solar power | Race Rocks Ecological Reserve-

: Clean solar panels

: Despite some clouds, there was still a lot of power pumping into the batteries from the solar panels.

: These little fellows are five weeks old today! Christine pointed them out to me on Wednesday, as she had been watching them grow from the day they hatched. They live on the northeast corner of the ecoguardian’s house.

: A parcel of 20 black oystercatchers in the early afternoon on the west side of the island. They were not this congregated and easy to count yesterday on census day.

: Steller sea lion in the south channel

: Bald eagle on Turbine Rock

: Ruddy turnstone being watched by a gull (and an ecoguardian)

: The ramps are the elephant seal’s preferred ocean egress. Can you spot the elephant seal slug trail leading up the boat ramp?

: Post swim nap for the elephant seals

: Black oystercatchers on an evening fly by the island

: Resting male California sea lion with orange flipper tag 13-2.

: Zoomed in view of the tag on the sea lion’s front left flipper.

: I think the sea lion could tell from afar that I was interested in their tag, so he showed the underside of their flipper.

I will contact NOAA and DFO to report the resighting of the California sea lion with the tag 13-2. The orange tags mean the sea lion was rehabilitated. The tag on the left flipper means the sea lion is a male. I will update the log when I hear back about his history. The rest of the California and Steller sea lions are currently hauled out on Middle Rocks. Perhaps this guy needs a break from the frat party.

Facility work:

Clean solar panels
Check guest house for supplies and cleanliness

Vessels:

Ecotourism: 12
Private: 3

Weather:

Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon/evening
Sky: Partly cloudy
Wind: variable light winds overnight; from 07:00-12:00 westerlies 8-20 knots; afternoon/evening westerlies 20-31 knots
Air temperature: low 12°C, high 21°C
Seawater temperature at max flood: 11.0°C

** All wildlife photos are taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

Weather for July 17:
Wind: W 14 to 34 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 13-17 C

Weather for July 18:
Wind: W 9 to 25 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 2′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 11-14 C

Weather for July 19:
Wind: W 6 to 27 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 1′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-17 C

Weather for July 20:
Wind: W 21 to 40 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Foggy in early morning, Partly Cloudy after 10:00
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 4′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-20 C

Weather for July 21:
Wind: W 19 to 40 knots
Visibility: 5-15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-14 C

Maintenance:
I did the routine tasks of cleaning the solar panels and house windows, topping up the water in the 24 deep cycle batteries, fixing the electric fence, tidying, testing the salinity and temperature of the seawater, maintaining the freshwater system, and running the desalinator with solar power to produce fresh water.

Visitors:
I drove the Race Rocks station boat to pick up a friend, who came for the night of July 18. Brad had visited Race Rocks before when we both worked for many summers on campus as coordinators for PSYL (Pearson Seminar on Youth Leadership).

Weekly Census observed on July 20:
Steller sea lion: 14
California sea lion: 1
harbour seal: 124
cormorant: 5
black oystercatcher: 24 adults, 2 chicks
pigeon guillemot: 162
glaucous-winged gull: 396 adults, 147 chicks
surfbird: 30
black turnstones: 87
western sandpiper: 4

Photo highlights from the past five days: