Tag Archives: pigeon guillemot

Male elephant seals sparring

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Overcast in the morning. Clear all afternoon and evening. Winds got up to 30 knots last night but hovered around 15 for most of the day today. There are strong wind warnings in effect for tonight. The barometric pressure has been falling since noon.

There have been an increasing number of boats this weekend. For today:

-5 recreational fishing boats passed through the reserve

-8 whale watching boats, including a 29m fibreglass catamaran from Spirit Orca Adventures

-1 sailboat

There were also two more float planes that passed overhead today early afternoon.

The pigeon guillemots are mating. I saw the first hatched gull today that looked like it was a couple days old. The gulls are still occasionally mating, though. A series of sparring matches occurred between the male elephant seals today. There are three larger ones right now and the largest two fight (especially when entering and exiting the water on the jetty). The second largest was also attacking the third largest in rank near the boat shed today.

Animal Census

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Clear skies. Light South early this morning and strong to Gale Westerlies the rest of the day. The barometer has been falling steadily all day. The forecast for light in the am, strong West in the pm continues. 6 tour boats 3 halibut boats Animal Census Elephant Seal: 7 Harbour Seal: 267 Eagle: 3 Gull: 332 Pigeon Guillemot: 30 Oyster Catcher: 7 It is now the season of the Gull and Harbour seal, with a few hundred of each using the reserve. There are two large male elephant seals on Great Race, and only one Elephant seal out on Middle Rock. There are no Sea lions left in the reserve, they have all gone to their breeding grounds. If the Oystercatchers are nesting, I can’t find their nests, although I am pretty limited with where I can go because there are so many Gull nests on the island. I saw the Caspian Terns again today, this time they flew really low over the East side of the island making their tell-tale squawking noise. The island is drying out and all the grass is turning brown. Despite the lack of rain, the cistern is still full. It will be interesting to see if we can make it through the summer without having to top it up with seawater from the fire pump.

Animal Census

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String Westerlies. Clear skies. Force 6-7. The barometer has been fairly steady all day. The forecast is for the strong westerlies to continue. Big tides this week, down to 0.3m and up to 2.3m. The current running around +/- 5 knots each day. 6 tour boats 2 halibut boats Animal Census Elephant seal: 20 Harbour Seal: 152 Steller Sea lion: 14 California Sea lion: 12 Eagle: 3 Canada Goose: 36 + 7 goslings Oyster Catcher: 8 Pigeon Guillemot: 161 Gull: 303 Continue reading →

FOER Trip

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Light to Moderate Easterly winds. Periods of heavy rain. Force 2-3.
Barometer is on the rise. The forecast is for West wind tomorrow.

Tour boas: 5
Other boats: 3 recreational fisherman transited the reserve

I saw two Canada goose goslings today, the first hatchlings of the season. I still don’t know what nest they came from, but I think it must be from a super sneaky nest that I hadn’t been able to find. Another group of Canada geese arrived along with a single White Fronted goose. The Elephant seals are still camped out in front of the Keeper’s House. Several seals spent much of the day in the shallows next to the jetty. Maybe it was because of the rainy weather, but by the end of the day all the seals were all piled up together. I think they separate from each other when it gets hot. The Eagles are out in force and actively pursuing Gulls. We watched an Eagle chase a Gull (with black under wings?) for a couple minutes, the Gull got away. That same Eagle took a dive for the Canada goose goslings. There were lots of Guillemots in the reserve today, but no sign of the Cormorants.

Chris dropped off Garry Fletcher along with the ‘Friends of Ecological Reserves’ trip for several hours today.

Sea Scouts

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Moderate West wind, easing in the afternoon. Low West swell. Patchy clouds.

A group of sea scouts came out for a tour today. They left out of Victoria Harbour on a schooner called Passing Cloud (Operated by Outer Shores Expeditions). They spent a couple hours on the island. Learning about the animals, the history of Race Rocks, and taking a look at the world from the top of the lighthouse.

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.

