Spring Census and Swimming Seal Pups

Posted on Saturday,March 21, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday W 0-30 knots, today mostly W, SE in early afternoon 1-28 knots
Sea State: both days calm in morning, rippled in afternoon
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 6-8 °C, today 6-11 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.34 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

All three elephant seal pups were swimming near the boat ramp both yesterday and this morning. The middle aged pup has taken to a napping spot on the concrete between the boat ramp and the rocks.

When I did the census observations today, I was surprised there were only 84 pigeon guillemots. I counted twice to make sure. The little black and white birds with bright red feet appear to be everywhere around the shoreline and in the water around the main island. They are constantly moving about and making their high-pitched whistling call.

I had a great view of a sea otter this afternoon. While out in the boat taking a photo of the main island, I heard what sounded like a slapping sound on the water. I turned around to see the sea otter about 20 m from the boat crack open clamshells on its chest. The otter had a few clams lined up. I turned off the engine and watched the otter quickly eat a few clams, then repeatedly dive down and eat more.

Today, there were nine pleasure crafts, one sailboat and the Race Rocks station boat in the ecological reserve, the most boats of any day this year. A pleasure boat with five people stopped at the jetty this evening. Three people walked along the jetty to get a closer look at the elephant seal pup napping beside the boat ramp. I approached and drew their attention to the large sign that explains the purpose of the ecological reserve and that permission is needed to come ashore. They were very nice and asked a few questions about the marine mammals before they left. No boats were in the ecological reserve yesterday.

Census results from today:
4 elephant seals (1 adult female, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
10 steller sea lions
82 california sea lions
1 sea otter
50 harbour seals
8 bald eagles (3 adults, 5 juveniles)
11 brandt’s cormorants
6 double-crested cormorants
19 pelagic cormorants
9 Canada geese
251 gulls (mostly thayer’s gulls)
8 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
26 harlequin ducks
84 pigeon guillemots
4 surfbirds
12 black turnstones

Here are some photos from the past two days:

: The three elephant seal pups practicing their swimming skills near the boat ramp and jetty yesterday morning.

: Harlequin ducks taking a break on the rocks in the east bay

: Harlequin duck, oystercatcher and whimbrel on the east side

: Brandt’s, double-crested and pelagic cormorants on the southwest side of the main island

: Sea otter

: Sea otter breaking open a clamshell

: Sea otter eating a clam

: Looking back towards Great Race Rocks from the west side of the ecological reserve, with a view of california sea lions on the West Islands.

Two short videos of the youngest elephant seal pup learning to swim in the shallow water. In the first clip, she appears to be playing with a little bull kelp. In the second clip, she is blowing bubbles. The sounds of many species can be heard: california sea lions, thayer’s gulls, black turnstones and pigeon guillemots.

Vernal Equinox

Posted on Thursday,March 19, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday W 0-25 knots, today mostly W 1-22 knots
Sea State: both days calm
Visibility: yesterday 15 NM, today 10-15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 6-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.58 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Today marks the official start of spring at Race Rocks and the rest of the northern hemisphere. The days will keep getting longer until summer solstice, on June 20.

Two of the elephant seal pups marked the occasion by going for a swim this morning. When the sun rose, they were all on the boardwalk near the crane. When I went out to check the salinity and temperature of the water at the 9:09 high tide, the oldest and youngest pups were at the edge of the water on the boat ramp. The other pup was still up on the boardwalk. The youngest pup stayed at the water’s edge for about two hours. The all spent the rest of the day on the grass, basking in the sun.

Yesterday, the boats in the ecological reserve were three pleasure crafts, two tour boats and the Pearson College boat Second Nature to drop off food. Today, four pleasure crafts were in the area. Greg and Lawrence from Pearson came in Second Nature to drop off new solar panels to be added to the array. They also helped clean out the gutters on the Science House.

Here are photos of some views from the past two days:

: The three elephant seal pups lined up from oldest to youngest, top to bottom.

: The older of the two female elephant seal pups napped with her head in the daffodils for most of the yesterday.

