Tag Archives: nest

A Windy Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knots West in the morning, picking up to 30-35 by noon.
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 3′ chop

DSC_6368

Ecological

  • I oversaw an enthusiastic day long census with Maya, Tazi, and Ali.
  • Discovered a new Black Oystercatcher nest with 3 eggs!
  • Maya and Tazi discovered a new Canada Goose nest.
  • I begin to suspect that our new elephant seal male is actually Chuckles.
  • If he did nothing but eat for 3 months straight, that would explain his girth.
  • Saw a Steller Sea Lion branded 9628.
  • We found a blood star, and Maya showed us various chitons.
  • Maya and Tazi did a transect.
  1. Harbour Seals: 190
  2. California Sea Lions: 42
  3. Steller/Northern Sea Lions: 39
  4. Elephant Seals: 15 (13 on Great Race, 2 in the Southern waters)
  5. Seagulls: 225 (Glaucous-winged)
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 82
  7. Canada Geese: 36 (14 on Great Race, 22 flyovers)
  8. Black Oystercatchers: 8 (plus 2 nests with a total 5 eggs)
  9. Harlequin Ducks: 3 (2 male, 1 female)
  10. Cormorants: 3
  11. Barn Swallows: 2

Maintenance

  • We cleaned the solar panels.
  • Finished cleaning the boathouse floor with T.S.P.
  • Repainted some rusty propane tanks.
  • Sanded the westward facing bench by the Students’ house.

Boats

  • Several eco-tours came by in the morning, but as wind picked up they disappeared.

Black Oystercatcher Nest!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knots West in the morning
  • The rest of the day 15 knots West.
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 2′ chop

Ecological

  • Finally discovered a Black Oystercatcher nest!
  • 2 eggs are inside the “nest”.
  • Their nests are made of rocks and shells.
  • Census day.
  • I don’t seem to see any Black Turnstones or Surfbirds anymore.
  • Also less Bald Eagles.
  • And the Otter has been gone for a while.
  1. Harbour Seals: 117
  2. Northern Sea Lions: 32
  3. California Sea Lions: 22 (one branded U 687)
  4. Elephant Seals: 20 (17 on Great Race, 3 on Middle Rock)
  5. Seagulls: 327
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 114
  7. Canada Geese: 21 (14 resident geese, 7 stopovers)
  8. Black Oystercatchers: 10 (plus 2 eggs!)
  9. Harlequin Ducks: 8 (6 males, 2 females)
  10. Cormorants: 4
  11. Barn Swallows: 2
  12. Bald Eagle: 1 immature
  13. Savannah Sparrow: 1

Maintenance

  • Rust painting.
  • More thistle weed whacking.
  • You can cut them down like you’re the Queen of Hearts, but they grow back.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.

Boats

  • Four or so eco-tours came by today.

Pictures

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Clear skies. Moderate West in the am, Force 3. Strong West this evening, Force 6.
Barometer rose until 1600, then dropped. The daily West wind cycle continues, light in the am and picking up in the pm.

3 tour boats

The Race Rocks website says that there are typically 6 Oystercatcher nests on Great Race, I have only found two. Tomorrow I will see if I can find more. The Oystercatcher nest next to the jetty no longer has eggs in it. A bird was sitting on the nest yesterday when I showed the nest to my Mom. If I had to guess, I would say that the River otter ate the eggs because it lives under the walkway very close to the nest. I am curious to see if the pair tries another nesting site. I saw two Oystercatchers poking around the rocks on the West side of the jetty so maybe they will try again. There has been a lot of Eagles around lately. Juveniles and adults. My Mom saw one empty the eggs out of a Gull’s nest. Apparently Glaucous winged Gulls can learn to recognize particular people, to a point where they will allow familiar researchers right up to their nests. My new plan is to befriend the Gulls that are nesting next to the tank shed and maybe they will stop flying at my head whenever I walk past.

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Calm Saturday

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Light variable winds most of the day. Four brief periods of rain, clear skies in between. Very low West swell. Rainbows.

6 tour boats
2 dive boats

I spent some time today trying to learn to use the Nikon DSLR that lives out here at Race Rocks. The zoom on the big lens is awesome, but I still have a few technical issues to work out. My mission was to get a photo of a Pigeon Guillemot flying away from me with its red feet sticking out, but I wasn’t happy with any of my attempts. While wandering around looking for things to photograph I saw 10-15 Turnstones. They are spending most of their time in the middle of Great Race. There was 4 Western Sandpipers, 1 Sanderling, and 2 Dunlins all feeding in the muck-puddles on Great Race.The Elephant seal that has been next to the tank shed left this morning, but there are still two out on Middle Rocks. There are a few monster Steller Sea lions among the group out on South Rocks. There are now three Canada Goose nests, all with eggs in them.

