Tag Archives: sealion

Big Seals, Many Seagulls

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Weather:

  • Visibility: 50m, very heavy fog
  • Wind: 20-25kn
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Choppy

Boats/Visitors:

We have had no visitors over the last few days.

Ecological:

A large male elephant seal has been resting on land for the last day and a half. This morning we noticed another, larger in size, has joined him.

The two moulting females are still here. We’ve been noticing a few harbour seals every day. Yesterday afternoon, we were able to get a picture of a sea lion with an interesting color.

The seagull activity has increased. They remain protective of their nests, and as they continue to lay eggs and establish nests it’s becoming harder to freely move around the island.

 

Busy weekend

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Was quite busy this weekend but things have calmed down a bit now

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 SE
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • The couple who will be taking the summer shift came by today for a little orientation, ran them through some of the chores we do here and will get more training time when we switch mid May
  • beautiful out the last couple days since the wind calmed down, there has been plenty of boats around

Maintenance

  • The solar panels really need to be scrubbed, I will try get that done tomorrow morning before the sun comes up, they are very difficult to clean when the sun is beating down on them

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals, the pup is still here
  • very few sea lions, around 100 of them, seems to be an even mix of stellar and californias
  • about 12 geese around and 7 goslings so far
  • a couple hundred pigeon guillemots around today
  • about 6 oystercatchers, they will probably start nesting soon
  • a little group of harlequins around along with about 200 gulls that are starting to build their nests as well
  • there is at least 50 harbour seals on the outer rocks  and that’s about it for a rough census

Storming

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Final exam/assignments the past week have kept me very busy, so here is  an update on the current elephant seals

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-35 SE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • No boats out there today

Ecological

  • There are 3 mature females, one young male and the pups are still here. I have not seen any molting yet, the females will be going through that soon
  • There are 3 goose nests that I’ve seen, I attempted to addle the eggs but there was no getting past those geese which seem extra vicious this year
  • Still about 100 sea lions, mix of california and stellar, mostly california
  • Theres usually nearly 50 or 60 harbour seals out on the rocks, not today due to the storm

Beautiful weather

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 NE
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • a few boats out today, fishing sailing and ecotours

Maintenance

  • Ran the desal for awhile, tank is topped up, hopefully, no more running it for hours every day

Ecological

  • It looks like the female pup might have gone in today, if she didn’t then she was very close, I will check again tomorrow morning if the pups are in the water
  • the male pup has been beside the house all day, so I know he didn’t go in
  • still one other male elephant on island, Bernard, the alpha
  • closer to 200 sea lions today, maybe due to the nice weather we’ve been having, also a lot of harbour seals on the south rock
  • the number of gulls is slowly increasing, at least from the noise level it seems like it

Still on land

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 SE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • Some ecotours out today

Maintenance

  • The desal quit on me a couple of times last night so I’m trying for a longer run tonight

Ecological

  • The pups still have not gone into the water, haven’t even gone near the jetty, they are both still beside the main house, they have been chewing on the grass a bit
  • the pigeon guillemots are back, looks to be a couple hundred of them
  • still around 100 sea lions, and about 50 harbour seals all together on the surrounding rocks
  • there are about 16 geese which I’m sure are starting to look for good nesting spots, there is also an increase in seagulls, I can tell from how noisy they are

Calm weather

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 NE
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy and Greg came by on Tuesday to help me with a fuel transfer which can get tricky when there’s a big elephant seal blocking the way

Maintenance

  • Going to move some more firewood around today, still unsure about pressure as my desalinator speed can’t quite keep up

Ecological

  • The pups have been hanging out together but still haven’t gone for a swim, should be soon the female pup is over 2 months old and the male pup is only a week younger than her
  • There are still 3 large males on the island, the youngest one will chase the pups around but no major injuries so far just a couple little bite marks
  • no other females on the island
  • by the looks of it, there are only around 100 sea lions left, wonder if they’ll stick out the summer until their buddies come back

Snow Storm

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: 20-45 NE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Waves over a metre today

Boats/Visitors

  • No visitors today, haven’t seen anyone out in today’s weather

Maintenance

  • Should’ve run the generator a little longer today but the wind was picking up, I’m waiting on a better flashlight, the elephant’s seals are scattered around and those pathways are pure ice

Ecological

  • I think the third mature female left today, the one who lost her pup
  • a juvenile female showed up, she was cuddling with the male pup but the alpha male started chasing her around and she took off
  • the female pup has moved away from the front door finally, she is by the cistern now
  • haven’t seen really seen many sea lions today

Pup adoption and census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 NE
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Small waves

Boats/Visitors

  • No visitors today, have been hearing the coast guard cruise by at night and do flare training

Maintenance

  • The desal was finally running last night although it was a slow process I got some fresh water out of it

Ecological

  • The male pups mother left the other night, it was nice to see the pups interacting yesterday but today they are more separated because the male pup has started nursing off the mother who lost her pup
  • One of the elephant seals managed to totally knock down the little green shed by the generator room, which is too heavy for me to put back together alone
  • definitely less sea lions now, but there is a lot of cormorants

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 114
  • Steller Sea Lions – 42
  • Harbour Seal – 21
  • Elephant Seal – 3 male, 1 female plus 2 pups, 1 female, 1 male
  • Cormorants – 528
  • Gulls – 130
  • Black Turnstones – 34
  • Eagle – 16
  • Oyster Catchers – 8
  • Harlequin Ducks – 10
  • Geese – 21

48 eagles

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 SW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm for the most part

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours going by today, some divers went by yesterday

Maintenance

  • Plan on stacking firewood today, and top up the water tank, I’m hoping to start pressure washing soon

Ecological

  • The third pup, is covered in bite marks and I really don’t know how long it’ll last but at the moment its still alive but one of the other mothers keeps attacking it
  • Chunk is here but hasn’t really come up past the jetty, which is good I think he is scared of Bernard

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 232
  • Steller Sea Lions – 106
  • Harbour Seal – 21
  • Elephant Seal – 2 male, 3 female plus 3 pups, 1 female, 1 male, and the third gender is undetermined
  • Cormorants – 417
  • Gulls – 507
  • Black Turnstones – 44
  • Eagle – 48
  • Oyster Catchers – 28
  • Harlequin Ducks – 8
  • Ravens – 2

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm for the most part

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours going by today

Maintenance

  • Let the batteries too low today, lost power around 16:00 and started the generator

Ecological

  • I’m getting concerned about the other female, they usually give birth within a few days of hauling out but she hasn’t which leads me to believe either she isn’t pregnant even though she really looks like it or maybe something wrong, I’m not sure
  • the pup is doing well though, getting a bit bigger every day, the beta males have stayed away and the alpha always stays close by

Census

  • California Sea Lions – 112
  • Steller Sea Lions – 124
  • Harbour Seal – 59
  • Elephant Seal – 3 male, 4 female plus 1 pup who I suspect is female
  • Cormorants – 32
  • Gulls – 89
  • Canada Geese – 18
  • Black Turnstones – 38
  • Eagle – 2
  • Oyster Catchers – 4
  • Harlequin Ducks – 12