Tag Archives: savannah sparrow

Farewell! (For Now)

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Well, just like that it’s been 6 weeks and it’s time for me to return to the mainland. The wind is gusting 65km/hour right now, giving me one final storm before my departure. The animals are all hidden away, protecting themselves from the weather. All except the male elephant seal who is still harassing the gulls.

I thought I’d wrap up my final blog post with my favourite photos and moments from this trip. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Pinnipeds:

Cetaceans:

Ollie the Sea Otter: 

Birds:

Northern Lights:

Sunsets:

That’s all from me for now, but I’ll be back! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Animal Census and Blog

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The great weather had to come to an end eventually! Despite being a dark and cloudy day we lucked out with no rain and no wind.

I had 9 extra helpers for the animal census today, the Pearson students are extra observant so this may be the most accurate count yet!

No sea otters were seen today but the two new ones have been around the past few days. Still no additional elephant seals on the main island, just our solo male! A couple of females have been hauled out on the various surrounding rocks but none of come ashore here.

March 20th Animal Census:

Birds:

Oyster catcher: 15
Harlequin duck: 12
Gulls: 261
Cormorant: 62
Pigeon guillemot: 149
Juvenile eagle: 3
Adult eagle: 4
Canadian geese: 9
Shore birds: 10
Turnstones: 28
Savannah sparrow: 1

Marine Mammals:

Steller sea lions: 17
Harbour seal: 64
Male Elephant seal: 1
Female elephant seal : 2 (north rocks)
California sea lion: 20

Injuries:
Harbour seal with facial injury


DND Activity:

  • 2 blasts at 12:55 and 13:00. They did startle the harbour seals and the second blast sent a California sea lion fleeing into the water.
  • 3rd blast at 14:15 no obvious disturbance noted. 
  • 4th blast at 15:05 no obvious disturbance noted.
  • 5th blast at 15:08 no obvious disturbance noted.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • One ecotourism vessel
  • One Coast Guard vessel
  • Three RCMP vessels

 

 

Weather Events:

  • Wednesday, March 20:
    • Sky: Cloudy all day
    • Wind: High of WNW 13 knots, Low of  SW 4 knots
    • Sea: Calm
    • Temperature: Low 8oC, High  10oC

** All 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?

Growing sea lion numbers…

Animal Census

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Birds

  • Harlequin duck                                  4
  • Bald eagle adult                                2
  • Bald eagle juvenile                           1
  • Turnstones                                        6
  • Killdeer                                               2
  • Glaucous winged Gulls                  597     
  • Cormorants                                        74
  • Pigeon Guillemots                             195
  • Oyster catcher                                    11
  • Canadian goose                                 11
  • Surf Birds                                             3
  • Savannah Sparrow                             1
  • Fox Sparrow                                         11
  • Canada Goose                                     11

 

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                             6        – Seem to have disappeared today
  • Harbour seal                                 68
  • California sea lion                        47
  • Elephant seal sub adult male      2
  • Elephant seal adult female          3
  • Elephant seal pups(2F 1M)          3

Visitors:

  • 14 Pearson College student  and Laura visit the western tide pools

Facility Work:

  • Fire wood chopping 
  • Cleaning and organizing house and tools 

** All 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?

A Wonderful Windy Weather Day

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sunrise and fog

Weather: The morning sunrise was behind fog. It cleared up after an hour. Winds started as westerly. Beautiful sunny day charging the batteries to almost 100%. By 1800 hrs however a north wind started howling (24 knots)It has converted to a westerly as I write this, now at 29 knots. Very dramatic skies!

Visitors: several ecotourism boats, all slowed down and came close to the jetty to see the elephant seals.

Observations:  Besides the pictures below. There are currently 6 female elephant seals. The pup was not on the island all day. Brown-headed cowbird here all day.

Why do the geese eat this?

You won’t tell anyone?

white Brodiaea in bloom

camouflage for the young

ring billed gull? or is eye too dark?

never a dull moment

brown headed cowbird

Is this electric fence going to stay?

