Tag Archives: sealion

August 8 and 9

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We said good-bye (for now) to Jeremias and Abi on Monday. It was great having them on the island, helping with the chores and sharing their interest in this amazing place. I am here for another couple of weeks or so, and so have undertaken a new project to rejuvenate the large compost bins near the ecoguardian’s residence. The weather has shifted from the calm and beautiful days on the weekend to more typical wind and fog of “Fogust”.

Ecological Notes:

The elephant seals continue, much to the delight of the ecotourism boat operators who always check out the ramp for them.

Steller and California sea lion numbers are still on the rise. I’m looking forward to a good count on this week’s census.

Black Turnstones dominate the east bay, with high numbers still continuing. About 200 are on the island in the late afternoon.

Many of the young Glaucous-winged Gulls are stretching their wings, jumping into the wind in preparation for their first flights.

Harbour porpoises, including one with a youngster, were seen on August 8. No whale sightings in this report, but only one day of visibility was a factor.

Weather:

Yesterday (Monday, Aug 8)

  • Sky: Clear and sunny all day
  • Wind: Variable 4 to 29 kts
  • Sea conditions: rippled to light chop
  • Temperature: Low 13 oC, High 22 oC

Today (Tuesday, Aug 9)

  • Sky: Heavy fog in the morning and late afternoon. Partially cloudy for a few hours mid-day.
  • Wind: W 11 to 26 kts
  • Sea conditions: unknown to 3′ seas late afternoon
  • Temperature: Low 12 oC, High 16 oC

Visitors:

Volunteers Abi and Jeremias departed Monday morning.

Facility Work:

Solar panels cleaned; electric fence checked and in good condition. Battery bank checked and topped up with distilled water on Monday. Generator was run during fog on Tuesday morning to top up battery levels. Compost rejuvenation project got underway.

Vessel Traffic:

Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve. More alumni from Pearson College toured the area on Tuesday. Cruise ship traffic is picking up.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.

Farewell to Jeremias and Abi. Safe journeys ahead!

View from the solar panel array at sunrise

Young Glaucous-winged Gull testing its wings

California Sea Lions and their most popular poses

A (very) little bit of sunshine

 

Glaucous-winged Gull pair doing courtship/bonding display.

A beachload of Black Turnstones (and a few Surfbirds)

Alumni tour from Pearson College

Young elephant seals on the move

Compost project supervisor

Large root masses at the top of the old compost

The first buckets of aged compost into the hole

A Quick Return

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After finishing my term at Race Rocks on April 19, there was an unexpected schedule change and I was asked to return on April 30. It took a little quick re-arranging, but I was able to help  out!

Always a relaxing view

 

Ecological Notes:

  • 5 Elephant Seals on land, 4 in the process of molting.
  • This year’s only surviving pup is still around with occasional 1 or 2 day ventures out and back

  • Although the adult  Canada Geese are still around, there is only one pair still sitting on a nest. No other chicks around.
  • There are a few sealions returning to the ramp area, but none are hauling out on the actual rocks they normally do … and they all seem very nervous. Just speculation(!), but they all left the main island rock the day the Orca hunted one just of the island.

Visitors:

  • One of the previous Ecoguardian’s friend came out for a quick visit when we were doing the exchange.

Facility Work:

  • More path cleaning, fence repairs and general maintenance.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Gradual increase in the volume of Eco-Tourism vessels coming to the reserve, depending on wind direction.
  • A few  kayaks and even some sailboats making their way around the island.

 Feature Event:

  •  When I was here last time, I designed and prototyped some simple electric fence connectors. The ideas was for something fast and simple to use when the weather was bad, or to quickly secure the fence, followed by the ability to return later and re-enforce it with a wired secure.
  • The ones installed 3 months ago were all in place, so I have made some more. They are made with plant-based resin, and most likely, they will always be replaced before they fail completely.
  • Also making some gifts for co-workers, and teaching props while I have a printer here with me.

Weather Events:

  • The full range of late spring weather and temperatures. Wind days up to 50 knots,a and some shorts and t-shirt days mixed in.

 

** 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?

December 29th – A Break in the Snow

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Ecological Notes:

First things first: the new Elephant Seal pup is doing great! 8 days old today, very vocal and mobile; especially when compared to last years pups. The seal pup doesn’t seem to mind the cold, and we’re reached the point of nursing where the mom starts moving around throughout the day. Maybe to stimulate the pup to get moving and muscle-y, or maybe to get a break from the nursing.

The Beachmaster left the island after the first 2 days of snow. He was spotting wallowing around Race Rocks, so maybe just using the warmer ocean water rather than sitting on land getting snowed on.

Once the snow stopped falling we had a shift in birds, with 12-20 eagles spotted in the early mornings feeding on what looks like bits of other birds. Maybe the cold was enough to provide some good food for all those eagles. Prior to the snow we were seeing 3-5 eagles in the mornings.

The California and Steller Sea Lions have been moving around the islands trying to find spots where they can group up and keep warm. This has provided an opportunity for the Harbour Seals to haul out, something that we don’t see much with the available real-estate claimed by the larger sea lions. It’s funny to me that the seals choose to be on land when the sea lions choose to hang out in the water.