: A bald eagle in the intertidal zone

: Two elephant seal pups in the shallow end on the boat ramp

: Two elephant seal pups on the boat ramp

: The youngest elephant seal pup stuck around and blew bubbles in the shallow water.

: The adult female elephant seal, tagged T563, returned this morning after being away for a few days. She quickly went back to her favourite place with the comfiest shrub pillows. *UPDATED March 23: I was able to take a closer look at the tag today and noticed this elephant seal is tagged T562 and T563, one on each tail flipper. This means she’s the seal that was here from mid December until January 21. She gave birth to the first pup of the season on December 29. She was seen again at Race Rocks on March 3 and has come and gone a few times since.

: A sea otter floating off the south islands today, seen through the spotting scope in the lantern room of the lighthouse.

Sea Otter and Logs

Posted on Wednesday,March 11, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday 0-11 knots from N to NE, today 17-36 knots from W
Sea State: yesterday rippled, today chop up to 1 m
Visibility: yesterday 5-15 NM, today 10-15 NM
Sky: yesterday overcast and rain, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 7-8 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.78 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

In the middle of the day yesterday, a sea otter floated and swam near the south islands. It looked small in comparison to the nearby blimp like harbour seals.

The alpha male elephant seal left the island at some point last night. As of the sunset this evening, he hadn’t returned. The elephant seal pups have spread out from where they spent the past few days, near the bushes in the middle of the island. For most of the day, the three pups were sunning themselves on the grass between the science house and the lighthouse.

The gulls and Canada geese are acting more aggressive. The number of gulls is still fairly low, but they are spread out around the islands. I often see them pulling at each other’s wings. Perhaps they are trying to claim the preferred spot. The Canada geese frequently honk and charge at each other with their necks horizontal.

Many of the daily tasks involve keeping the human life sustaining systems running. I spent a couple hours each of the past two days preparing firewood for next winter. All winter, I have been collecting logs that wash ashore on the boat ramp. I rebuilt the chainsaw cutting jig, got suited up in the chainsaw safety gear and bucked up a lot of logs. The salt will get rinsed off the wood some more in the rain, as the wood waits to be split and stacked in various indoor spaces over the coming months.

Yesterday, four tour boats were in the ecological reserve. Today, there was one tour boat.

: The watcher becomes the watched. A juvenile bald eagle gets an up close look at the human through the big north facing window on the house.

: A sea otter swimming by the south islands, with a few harbour seals looking on from the rocks.

: The sea otter floating on its back, just to the west of the south islands.

: A few hours of chainsawing logs the winter storms delivered to the island. The stored sunshine in these logs will be used to heat the house next winter.

Weekly Census

Posted on Saturday,March 7, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday 0-19 knots from W then E, today 2-19 knots from N then W
Sea State: yesterday calm, today calm in am and rippled in pm
Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: both days clear with cloudy patches throughout day
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 4-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.23 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Six visitors briefly came to the island yesterday morning. Lawrence installed the new deck hatch he made for the station boat. Everyone helped transport and load eight of the old batteries onto the college boat to be taken back to the shore for recycling.

I ran the water pump for five hours to fill up the cistern with cleaner seawater.

Three tour boats were in the ecological reserve yesterday. Today, a dive boat had several divers in the water just north of North Rocks at slack tide in the mid morning.

There was a lot biodiversity in the ecological reserve today. Here are the results from the weekly census:
6 elephant seals (1 adult female, 2 adult males, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
57 steller sea lions (all on Middle Rock)
50 california sea lions (19 on Great Race, 31 on Middle Rock)
52 harbour seals
1 sea otter
6 bald eagles (4 juveniles, 2 adults)
8 Canada geese
18 brandt’s cormorants
16 double-crested cormorants
35 pelagic cormorants
2 ravens
141 gulls (mostly thayer’s gulls)
14 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
86 pigeon guillemots
16 harlequin ducks
10 surfbirds
28 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 song sparrow
1 fox sparrow

: Amatuana, a Pearson College sailboat, sailed a couple kilometres to the northeast of Race Rocks on Friday afternoon. Downtown Victoria is in the background.