Is this electric fence staying?

savannah sparrow

the north wind bringing weather

the north wind bringing weather

Break in Foggy Weather: Census + Pelican!

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Weather: 

  • Sky partly cloudy, some sun and blue sky
  • Visibility 10-12 NM
  • Wind 20-15 knots W
  • Sea state: fast moving currents, still fairly flat despite wind

The fog horn continued for 20+ hrs each day until today. For most of this week we have had less than 100m visibility, making it impossible to see even a boat passing through race passage or the end of the jetty. At some points, we could barely see the guest house from the main residence! It can be difficult to focus and/or work productively during these long periods of fog, as the fog horn sounds three long high-pitched “beeps” every 45 seconds. More info on the history of Race Rocks foghorns Here!

Visitors: 

  • There have not been any visitors to race rocks since Monday when Greg and a contractor stopped in briefly.
  • There have been 1-2 tour boats in the reserve daily, but we can often hear them before we see them in the fog. The sea lions are easily startled by them because of the limited visibility, and sometimes when the boats emerge from the fog the sea lions run into the water.

Ecological Observations: 

  • The sea lions have officially taken over the island! We have been dutifully repairing the electric fences daily to keep them from damaging the buildings and especially from disrupting the burial cairns.
  • There have been an incredible amount of interesting birds to observe this week, despite the weather. Today we saw a pelican while enjoying the sunshine right from our back porch! This is a new sighting for us at Race Rocks and we were quite ecstatic.
  • On the note of bird sightings, we are hopeful for the installation of a new bird tracking device on Race Rocks sometime soon which will allow us to view migratory birds passing through the reserve as it detects their tracking bands.
  • One of our favorite elephant seals, E103 or “Erica” has returned again. We were happy to see her looking healthy yesterday- she had been hiding behind the piles of sea lions, and we only saw her once we had shooed them to install more electric fencing.
  • Identifying gulls is incredibly difficult. Some of them look the same aside from a slight wing color difference or color of feet determining them as a separate species! We are wondering if the gulls we have been assuming to be non-breeding california gulls are actually thayer’s gulls. Back to the id books!

Census:

  • 96 Stellar sea lions
  • 383 California sea lions
  • 88 Harbour seals
  • 1 Elephant seal
  • 1 Sea otter
  • 52 Brandt’s cormorants
  • 1 Brown Pelican
  • 1 Oregon junco
  • 2 Fox sparrows
  • 15 Savannah sparrows
  • 1 Yellow-rumped warbler
  • 1 Short billed dowitcher
  • 14 Black turnstones
  • 8 Canada geese
  • 320 Glaucous winged gulls
  • 113 California gulls
  • 20 Heerman’s gulls

Students, Whales, Census, Seal!

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Weather:

  • Sky clear and blue. Much less smoke than yesterday (currently 13 wildfires burning in washington state).
  • Visibility 10 NM (visibility reduced due to smoke)
  • Wind 5-10 knots SE
  • Sea state: calm

Visitors:

  • As the students return to the Pearson College campus we are being joined by small groups of first year students to introduce them to race rocks. We have been enjoying showing them around and sharing about the ecology- they ask great questions!
  • Greg has been accompanying these trips as well as MJ
  • Few boats in the reserve now that the long weekend is over. Quite a few whale watching boats following the humpback whales that we have been seeing in the strait.

