Tag Archives: Steller Sea lion

Eagle Food

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There was nothing remarkable about the leaden morning with light and languid, north-northeast winds. Partially overcast skies cast a silvery pall over the Strait but bits of blue sky held promise for better things to come. The barometer held overnight at just above 1010 hPA and by mid-afternoon had dropped to 1008 As evening falls the barometer is holding at 1007. In the afternoon there was some sunshine but it was really a day dominated by cloud.

Five commercial whale-watching vessels were observed working in the Ecological Reserve today. Three were seen working in behind (south side) South Rocks and they were travelling very slowly and cautiously. Sea conditions were calm. The sea lions did not appear too disturbed by their presence. A few younger animals close to the water went in but it would be difficult to determine cause. On that note, military blasting continued as planned, from late morning to mid afternoon. Interceptor vessels and red flags warned boaters off. The sea lions and birds did not seem to react.

The wild goose chase continued and progress is happening. By early afternoon, most of the geese had retreated to the military zone to graze on the large lawn there. One pair staking out an area by camera 5 were more persistent, but eventually left for greener pastures. A couple of pairs of gulls were seen doing some of the broody things they do when nest building but as it is early yet, they are probably just practicing for the big day when they actually start to build a nest. The Pigeon Guillemots continue to flock here in the morning and leave in the afternoon as noted by Riley. Many were practicing walking on land today and in the water they worked the ebb flow through the rocks taking a ride and then flyew back upstream for another one.

A partially decomposed Northern Elephant Seal pup and part of its skull was located not far from the octopus in the boulders beach east of the Ecoguardian’s house. From the size, it appeared to have been a very young pup, if not premature, at death. The octopus was bigger. The plentiful, rich food sources are starting to explain the large number of eagles here daily.

A branded Stellers Sea Lions was photographed today 319Y and 4332 was observed. A California Sea Lion with a number on its rump and an X anterior to that was observed but the number was not verified nor was a successful photo taken.

 

There were no visitors and chores were routine today.

 

 

Back on the Rock: March 2– 4th

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Wednesday morning, while tide, wave height and current speed were just right; we slipped a crew change through a narrow window between two gales. As we waved goodbye, and I turned to get moved in, the barometer started to drop again.

After four and half months away, it was good to be back on Great Race with its familiar views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As an averred naturalist, I couldn’t help notice that North Rock was bristling like a military brush cut, with 350 – 400 cormorants. All three species Pelagic, Double-crested and Brandt’s, were ‘drying out’ on this strategic roost after foraging in the sea. An adult Bald Eagle swooped in and the cormorants en masse, hit the water. The tidal ebb started to clear them out to sea, pulled by moon and pushed hard by rainwater rising in the Salish Sea. The cormorants dispersed and the counting moment was over; some flew, some dove and others disappeared into the gloom, as more rain squalls swept in.

Concentrating on moving in and checking all systems in order, counts were put on hold for Thursday’s census. Chunk, the big, pup-killing, male Elephant Seal was lying where he had apparently been, on and off, for a week. He was a little too close to the path for comfort, which meant that coming and going to the energy building involved tip-toeing by, while keeping a look-out for his eyes to open and being ready to run, if necessary. Of course it is never necessary but absence makes the fear forget.

Riley left things fairly ship shape and I knew that everything was going to be fine when the old Lister generator roared to life. In the evening, the wind gradually rose to 36 knots, ESE, a speed and direction that makes the back door of the house whistle a weird, three-toned tune, but it didn’t keep me from a deep sleep.

Seawater sampling came early and the morning weather was fairly wet and windy. The sun broke out with rainbows in the afternoon and the wind dropped to less than 10 knots. As the sun sets now, the forecast is calling for light winds, a chance of showers Friday morning with rain again by afternoon.

Once established that it was a beautiful afternoon, three small whale-watching boats came out to watch the sea lions on South Rocks. It always makes me a little nervous to see them with their human cargo in close to the south reefs and the sea lions. Their insurance companies probably wouldn’t be too keen on that sight either.

Today was census day and there were interesting differences in the timings of comings and goings of different species. Today, the Pigeon Guillemots were here at first light and numbers kept increasing until about noon. They were all gone by late afternoon. The Black Oystercatchers were together in a squawky flock early in the morning and then dispersed. The sea lions hauled out mostly in the morning but additional individuals hauled throughout the day. The cormorants started roosting late morning and were mostly back in the water by late afternoon. The Harbour Seals hauled out in the late afternoon. There were few gulls in the morning, but by mid-day some were pairing up and looking like they might already be standing near their nest sites. By late afternoon there were over 200 gulls roosting on the island but they were gone by the time I came back from shutting down the generator at 21:00. The Killdeer, as usual arrived after dark.

