
  13. Crows: 3
  14. Ravens: 2
  15. American Pipit: 1

Maintenance

  • Hauled logs off the ramp.
  • Checked the diesel in the tidy tank.

Boats

  • Didn’t see any boats near the reserve today.

 

Census

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 5 miles, later 15
  • Wind: 5-10 knots SE, late afternoon up to 33 knots from the West
  • Water: rippled, later wavy
  • Sky: foggy in the morning, overcast in the afternoon

Ecological

  • Chunk spent the day on Middle Rock with the mum and pup.
  • Lady, Grieving mum, mum and pup, were in the same spots on Great Race.
  • Chuckles arrived on Great Race in the late afternoon.
  • Conducted a census.
  1. California Sea Lions: 87
  2. Northern/Stellar Sea Lions: 50
  3. Harbour Seals: 21
  4. Elephant Seals: 8
  5. Cormorants: 742 (of the 742, I think that at least 10 were Male Brandt’s, 131 Double Crested, and 200 Pelagic; my identification is improving, but many were either too far away, or indistinguishable to me.)
  6. Seagulls: 605 (131 had darker plumage and therefore must be immature gulls?)
  7. Pigeon Guillemots: 50
  8. Bald Eagles: 30 (23 juveniles, 7 adults)
  9. Black Oystercatchers: 13
  10. Canada Geese: 10
  11. Harlequin Ducks: 8 (4 male, 4 female)
  12. Black Turnstones: 6
  13. Surfbird: 3 (unless they were Rock Sandpipers?)
  14. Raven: 2
  15. American Pipit: 2

Maintenance

  • Did some more cleaning in the Student’s House.

Boats

  • In the morning, one fishing boat passed through the reserve. The occupants did not fish in the reserve; they were going slow and appeared to be observing.
  • In the afternoon, one large eco-tour boat came through the reserve.

First Official Day On The Job

Posted on by

After training last weekend, and a general review yesterday, I, Riley Strother, have now taken over as Ecoguardian from Alex Fletcher.

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knots NE
  • Water: 1’ chop
  • Sky: overcast

Ecological

  • The first female elephant seal to give birth left the island at 7:30 in the morning and did not return. As such the first pup has now become a weaner.
  • Chunk appeared to mate with the female who lost her pup.
  • The newest pup is quite vocal and seems to be doing well. Chunk and the other female went along the path after mating to inspect the new mother and pup.
  • Alex was able to identify the number on the yellow flipper tag attached to the newest mother: 5928
  • There was quite a disturbance of seagulls and cormorants today when a raven with a small fish in its beak was chased all around the island by two eagles. Eventually the raven managed to land and eat the fish.
  • Conducted a census.
  1. California Sea Lions: 88
  2. Northern/Stellar Sea Lions: 53 (many sea lions were swimming in the waves and thus impossible to count)
  3. Elephant Seals: 8 (Chunk, weaner, grieving mother, new mum and pup, Middle Rock: Chuckles, mum and pup.)
  4. River Otter: 1
  5. Cormorants: 615
  6. Seagulls: 512
  7. Bald Eagles: 9 (7 juvenile, 2 adults)
  8. Raven: 1
  9. Crow: 1
  10. Black Oystercatchers: 6
  11. Harlequin Ducks: 4
  12. Canada Geese: 6
  13. Black Turnstones: 29

Maintenance

  • Cleared logs off the ramp two times.
  • Lowered the boat trailer because the cable coil was quite criss crossed. Managed to recoil the cable in a more orderly fashion.
  • Vacuumed up hundreds of fruit flies in the basement near the composting toilet.

Boats

  • Alex and Virginie left in the morning.
  • Surprised to see no eco-tourism boats about on such a nice Sunday.

Humpbacks

Posted on by
Humpbacks

Humpbacks to the south west

Ecological Happenings

  • Moderate winds and seas in the morning building to strong gale force winds with rough seas later on.
  • A group of 3 humpbacks were spotted feeding about 1.5nm SW of the reserve. Group observed to be heading east before they were lost in the building seas.
  • The alpha male Elephant seal went into the ocean late last night to rehydrate and didn’t return till the afternoon today.
  • Male Bufflehead seen in the surf zone to the east of the main island.

Marine Vessels

  • None

Maintenance

  • Logs removed from jetty.
  • Electrical outlet in Tank room fixed.
  • Engine room tidied and cleaned.
Male Bufflehead

Male Bufflehead

Group of harlequin ducks

Group of Harlequin ducks

Male and female harlequin ducks

Male and female Harlequin ducks

 

Peakaboo

Peakaboo -Smaller Elephant Seal

Female Elephant seal

Female Elephant seal

DSC_6180

Male Sea lion appears to be blind in right eye, likely from dominance fights

Male Sea lion. Appears to be blind in right eye, likely from dominance fights

Thayer's Gull in flight

Thayer’s Gull in flight

Business as usual

Posted on by

Male sealion soaking up the winter sun

Ecological Happenings

  • A brighter sunnier day after the winds and overcast skies of the last few days.
  • Business as usual after the high winds with animals back on the rocks.
  • One of the Bull Eseals moved up to the lighthouse today while the other remained near the path intersection.

