August 1 Census

Census Results:

Mammals:

  • Elephant seal: 2 (female and male)
  • Steller sea lion: 34
  • California sea lion: 11
  • Sea otter: 1
  • Harbour seal: 78

Birds:

  • Bald eagle: 1
  • Canada goose: 3
  • Cormorant: 33
  • Gull: 584
  • Black oystercatcher: 20
  • Pigeon guillemot: 131
  • Whimbrel: 1
  • Surfbird: 28
  • Black turnstone: 137
  • Song sparrow: 2
  • Least sandpiper: 1

Facility work:

  • Reacquaint myself with the standard operating procedures and various systems on the island
  • Check boat electronics, safety equipment, and winch
  • Clean solar panels
  • Sample seawater

Vessels:

  •  Ecotourism: 23
  •  Private: 5

Weather:

  • Sea: Rippled
  • Sky: Clear in morning, then partly cloudy
  • Wind: Variable light winds overnight until sunrise ~06:00, when wind switched to easterlies varying from 3-14 knots throughout the rest of the day
  • Daytime air temperature: low 13 C, high 24 C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 10.6 C

** All wildlife photos are taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Windy Day

It was a windy day – blew the door off the Derrick Shed and the hair off the elephant seal’s head. The electric fence suffered from the winds over the past few days and needed replacement strands in two sections.

Wildlife notes:

The pigeon guillemots were around in the morning and mostly left again by 7pm. I found what I assume to be a pigeon guillemot nest in the rocks at the west end of the helipad.  Judging by the egg orientation, the little bone and other items which get moved around, it seems to be an active nest. Two least sandpipers were spotted on the northeast shore.

Least sandpiper

Facility work:

  • cleaned solar panels
  • replaced 2 sections of electric fence
  • thistles – new record, an 11″ root.
  • topped up battery fluid

Vessels:

10 Ecotourism boats, 1 private

Weather:

WNW 13 and clouds in the morning, clearing early afternoon with winds building to WNW 33 by late afternoon.