Tag Archives: rain

Rainy Day Blues

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The title of this post is a little misleading as I am in no way feeling blue, but maybe the animals are? Something I’ve noticed is that when the rain starts pouring down, all of the sea lions get up and start making their way down to the water. It doesn’t seem to make much sense, they seem to dislike the rain so they remedy that by fully submerging themselves? I do wonder if they can thermoregulate better in the ocean than they can in the rain, or maybe it’s just a good opportunity to go off an hunt. 

Either way, tomorrow’s census will be interesting as the main island is a ghost town right now! 

I managed to get my outside tasks completed this morning before the rain started back up to heavily which always feels like a win.

With a category 4 atmospheric river and rainfall warning in effect its safe to say I will be hunkered down inside this weekend, and I have no complaints! My list of books to read is never ending, the fire is crackling, and days like this are the perfect excuse to do some baking. 

Weather:

  • Sky: Dark clouds, heavy rain
  • Wind: Low of 0 knots, high of 13 knots, with gusts up to 24 knots
  • Sea: Mostly calm
  • Temperature: Low 10•C, High 15•C

 

Census, rain and whales

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Flat calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, most of it being whale watching tours
  • Guy came by with a couple more boat loads of students to give them a tour around the island

Maintenance

  •  Didn’t have to do any pressure washing today thanks to the rain although I did have to run the generator a bit to make up for not getting any solar energy today

Ecological

  • An elephant seal showed up yesterday and she is still around today, so thats exciting
  • also there have been a few humpback whale sightings and Guy said he saw some killer whales on the way over here but I missed them unfortunately
  • plenty of sea lions, seems like there is more everyday
  • not as many gulls as last week and I haven’t seen any cormorants on the outer rocks today

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 132
  • california sea lions – 314
  • harbour seals – 94
  • gulls – 261
  • elephant seals – 1 female
  • black turnstones – 12
  • fox sparrows – 2

Very windy day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-30 knts W
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Water: White caps, 1-2 meters
  • Some light showers during the afternoon

Boats/Visitors

  • Just a couple of ecotour boats today due to the strong wind.
  • Not much private boat traffic either

Birds

  • The seagulls have gotten noticeably more aggressive but still no signs of offspring

Marine Animals

  • There were four Elephant seals on the main island today – one male and three female. The male and one female seemed to occasionally get aggressive with each other, but no harm was done to either.
  • One of the females still seems to be undergoing the molting process.
  • Elephant Seal tagged B198 is still on the island and has been in the same spot over the last few days.

Overall, quite an uneventful day.

Rain

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles in the morning, cleared up a bit
  • Wind: 5-15 N throughout the day
  • Sky: Cloudy all day
  • Water: mostly calm a bit choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • Didn’t notice much boat traffic today

Ecological

  • The same female and 4 male elephant seals scattered around, seemed like less sea lions but that could be because it was a bit stormier today

Wind and Rain

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind:  20-30 SW
  • Sky: cloudy all day
  • Water: pretty rough

Boats/Visitors

  • Didn’t see many boats today

Ecological

  • the sea lions have finally moved away from my house today and more off of the main island

Notes

  • its so windy and rainy, the island is pressure washing itself, desperately needed

Rain!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind:  20-30 NW
  • Sky: cloudy and rainy
  • Water: choppy no more than a 1 metre tall waves

Boats/Visitors

  • some ecotours braved the wind and rain and came by

Ecological

  • saw and eagle today for the first time in a while

Notes

  • So happy it is finally raining, makes it easier to pressure wash and clean the solar panels

A Little More Rain

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  5-15 W
  • Sky: cloudy all day with little breaks of sunshine
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had quite a few ecotours cruise by today

Ecological

  • nothing new, approximately 300 sea lions on island, maybe more

Notes

  • Finally now that it has rained a bit more I can start pressure washing pathways and buildings, clean things up a bit

On this day: some Rain

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots West in the morning.
  • At 13:00, 10-15 knots North.
  • From 19:00 onwards, 0-5 knots North.
  • Sky: overcast and rain
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • The same eight elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • More California sea lions than usual (for this time of year) were on the jetty.

Boats

  • Several eco-tours came by.
  • One of them was a boat I did not recognize!

March 25

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Raining
Wind: NE 2-21, after 17:00 SW 3-14
Air Temperature: Low 8.3°C, High 11.3°C
Ocean Temperature: 8.9°C

Today was spent doing many inside tasks: computer work, tidying, laundry, organizing photos and watching the waves while sitting by the fire.

One eco tour boat was seen in the reserve today.

Five bald eagles perch on the South Islands.

Five bald eagles perch on the South Islands.

March 19 – Last Day of Winter- Census

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Raining
Wind: NE 4-14 knots
Air Temperature: Low 8.8°C, High 10.3°C
Ocean Temperature: 8.8°C

The wet conditions were helpful with cleaning some exterior walls and windows. The rain water cistern was filled up from the roof. The rain also helped wash away the algae and slime on the walls, along with some scrubbing.

The low light and rain made the census difficult. In recent days, there has been a much higher number of harbour seals hauled out on the rocks. The sea lions also spent most of the day in the water. It was not possible to distinguish between the species of cormorants on Turbine or Middle Rock.

There were no boats seen in the reserve today.

Census results:
Steller Sea Lion: 59
California Sea Lion: 62
Harbour Seal: 21
Bald Eagle: 7
Cormorant: 27
Canada Goose: 24
Gull: 352
Black Oystercatcher: 4
Harlequin Duck: 9
Pigeon Guillemot: 13
Surfbird: 4
Black Turnstone: 16
Rock Sandpiper: 6
Savannah Sparrow: 1