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seagull | Race Rocks Ecological Reserve- | Page 4
Guy and Travis took a couple groups of students for a cruise around the island, unfortunately it was too shallow for them to dock so they went around in the boats
Ecological
Only counted 11 elephant seals today, one might be hiding in the rocks on the east side though
the seagulls are building their nests but no eggs yet
11 elephant seals today mostly in the front of the house but went down to the jetty, I see still don’t see the youngest female around
There are definitely more seagull eggs, an elephant seal got too close to one of their nests earlier and got into a fight with two of them, the gulls won, the seal wiggled away
11 elephant seals today, 5 of them are male, and they have been fighting with each other all day the other 6 females have been pretty aggressive toward each other today as well
The gulls have started nesting and will get protective if you get too close
The geese are just at the end of nesting and are still pretty aggressive
I came across 2 oystercatcher nests while cleaning the solar panels today, thankfully they just get loud and try to distract you away from their nests rather than attacking
Also I have not seen the youngest female elephant seal around
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!
Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 35
Harbour Seals: 44
California Sea Lions: 23
Elephant Seals: 13
Seagulls unspecified: 291
Pigeon Guillemots: 152
Cormorants unspecified: 29
Canada Geese: 14
Savannah Sparrows: 0
Harlequin Ducks: 8 (2 female, 6 male)
Black Oystercatchers: 8
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