Gale

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Strong Westerly gale all day. Intermittent rain and sun. Rainbows.

So far the new chimney for the wood stove is coping with the wind. It’s only been blowing up to 40-ish knots, but it’s still going strong.

There are a few Steller Sea lions still hanging out on the South rocks, although they spent the day in the water because of the foul weather.
This morning there were Pigeon Guillemots all over the end of the jetty.
The eagles are still around, feeding on the Sea lion carcass on the East beach.

Earlier today, while up in the lantern room, all of the Gulls lifted off the island because an Eagle flew over Great Race. So while it was blowing 30+kts, every bird on the island lifted up to the height of the tower and did their best to avoid the eagle. The eagle settled on the East beach and eventually the Gulls sat back on the ground. For those few minutes it was pretty amazing seeing all of the gulls and a great big Eagle doing their aerial acrobatics up at 100ft.

 

-working on drainage issues around buildings
-trying to quiet down all the squeaks and rattles that happen in the keeper’s house when it’s windy

End of May

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Hold the presses! I just got back from the top of the tower where I was washing the windows. My eyes were drawn to a huge lump on Middle Rocks. With the binoculars I could see what appears to be 3 bull elephant seals, a few cows and a juvenile. That makes at least 14 elephant seals in the reserve! I wonder if it is Misery?

It is hard to tell that June begins tomorrow, due to the fog and damp. But there are certainly signs of summer beginning to show up in spite of the weather. The first Glaucous-winged Gull eggs are being laid, the Oystercatchers are getting more secretive

 

But the really BIG news is that a new-to-me bull elephant seals arrived yesterday. He isn’t as big as Misery but he is bigger than Zeke. I would guess he is a few years away from becoming a Beachmaster. He caused quite a commotion rampaging around and roughing up a few females before he found a nice spot to sleep for the next few days. I have named him Chunk, for both his size and the large scars down his back, which appear to be caused by a boat propellor a few years ago. (Ed note: These were actually caused by a fight with Misery last year. ) The scars look fairly well healed but some pretty big chunks were carved out by the prop.

 

two Northern Sealions hauled out

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Wednesday, July 10, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 18.9 C  Min. 11.3 C Reset 13.5 C
MARINE LIFE: Two mature bald eagles made several attempts to hunt Gr. Race first thing this morning and as always the gulls drove them off towards Whirl Bay everything soon settled back to the routine of feeding and sheltering the chicks.It would appear that there is a healthy supply of fish as the gulls continue to return from sea with full gullets.With any luck at all we will see some chicks fledge this year although the otter is making it’s rounds usually between 2 and 3 a.m. Most of the nests along the shore have been decimated but there are many nests farther inshore that have at least two surviving chicks.The dead seal pup has finally floated away however the female has remained in the dock area and has been joined by three other females with their pups. The geese are still here but with the vegetation so dry I wonder when they will leave for ‘greener pastures’. This afternoon two Northern Sealions hauled out on the western slope of the largest southeastern rocks to soak up some sun but were gone by 19:00.
HUMAN INTERACTION: There were 5 pleasure craft and 6 Ecotour boats in the reserve today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:41 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear  Vis 15 MilesWind North East 3 Knots Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:19 AM