Ecological Observations: 

  • The sea lion numbers are climbing daily still. There are many more california sea lions than stellars right now.
  • We have been seeing the occasional small group of black turnstones (less than ten) but the large migrating groups have moved on.
  • Yesterday we spotted a short billed dowitcher!
  • Today we were joined by one young elephant seal on the jetty ramp. Unfortunately the sea lions are not the most friendly company and it seems that they have scared it away.
  • We have been seeing groups of cormorants in the reserve, mainly on the south islands and seal rocks.
  • We have been spotting at least 1 humpback per day in the juan de fuca strait

Census: 

  • 1 Elephant seal
  • 1 Sea otter
  • 155 Harbour seals
  • 213 California sea lions
  • 71 Stellar sea lions
  • 395 Gulls (California)
  • 1 Savannah Sparrow
  • 1 humpback whale (!)
  • 4 Canada geese
  • 6 Black turnstones
  • 6 Song sparrows

Unsafe Snorkeling, Fall Changes, Census

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Weather: 

  • Visibility 15+ NE
  • Sky overcast, cloudy
  • Wind 15-25 kn N
  • Water moderate waves, white caps.

Visitors/Boats: 

  • Around 15 whale watching boats yesterday
  • Corey, Guy, and a student with their visiting grandparents visited yesterday, and delivered water- the desalinator is on the horizon!
  • We are ending our term on Race Rocks tomorrow, so Greg and Guy will come for a debrief before the next eco-guardian takes over.

Yesterday we saw a pleasure craft enter the reserve and drop snorkelers into the water less than 100 m from our jetty, within 5 m of shore and the hauled out sea lions. The animals were distressed and swam around the snorkelers barking. The current was flooding very quickly (5 knots), which creates dangerous water currents, eddies, and upwellings. We as well as Corey in Second Nature motioned for the boat to move away, but they simply gathered the snorkelers and moved around the corner where they presumably thought we would not see them. An eco-tourism vessel in the reserve also noticed them and contacted us to let us know, out of concern for their safety given the animals present and the currents at the time.

In the past scuba divers and vessels have found themselves capsized or pulled away from their dive site and rescued by helicopter, and in 2015 a diver went missing and was found deceased days after they disappeared by a fisherman after rescue crews were not able to find them. We were especially concerned for this group’s safety due to lack of float marking their position and the frequent boating traffic through the reserve. In the past, seal pups have been decapitated by vessels passing through too quickly and unable to see them. If these snorkelers had been pulled away by the currents, there would have been a high chance of being struck by a vessel unable to see them in the rough water.

Ecological: 

  • The sea lions population continues to grow! We are having to repair the fences sometimes twice per day. It seems like a more powerful electric fence energizer could be a good idea.
  • We spotted a little Greylag goose among the Canadian geese yesterday.
  • The sea lion that we spotted on Sept. 12th with an apparent propeller wound to his head is still here. He stays near the jetty and seems to have some behavioural anomalies, presumably due to the head injury. He is not afraid of us like the others, and does not move away into the water with the others when we clear the jetty. We haven’t had any problems but are weary that his behaviour could be unpredictable. Marty (the vet that came to aid in rescuing the entangled sea lion) mentioned that sometimes when this happens a shard of their skull can splinter and cause a brain infection. We hope this little guy is on the mend.
  • There have been many Canadian Geese passing through this week; A few days ago we counted over 20. The geese are not native to the island, but according to Gary Fletcher they arrived somewhere in the 80’s as the population of geese on Vancouver Island were introduced/grew. Addling the eggs began somewhere in the late 90’s. Unfortunately, this year two nests survived and hatched goslings, meaning that 20 geese left the island after 8 nested here in the spring.

Census: 

  • 500 Sea lions
  • 15 harbour seals
  • <20 seagulls
  • Approx. 20 cormorants
  • 3 short billed dowitchers
  • 1 Greylag goose
  • 1 sanderling
  • 1 Savannah sparrow
  • 20-23 Canada geese

Island Invaders (Invasive Thistle Removal)

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Invasive Species: Canada Thistle Removal 

We removed 6 large garbage bags full of invasive “Canada” thistles over the past few days. Considered a “noxious weed” under the BC Weed control act, these perennial (grow back every year) weeds can reproduce through seed and root regeneration. Thought to have been introduced to North America via contaminated crop seed in the 1700’s, this plant is actually native to southeast Europe and Asia. Presumably they were introduced to Race Rocks by a visitor on clothing or equipment, or perhaps by an animal.

