Two Orca”s were spotted west of Race Rocks and into Race Pass. Whales were swimming into a strong tide in a resting mode. The whales did not make way until dark. Likely, the same whales as Sunday. They were to far away to get pictures for identification. Sea lions moved to the North East side of main island. Elephant seals are starting to molt and are very sleepy.
Tag Archives: Orca
Orca
3 Orca. Spotted from top of light house traveling East. 5 miles east of Race rocks.
Sea lion and Orca
Eagle Wing tours vessel 4 Ever Wild notified me of this sea lion in trouble photo by Val Shore. I have called DFO for help. Orca T49A2 49A3 in Race Pass going west. 
Census and Orcas.
Animal Census: Feb 17 2021
Gulls 68
Cormorants 738
Pigeon Guillemots 54
Eagles 12
Black Turnstones 28
Harlequin ducks 7
Steller sea lions 77
California sea lions 39
Pacific Harbour seal 62
elephant seal male 2
elephant seal female 2 pups
orca 4
Biggs orcas 7 East bound Southern Resident Lpod J, k pod west bound.
Weather– Current: http://www.
Weather–Past: http://www.
wind west 20 knots sky over cast and rain visibility 10 nm sea state 3 foot chop.
4 Elephant seal pups remain
Well I was wrong. I should have spent more time looking for the injured elephant seal pup my bad. We still have 4 elephant seal pups on the Island. The one female elephant seal did leave boat ramp. Some of the southern resident L pod where west bound passing by Saturday in the morning. Heard that J and K pod were coming my way. So I stay up on top of the light till dusk looking no luck spotting them.
Wind is from the west this morning steady 22knots and raining.
New Ecoguardian at Race Rocks Ecological reserve
Good day from Race Rocks I am new. My name is Rod just getting things going after crew change. Please be patient with me.
Ecological Notes: 12 eagles working around the island.
Animal Tracking and Injuries: and Elephant seal pups:
Elephant seals are keeping me entertained and up all night. Beach master is back. The other male tucked in around the east side back of the house last night. He has a nasty wound on his nose. One pup on the west side has bad wound on his hind. Two teeth marks and one gash. One other female has returned is sitting on boat ramp. Hoping she will call her pup to the ocean.
Disturbances: Yesterday Rocky Point was live lots of loud bangs. Seven Orca in Race pass stopped them from blasting till they safely passed. Thanks Anna for spotting them. The wind has been all over the compass west this morning.
Weather– Current: http://www.
Weekend front moving in:)
Weather–Past: http://www.
Other notes:
Orca’s at Race Rocks
We got some Killer Whales cruising by the lighthouse today. Some light tail slapping S of the lighthouse, overall a quick visit with no escape responses from the Sea Lions in the water. We counted 4 Orca, they looked more like Residents than Biggs’, but we haven’t ID’d which pod they are. 15 around Race Rocks before heading W out the Juan de Fuca.
A Diver and Dying Seagulls
Weather:
- Visibility 10-20 NM, great visibility especially in the few hours before sunset
- Sky partially overcast
- Wind 5-15 knots W
- Calm seas for the most part, other than strong ebbs and floods
Visitors: Some pleasure craft over the past days. There have been some supply deliveries as well as a few visitors for various reasons. Today we saw what looked to be a private vessel enter the reserve and put a diver in the water. The dive lasted less than ten minutes and when the diver was back in the boat, they left quickly.
Ecological Notes:
- The elephant seals are all here still – the two large and two small ones from earlier in the week. The two larger seals and one of the smaller ones have hauled themselves up high onto the island, and the other smaller seal looks to be more comfortable closer to the water. Look for them on the webcam!
- We’ve had a few more strange seagull deaths with the same symptoms: gradual weakening (reluctance to fly and a lethargic walk), separation from the rest of the seagulls, eventually progressing to being unable to fly, and finally silent coughing/choking movements followed by death.
- Two orcas spotted on Monday, behind north rock and heading east.
- There’s still a heavy sea lions presence, mainly on the jetty and the surrounding rocks, and around the base of the lighthouse.
- Mid week we had around 20 eagles in the area and were able to catch a few quick pictures of them in flight!
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- Look at all those eagles!
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- Sea lions hauled out around the jetty
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- A small harbour seal
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- Seagulls and cormorants
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- A small elephant sea resting with the sea lions below the lighthouse.
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- Caught with his tongue out!