: The almost full moon over the lighthouse

: Raven

: The two female elephant seal pups were hanging out and chatting with each other today in the sun on the south side of the house. The younger pup is on the left and the older by six days is on the right.

Adventures into the Water

Posted on Wednesday,February 26, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday 4-15 knots from E to N, today 0-13 knots from N to SW to W
Sea State: yesterday rippled, today calm
Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: yesterday overcast, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-7 °C, today 5-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.50 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The oldest elephant seal pup and I have something in common. We both had a short trip from the main island for the first time since December. He was born December 29 and hasn’t eaten since his mother stopped nursing him and left on January 21.

Yesterday, the male pup took the plunge and went for a swim in the mid morning. I saw him at the water’s edge on the boat ramp at 8:45, blowing bubbles in the water and wriggling around. He was gone the next time I checked about 15 minutes later. I spotted him again, with wet fir by the boat house door at 11:45. I wonder what he got up to out in water and how far he swam.

My adventure off the island was this afternoon in the Race Rocks boat. I hadn’t left the island since I got here on December 21, as I’m purposely spending 100 days living in the ecological reserve as research for my masters thesis on place-based learning and near-solitude. It was perfect conditions to launch the boat with low winds, clear sky and a turn of the current at 13:16. I motored at a low speed clockwise around the main island, Great Race Rocks, never straying more than a kilometre away from my rocky home of the past two months. Along the way, I took some photos and tested out all the equipment on the boat. The boat ran well. I had never seen any of the other rocks up close or what they looked like from the side I can’t see from the main island. Behind West Rocks, which is west of Great Race Rocks, there was a sea otter floating in the water. I cut the engine and watched it float around for about ten minutes, before it swam away to the northwest. What a treat to see the otter, oystercatchers in flight, harbour seals lounging on the rocks and views of main island from all angles.

After I returned, I did some maintenance to the boat dolly which could only be done with the boat off of it. I greased the very dry wheel bearings and installed a new winch to secure the boat to the dolly.

Yesterday, Greg and Silke came in the early afternoon to pick up Hamish and Hubert, who spent the night. There were two tour boats in the ecological reserve today.

See below for photos from the past two days. Photos have been added to the past three posts now that the photo uploading is working again.

: A stretching session before the oldest pup, a male, goes into the water for the first time.

: The male pup is near the boat ramp a few hours after his swim. He is spreading out his tail flippers appearing to show off his newly acquired swimming ability.

: A view of Great Race Rocks from the east

: Harbour seals on Middle Rocks

: Two black oystercatchers in flight

: West rocks in the foreground

: A sea otter to the west of Great Race Rocks

: The sea otter with Victoria in the background

: Sea otter seen through the long lens

: Harbour seals on Middle Rocks with cormorants in the background on Great Race Rocks

: Great Race Rocks from the north near North Rocks

: I was putting some tools away when an adult male elephant seal chased the male pup towards the open door of the tank shed. I ducked inside and closed the door, just before they got there. I couldn’t get out for a few minutes, until the adult left. I’ve learned my lesson to keep doors closed.

: When the pup was trying to get into the tank shed, he pooped outside the door. Perhaps he was scared poopless by the male chasing him. The poop appears to show that he ate food on his foray into the sea yesterday.

Three Weaner Elephant Seal Pups

Posted on Monday,February 10, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday 2-15 knots from E to N, today 3-10 knots from S to N to E
Sea State: yesterday and today rippled
Visibility: yesterday and today 15 NM
Sky: yesterday and today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-7 °C, today 5-8 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.73 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The past two days have been sunny, which means the animals and scenery are very photogenic.

There was lots of activity with the elephant seal harem today. Overnight, the third mother left the island, after nursing her pup for 24 days. Her pup is now a weaner, no longer getting milk from her mother. The three mothers whose pups survived all stayed for 24 days. The last female, who’s pup died 17 days ago, left late this morning. After the male mated with her, she was either trying to get away from him or was chased down the path and out into the water by the boat ramp. The alpha male left for about an hour, perhaps to get some food. He’s been on the island the longest of any of the elephant seals. He hasn’t eaten or left the island since before the first pup was born on December 29. That’s almost as long as I’ve been here without leaving, except I eat three meals a day. The female elephant seals will most likely return to Race Rocks exactly eleven months after they left, to give birth to another pup. Stay tuned to the Log next December and January for more pupping season drama.

