Tag Archives: Steller Sea lion

Wildlife Census

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BOOM! With the nice weather improving, a huge cohort of Steller Sea Lions showed up, and took over South Islands. This is a change from the typical South Seal Rocks haul-out next to the generator shed. I’ve attached a Reserve Map for those interested.

South Islands got COVERED in Steller Sea Lions this week.

Race Rocks Reserve Map

 

Bull Stellers had to figure out the pecking order for the summit.

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 250
  • California Sea lion: 150
  • Harbour Seal: 22
  • Sea Otter: 1 (Ollie?)

Birds

  • Gulls: 50
  • Cormorants: 55
  • Eagle: 4 Adult, 6 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 30
  • Canada Geese: 7 – 3 breeding pairs
  • Oystercatcher: 44
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 73
  • Harlequin Ducks: 4

Pigeon Guillemots taking over the NW bluffs of Race Rocks.

Harlequin Ducks on South Seal Rocks

Double-crested Cormorant

Harbour Seals love that low-low tide.

I was recently reminded that Trans-Mountain is now operational, and we’re seeing an increase in tanker traffic in the Juan-de Fuca Straight.

PIGU!!! On a good day the Pigeon Guillemots can almost drown out the sea lion barking.

Black Oystercatchers are used as an indicator of good coastal ecosystem health.

Probably Ollie, lurking on the edge of South Islands for a few days.

I was trying to decide if Ollie was carrying around an old River Otter again. Your guess is as good as mine here.

Black Turnstone love foraging around the edges of the footpath and outcropping rocks.

 

Census + Spring has sprung!

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Pearson Students coming out to see the wildlife!

This week Second Nature made a trip out with some students to see the Sea Lions! It’s always great to see just how excited students are to see Race Rocks!

California Sea Lion loving that cozy sunshine.

Canada Geese can eat up to up to 2kg of grass a day. It noticable.

Weather has been fantastic, with new Pigeon Guillemots and Oystercatchers showing up.

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 64
  • California Sea lion: 87
  • Harbour Seal: 14

Birds

  • Gulls: 55
  • Cormorants: 25
  • Eagle: 2 Adult, 2 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 14
  • Canada Geese: 5 – 2 breeding pairs
  • Oystercatcher: 15
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 52

Ocean swell coming up the Juan de Fuca onto the jetty.

Last Day!

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That week flew by – I am heading home tomorrow and my time spent here was amazing as always! 

 

Vessels:

  • 1 Private 

Facility Work:

  • Filled generator with diesel
  • Cleaned main house windows 
  • Hauled up logs for firewood 
  • Cleaned house/prepped for next Ecoguardians

Saturday Update

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Today’s weather has been significantly better than yesterday although its still grey and quite cold. The logs at the jetty are slowly breaking up a bit but there are still a ton down there. I did manage to drag in a couple more for firewood while the tide was low. 

There have been 20-30 eagles here lately which is pretty neat to watch, but still no elephant seals! 

The little entangled Cali is sticking around which makes me hopeful we’ll be able to to help her. I also spotted a juvenile Steller on the jetty today with a large fish hook and lure in his lip. A hooked lip is far better than him having swallowed the hook but its still not great. I expect that it’ll get stepped on or ripped out before we can do anything for him but I’ll keep an eye on it regardless. The young Stellers LOVE to play with anything they find, I’ve been watching them carry sticks around and chunks of fish, and unfortunately some plastic debris as well. They’re like curious little toddlers and I love watching them play – I’d just prefer it not be with garbage! 

Nothing too wild going on today! Chopped some wood, and got a few tasks done inside. No vessels in the area today, everyone seems to be laying low. 

Stormy and Cold

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Not much of an update today. Woke up to strong winds and sideways rain that I’m surprised didn’t turn to snow with how cold it felt. Definitely a stay inside kinda day! 

The entangled Cali is still here, hopefully it sticks around until we have calmer weather to organize a rescue. 

One thing I have noticed thats changed since October is how many more Steller sea lions appear to be here as opposed to California sea lions. There are also a lot more young/juvenile Stellers than the fall as well, super interesting and I wonder if Race Rocks will ever become a rookery?

Very young Steller resting on a California sea lion

Slightly older juvenile Steller

Back Again!

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Hello again!

What better way to ring in 2025 than to spend it here on the rock? I’m only here for a week, bridging the gap between two other Ecoguardians but I’ll take any time out here that I can get!

I arrived around noon and the tide was so high it was nearly over the jetty which I’ve never seen before (secretly hoping for a good storm this week). Spent the afternoon settling back in and spent a fair bit of time outside in the afternoon and exploring whats changed in the past couple of months.

Certainly less sea lions but still more than I was expecting, no elephant seals (yet), and all the humpbacks seem to have gone off to warmer waters – I don’t blame them, it is freezing out here.

I did get a lovely welcome home pass by from transient killer whale T49C Neilson who is one of my favourites around here!

Looking forward to finding more creatures this week!