The diverse temporal use of the Ecological Reserve by different species would be missed in a standard count where the observer passed through during a set amount of time. By having an Eco-Gaurdian here throughout the day, a much more thorough accounting of the different species use of the Protected Area is possible.

Here are the results of the animal census:

2016 03-Mar
River Otter 1
Northern Elephant Seal 1
Harbour Seal 72
Northern Sea Lion (Steller’s) 36
California Sea Lion 41
Canada Goose 6
Harlequin Duck 16
Surf Scoter 11
Common Merganser 1
Brandt’s Cormorant 50
Double-crested Cormorant 150
Pelagic Cormorant 100
Cormorant 50
Bald Eagle (juvenile) 9
Bald Eagle (adult) 2
Killdeer 2
Black Oystercatcher 24
Black Turnstone 23
Surfbird 1
Mew Gull 2
Glaucous-winged Gull (+hybrids) 214
Pigeon Guillemot 147
Northwestern Crow 2
Fox Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1

Friday’s weather was windy and wet. There was a lull early, as it switched for a short time to southwest but then turned back with a vengeance to strong northeast and big seas. The forecast is for a switching back and forth from southeast veering to southwest and back. It is blowing north 24 knots as I post this Friday evening, but is supposed to come down to light variable in the morning, rising againSaturday afternoon.

One whale watching vessel used the Ecological Reserve today and like yesterday’s boats, it too ventured into the danger zone of breaking reefs on the south side. The ebb was so large at the time that there were standing waves and a huge overfall along the string of rocks, islets and shallows. After a few tippy moments, they got out of there and I was glad they were all safe and sound.

I fought entropy today doing a few minor cleanups, making kindling and moving propane tanks around (downhill and empty). The usual chores also kept me busy. I tried to figure out what is going on with the camera, which has not yet fully cooperating. Now that I am through the technical barriers and able to post the blog I will be doing so daily and hope to post photos soon.

 

Marine Mammals Hauled out on Race Rocks Jan 2014-Feb 2016

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This graph represents the 6 marine mammal species which haul out on Great Race Rocks in the Race Rocks Ecological reserve.  providing the population numbers and the time of year  CLICK to enlarge. The data was obtained from the Posts on census done by the Ecoguardians at Race Rocks.mammalcraph

The graph below represents the Elephant seal population at Race Rocks Ecological reserve with data taken from the Ecoguardian logs for January 2014 to January 2016. Click to enlarge.

elephantseal2014-2015

Storm Recovery

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Ecological Happenings

  • Juvenile Bald Eagle seen feeding on its prey
  • Small birds (including gulls) have been quite flighty given the number of eagles around.
  • Animals have settled into their pre-storm positions.
  • Steller with infected eyes seen again today high up on the rocks near camera 5. This is the only Steller we’ve seen come so far – up island.
  • Seagull with a broken wing feeding on a dead seagull.
  • Much calmer seas and winds today.

Marine Vessels

Two tour boats and one pleasure vessel.

Maintenance

  • Repairing some of the storm damage, e.g. electric fence, ceiling leaks into the energy building (albeit temporary).
  • Checking the water supply to the student house.
  • Taken the opportunity of the break in the swell to fill the cistern.

No visitors today.

Steller with an infection

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Ecological Happenings

  • A Steller Sea Lion spotted that couldn’t open its eyes. Looked to have a serious infection, with puss streaming down its body. It was last seen making its way into the water.
  • No Sea Lions on North, Turbine, Middle or West Rocks, they have all migrated to the main island.

Marine Vessels

Two tour boats and two pleasure vessels

Maintenance

  • Continuing to clean the buildings, though currently options are limited without having the high pressure hose working.
  • Detached rain water tank from the building and started to clean the significant build up of organic matter inside it. The intention is to get the tank clean, and design a new system to catch rain water.
  • Continued rebuilding the electric fence at the dock and the NE of the island. Strong winds last week toppled parts of the fence and snapped wires.

No visitors today.

New Eco-guardians.

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Sea lions visit Pearson College Divers Photo by Jasper Rea.

Sea lions visit Pearson College Divers Photo by Jasper Rea.

It was a beautiful day at Race Rocks, with light southeast winds and a mostly clear sky. The barometer fell a little today to ~1013hPA and the forecast for tomorrow is for sunny skies. There is a strong wind warning in effect for overnight with diminishing southeast winds Friday. Rain is forecast for Saturday.

