Tag Archives: Steller Sea lion

Eagle vs Crow

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 12-15 NE
  • Sky: mostly sunny
  • Water: mostly calm, a bit choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • noticed one larger tour boat cruise by

Ecological

  • elephant seal pup is back
  • seemed to be more stellar sea lions around today than usual on the east rocks
  • saw an eagle snatch a crow chick and fight off it’s parents in flight. RIP lil crow.

Notes

  • the weather has been fantastic this week with lots of sun!

Census Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  20-15 NW
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours today

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 33
  • California Sea Lions: 23
  • Elephant Seals: 11
  • Harbour Seals: 161
  • Unspecified Gulls: 212
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 53
  • Cormorants: 12
  • Canada Geese: 19
  • Oystercatchers: 8
  • Harlequinn Ducks: 0
  • Crows: 1

Notes

  • The harbour seal numbers have significantly increased but all of the other numbers seem to have gone down
  • The little elephant seal is back, I haven’t seen her for a few days

Seagulls vs Elephant Seals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  5-10 W
  • Sky: overcast some rain
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours came by today

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals today mostly in the front of the house but went down to the jetty, I see still don’t see the youngest female around
  • There are definitely more seagull eggs, an elephant seal got too close to one of their nests earlier and got into a fight with two of them, the gulls won, the seal wiggled away

 

Swiftsure Race Today

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  5-10 NW was a bit less in the middle of the day but picked up a bit again
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A lot of ecotours today, along with countless boats sailing by and fishing

Ecological

  • 12 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Other

  • The swiftsure race started today and hundreds of sailboats went sailing by the lighthouse today

Census Day, Thursday, May 25th

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-5 NW
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Many different boats around today

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals scattered around today, mostly around the jetty to cool off in the water

Other

  • DND blasting continues

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 42
  • California Sea Lions: 44
  • Elephant Seals: 14
  • Harbour Seals: 36
  • Unspecified Gulls: 321
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 120
  • Cormorants: 23
  • Canada Geese: 16
  • Oystercatchers: 8
  • Harlequinn Ducks: 5 males (that I could see)

Notes

  • I have not seen any eagles today but I saw them yesterday and they have been hanging around so I am guessing they are around here somewhere
  • There is another Elephant seal
  • An increase in sea lions as well as gulls

 

 

Wednesday, May 24th

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: between 15-25 throughout the day
  • Sky: partly cloudy
  • Water: choppy, no more than a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours came by today

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals on the island today

Other

  • DND blasting today, the elephant seals don’t seem bothered by it but he sea lions really don’t like it

Tuesday, May 23rd

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: between 20-40 knots throughout the day
  • Sky: few clouds
  • Water: choppy, no more than a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Maybe one or two, too windy for many boats to be around

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals scattered around today

Monday, May 22nd

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: between 0-10 throughout the day, very light
  • Sky: clear
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a few boats around of all sorts fishing, sailing, ecotours and people just wanting to relax on the water

Ecological

  • 14 elephant seals scattered around today

Beautiful Sunrise, DND Blasting today

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0.6 SE this morning at 5:30am but has since picked up to 20 SW
  • Sky: few clouds in the more and more came rolling in later in the day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Some ecotours today
  • Saw a lot of boats in surrounding waters, not within the ecological reserve boundaries, was a nice day for fishing out there

Ecological

  • 11 elephant seals counted today however there is one I did not see that is usually around so I know she is around here somewhere making the count 12

Other

  • there was some DND blasting across the water today

Census day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles, a bit foggy this morning but burned off by noon to partly cloudy
  • Wind: 10-15 NW got continuously more calm through the day
  • Sky: partly cloudy throughout the day
  • Water: stayed consistently calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A lot of ecotours came through today
  • Had a couple visitors, come by with Kyle this morning and then had Kyle and Guy come back this afternoon to help me out with a couple things

Ecological

  • Census day!
    1. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 35
    2. Harbour Seals: 44
    3. California Sea Lions: 23
    4. Elephant Seals: 13
    5. Seagulls unspecified: 291
    6. Pigeon Guillemots: 152
    7. Cormorants unspecified: 29
    8. Canada Geese: 14
    9. Savannah Sparrows: 0
    10. Harlequin Ducks: 8 (2 female, 6 male)
    11. Black Oystercatchers: 8
    12. Bald Eagles: 2 (2 adults, 1 immature)
  • There are 2 more elephant seals than usual! so thats exciting, they stayed scattered today on the path from the lighthouse to the jetty
  • As you can see there have been a decrease in sea lions, they are no longer on the southern rocks and have moved to the main island one group on the north side and another group on the southside
  • There have been an increase in gulls, pigeon guillemots and cormorants, also the harlequins are back, I did not see them last week
  • There has also been an increase in harbour seals, when I counted them they were mostly all on the Middle Rocks but have since scattered about the South Islands as well