Clear skies

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Ecological Notes:

  • The Elephant Seals, the expecting female and the young female, left the ramp area and haven’t returned …. hoping they’re just off having a good feed and not looking at another haul out spot.
  • In the past, most of the Steller Sea Lions have moved to the outer rocks, leaving the main rock to the California Sea Lions… but this season there are many more Stellers remaining on the main rock, even some have ventured onto the pier

Visitors:

  • Parcel and supply delivery by the waterfront team

Facility Work:

  • got some of the deck algae sprayed down during the nicer weather…. until the sprayers broke!

  • Finally got some good logs in, shortened at the holding area, and moved up to the bucking area
  • Weekly Battery maintenance
  • Monthly Equalization charge to the Batteries
  • Month end reports and posting
  • The waterfront team brought out, and prepped a new door for the battery room, appears to now also need a new door frame

DND events:

  • regular blasting, a few times a day for the last week, no noted reaction from the wildlife.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • In addition to a few eco-tourism vessels, there have been a few private vessels visiting the reserve, all with good behaviour

 

Weather Events:

The last week has been primarily N NE winds, leading to mostly clear skies and dry weather. Seas have had light chop, slight fog daily on the shoreline away from the reserve.

  • Thursday, December 05:
    • Sky: High overcast, fog on the southern strait
    • Wind: NE winds 10-15 kts
    • Sea:  light chop
    • Temperature Low 4oC, High 8oC

 

 

** 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?

Last Day!

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I don’t think my time here has ever flown quite this fast! 

Between visitors, rescue work, whales, and beautiful weather, the past month has gone by in the blink of an eye. It has been incredible and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to be able to work out here. 

I know I’ll be back, but until then – here are a few of my favourite moments from October. 

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

Entangled Sea Lion and Oct 20 Census

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*WARNING* Today’s blog post contains photos of a severely entangled sea lion with deep wounds.

Well, if my warning wasn’t an indicator – today has not been the most fun day of animal spotting.

I came across a California sea lion this morning with by far the worst entanglement I’ve ever seen. What appears to be monofilament fishing net has wrapped itself so tight that its caused deep wounds on the back of his neck, as well as the rest of the way around. On top of that, the netting is so tightly wrapped around his muzzle that he doesn’t appear to be able to open his mouth.

Given that my full time job is in marine mammal rescue, seeing entangled animals is not new to me, I see them so often that I sometimes feel immune to how awful it is.

Today I am not immune, I am horrified.

All of the right organizations and people have been contacted and I know that every single one of those people will do everything they can to help him. I just hope he stays put until then.

There is a second entangled sea lion here as well, a Steller with a packing strap around its neck which is bad but thankfully not as severe as the Cali.

Moving on to today’s census….with the weather being so bad this weekend, I’m not surprised the numbers are down from last week!

Mammals:

Steller sea lions: 392
California sea lions: 652
Harbour seals: 41

Tons of humpbacks this week and a few transient orca stopped by the jetty yesterday in the midst of the storm!

Birds:

Gulls: 215
Cormorants: 170
Turnstones: 25
Canadian geese: 23
Oyster catchers: 2
Golden-crowned kinglet: 3

If you’ve made it this far, here is a picture of a cute little bird: See the taxonomy page at https://racerocks.ca/regulus-satrapa-golden-crowned-kinglet/

Golden Crowned kinglet

Golden-crowned kinglet. Regulus satrapa

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 5

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy and rainy
  • Wind: Low of 3 knots, high of 19 knots, with gusts up to 37 knots
  • Sea: Whitecaps in the afternoon
  • Temperature: Low 9•C, High 14•C

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

1, 2, 3 Baby Stellers!

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When I first saw the Steller pup a couple of days ago I was SO excited. As previously mentioned, Race Rocks is not a rookery so pups are not born here. The nearest rookery would be near Ucluelet and the other well established rookeries are much further north.

I reached out to a few people and I’m told that this pup could have been from the rookery near Ucluelet – which is still very far, or perhaps the mom didn’t give birth at a rookery and rather a different haulout site, which isn’t totally out of the question.

Fast forward to today and I’m photographing the pup when I hear what sounds like a baby goat screaming behind me. I turned around to find yet another Steller pup and its mom! And yes – baby Stellers sound like goats/sheep and often yell out a loud “BAAAAAH”.

Pup 1

Pup 2

I spent about an hour watching these two babies interact with their moms and other sea lions around them, taking so many photos that I’m surprised my camera didn’t catch fire. I finally headed back to the house and stopped dead in my tracks as I noticed a third pup and its mom on the rocks next to the jetty!

Pup 3!!!!

I ran back to the south side of the island to make sure no one took a swim and the other pups were still there. So we now have three whole Steller sea lion pups!

I mentioned in my blog post a couple days ago that we’ve seen nursing moms and pups before but those were much older pups so this is new. These are 2024 pups which means they were born sometime around June-July and are only a few months old!

I can’t wait to watch them over the next 3 weeks and see who else shows up!

I think his mom might be ready to find a babysitter!

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