Facility Work:

We have been fighting to keep things unfrozen for the last week, with temperatures dropping the water pipes froze and we’re working to keep the desalinator and other infrastructure from freezing as well. Shovelling walkways and keeping things snow free.

DND events:

Real quiet on the DND front. No boats or blasting over the holidays.

Weather Events:

The snow showed up Christmas night, heralded by the foghorn. Not much snow lands on Race Rocks when it’s blowing, and the cold (around -5 to -7 for a few days) kept the snow nice and powdery, perfect to be swept!

30-40 knot winds and cold weather have made us VERY appreciative of the new windows in the Eco-Guardian house, significantly improving the insulation.

 

Weather – Current: 

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

High Winds

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Male Elephant Seal, and 1 juvenile Female Elephant seal on land.
  • The male doesn’t take notice of where the Gull nests are (of course), so the gulls really harass him if he’s too close! I couldn’t capture a good picture showing the gulls, but this was his reaction!

“Leave me alone!”

  • Steller and California Sealions on middle rock (until DND blasting).

  • Seeing some small migratory birds now, photos and ID’s tomorrow

Facility Work:

  • Second run and close monitoring of the Desalinator, everything work as expected.

DND events:

  • 6 – 8 heavy blasts today. As noted, The sealions all left middle rock at the time of the blasts. Waiting to see if they settle on the southern rocks.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Several Ecotourism vessels and 3 private vessels noted in the reserve sightseeing. All proper procedures followed.

Weather Events:

  • Westerly winds averaging 30 knots all day, rising to 40+ in the evening. Wind against tide brought 1 meter chop, while wind with tide brought chop on top of 1-2 meter swells at times. Mainly clear skies with slight haze to the west and south.

 

** 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?

Viewing from the Tower

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Ecological Notes:

  • I gave it a couple days to be sure, but it does appear that the last 2 elephant seals have left the island. Checked the outer rocks from the top of the tower as well. It was time for them to head to open water and regain the weight they lost during their molt.

(Photo from a previous day!)

  • Only 11 sealions left as well, 8 California sealions and 3 Stellers. One remaining Steller is relatively young.

DND events:

  • Several loud blasts, but no boat sentinels or flags, so it looked like it was further inland.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 2 Ecotourism vessels, following all guidelines properly.

 Feature Event:

  •  Weekly Wildlife Census is an all day event. Counting occurs early morning through to late evening, as activity changes throughout the day.
  • Low tide is a good time to count Oystercatchers and surf birds foraging in the inter-tidal zone. Right now, I’m limiting walking around the island edge due to all the various bird nesting locations.
  • The view from the top of the tower gives the best overview of the seal haulouts, surrounding rocks, and bird counts on the main island.
  • Other than Oystercatchers and Pigeon Guillemots , it’s best to count birds from the tower
  • Although not in the reserve, Biggs Orca (also known as Transient Orca) were  also observed from the tower today. Identified by a friend as the T46Bs

Weather Events:

  • Other than a short early morning fluctuation, winds were consistently from the west at 10 – 15knots all day. Cloudy with a few sunny breaks and good visibility all day.

 

** 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?

Oyster Catcher Nest Sites

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Ecological Notes:

  • 7 Elephant seals between the grass and the boat ramp. It appears another female may have left the reserve. Still 2 “pups” here. (included in the 7 total)
  • The pups are definitely using up their baby fat, and showing lots of wrinkles. The male is still molting though.

    When he finishes molting, he can head off to feed.

  • Have now verified 4 Black Oyster Catcher nests (able to view the nest from good vantage points in the distance). Quite confident in at least 2 more from the bird behavior, but no good distant vantage point to confirm, and don’t want to disturb the birds.

Visitors:

  • EagleWing Tours provided  Pearson College Students with 1 hour tour of the reserve and surrounding area (water based only). Total of 34 Students.
  • Between student tours, 2 employees of EagleWing Tours were brought to the main island by the waterfront coordinator for a visit.
  • The Waterfront Coordinator also delivered groceries, drinking water and electric fence supplies

 Facility Work:

  • Repairs and alterations to the electric fence on the main pier. This is important not only for the safety of the facility and the heritage sites, but also for the safety of the Sealions themselves. If they come up the top of the pier and are startled from their sleep (by land, or boats in the water), they run the risk of jumping over the side from a high height, into shallow water. Generally, on a natural rock face, steeper slopes continue into deeper water.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  •  2 Ecotourism vessels, 1 commercial Dive Tour operator. All with proper viewing and usage procedures.

Good behavior in the reserve! (some compression from the distance and my lens, NOT as close to the rock as it may appear!

  • 3 Private vessels, all with good approach and viewing.

 Noted Infractions:

  • The most common error, generally speaking, is that private vessels tend to power up too early on departure from the reserve.

Again, some compression effect from my lens, but this private boat had come up to speed even earlier than this, well within the reserve.

