Tag Archives: pigeon guillemot

Census and haze

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knts W
  • Sky: Hazy
  • Water: Ripply

Mammal Notes

  • More sea lions continue to arrive on the island – spotted a few branded ones, but could only make out one number (steller with brand 348R).

Bird Notes

  • The first of the juvenile seagulls have started to fly short distances (5-6 feet at a time). Most are still grounded though.

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 1
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 32
    • Steller = 38
  • Seagulls = 305 adults + 128 juvenile
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 67
  • Eagles = 0
  • Oystercatchers = 4 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 16 adults, 2 (maybe more) babies
  • Geese = 9
  • Black turnstone = 85

Census, more stellers and fog continues

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply
  • Heavy fog in the morning and evening

Mammal Notes

  • More and more stellers have started arriving on the surrounding rocks. I saw stellers on the southeastern rocks for the first time today.
  • No sign of the malnourished/injured california sea lion for the last 2 days, which leads me to believe that he may have finally passed away
  • Spotted both the seal pups today, and looks like they’re getting pretty big. They’re about half the size of the adults now.

Bird Notes

  • Geese continue to remain on the island after their return from their long absence. Counted 6 today.

Census

Species counts may not be fully accurate – the fog hindered visibility significantly.

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 2
    • Female = 1
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 6
    • Steller = 41
  • Seagulls = 382 adults + 150 juvenile
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 88
  • Eagles = 2
  • Oystercatchers = 6 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 18 adults, 2 (maybe more) babies
  • Geese = 6
  • Black turnstone = 81

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knts W
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: small white caps

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • A few ecotour boats in the area

Marine Mammals

  • All the Elephant seals seemed to be huddled up on the north side of the student residence, possibly to stay out of the wind

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 4
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 1
    • Steller = 0
  • Seagulls = 200
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 90
  • Eagles = 5
  • Oystercatchers = 9
  • Harbour Seals = 65
  • Geese = 2

Fighting Males and Surviving Pups

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 N/NE, picked up to 20-30 knots overnight
  • Sky: cloudy with light snowfall and fog
  • Water: large rolling swells throughout the day

Boats/Visitors

  • Didn’t notice any ecotour boats or divers around today
  • No visitors

Ecological

  • Woke up at 4:30 am to the sound of the elephant seal pups being attacked by a big male elephant seal. Pretty sure it was Bernard, their father, but hard to tell. Was surprised to find both pups seemingly unharmed and sleeping peacefully in the morning when I got up.
  • One of the younger, smaller males took the opportunity to try to mate with one pup while two of the bigger males were fighting, but luckily she got away from him after a few minutes of panic. Very difficult to watch I must say. These males are all fired up from the mating season and most don’t get a chance to mate, especially if they are smaller in size.
  • Saw about 10-20 Pigeon Guillemots chasing each other and diving into the water.

Guillemots are back

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I just received this email from Pam Birley ” The Pigeon Guillemots are back !   They are even earlier this year.   It is usually February when I first see them.”     Thanks Pam for the observation from Leiscester England! Laas has also been out getting pictures of them.

 

It is also interesting to note that the elephant seal pup is doing very well this year. As Ecoguardian Laas Parnell has noted the one large male tends to keep the others on the island at bay. Hopefully this year the pup can survive once the mother leaves and it becomes a weaner. In most of the past years since pups first started being born on the island, aggressive males have led to a tragic end. I have requested BC Parks and DFO to produce a policy on what support can be offered in the event a pup is injured in the crucial period before it goes to the ocean after its month long weaning period. So far this has not been acted upon, so again this year it will be left up to chance, and hopefully the so-far protective bull will remain that way. The following pictures are from Camera1 at the top of the tower on Race Rocks.

Census Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  20-15 NW
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours today

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 33
  • California Sea Lions: 23
  • Elephant Seals: 11
  • Harbour Seals: 161
  • Unspecified Gulls: 212
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 53
  • Cormorants: 12
  • Canada Geese: 19
  • Oystercatchers: 8
  • Harlequinn Ducks: 0
  • Crows: 1

Notes

  • The harbour seal numbers have significantly increased but all of the other numbers seem to have gone down
  • The little elephant seal is back, I haven’t seen her for a few days

Census Day, Thursday, May 25th

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-5 NW
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Many different boats around today

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Other

  • DND blasting continues

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 42
  • California Sea Lions: 44
  • Elephant Seals: 14
  • Harbour Seals: 36
  • Unspecified Gulls: 321
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 120
  • Cormorants: 23
  • Canada Geese: 16
  • Oystercatchers: 8
  • Harlequinn Ducks: 5 males (that I could see)

Notes

  • I have not seen any eagles today but I saw them yesterday and they have been hanging around so I am guessing they are around here somewhere
  • There is another Elephant seal
  • An increase in sea lions as well as gulls

 

 

Census day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles, a bit foggy this morning but burned off by noon to partly cloudy
  • Wind: 10-15 NW got continuously more calm through the day
  • Sky: partly cloudy throughout the day
  • Water: stayed consistently calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A lot of ecotours came through today
  • Had a couple visitors, come by with Kyle this morning and then had Kyle and Guy come back this afternoon to help me out with a couple things

Ecological

  • Census day!
    1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 35
    2. Harbour Seals: 44
    3. California Sea Lions: 23
    4. Elephant Seals: 13
    5. Seagulls unspecified: 291
    6. Pigeon Guillemots: 152
    7. Cormorants unspecified: 29
    8. Canada Geese: 14
    9. Savannah Sparrows: 0
    10. Harlequin Ducks: 8 (2 female, 6 male)
    11. Black Oystercatchers: 8
    12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)
  • There are 2 more elephant seals than usual! so thats exciting, they stayed scattered today on the path from the lighthouse to the jetty
  • As you can see there have been a decrease in sea lions, they are no longer on the southern rocks and have moved to the main island one group on the north side and another group on the southside
  • There have been an increase in gulls, pigeon guillemots and cormorants, also the harlequins are back, I did not see them last week
  • There has also been an increase in harbour seals, when I counted them they were mostly all on the Middle Rocks but have since scattered about the South Islands as well

Cenusus Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: Morning 0-5 NW picked up in the afternoon, varied between 10-20 knots NW
  • Sky: Overcast, bit of rain throughout the day
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 45
  2. Harbour Seals: 30
  3. California Sea Lions: 37
  4. Elephant Seals: 11
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 278
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 125
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 16
  8. Canada Geese: 19
  9. Savannah Sparrows: 12
  10. Harlequin Ducks: 0
  11. Black Oystercatchers: 8
  12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)

Boats

  • had a few eco tours come through morning and late afternoon

Maintenance

  • Scrubbed some of the solar panels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Windy Friday

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-40 knots West all day.
  • Sky: mostly overcast, sunny in the late afternoon.
  • Water: 1′, later 2′ chop

Ecological

  • The same eleven elephant seals on Great Race.

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator.
  • Was going to clean some algae, but it was too windy to be up a ladder.

Boats

  • Two brave eco-tours came by.