Tag Archives: owl

Biodiversity Aplenty + Sunday Census

Posted on by

Weather:

  • Sky overcast
  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Wind 20-25 knots W
  • Sea state: chop, whitecaps breaking at .5 m

Visitors/Marine Traffic:

  • On Thursday an electrician came to work and Greg brought us some supplies- Thanks Greg!
  • Also on Thursday, Daniel came to do a bird count and take recordings of bird calls. He was able to spot and identify many more species than we are able to, and it was fantastic to learn more about what is here! He also found owl pellets near where we heard an owl in April, and we are excited to see what information can be concluded from them.
  • On Friday Greg delivered water
  • Also on Friday, there were many RCMP boats just outside of the reserve.
  • There have been a few pleasure crafts, some fishing within the reserve boundaries.
  • One whale watching vessel today, which approached the animals and the jetty very closely

Ecological: 

  • Daniel also spotted two new observations: a fern growing out of a crack on the lighthouse, and some beautiful harvest brodiaea.
  • There is now only one elephant seal, the large male.
  • There is one goose still sitting on a nest underneath camera 5. She’s been there for a long time and we are wondering if the eggs will still hatch since it is so late in the season. There are no goslings currently, but still a constant 16 adult geese total.
  • In the past two weeks we have been observing many jellyfish in the water, including sea nettles, fried egg jellyfish, and the occasional water jelly still.
  • On Thursday morning we watched as two eagles chased one seagull into the water and continuously took turns diving at it. They dove at it until it was completely wet and unable to fly away. At this point, one of the eagles swooped down and carried the seagull away by its neck.

Census: 

  • 280 Seagulls
  • 12 Adult oystercatchers
  • 2 Oystercatcher chicks
  • 157 Harbor seals
  • 1 Adult male elephant seal
  • 16 Adult Canada geese
  • 11 California sealions
  • 3 Stellar sealions
  • 9 Pigeon Guillemots
  • 2 Adult bald eagles
  • 1 Barn swallow

Census

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 SE
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, some pressure washing

Ecological

  • Still quite a few humpbacks around counted about 6 today
  • haven’t seen the sea lion pups today but I’m sure they are around
  • There was a boreal owl that made an appearance last night but I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo of it and I haven’t seen it again but hopefully it makes another appearance

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 409
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 327
  • Harbour Seals – 156
  • Cormorants – 281
  • Eagles – 2
  • Turnstones – 18
  • Fox Sparrow – 12
  • Oystercatchers – 8
  • Gulls – 320
  • Boreal Owl – 1

A Visitor From Afar

Posted on by

Weather

  • Visibility: 10-15 miles today. At times quite hazy.
  • Wind: 15-25 knots West
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • Conducted a census today.
  • Found a tiny dead harbour seal on the rocks.
  • A flock of geese arrived in the late afternoon.
  1. Harbour Seals: 91
  2. Northern Sea Lions: 35
  3. Elephant Seals: 22 (17 on Great Race, 5 on Middle Rock)
  4. California Sea Lions: 20
  5. Seagulls: 275
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 130
  7. Canada Geese: 20! (although for much of the day only 10)
  8. Black Oystercatchers: 8
  9. Harlequin Ducks: 3 (2 females, 1 male)
  10. Cormorants: 2
  11. Bald Eagle: 1
  12. Rock Sandpiper: 1
  13. Unidentified large bird on Middle Rock; Owl?: 1

Maintenance

  • Removed lots of algae from the boat house.
  • (Re)discovered that the pressure washer does not work.

Boats

  • About 4 eco-tours came by today.
  • Chris dropped off and picked up my friend Greg O’.

Visitors

  • Greg O’, the tree scientist of Vernon, came by in the afternoon for a 3 hour visit!

Greg O come for a visit!

Other

  • A couple of big DND blasts in the afternoon.

Aegolius funereus: Boreal Owl–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

Posted on by
Boreal Owl: A.Fletcher photo

Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus):  for measurement –the pipe is 5 cm (2 inch)  diameter–photo by Alex Fletcher, Ecoguardian at Race Rocks, Dec 28, 2014.

 

December 28, 2014– Val George and myself were picked up at Pedder Bay By Alex Fletcher, (Ecoguardian at Race Rocks) and we went out to Race Rocks for the Sooke area Christmas Bird Count. It was a great day with many high counts , but we were especially surprized to flush a small owl out from under a rock up near the camera 5 pedestal.  At first Val thought it just could be a Boreal owl (Aegolius funereus)  which would be a first for this area. We found it again under the porch of the Ecoguardians house and were able to get some good pictures of it. Then we decided it must be a Saw whet owl as Boreals are just too rare here. When he returned home and started comparing his pictures with other images, Val realized it was indeed the rare ( for this area)  Boreal owl.

