Tag Archives: Misery

Tagged juvenile E-Seal

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There are six E-seals on the island today. The big bull Misery, Bertha, a seemingly very pregnant large female with a distinct scar on her belly, and four youngsters resting uncomfortably on the rubble beach near the engine room.

The scruffy pup closest in the picture has a green hind flipper tag. The number appears to be #6355. I will look for info about from where and whence it cometh

Over 60 black oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) are on the rocks on the south perimeter of the big island.Never have I seen a flock like this! Usually a person is lucky to see 10 together at a time. Along with the Haemas are about 40 Blackheaded Turnstones (Arenaria melanocephala).

2 divers in the water at West Rock. An Italian student and her friend are out for 3 days, as is another guest who is a professional photographer. I will try and get some good pics of the seals from her…

New year for the Humans, just another day for the seals…

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An enjoyable end to 2011 starting with the gale on Friday. Winds hit 50knots. I have noticed that cormorants are the last birds flying when the wind picks up. Today the islands of the reserve hold about 30 Stellars Sea Lions, 30 Harbour Seals, 2 elephants seals, 100 cormorants, 200 herring gulls, 15 oystercatchers, 20 turnstones, 10 Canada geese, a couple of sandpipers and sparrows, and one Homo sapiens sapiens. How is it that they can find food where they live but I am required to import it from the 4 corners of theglobe?

I am renaming the bull Elephant Seal Mistery rather than Misery as he was previously nicknamed. Misery doesn’t do this magnificent animal justice, plus I like him a lot; he brings me joy!

Pelican and Elephants Seals

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The big adult male elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) is back from a few days excursion. Misery is looking sleek and healthy. The small female looks to be improving. The redness of her wounded eye is diminishing.

Yesterday evening before the gale began a large adult brown pelican was noticed in front of the student house, but it is gone this morning.
Pelecanus occidentalis observed at Race Rocks

 

Elephant Seal Chase, Wind, Vessels

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The small female elephant seal had stayed up near the base of the tower until last night when the fog horn went off, she moved down to the path near the middle of the island.  Misery came back to Great Race this morning.

When he started approaching the female she moved away.   She made it back up to the base of the tower again where Misery doesn’t seem to like to go, maybe too much of an incline for the fat bugger.  Misery stayed by the engine room, likely in the females path if she tries to leave.

Yesterday there were three boats in the reserve: a dive boat in the morning and 2 eco tour boats in the afternoon.

The wind picked up today around noon reaching gusts of 60 knots from the west.  The wind has stayed around 30 knots most of the afternoon.

Elephant Seals

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This morning Misery and the small female elephant seal were back on Great Race.  The female was up in the grass near the base of the tower with a fresh looking injury to her left eye.

Pam reported an incident between Misery and another individual on Middle Rock  on the 18th where she could see Misery grab something in his jaws.  Maybe it was this elephant seal that she had witnessed getting a beating.  Misery has a history of aggressive, violent behaviour.  Pam has several image captures and a description of the incident on her flickr site:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/66339356@N00/6537477915/in/photostream/

The number of elephant seals on Middle Rock has been increasing, Pam has recently counted up to 8 elephant seals on Middle Rock.

Misery delays boat launch

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Julia and Jake cleaning solar panels

Yesterday I left the island around noon to go to campus and returned around 16:00 hrs with Jake.  Erik brought out Julia, Jeanie and Mark in Second Nature. I took Jeanie and Mark back to campus today around 15:00 hrs, it was great to have them out here for a visit. Julia and Jake will be staying out here for a few more days.  They did a great job scrubbing the solar panels today and carried several containers of deionized water across the island to the battery room.  I did some cleaning in the battery room this afternoon.

The eco tour vessel Five Star Fast Cat came into the reserve this morning around 10:30.

Misery left Great Race yesterday around noon, taking his time on the boat ramp while I waited to launch the whaler, and is back on Middle Rock with the ladies.  There were around 10 Sealions on South Rocks today and over 40 cormorants observed on South Rocks, Middle Rocks and the SW side of Great Race.

Misery taking his time on the boat ramp

Misery, Harbour Seals, Weather

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Misery has been on Middle Rock Tuesday and Wednesday but was back by the boat house this morning.

There were over 40 Harbour Seals observed on the south side of the island and South Rock this afternoon.

Have had 3 days of grey skies and a sustained lack of precipitation.  The wind peaked just over 20 knots on Tuesday and has stayed around 10 knots yesterday and today.  Atmospheric pressure reached its lowest point in the past two weeks on Tuesday around 1015 hPa and has been on the rise today.

Misery and Plumbing

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Misery next to diesel line box, in the background North profile of both blocks of tilted solar panels on roof of energy building.

Misery was next to the diesel line box mid morning. This box is 6′ wide and just over 4′ tall so the previous estimate of him being about 12′ long seems pretty accurate.  He moved over towards the fresh water tank in the afternoon and was lying behind a rock wall near where I was working on the rainwater plumbing. Around sunset he headed back to the pathway and down the boat ramp.  He crashed through a pile of logs that had been left by the receding tide.  Once in the water he spent about 20 mins blowing into the water and rolling around.  It would be interesting to hear him underwater.  He left the jetty and resurfaced on the West side of the island.  A few minutes later he was accompanied by the small female elephant seal, whom he proceeded to chase and bite until she hauled out on some rocks out of his reach.

There were about 10 black oyster catchers off the SW side of engine room and 6 Harlequin ducks in the water off the SE side, lots of cormorants on South rocks and on West side.

Worked on rainwater plumbing this afternoon.  Have got the tank inlet and down pipe clean-out hooked up.

Harbour seal pups

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Misery and Slash are still co-habitating on the Island these days, although Slash is definitely filling the alpha male role. It ”s quite interesting, as Misery is very aware that he is not the dominant one and may often be observed scooting down a path or taking the long way into the water in order to avoid a confrontation with Slash. More and more seagull nests are hatching every day. This week I ‘ve been noticing two or three per day. The ones that hatched first are now getting quite big! There are still oystercatcher babies over by the jetty, and they too are getting large. Along the baby line, I ”ve been noticing a number of baby harbour seals around the rocks. We ”re in prime pupping season for them now.’, ‘adam’, ’22:13:15 ,

Misery breaks the water line

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All camera and weather systems are up and running again; apologies for the interruption in service. The outage was caused by a major problem from one of our male elephant seals. Yesterday night, our friend Misery moved overtop of the waterline connected to the science house used for cleaning camera 5. The line broke off of the spigot and caused about 5000 litres of fresh water to drain, emptying the tank overnight. I’ve been running the desalinator continuously to make up the lost water. I have bypassed the hybrid energy system and am running the island straight off of the generators to preserve the batteries and to save fuel. Unfortunately, this method sometimes produces dirty power and can wreak havoc on the computer systems running here. Garry and I managed to restart the systems this morning and things seem to be running smoothly for the moment. ‘adam’, ’14:50:59 ,