Now that there are no adult female elephant seals left on Race Rocks, the alpha male’s role has changed from mating with the females, to protecting the three pups that remain. The alpha male is most likely father to all of them, as he was the alpha male last year as well.

Three beta male elephant seals are still on the island. One left for about 24 hours and returned this afternoon. When he slid up the ramp onto the island, he appeared to look around to see if any females were around. Then, he headed for the oldest pup and put his mouth around it. He didn’t appear to be trying to hurt it because no blood was drawn. The pup was screaming. The alpha male came over and scared away the beta male. For the afternoon and evening, the three pups were lying in the grass about 10 m away from each other. It will be interesting to see if the pups interact with each other, as they have in previous years.

Some other interesting sights were a sea otter, two black brant geese, and a very bright Venus visible in the western sky for a few hours after sunset for each of the past three nights.

There were no visitors to the island in the past two days. Four pleasure boats and three tour boats were seen in the ecological reserve.

See below for photos from the past two days:

: The majority of the steller sea lions are hanging out on the south end of the island, on a place called south seal rocks. The sea lions in the foreground of the photo are california sea lions.

: This male steller sea lion has been seen here for the past month. I checked with a marine mammal biometrician in Oregon, who reported that this sea lion was branded 347Y at Rogue Reef, Oregon on July 17, 2013, making him almost seven years old. The smaller sea lion by his side is a yearling, between one and two years old.

: Local members of the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue were doing training with the Coast Guard yesterday afternoon, just to the north of the ecological reserve. The buildings near the shoreline in the background are part of the William Head Federal Institution, a minimum-security federal correctional institution located at the mouth of Pedder Bay. The prison is one of Race Rocks’ closest neighbours, located 5 km to the north.

: Mt. Baker, a 3,286 m active glaciated volcano, can be seen in the distance peaking above the clouds over northern Washington.

: The colourful sky after sunset yesterday and one of the male elephant seals on the helicopter pad.

: A bird’s eye view of the area worn down by the elephant seal harem for the past month and a half. The slide marks and flipper prints can be seen in the mud. The alpha male and the two female pups are visible. The oldest pup, a male, is out of the frame near the top of the photo.

: One female and two male surf scoters

: I saw a sea otter through the binoculars this afternoon. By the time I got the camera, I had lost track of the sea otter. Although I did see a pair of black brant geese. A sighting of them hasn’t been recorded at Race Rocks for almost five years. It’s hard to see them in the photo because they were quite far out by the North Rocks. They are small black and white geese with white bands around their necks.

: A juvenile bald eagle perches on top of the fog signal.

: Nine adult bald eagles keep watch on the south islands.

: One of the beta male elephant seals takes a break from sliding out of the water at the boat ramp to converse with a california sea lion.

: The beta male elephant seal let go of the male pup as the alpha male approached.

: The older of the two female elephant seal pups lies in evening sun, with two little daisies poking out of the grass near her head.

: The moon rises tonight with some stars visible.

Sea Otter Visit and Snow Day

Posted on Monday,January 13, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday 3-53 knots W, today 9-34 knots N
Sea State: yesterday 2 m waves from W, today up to 1 m waves from N
Visibility: yesterday 2 to 10 NM, today 1 to 2 NM
Sky: yesterday sunny with cloudy patches, today fog and snow
Temperature: yesterday 7 to -1 °C, today -1 to -4 °C with windchill as low as -14 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.15 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Yesterday brought many gifts from the sun: rainbows, warmth and solar power for the batteries. In the afternoon, I spotted an unusual sight for this time of year. A sea otter was being tossed around in the waves near the jetty. I grabbed the camera and did my best to capture some photos as it swam around the northeast side of the island, got out briefly on the rocks near the house, then swam back to the waves of the north side, before it floated northeast past the east side of the North Rocks. The wind was over 40 knots, which made it hard to hold the camera steady and take photos. I managed to get a few photos (see below) that show a slightly blurry sea otter in action.