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- The sun on the way down this evening.
Seagull Stones and Census
Weather Today:
- Visibility 10 NM
- Sky overcast
- Wind 10-15 knots SW
- Calm seas earlier in the day, rougher later on – swells 1-2m high
Visitors and traffic:
- Some old equipment is being moved to land, so there have been a couple of runs back and forth to the college.
- The usual 5 or so whale watching vessels daily, very few pleasure craft as the weather gets worse.
Ecological Notes:
- We have been seeing whales every day, both humpbacks and orcas!
- We thought the sea lions were beginning to move along for good but they came back – it has been interesting to observe how suddenly it can go from a couple hundred hauled out to perhaps only 50. They must leave in the night as we have yet to notice it as it happens.
- Unfortunately we have another sea lion hanging around that has plastic around its neck.
- While doing some work on the jetty today I (Kai) noticed an interesting pile of small stones piled up in a corner of the railing. We often see seagulls, especially the ones that look younger, playing with rocks of the same size. They are usually together in a group of 2-4 and they’ll take turns moving a rock around, holding it in their beak, and trying to take it away from each other. It seems plausible that the seagulls placed the rocks there, we haven’t seen other animals interacting with each other and objects this way.
Some photos from the last couple of days:
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- An interesting piece of cartilage/bone, which looks to be part of a jaw.
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- The stones mentioned above.
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- The sea lion in the centre of this picture unfortunately has a thick plastic band stuck around its neck.
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- An anchovy
Census:
65 Harbour Seals
457 California Sea Lions
737 Cormorants
4 Eagles
17 Geese
4 Oyster Catchers
13 Black Turnstone
3 Humpback Whales
221 Seagulls
184 Stellar Sea Lions
Beautiful Fall Sunset, Minke Whales!
Weather Today:
- Visibility 15+ NM
- Sky overcast, some sunshine in the afternoon
- Wind 0-5 knots NE
- Sea state calm, some interesting wave patterns due to currents in the mid day
Visitors:
- Greg visited with a contractor yesterday along with some island supplies
- Not too many visitors in the reserve this time of year. A steady trickle of eco-tourism boats on the less windy days, maybe 5-10.
- Yesterday we watched the HMCS Brandon leave from its home port, Esquimalt. An impressive vessel in capabilities and design, you can learn more about it Here if you are interested!
Ecological Notes:
- On Tuesday we were lucky to be present for a spectacular display of orcas in the strait, roughly 2 NM to the S of Great Race Rock. The pod seemed to be hunting something, perhaps a sea lion. It was an incredible sight to observe, with the whales flying out of the water and slapping the surface with their tales.
- We continue to see humpback whales daily, surrounding the rocks here and a bit further into the strait. Most of the time we first notice the cloud of water that forms when they surface, exhale, inhale, and dive.
- Today we were joined by a small group of whales, smaller than humpbacks and not orcas (small dorsal fins). We are thinking that these could have been minke whales since they seemed larger than porpoises.
- Yesterday evening we found an adult glaucous-winged gull sitting in the intertidal near our jetty. It wasn’t moving and seemed to be positioned in an uncharacteristic way, with wings splayed. We weren’t able to identify any physical injuries, although noted that it wasn’t able to make any normal seagull noises, and seemed to be attempting to regurgitate something. We were hopeful that we might be able to transport it to the nearby wild arc rescue center nearby, but unfortunately it was deceased by this morning. We are wondering if it could have swallowed a piece of human trash that may have become lodged, although we were not able to see anything when we examined it.
- The sea lions are noisier than ever but seem to have found their places among the rocky intertidal. It is amazing to watch them fish in the early mornings, often surfacing with large salmon with a flock of seagulls close behind! I (Mara) noticed two young tagged sea lions this week that seem to be staying close to each other throughout their time here. It’s hard to say if this happens more often since it’s tough to identify individual animals among the over 1000 currently here!
Additional Notes:
- There has been quite a bit of blasting on the DND land over the past week to two weeks. Most of the time it is not unreasonably disruptive, but when there is a particularly large blast all of the animals on the island rush in the opposite direction.
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- Soaking in some sunshine
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- An incredible number of california gulls this week
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- View of washington
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- A lucky gull feasting on a regurgitated fish from sea lions
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- A pair of ruddy turnstones dropping in
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- Young california sea lion
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- Stunning sunset last night
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- Olympic mountain range peeking through sunset clouds