Only four whale-watching vessels were noted in the protected area today and three pleasure craft passed through going slowly. The people on one of those vessels, the Kaos were observed feeding rockfish to sea lions in the Ecological Reserve. It is illegal to feed wildlife and if it happens they will be reported.

Today was animal census day and here are the results.

Animal Census

Steller Sea Lion 321

California Sea Lion 637

Harbour Seal 77

Northern Elephant Seal 9

Sea Otter 0

Humpback Whale (1 observed within one mile of ER southeast of

Great Race)

Canada Goose 23

Harlequin Duck 5

Surf Scoters 11 (flying through to east)

Common Murre 5

Rhinoceros Auklet 4

Double-crested Cormorant 73

Brandt’s Cormorants 25

Pelagic Cormorant 9

Unidentified Cormorants 20

Bald Eagle 1 adult

Black Oystercatcher 11

Black Turnstone 7

Kildeer 2

Glaucous-winged Gull 248

California Gull 3

Thayer’s Gulls 707

Herring Gull 0

Ring-billed Gull 1

Western Gull 2

Heerman’s Gull 14

Mew Gull 0

Unidentified gulls 53

Total gull count 1028

Common Raven 2

Red-winged Blackbird 7 (during count week)

Savannah Sparrow 12

Song Sparrow 2

American Goldfinch 1

American Pipet 1

Don and Nina, the new eco-guardians in-training arrived today. They worked hard all day, after getting up very early to catch the morning slack and are progressing really well in learning some of the idiosyncrasies of Race Rocks operations.

Golden Day at Race Rocks.

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This morning dawn came with a mostly overcast sky and fog distant. It cleared by late morning and stayed sunny, only clouding over in the early evening. The wind was light, less than 10 knots and easterly all day. The barometer was up to 2022 earlier and is falling now. The forecast includes a strong wind warning for tonight. Thursday is expected to be sunny with a few clouds.

Four whale watching vessels were observed working in the protected area today. Several sport fishers passed through. The salmon gillnet fleet and packers passed through Race Passage heading east. There was a big swell during the morning and early afternoon.

Second Nature brought one of the Pearson College student dive teams today and the students who got into the water had a fantastic dive. Not only were they able to observe and film the incredible richness of this biodiversity hotspot, they were also visited underwater by curious sea lions.

Several new sea lion brands were noted today including Californians U20, U503, U363 and U844. One of the California Sea Lions made it right up to camera #5 today. By the time I got outside with the blog camera, he was already descending.

I noted the other day that I hadn’t noticed cookie Cutter Shark scars on the Steller’s Sea Lions. Well since I made that remark I am seeing theme everywhere, so take that back.

On the bird front, we had a little female American Goldfinch visit today. It landed on the thistles right in front of me over by the tower. Also on the bird front a suspected Brandt’s Cormorant with two leg tags was spotted today; yellow on the left leg and white on the right leg. There was also a strange bird amongst the Brandt’s Cormorants that I was hoping would be the Brown Booby that has been floating around out here.

 

Chores were routine and in preparation for the new eco-guardian crew coming out tomorrow. There were nine people on board Second Nature.

 

Steaming Up the Strait?

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After an overcast and partially foggy start to the day, the sky cleared in the early afternoon. Winds were less than 10 knots all day from the west-southwest turning to east in the evening. The barometer rose slowly all day and reached ~ 2022h PA. The forecast is for light winds becoming easterly 10 to 15 knots early Wednesday morning. It is expected to clear in the morning and be nice on Thursday.

Only four whale watching vessels were observed in the protected area today. They all treated the protected area with respect and drove slowly and carefully. Several pleasure craft went through, one at high speed, right through the area where there were 50 to 100 sea lions in the water. The other sports fishers were much more careful.

A couple of miles to the south of Great Race, a Canadian sub was observed heading out to sea and then a few minutes later, literally steaming back to shore.

I had the opportunity to work with one of Catrin Brown’s first year biology students today. They have just finished studying ecology, so came well armed with vocabulary and concepts and were keen to soak up knowledge gained firsthand on this little biological hot-spot.

We saw evidence of food chains and food webs everywhere from Canada Geese grazing on the grass, to evidence of predation on gulls and predation by gulls. We observed the thick climax kelp forest that rings the islands and reefs and saw evidence of intertidal grazers like chitons and phytoplankton feeders like clams and mussels. We didn’t spot the sea otter that is usually here but had plenty of other marine mammals and evidence of their dining and moulting habits in the form of fish bones, fish otoliths and hair, fur and pelage (from the spring moult of the Northern Elephant Seals).