They can be a bit laborious to remove, due to their tap root and ability to regenerate through “cloning” (growing back if you leave the root in the ground). Incredibly, the seeds can remain viable for 3-6 years when buried at typical depth, and some up to 21 years (yikes!). Each plant produces an average of 1500 seeds, but can sometimes exceed 5000.

Because of this, we collected them into garbage bags to remove from the island instead of composting them where they would have the opportunity to reproduce. Unfortunately it appeared that these aggressively persistent weeds were whipper snipped in past seasons, allowing the seeds to disperse and roots to regenerate. Hopefully with some attentiveness, they can be eradicated from Race Rocks in the next few years. More information on other introduced plants available in this post from Garry Fletcher, 2006.

Weather: 

  • Sky partly cloudy, some sunshine
  • Visibility 15+ miles (some fog last night)
  • Wind 20-30 knots W
  • Water choppy, whitecaps

Visitors: 

  • Today Laura (Pearson’s marine science teacher), and her class came for a bit for their first trip to Race Rocks! Two more classes will visit in the next couple of days.
  • Less frequent eco-tourism traffic now that the summer tourism has slowed down. They have been getting quite close to the sea lions though, often causing them to climb over each other to get further away from the vessels. Since it has been overcast, we’ve been seeing the use of flash photography much more, which seems to audibly cause quite a stir.

Ecological: 

  • There have been some birds passing through that we don’t often see: western sandpiper, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, and juvenile sandpiper (or possibly sanderling- we have a hard time with bird ID!) Also, we think we spotted a yellow warbler a while back, but it was too speedy for us to snap a photo.
  • The sea lions have continued to haul out- notably, there are typically over 100 animals on the jetty alone.

The Census of Birds and Mammals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles, later 15 until…
  • 19:35 onwards foggy, 100 yards.
  • Fog horn sounded for over 3 hours.
  • Wind: 0-5 knots South East.
  • In the evening 15-25 West.
  • Sky: overcast, then sunny, then foggy.
  • Water: calm

Mount Baker near sunrise.

Strangely disturbed water.

Ecological

  • Census day! Counting stuff!
  • Found what to me is a solo mystery bird.
  • Surprised to see no Black Turnstones around today.
  1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 53
  2. Harbour Seals: 35
  3. California Sea Lions: 29
  4. Elephant Seals: 13 (11 on Great Race, 2 on Middle Rock)
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 304
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 225
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 21
  8. Canada Geese: 18
  9. Savannah Sparrows: 10
  10. Harlequin Ducks: 9 (6 males and 3 females)
  11. Black Oystercatchers: 7
  12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)
  13. Mystery bird: 1
  14. Black Turnstones: ZERO!

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator.

Boats

  • Lots of eco-tours cameth by today. Over 10!
  • Some of them were perhaps a bit too close to the mammals at times?
  • Kyle brought me my final food order; milk, red and green bell peppers, sour cream, and onions.
  • Eerily reminiscent of the Thin White Duke’s diet..

Visitors

  • Kyle with food stuff.

A Windy Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-30 knots West all day
  • Sky: mostly clear.
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • Census day!
  • Saw a Steller sea lion branded 365Y.
  • Saw a California sea lion branded U949
  • I’m pretty sure the high winds were responsible for some of the lower bird counts.
  1. Harbour Seals: 114
  2. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 65
  3. California Sea Lions: 63
  4. Elephant Seals: 11 (8 on Great Race, 3 on Middle Rock)
  5. Seagulls unspecified: 251
  6. Pigeon Guillemots: 68
  7. Cormorants unspecified: 22
  8. Canada Geese: 17
  9. Black Turnstones: 16
  10. Surfbirds: 5
  11. Harlequin Ducks: 5 (2 males and 3 females)
  12. Black Oystercatchers: 4
  13. Savannah Sparrows: 4
  14. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 0 immature)
  15. Crows: 2

Other

  • I spent a good portion of the day ill in bed.