Tag Archives: pigeon guillemots

Quick updates

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Ecological Notes:

  • 2 juvenile female Elephant Seals, hauled out in the main grass area, but visiting the water once or twice a day.
  • Noted a California Sea Lion with damage to one of his pectoral fins …. bone and tendons appear to be ok. Looks like a patch of about 6X12 inches of skin removed.
  • The Northern Fur Seal was reported to me as being on his second favorite rock out here, near the NW end of the reserve
  • Sea Otter (reported as being Ollie) in the kelp to the west
  • Lots of Pigeon Guillemots spreading around the main area, pairing off with courting behaviour

Visitors:

  • 1 – Richard from the shore front team delivered Diesel and groceries

Facility Work:

  • Replace another faulty light switch in the main house
  • Transferred fuel to drums and moved most to the generator building, and added some to the furnace tank in the main house. I find it safer and easier to transfer in drums when by myself.
  • Split and transferred more firewood
  • Oil filter, oil, and fuel filter changed on Generator.
  • Batteries electrolyte levels topped up
  • Noticed drop in daily battery percentage over the last 2 weeks, found specific gravity readings were very low, trying an equalization charge
  • Main house window cleaning
  • Collected up fencing blocks left spread around after the last modifications to the fencing system

DND events:

  • More radio simulations of boater conflict ….. again, no mention before or during, causing some discussion among other boaters

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • A solo kayaker, travel through and around the reserve on Tuesday.
  • More Eco-Tourism vessels
  • Several people fishing just outside the reserve, pulling lines and visiting the main area without fishing

Weather Events:

Mostly typical spring weather, changing direction, but lots of clear sky days with slight haze. Only a couple days of higher winds

  • Monday, April 21:
    • Sky: Slight haze, but mostly sunny all day
    • Wind:mostly W mixed 5-20kts
    • Sea: rippled to slight chop
    • Temperature Low 8oC, High 12oC
  • Tuesday, April 22:
    • Sky: Very slight haze, but mostly sunny all day
    • Wind:ESE 2-12kts changing to W 15 kts by evening
    • Sea:  flat calm
    • Temperature Low 9oC, High 13oC
  • Wednesday, April 23:
    • Sky: Very slight haze, but mostly sunny all day
    • Wind: low ESE winds, shifting to SE 10kts mid day
    • Sea: calm all day
    • Temperature Low 7oC, High 13oC

 

 

** Any wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

More signs of spring and a surprise visit!

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Ecological Notes:

  • 3 female Elephant Seals, 1 adult and 2 juveniles, still coming and going, no full haul out
  • A surprise visit from a Northern Fur Seal!

  • In addition to the more regular Black Turnstones, noted some Ruddy Turnstones today

  • The Pigeon Guillemots are showing up in larger numbers, with many frequenting the rock pile where they like to nest
  • Not that long ago, we would say ” this is an all male haul out area” ….. sources tell me this is in fact, Male, females, and yearling pups(haven’t seen nursing yet today, although I’ve photographed a few here doing that too)

  • The Black Oyster Catchers are mostly paired up as well

  • It appears that 2 of the 3 pairs of Canada Geese have given up on egg laying for the season (the gulls have been raiding the nests), but the one pair by the crane shed still has 2 eggs they are taking care of.

Facility Work:

  • swapped out an electrical switch to restore light to the room I prefer to sleep in

  • Checked and topped up the battery electrolyte levels
  • Moved and stacked some of the split firewood
  • Done before I got here, but a straight forward “why didn’t I think of that” solution to the storm rattled doors on the water tank shed

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Some Eco-Tourism vessels visiting the reserve.
  • 1 private vessel noted

 Noted Infractions:

  • Private vessel approached the haul out area by the crane a bit too close and straight on, startling all the animals off into the water, including the rare (to this area) Northern Fur Seal

Weather Events:

  • Sunday April 06:
    • Sky:Overcast, low clouds on the Olympic Peninsula, rain showers started in the morning, more squalls as the wind rose later in the day
    • Wind: N 5-10 kts, shifting and rising to W 25 kts by early evening
    • Sea: rippled to 2′ chop
    • Temperature Low 8oC, High 13oC
  • Monday April 07:
    • Sky: Overcast with sunny breaks, low cloud over the Olympic Peninsula, light rain in the afternoon
    • Wind:mostly N 5-10 kts, switching to west and rising to 25 kts in the afternoon before dropping back down during the evening
    • Sea:  light chop
    • Temperature Low 9oC, High 10oC
  • Tuesday April 08:
    • Sky: Overcast with sunny breaks, heavy cloud to the south, occasional showers
    • Wind: N 5-15kts, rising to 25kts, gusting to 25kts, from the West late afternoon
    • Sea:  2 ft swells from the north during the day, switching to 2-3 ft chop late afternoon
    • Temperature Low 9oC, High 11oC

Pigeon Guillemot

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 SE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Calm for the most part

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy and Alex came by today along with a couple visitors to collect the body of the deceased pup

Maintenance

  • I have barely scratched the surface with pressure washing, so much still needs to be done

Ecological

  • The third did not make it, it just never figured out how to nurse
  • the other two pups are doing great and are getting quite large
  • the pigeon guillemots are back, some of them even still have a bit of their winter plumage
  • still plenty of eagles around
  • will update census tomorrow and hopefully, the pigeons will still be around, sometimes they are here one day and gone the next and back the day after that, I would like to get some better close up photos of them

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts W
  • Sky: Partly cloudy/clear
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Quite a few ecotour boats in the area today – a lot of them stopped near the northern rocks to watch the bald eagle sitting there

Bird Notes

  • The seagulls have become extremely aggressive every since their eggs have started to hatch. I’ve been attacked countless times over the last few days just walking on the paths – thankfully I’ve always had my hard hat and thick jacket on so no injuries!

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 3
    • Female = 0
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 2
    • Steller = 0
  • Seagulls = 380 adults, ~50 babies (hard to estimate)
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 70
  • Eagles = 2
  • Oystercatchers = 12 adults, 4 babies
  • Harbour Seals = 50
  • Geese = 3

Wood stocking for Winter

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Weather

If Monday and Tuesday were a little bit windy around 20 knots Wednesday has been a calm and almost no wind day at all. the air temperature was pretty chilly for June (10 Celsius) the barometric pressure :101.3 and 101.5 K Pa. Good visibility and calm sea. Sky:overcast most of the day

Ecological

We can notice an increase of the Pigeons guillemots population . They are also very active. Between 6 and 9 elephant seals on the rocks and Chunk the famous one, came back bloody with an injure on one of his Finn and bites all over his body.

Maintenance

I did an extensive cutting and stoking wood work for next Winter . The basement is full now. The solar pannels are a lot more efficient

Vessels activity

So many whale watchers those days around the dock.Summer is definitively there !