Last night, the temperature dipped below O °C. I prepared the buildings from getting too cold by turning on heat in the evening. Throughout the night, the fog horn sounded and the snow accumulated. Judging by the snow on the relatively sheltered ground mounted solar panels, there was about 8 cm of snow overnight and into the early afternoon. On the rest of the island, the tracks of sea lions, birds and slide marks of elephant seals showed the few movements of a quiet island. A smaller than usual group of gulls and cormorants were hunkered down on the southwest side of the island. Most of the sea lions were rafting in the water, which was observed this afternoon at 7.7 °C, much warmer than the -4 °C air temperature.

: Elephant seals basking in the relative warmth on Sunday morning

: Sea otter floating in the lee of the island

: Sea otter briefly crawling up onto the rocks behind the house

: Sea otter floating in the choppy water

: Elephant seals in cooler times on Monday morning. What a difference a day can make. The orange snow makes it easy to track where the seals have travelled.

: When I went to check on the temperature of the guest house, through the window I saw the fresh flipper prints of a group of california sea lions taking shelter from the wind.

: Usually I remove bird poop from the solar panels. Today I brushed 8 cm of snow off the 44 panels. These are the 12 ground mounted panels. On the roof of the energy building, there are 32 more. The red horns coming out of the building are the old foghorns before they were replaced with an electronic system at the base of the lighthouse.

: Looking north from the entryway of the lighthouse, one of the beta male elephant seals is seen in the foreground.

: The older pup in the middle was covered in much more snow than the other seals.

A video of the two beta male elephant seals fighting at the base of the lighthouse. They move very fast when they are motivated. After they disappeared behind the tower, they chased each other around the island and into the water by the jetty, causing a stampede of some nearby sea lions.

A video of the snowy views and windy sounds of the islands.

Student Visit

Posted on Monday,October 7, 2019 by Laas Parnell

Weather:

Visibility: 15+ miles
Sky: overcast
Wind: 15-20 kn NW
Water: Little choppy under 1 foot

Visitors/Boats:

The past few days we have seen more pleasure crafts than tour boats and these pleasure crafts get way too close and I can never find them on the radio because it is very hard to know which channel they are on
A group students stayed Saturday night to film around the island looking at ecological impacts which around here are mostly due to sea lions trampling all the green and turning it into mud

Ecological

The little steller is still around, haven’t noticed any new injuries on any of the sea lions
the sea lion that was by the jetty before that seemed lethargic and didn’t really respond to people left for 2 maybe 3 days and is now back in the same spot and it is much more energetic and responsive than before
the number of sea lions seems to have gone up from the last census by about 100, will post more numbers below
I have been consistently seeing about two humpback whales per day

Maintenance

The fence now only needs typically one minor repair per day, the sea lions are getting used to staying away from it
I still need to stay on top of clearing them away from certain areas, they seem to not crowd the entrance to the generator room anymore or the burial cairns as much, but they have taken a strong liking to the grass around the lighthouse

Census

Sea Lions – 600, most of them are californias
Harbour Seals – 30
Gulls – 40
Canada Geese – 24
Fox Sparrow – 3
Turnstones – 30
Cormorants – 50
Sea Otter – 1
Humpback Whales – about 2 per day

Rainy day

Posted on Thursday,April 18, 2019 by Laas Parnell

Weather

Visibility: 15 Miles
Wind: 0-10 NE
Sky: Overcast
Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

No visitors but quite a few tour boats came to look at the otter in the north kelp bed

Maintenance

Its been very cloudy all day so I’ll run the generator and desalinator tonight

Ecological

still 13 elephants around, the male pup is still here
have to walk around with a broom because the geese can get pretty vicious when walking by
plenty of sea lions and harbour seals around and a lot of gulls
there has also been quite a bit of eagle activity, they like to chase the seagull’s around