Weather Events:

  • Mostly clear with westerly winds at 15 knots most of the day. Westerly winds increased to 25 – 30 knots in the evening, bringing in some haze and clouds.

 

** All 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?

Census and Orcas.

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Animal Census: Feb 17 2021
Gulls 68
Cormorants 738
Pigeon Guillemots 54
Eagles 12
Black Turnstones 28
Harlequin ducks 7
Steller sea lions 77
California sea lions 39
Pacific Harbour seal 62
elephant seal male 2
elephant seal female 2 pups
orca 4
Biggs orcas 7 East bound Southern Resident Lpod J, k pod west bound.

Weather– Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather–Past:  http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=72

wind west 20 knots sky over cast and rain visibility 10 nm sea state 3 foot chop. 

Snow and high winds at Race Rocks today

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Snowy Race Rocks from the lighthouse.

Weather:

Well we got the same dump of snow on February 13th that hit Victoria, arriving with some 40-50 knot outflow winds blowing the crunchy snow all over the place. Estimated about 10cm of snow, but due to the high winds it was moving around lots.

Visitors/Traffic:

No visitors in the last week besides the future Eco-Guardians coming out to do some training. The weather has been consistently >30 knots from Febryary 10th onwards.

Ecological Notes:

With the heavy winds and snowfall the California Sea Lion numbers have been reduced, we thought just for a night or two but the numbers haven’t returned as the snow melts and winds die down. We had 1 California on the jetty looking very sick and emaciated; and one on the South side of the lighthouse with a neckband bleeding pretty heavily.

California Sea Lion with a nasty looking neck-band.

The Stellers have come back once the snowfall stopped, but weren’t around during the peak snowfall days.

On February 13th we spotted 4 Southern Resident Orca’s cruising their way around the South side of the lighthouse. Talking with local experts it sounds like it was members of J-pod due to local hydrophone recordings.

Elephant Seal update:

On February 11th another pup was weaned and his mom left. This is our 4th pup to be weaned this season, with one still nursing.

Snuggles got buried into his own little snow bank.

Our last female on the island, Jolene provided a wall to protect her pup from the blasting snowflakes.

Our oldest pup Cheermeister got bit on the head the night of February 7th, and retreated to the front door of the Eco-Guardian house. We thought his bite marks didn’t look that bad despite the amount of blood, but the wound never seemed to clot and may have been much deeper than it initially looked. Cheermeister died the morning of February 11th, and further inspection showed he had 2 deep bites from one of the adult male elephant seals; we assume Jafar the non-Beachmaster hanging out on the island.

Cheermeister post head wound.

The head wound turned out to be fatal. Pretty crazy to see how much damage they can handle, but the wrong bite in the wrong spot can be enough to kill them.

The photos of the seals make them look all cute and cuddly, but they’re actually all over 150kg (330lbs). If it weren’t for the slippery snow he would have been much harder to move.

It’s an interesting thing getting to live in such close proximity to wild animals. You don’t want to interfere in their lives, and sometimes that means watching things that make your stomach churn. Other times things happen and you don’t really know why, and are just left wondering. We are very grateful for our time on Race Rocks, getting to watch these pups be born, grow, and explore the island. Each birth is a celebration of the resiliency of these animals, making their comeback from near extinction.

I love seeing these fat pups slipping around in the snow!

Jellybean and Sebastian have officially ‘podded up’ and are exploring the island together. Too much cuteness.

To offset the sadness of Cheery’s death, here’s a Elephant Seal pup’s tail. They’re possibly the most adorable part of the seal.

February Sunsets lighting up the sky!

February 7th census

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Laura Verhegge celebrating her 50th birthday at Race Rocks, sharing her love of nature with students near and far.

Weather: Stormy weekend! Steady 30knots with bursts of 50knots.

Visitors/Traffic: We were visited by the Marine Biology class and Biodiversity classes last week, so cool!

Courtney Edwards regailing the Marine Biology students with tales of Lighthouse keepers past.

Ecological Notes:

Sebastion hasn’t moved since his mom left, his little flippers can’t reach the ground with that big fat belly.

We had another mom wean her pup and leave Race Rocks on February 4th 2021 (Rhi-Rhi). We’ve been hoping for the 3 pups to ‘pod-up’ but no luck yet, the newest weaned pup is still too fat to move. The students have been studying the Steller Sea Lion carcass on the NE side of Race Rocks, with 25-30 eagles feeding on the carcass early in the mornings. Some of the students spotted a new dead California Sea Lion just S of the Lighthouse, it’s a branded seal with a tag on it, no obvious sign of death.

After Jafar’s last beating he’s been giving the Beachmaster a wide berth, but still relying on the boat ramp sneaker move.

Eagles feasting on the Steller carcass.

Jafar got his nose shredded fighting the Beachmaster, but it hasn’t scared him off the island.

Census:

Gulls: 79

Cormorants: 300

Eagles: 4

California Sea Lions: 149

Steller Sea Lions: 89

Elephant Seals: 9

Harbour Seals: 6

Turnstones: 0

Killdeer: 18

 

The dead California Sea Lion.

Tag matches the brand on this dead California Sea Lion.