We talked about the trophic level of different types of Killer Whales and the need for protection of critical habitat for recovering species at risk. The southern Resident Killer whales are of course highly endangered and are really dependent on strong Chinook Salmon runs while Biggs Killer Whales feed one trophic level up and eat marine mammals like seals and sea lions that in turn eat salmon.

We talked about the timing of births, mating, nursing and parental care in different species and about different symbioses including parasitism ( nice worms present in seal poop) and mutualism. We talked about phenology and seasons being dominated by different types of fish and about migrations.

We even touched on the great detritivore and decomposition loops. The carbon sink that is mediated by the microbial pump that transfers carbon to deep sediments. It was an ecologist’s kind of an afternoon, a living show and tell, a time for discovery and questioning which will hopefully on reflection, lead to some deep learning.

Chores were routine and it is great to have company.

Plastic No No Band

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Thanksgiving Monday was a wet day dominated by light north-northeast winds in the morning and a moderate westerly in the afternoon. Wind speed was 10 or less knots until it turned to west. By early evening it had risen to 15 – 20 knots. The barometer fell early and has been climbing since late morning boding better weather tomorrow. The wind is forecast to drop after midnight and switch to light easterlies for Tuesday. Forecasters expect a mix of sun and cloud with fog patches dissipating in the morning. A brighter day expected.

Seven whale watching vessels visited in the morning and none in the afternoon and the three pleasure craft that passed through were also in the morning.

On wet days, it seems as if the sea lions spend more time in the water although there are pockets of Californians (on the cairns, for example) that stayed put, hauled out all day. The rock-climbers also stayed where they were (up by the heli-pad), some for a couple of days. I did see one “new” (to me) brand today, California Sea Lion ‘U755’ from the Columbia River area. There was also a “necklaced Stellers Sea Lion on the rocks by the energy building today. That rock is quite popular with Stellers which surprising due to its proximity to the activity.

Six young Northern Elephant Seals were ‘hanging out’, tussling in the water by the jetty all day today.

Salmon continue to pass through, as observed in sea lion kills throughout the area. The Glaucous-winged Gulls and Thayers Gulls continue to scavenge at the surface during the kills and in the mixed species feeding flocks where diving birds force forage fish balls up to the surface. Humpback Whales continue to forage adjacent to the protected area. The Humpback out by Rosedale Reef today is an extremely large one (probably a female). It spends very little time at the surface with dive times averaging greater than 10 minutes

California Sea Lion with brand U755. The U is also a C and indicates the animal was branded as a weaner near the Columbia River.

California Sea Lion with brand U755. The U is also a C and indicates the animal was branded as a weaner near the Columbia River.

and sometimes only one or two blows. They are tremendously high, straight blows.

More and more Double Crested Cormorants arrive daily raising the total number of cormorants using the protected area to forage and roost. The adult Bald Eagle returns each morning and worries the gulls and cormorants.
Chores are routine and it is really great to have company.

Giving Thanks.

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The morning was calm and mostly clear with very light winds (<5 knots) from the southeast. The wind picked up a little in the afternoon and switched to north-northeast by evening. The barometer peaked at 1020 hPA mid-day after rising quickly from yesterday’s low of almost 995. As the sun sets, the barometer is falling almost as fast as it rose and the forecast has a strong wind warning in effect. The forecast also calls for clouds and periods of rain on Monday along with the wind.

Five whale watching vessels were observed in the protected area. There may have been more when I went ashore for a few hours. Four pleasure craft were observed in reserve. One rental boat was observed speeding in reserve on the south side but stopped just after they were spotted and left the area slowly and carefully. There was one over-flight observed, it looked like a fisheries patrol vessel and they were high, probably one thousand feet.

One very large Humpback Whale was blowing near Rosedale Reef in the morning and there was some whale activity near West Rock in the afternoon, but unable to identify the species. Whale watching vessels were aggregating there.

The adult Bald Eagle was back on North Rock today and I counted 95 cormorants in the water just after a flock of gulls flew past alerting the presence of the eagle. As the salmon rivers start to be less busy there will be more and more eagles.

Processing some of the photos taken earlier in the fall brought to light a few showing a very young (still black) Stellers Sea Lion on Middle Rock. That might be a new record.

Red-winged Blackbirds moved through Great Race today and as in the spring they landed on the tower before heading south. There were seven on them and they may have come down to ground but I was busy and didn’t see them.

My husband is here for Thanksgiving and I am thankful

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