Pigeon Guillemots

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Overcast/cloudy. Light North to North-East wind. Low SE swell in the afternoon.
5 tour boats

This morning there was a Great Blue Heron on the bluffs on the NE side of Great Race, 5 eagles on the outer islands, and Guillemots!
I don’t know if all these birds have been in the reserve for a while, but with the high tide this morning there were probably 100 Pigeon Guillemots whistling their little high-pitched whistle all along the shore of Great Race. Pigeon Guillemots (Cepphus columba) are members of the auk family. They are small diving birds. Their most obvious attribute is their radioactive-red feet that stick out behind them when they fly. Interestingly, these feet only have 3 toes (most birds have 4). They also have large white wing patches with a black bar. They spend spring and summer onshore to breed. A pair mates for life. They build their nests on bluffs and lay 3 to 4 eggs.  The rest of the year they live in offshore waters. They are fairly inefficient flyers, and goofy walkers (kind of like a penguin) but they are amazing swimmers. They use their wings to propel themselves underwater. They typically forage for small fish and invertebrates at 10 to 30 m, but they have been documented at 45 m. A group of Guillemots is apparently called a “bazaar”.

 

-measured windows
-figured out jetty ladder hardware
-discouraged geese from nesting

Spring Equinox

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Clear skies. Variable North-East to South-East winds.
Waning gibbous moon, only one low day-time tide (~1m), and 4 to 5 kt currents.

I’m a day late, but Spring has officially arrived as determined by the sun crossing over the celestial equator.
There was a lot of Harbour seals out on Middle and Turbine rocks today. The Elephant seals are on the West Rocks. The Sea lions are still out on South Rocks. There was a large group of Harlequin ducks (14) in the water off the East beach. Cormorants were arriving in the reserve all day so assume my count dramatically under-estimates their numbers. The Canada geese with the nest next to the Keeper’s house have two eggs now. None of the other pairs of Geese seem to have settled enough to have eggs. The gulls are starting to pair up and settle into nesting spots. Amazingly, there were 7 Bald Eagles in the Reserve this morning. Most of them were sitting in pairs on the tops of various rocks. They were a fairly even mix of juveniles and adults. I saw a few sandpiper-like birds, but they were too fast for me to photograph or properly identify. Judging by the smell coming from the tank shed walkway, there is still a River otter living out here. And I saw some Scoters in the mouth of Pedder Bay on my way into the college this morning.

2 Tour boats

First Day of Spring Animal Census

Steller Sea lion: 31
California Sea lion: 6
Elephant seal: 3
Harbour seal: 144
Cormorant: 54
Gull: 133
Canada Goose: 15
Harlequin duck: 17
Black turnstone: 5
Unidentified sandpiper: 3
Oyster catcher: 6
Bald eagle: 7
Savannah sparrow:4
Pigeon Guillemots: 25
River otter: 1

Off station today from 0830 to 1030 to get keys and dive gear.
-fixed sagging corner on crane deck/walkway
-checked/cleaned Science House propane cleanout

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

Sensitive Oystercatchers

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June is half over and I have about 10 days before Julie comes out to take over for the summer. I am trying to get some painting done in the dry and relatively windless spells, but one of the issues I am facing is trying not to disturb the oystercatchers nesting near the top of the ramp by the majority of railings. They immediately leave the nest when I get anywhere near, and won’t return til I am well clear. I worry about the eggs cooling too much, so I scrape the rails for 10 minutes then depart for an hour… Fortunately I have lots of time on my hands! Meanwhile only a couple juvenile e-seals remain and just as well because Misery’s curiosity is quite terrifying to them. Here one scrambles up the rocks to escape.

Best keep a safe distance...

Best keep a safe distance…

Sunset on Olympics

Sunset on Olympics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pigeon Guillemots are nesting in the larger cracks in the rocks; another reason to keep a low profile and limit my wandering around the island. They are adorable little birds!

Pigeon Guillemot

Pigeon Guillemot

Pigeon Guillemots and Oystercatcher

Pigeon Guillemots and Oystercatcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pigeon Guillemots

Pigeon Guillemots on the Jetty

 

 

 

 

 

 

Branded California Sea Lion 1032

Branded California Sea Lion 1032

 

 

 

 

 

 

Branded California Sea Lion 1032 en flagrante

Branded California Sea Lion 1032 en flagrante

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset Flock of Glaucous-winged Gulls

Sunset Flock of Glaucous-winged Gulls