Tag Archives: humpback

New Students

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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 :)

Visitors, injured seal, and canoes

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knts W
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Kyle visited the island today and brought Nick along, who is a former Ecoguardian and currently works as a facilitator for Pearson’s PSYL program. They brought my my food supplies and Kyle gave Nick a tour on some of the newer systems here.
  • Lots of whale watching boats in the area today
  • Saw a bunch of canoes paddle past the island, headed south. I believe they originated from Beecher Bay. Photograph below.

Marine mammals

  • Noticing a slow rise in the steller sea lion population on the northern rocks. There’s at least one really massive sea lion. I’ll get an accurate count later this weekend.
  • The injured seal that showed up a few days ago with predator marks and molting fur, returned to the island today and seemed to be more injured. I think it is a female. I’ll keep an eye on it.
  • Possible humpbacks far south of the island – too far to see the whales, but there was a gathering of whale watching boats in the spot where the humpbacks like to hang out.

An exciting day with several updates!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts SW
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply
  • Fog horn went off last night for an hour

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Kyle visited the island along with Jake from maintenance and the Communications team
    • Kyle and Jake took some of the bed fixtures out of the guest house and replaced some of the tube lighting
    • I had lunch with Brian and Nikola from the Pearson Communications team, and gave them a short tour of the island
  • Lots of ecotour boats in the area today!

Birds

  • Spotted several new shore bird species that I haven’t seen before this summer – photographed below! (I’m not sure if I’ve identified the species correctly)
  • The number of gulls on the south rocks has increased dramatically over the last few days – about 100-150 more I would guess. I’ll do a proper count on Sunday.

Marine mammals

  • Several humpback whales on the south side near the bouy! They made numerous rain-blows and attracted a lot of whale watching boats.
  • 2 californian sea lions on the island today

Technical

  • Kyle brought lots of new LED bulbs for me, and I’ve replaced all the bulbs in the Ecoguardian house with the new ones. They are significantly more power efficient and brighter too!

Southeast winds, more work on the electric grid and ollie!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 SE in the morning, 5-10 N in the evening (quite unusual)
  • Sky: partly cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Kyle again brought several technicians from PTTP to do further work on the energy systems. They were able to connect the system to the internet which now allows them to remotely monitor solar input and usage. I also helped them lift the new batteries off the floor and place them on to an insulated rack.
  • Noticed an ecotour boat from the United States going around the reserve, and I’ve never seen this boat before. Maybe it was a 4th of July special?

Birds

  • Most seagull eggs have hatched, but some still remain whole. The seagulls are extremely aggressive now, and hard hats are a must for any visitors at this point.
  • A couple of juvenile bald eagles are making the rounds on the island – I initially mistook them for golden eagles, but Kyle explained they were simply juveniles.

Marine mammals

  • Kyle and I went to grab some photos of Ollie the sea otter that lives in a kelp patch near turbine rock.
  • We also spotted a humpack’s blow but by the time we got close it was gone.

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-10 NE
  • Sky: cloudy throughout the day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Saw a couple ecotours cruise by

Ecological

  • still more sea lions than I expected to still be here, no elephant seal either.

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 343
  • California Sea Lions, 152
  • Harbour Seals – 13
  • Gulls – 317
  • Cormorants – 119
  • Harlequinn Ducks – 18
  • Black Turnstones – 24
  • Eagle – 1

First of November

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  15-25 NW
  • Sky: cloudy this morning, cleared up a bit in the afternoon
  • Water: some waves, no more than a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • had some ecotours cruise by today

Ecological

  • some sea lions, 2 elephant seals and plenty of humpbacks around

Notes

  • DnD was blasting today

October 31st

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-15 SE
  • Sky: a little cloudy but mostly clear throughout the day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had Kyle deliver some fuel today and there were plenty of ecotours cruising by

Ecological

  • the usual sea lions and elephant seals and planty of humpbacks around

Notes

  • the sea lions seem to be leaving more everyday

Another Beautiful Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-15 SE
  • Sky: pretty clear throughout the day
  • Water: waves this morning, about 1 metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Had quite a few ecotours cruise by today

Ecological

  • 3 elephant seals by the jetty and plenty of humpbacks around

 

Census October 26th

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-15 SE
  • Sky: clear most of the day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had plenty of ecotours cruising by

Ecological

  • Not as many sea lions today, they might have peaked by now but last year they didn’t start leaving until mid november
  • there were a couple injured sea lions plus a dead one
  • only saw one elephant seal today but I’m sure the others are around
  • So many stellars, mostly on the outer rocks
  • there was also an eagle
  • haven’t seen the otter or any oyster catchers
  • also saw a few humpbacks out there (not included in census)

Notes

  • plenty of solar input today

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 235
  • California Sea Lions – 421
  • Harbour Seals – 18
  • Elephant Seals – 1(seen) I’m sure there are at least 3 or 4 more around
  • Gulls (unspecified) – 456
  • Cormorants – 713
  • Black Turnstones – 22
  • Geese – 8
  • Eagle – 1

Big Waves

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind:  0-15 SE
  • Sky: cloudy all day
  • Water: The swells were more than a metre today

Boats/Visitors

  • Had some ecotours brave the waves

Ecological

  • Sea lions seem to be multiplying still and getting closer to the house
  • Saw a couple humpbacks out there again today

Notes

  • Had to the run generator for quite a while today but couldn’t run the desalinator because the sea lions would not move