Report in Times Colonist : Newcomer thrills watchers at Sooke Christmas Bird Count

(These owls breed in dense coniferous forests across northern North America and Eurasia and in mountain ranges such as the Alps and the Rockies. The subspecies: A.f. richardsoni is the only one that occurs in North America). It lays 3–6 eggs in a tree hole in the forest. The small nocturnal owl eats mainly voles and other mammals but also birds as well as insects and other invertebrates.)--text in brackets adapted from Wikipedia–

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Aegolius
Species: A. funereus
Aegolius funereus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies: A.f. richardsoni (Bonaparte, 1838)
Other owls photographed at Race Rocks.

Link to the call of the Boreal Owl:

From the reference: Rare Birds of Vancouver Island: Compiled by Rick Toochin, Paul Levesque and Jamie Fenneman July1, 2013: The following notation indicates only three other records of the Boreal Owl on Vancouver Island, but there are no records for it on southern Vancouver island.

Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus):
1.(1) adult February 27, 1993: fide Don Cecile (specimen) Tofino (Siddle 1993b)
2.(1) adult October 3, 1994: Marc Winfield, Rick Toochin, Mike Toochin: Triangle Island (Toochin 1995) (Bowling 1995a)
3.(1) adult fall 1996: fide Jamie Fenneman (specimen) Courtenay (Bain and Holder 1996f)

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.
Garry Fletcher, Dec. 2014.

 

Bubo virginianus: Great Horned Owl–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

Posted on by

This great horned owl showed up at Race Rocks on November 12, 2011. There has only been one other reported sighting, on October 14 2006, by members of the Friends of Ecological Reserve field trip . While visiting the island, they saw that an owl had been sitting in a window ledge of the tower, and it flew out when people were going up inside the tower. It was later sighted on the cliff west of the docks, but it flew before they could get a picture.

Images by Alex Fletcher November 12, 2011

Alex reports that this time it was perched at the upper crane deck platform, and goes in under the crane deck as well. It was still there on November 13. The wind has gusted to 60 km. at Race Rocks on both days, and it has rained frequently during that time.

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Class Aves
Order Strigiformes
Family Strigidae
Genus Bubo
Species virginianus
Common Name: Great Horned Owl
Other owls photographed at Race Rock

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.  Alex Fletcher

 

Strix varia: Barred owl–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

Posted on by
raisanov210owl1

Barred Owl at Race Rocks , November 2010. Images by Raisa Mirza

Raisa Mirza (Ecoguardian) took these photos of the first Barred Owl to be photographed at Race Rocks on November 2, 2010. Raisa notes: ” When I woke up this morning, Virginie said that she had seen an owl and taken a picture which was pretty awesome. Lo and behold when I went outside half an hour later, I spotted this Barred Owl behind the boat house. He was covered in mist. This picture was taken later in the day when the sun had come out. My first owl sighting in the wild ever! I’m pretty excited to share the other shots of him. Couldn’t wait to put this one up. Another first sighting at Race Rocks! Its pretty awesome to know that my photography is contributing to building a cool record.”

The barred owl is a permanent resident of nearby Southern Vancouver Island, It is frequently heard at night in the farms and wooded areas of Metchosin.

raisanov210owl2

In this photo by Raisa, the barred owl has its head turned 180 degrees and it is looking to the left on this photo.  The wind pushes up the feathers on the back of the head giving it a very weird appearance!

 

 

 

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Sub-Phylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Strix
Species: varia
Common Name: Barred Owl, (Barton,1799)
Other owls photographed at Race Rock

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

Raisa Mirza, Nov. 2 2010.

 

Bubo scandiacus: Snowy owl–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

Posted on by

Pam was interviewed recently about her wildlife viewing on racerocks.com ref: Anderson, Charlie, “Live Wildlife for your Living Room “,The Province (newspaper) , Vancouver, B.C. ( Sunday, Nov.21, 2004)

A comment from David Allinson of the Rocky Point Bird Observatory:
Pam Birley captured the pictures of this rare sighting at Race Rocks remotely on robotic camera 5.
“This is the second sighting of snowy owls at Race Rocks.The last historical record was almost exactly 40years ago when 7 birds were present on December 3, 1966 at Race Rocks.
I suspect there have been other records since, but they can easily be overlooked out there. We have no records for Rocky Point proper, but Race Rocks is in the checklist area. The bird appears to be an immature due to heavy barring. It is hard to be certain of its age/sex.
….. Note also that the AOU in 2003 announced a taxonomic change to Snowy Owl –it is now ‘Bubo scandiacus’ (was ‘Nyctea scandiaca’) as it is more closely related genetically to other owls in the ‘Bubo’ genus (e.g. Great Horned). The specific name is an adjective and changes to agree with the gender of the generic name.”

Pam Birley captured the pictures of this rare sighting at Race Rocks remotely on robotic camera 5.
Other Owl sightings at Race Rocks

Below are some of the images taken by ecoguardians in other years:

Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl

 

Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks 
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 name –year (PC)