21 Geese

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a couple visitors come by throughout the week, to check out the crane and desalinator

Maintenance

  • Now that the fresh water tank is almost full, will start pressure washing some of the lichen off the buildings

Ecological

  • Slightly less sea lions than last week
  • still no elephant seals on the main island but I think I spotted one on one of the outer rocks
  • a lot of Canada geese lately

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 674
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 702
  • Harbour Seal – 81
  • Elephant Seal – maybe 1 male
  • Cormorants – 388
  • Gulls – 293
  • Fox Sparrows – 16
  • Canada Geese – 21
  • Black Turnstones – 28
  • Eagle – 2
  • Oyster Catchers – 8

Census

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a couple visitors come by today, Guy and Greg came with fuel

Maintenance

  • Topping up on diesel and propane

Ecological

  • So many sea lions lately
  • Unfortunately no elephant seals yet, thought I would have a few hanging around by now

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 805
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 623
  • Harbour Seal – 32
  • Elephant Seal – 0
  • Cormorants – 247
  • Gulls – 289
  • Fox Sparrows – 16
  • Canada Geese – 12
  • Snow Goose – 1
  • Black Turnstones – 24
  • Eagle – 1
  • Raven – 1
  • Oyster Catchers – 8

Entangled Sea Lions

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-30 NE
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Water: Waves about a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and fishing boats going by

Maintenance

  • ran the generator and the desalinator, now that we had a good rainfall the cistern is filling up, hopefully start pressure washing more soon
  • The fence hasn’t needed to be repaired in awhile but the sea lions are starting to gather more around the lighthouse which can be an issue

Ecological

  • unfortunately still no elephant seals, they should be showing up any day now
  • the snow goose is still around
  • there are two entangles sea lions, it doesn’t look like the usual plastic packing tape but this time looks like fishing line, two of them have it tightly wrapped around their heads, I have notified marine rescue and will keep an eye on these sea lions and hopefully we can help them out

Over 1000 Sea Lions

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by

Maintenance

  • Fence needed a bit of a fix up today

Ecological

  • So many sea lions lately
  • I didn’t actually see the elephant seal today, I am just hoping she is still around
  • Haven’t seen the pup in a couple days either
  • As for the neck banded sea lions, they are difficult to keep track of with so many sea lions around but I’m sure they are still around

Census

  • Elephant Seal – 1
  • Harbour Seals – 60
  • California Sea Lions – 685
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 412
  • Harlequin Ducks – 4
  • Cormorants – 313
  • Gulls – 698
  • Fox Sparrows – 16
  • Geese – 10
  • Black Turnstones – 24

Elephant Seals and Suffering Sea Lions

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by

Maintenance

  • Refulled the generator but the fence hasnt needed any fixing lately and I’m being more careful with the water until we get more rain so I haven’t been pressure washing as much lately

Ecological

  • An elephant seal is here, nice to see one around, not sure when more will be showing up
  • Two sea lions with garbage on their neck, will report it and hopefully see if we can get someone out here to take the garbage off of them soon

Students, pups, humpbacks and a dead sea lion

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-20 SW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy, under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours
  • Guy came by with a little tour group this morning and then again in the afternoon with a group of students that will be spending their CAS week here

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, some pressure washing

Ecological

  • Counted at least 8 humpbacks throughout the day
  • there is a big dead stellar on the south west part of the island, I don’t usually go down there so I havent seen it until now
  • There are also about a dozen oyster catchers near the generator room
  • The sea lion pup is back and i got some great photos of it, even got some shots of it nursing which is very unusual to have such a young pup on the island

Rain and Sunshine

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 SE
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by
  • Guy and Greg came by today to check out a few things

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, and ran the desalinator for a little while
  • the fence needed major repair this morning, the sea lions broke through it a bunch of them ended up right in front of the house

Ecological

  • Saw about 3 humpbacks around today, there was probably more, there have been so many lately

Census

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, some pressure washing

Ecological

  • Haven’t seen the pups today but am sure they are around, there are quite a few sea lions on all of the rocks
  • also some harlequin ducks today and plenty of cormorants
  • the past few days I’ve seen maybe 4 humpbacks

Census

  • Elephant Seal – 0
  • Harbour Seal – 178
  • California Sea Lion – 281
  • Stellar Sea Lion – 344
  • Sea Otter – 1
  • Harlequin Duck – 5 male 1 female
  • Cormorant – 117
  • Fox Sparrow – 12
  • Gull -421
  • Geese – 10
  • Black Turnstone – 15

Rain

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 -15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-30 NE
  • Sky: Overcast and raining
  • Water: Swells about a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Not a lot of boat traffic today but there were still a few ecotours braving the weather

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, and running the generator because I didn’t get a lot of solar today

Ecological

  • There are a few sea lion pups around, still no elephant seals
  • Not as many sea lions around today, going to do the census tomorrow to hopefully get higher numbers, because there have been a lot of sea lions around lately just not today

Technical Difficulties and Sea Lion Pups

Weather

  • Visibility: 0 -15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Swells about a metre in the morning then flat in the afternoon

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy came by and dropped off a friend and my food order
  • not much boat traffic, probably due to the fog, but there were a few

Maintenance

  • Fixed the fence, ran the desalinator and generator for awhile today, haven’t had much sun for the solar panels lately

Ecological

  • No elephant seals at the moment but there are plenty of sea lions around and a couple pups
  • There have been plenty of humpback whale sightings over the past week each morning and each night I would see a few go by just west of the island