Several gulls nests have chicks since yesterday

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Wednesday, July 03, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max 14.0 C  Min 9.9 C  Reset 12.0 C  Rain tr
MARINE LIFE: Don’t mind the clouds and cool temperatures but really the constant westerly tends to wear on the nerves, the birds don’t seem to mind it – they just tuck their bills under a wing and nap. Several gulls nests have chicks since yesterday, watched, from the front porch, the first chick hatch from the group of nests closest to the house. It’s a fairly slow process, first a tiny, dark beak breaks through the egg and over a couple of hours the chick pushes it’s way out. The adult is on and off the nest checking the progress and when finally the chick is free of the egg the shell is taken about 3 m away and discarded.In an hour or so the chick is dry with yellowy-brown down-totally unlike the adult.The Oyster Catcher chicks on the other hand look very much like the adults except for bill colour and slightly lighter plumage. The Gulls are usually 2-3 years before they take on all the characteristics of the adults.The dark cloud lurking over this wonderful new life arrives between 1and 2 a.m. creating havoc, devouring some eggs and crushing others, some chicks are crushed and some eaten all the while the adult gulls are in the air screeching piteously diving at the intruder to no avail- the otter is on the hunt again! Haven’t seen the otter for several weeks, not even any signs of it like scat in the usual places- was really hoping it had moved on, maybe to Bentinck Island.Some resident Orcas were in the reserve this afternoon moving quite slowly along the south side of Gr. Race they did a lot of tail slapping,rolling and fishing in the kelp.There was the usual flotilla of whale watcher boats which for the most part abided by the guidelines – however after the Orcas had moved east away from the reserve at about 15:30, 2 ecotour boats went by too fast with respect to the no -wake policy and 3 others were too close to shore just west of the dock where there were feeding Pigeon Guillemots. 1 ecotour operator stopped in the kelp just off the northwest bluffs of Gr Race and pulled kelp into the boat for the passengers.Since this is a protected area such activities are not within the guidelines.
HUMAN INTERACTION: there were 5 pleasure craft through the reserve and 23 ecotour boats.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:07 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Part Cloudy  Vis 15 Miles  Wind West 25 Gust 30 knots  Sea 3 – 4 Foot Moderate
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:25 AM

West Coast Adventure for Women

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Tuesday, June 04, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 15.1 C  Min. 9.5 C  Reset 11.7
MARINE LIFE: Two Bald Eagle encounters today, one early this morning and one late this evening. The Gulls are very wary of any such danger to their nests and eggs. It appears we have a Gull nest on the roof of the science centre, the pair appear to be bringing material up to the old chimney, a most unorthodox place. The Crows have taken some more eggs, with a few cracked shells found about the place.
HUMAN IMPACT: Only one eco-tourist boat appeared today and no fishing vessels. The early morning fog that reduced visibility to less than a quarter of mile probably kept the tour boats away. Arriving at 9:30 in Second Nature, a small group of adults attending the week-long course going on at Pearson College (West Coast Adventure for Women) and their instructor Catrin Brown and Garry joined us for our morning webcast. The group stayed to the paths and respected the birds nesting areas.
Zodiac left and returned with supplies just after midday.
posted by at 9:12 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis. 5 Miles  Wind South West 5 Knots  Sea 1 Foot Chop
posted by at 5:42 AM

Swiftsure-a ‘driftsure’ this year!

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Saturday, May 25, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 15.2 C  Min. 8.5 C  Reset 11.9 C  Rain 2.2 mm
MARINE LIFE: 2 mature Bald Eagles today. The gulls were very busy this afternoon gathering nesting material,there are always some early nesters then a large group all at once, then there are the stragglers that seem to leave things to the last minute.There are some very fussy nest builders and then others that have nests that are quite sparse and somewhat messy.Last night there were at least 2 elephant seals just off shore snorting and bellowing so loud it woke me up about 2 a.m. expected to see them hauled out on the boat dock in the morning but they were back over by Middle rock floating about, quietly! Angus reported 2 or 3 Orca in Race Passage as he was coming across from the college just after 09:00.
HUMAN INTERACTION: Hyaku in from the College -Angus and group to do the live webcast for the Swiftsure-a ‘driftsure’ this year! A little rain this morning and no wind to speak of, a beautiful day on the water for all but the racers.Hyaku to Victoria and back with mechanic and parts-engine repaired and ‘purring’ nicely again.The Swiftsure boats started coming through the passage quite late but with a lot of spinnakers was a colourful sight.A couple of race boats came through between North Rocks and Gr. Race, one was very close going between West Race and Gr. Race and used great skill and energy to manoeuvre through the reefs and tide.In addition to the sailboats there were 47 Ecotour boats and 26 pleasure craft through the reserve.Took pamphlets out to 2 pleasure craft fishing off the east shore of Gr. Race. 1 Dive boat dove the West Race in the morning then returned for an afternoon dive north shore of Gr. Race.The weather forecast is not too encouraging as far as wind is concerned, light in the a.m. but some hope with possible westerly 10-15 knts. in the afternoon.Should be a colourful spinnaker run to the finish line, that is if there are any boats left in the race! Last I heard over 100 boats had pulled out of the race.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:37 PM

 

Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast  Vis 10 Miles Light Rain  Wind West 6 Knots Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:45 AM