 Marine Vessels

  • 2 pleasure boats in the reserve (plus 2 fishing just outside the reserve).
  • 1 commercial boat (spill clean-up) posing as a pleasure craft came in for a look.
  • 1 whale watching boat.
  • Coastguard helicopter flew overhead using the lighthouse as a way-point along with one private helicopter.
  • Vessels noted to be respecting the speed limit, but not all the proximity, with both the whale watching boat and commercial boat coming too close.

 Maintenance

  • More driftwood moved up the boat ramp to dry.
  • Camera 2 system checks, power and network cycling. This camera continues to give us problems……..
  • Energy monitoring and investigations started, looking at the system, power use, generation and storage on the island.
  • Minor internal works (fire alarms, fan, doors).
  • Door to boat house adjusted to run better on tracks.
To shore!

To shore!

Solar fins at the ready

Solar fins at the ready

Ponderings

Ponderings

Immature cormorant preening

Immature cormorant preening

Cormorants

Cormorants

Commercial pleasure

Commercial pleasure

Sunset

Sunset

A new Ecoguardian arrives

Posted on by

Ecological Happenings

  • Adult and Immature Bald Eagles on South and West Islands.
  • Harlequin Ducks fishing around the jetty.
  • Lesser spotted Scotsman seen.

Marine Vessels

  • 2nd Nature from Pearson College dropping of the new eco-guardian. Me! (Ecoguardians past and present)
  • No other vessels or aircraft seen in the reserve.

Maintenance

  • System run through and training with Courtney.

Other

  • Investigating and settling in.
    Black Turnstone

    Black Turnstone

    Harlequin Ducks

    Harlequin Ducks

    Juvenile Gull

    Juvenile Gull

    Immature Bald Eagle

    Immature Bald Eagle

Sunday Divers

Posted on by

Ecological Happenings

  • Another great day at RR….
  • North Easterly winds continue, making the ebb current quite strong.
  • RR dock has filled with logs.

Marine Vessels

  • Three tour boats.
  • One dive boat with 6 divers.
  • One sail boat.
  • One helicopter flying low (just above the light house). This was too close to the reserve.

Maintenance

  • Removal of logs from the dock.
  • Electric fence was unhooked and put away for the season.

Harlequin Ducks

Posted on by

Ecological Happenings

  • Three Harlequin ducks seen today.
  • Two Bald Eagles flying together (one juvenile).
  • Winds picked up speed today to 16kts. Strong wind warnings have and continue to be in effect.

Marine Vessels

  • Two tour boats seen today. They are missing the views of the Sea Lions, as boats usually visit the North West of the island, while currently most Sea Lions have moved to the south island.
  • One helicopter flying relatively low. Animals were startled.

Other

No visitors.

 

New Eco-guardians.

Posted on by
Sea lions visit Pearson College Divers Photo by Jasper Rea.

Sea lions visit Pearson College Divers Photo by Jasper Rea.

It was a beautiful day at Race Rocks, with light southeast winds and a mostly clear sky. The barometer fell a little today to ~1013hPA and the forecast for tomorrow is for sunny skies. There is a strong wind warning in effect for overnight with diminishing southeast winds Friday. Rain is forecast for Saturday.

Only four whale-watching vessels were noted in the protected area today and three pleasure craft passed through going slowly. The people on one of those vessels, the Kaos were observed feeding rockfish to sea lions in the Ecological Reserve. It is illegal to feed wildlife and if it happens they will be reported.

Today was animal census day and here are the results.

Animal Census

Steller Sea Lion 321

California Sea Lion 637

Harbour Seal 77

Northern Elephant Seal 9

Sea Otter 0

Humpback Whale (1 observed within one mile of ER southeast of

Great Race)

Canada Goose 23

Harlequin Duck 5

Surf Scoters 11 (flying through to east)

Common Murre 5

Rhinoceros Auklet 4

Double-crested Cormorant 73

Brandt’s Cormorants 25

Pelagic Cormorant 9

Unidentified Cormorants 20

Bald Eagle 1 adult

Black Oystercatcher 11

Black Turnstone 7

Kildeer 2

Glaucous-winged Gull 248

California Gull 3

Thayer’s Gulls 707

Herring Gull 0

Ring-billed Gull 1

Western Gull 2

Heerman’s Gull 14

Mew Gull 0

Unidentified gulls 53

Total gull count 1028

Common Raven 2

Red-winged Blackbird 7 (during count week)

Savannah Sparrow 12

Song Sparrow 2

American Goldfinch 1

American Pipet 1

Don and Nina, the new eco-guardians in-training arrived today. They worked hard all day, after getting up very early to catch the morning slack and are progressing really well in learning some of the idiosyncrasies of Race Rocks operations.