Tag Archives: sunrise

April 13 and 14 – End of Shift

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Wind: yesterday variable 2-28 knots, today W 7-38 knots
Sea State: yesterday calm, today rippled in morning and up to 1 m chop in evening
Visibility: both days 15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 7-13 °C, today 8-11 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 415.81 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Today is my last full day on the island before the shift changeover. Tomorrow morning, Mara and Kai will arrive to take over as Ecoguardians. They were here last year from May to September.

I spent the past two days finishing up some tasks around the island and cleaning. I also took time to walk around the island and get a look at all of the incredible species, land and shoreline that make up this ecological reserve.

There were no boats in the ecological reserve.

See the photos below for some views from around the island.

  • The combination of clear water and low tide make it easy to see lots of colourful seaweeds, surfgrass, urchins and other intertidal species.
  • Two swallows were fluttering around the island yesterday. This one landed on the a cable on the winch long enough for me to take a photo.
  • At first I thought it was barn swallows, but then with the help of a field guide realized it’s a violet-green swallow.
  • The sun peering over the horizon at 6:20 this morning.
  • The lighthouse just after sunrise this morning. The moon, in its third quarter, can be seen to the south.
  • A thayer’s gull with a Canada goose egg in its beak.
  • Can you spot the juvenile elephant seal in the middle of the photo, amongst the group of california sea lions?
  • A beautiful sunset on the edge, where the land meets the sea meets the sky.

April 1 and 2

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Wind: yesterday variable 1-21 knots, today W 2-31 knots
Sea State: both days rippled
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days partly cloudy then clearing in the mid morning
Temperature: yesterday 4-10 °C, today 5-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 415.81 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Yesterday morning, a new elephant seal arrived on the island. He has green tags on each tail flipper, D018 and D019. The green tags signify it was tagged at Año Nuevo Reserve, similar to the female juvenile seal here right now. Due to the website being down for a few days, I didn’t realize at the time the seal was the same one here for the last two weeks of December. The seal was also seen here for two weeks in April 2019. I reported the sighting to Dr. Patrick Robinson, the Director of Año Nuevo Reserve, near San Francisco in California. He reported back that the seal was born at the beginning of 2017, meaning he is now a three year old sub adult. Based on the photos I sent Dr. Robinson and included in the gallery below, he determined the seal is in great body condition but fur/skin is in poor condition.

In the past few days, the sea lions have been taking over the jetty, something they haven’t done in critical mass since the beginning of the winter. This afternoon, I finished setting up and testing the electric fence on the jetty to deter sea lions from congregating and damaging the railings and boat cleats. When I need to use the jetty to test the seawater or for boats, the sea lions need to be cleared off. No matter how slowly I approach the them, they only have one speed of getting off the jetty, which is stampede. It will take some time each day to maintain the fence from sea lions bumping it, as well as wind and waves.

Only one boat was seen in the ecological reserve, a Coast Guard rigid hull inflatable went through Middle Channel yesterday afternoon and stopped to take photos of sea lions on the rocks.

  • Sunrise from the top of the tower
  • Morning mountain view
  • The newly arrived sub adult male elephant seal
  • He has a green tag on each tail flipper D018 and D019
  • D018
  • The beginnings of the electric fence to protect the jetty from sea lions
  • Colourful sunset

March 30 and 31

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Wind: yesterday variable 4-40 knots, today W 3-25 knots
Sea State: yesterday up to 1 m chop, today rippled
Visibility: yesterday 10 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: yesterday partly cloudy with rain in morning, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 5-7 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 415.65 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

I took soundings on all the water and fuel tanks as well as other notable measurements for the month end report. Here are some of the numbers. The desalinator produced 6,650 L of water, which was used mostly for pressure washing the buildings and other cleaning. 540 L of diesel was used to run the generator to top of the batteries, when there wasn’t enough sun to charge the solar panels. The generator ran for 141 hours over the month, for an average of 4.5 hours/day. There were 24 visitors (16 unique visitors) to the island over the course of the month.

No boats were seen in the ecological reserve over the past two days.

See the gallery below for views around the island.

  • A high concentration of harbour seals on Turbine Rock at low tide
  • A small midden of deconstructed mossy chitons
  • Five out of the six elephant seals going for a dip in the jetty bay
  • Elephant seal pup buddies
  • Another view of the post sunrise sunny rain, from inside the energy building
  • Canada geese reflecting pond
  • A post sunrise double rainbow, while it was sunny raining
  • Different stages of moulting. The elephant seal on the left has got rid of most of the fur and skin on her head, except a patch on the nose.

March 16 and 17

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Wind: yesterday variable 3-13 knots, today mostly E 0-13 knots
Sea State: both days calm
Visibility: both days 15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 3-11 °C, today 4-9 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.35 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

It’s still officially winter, although it’s looking a lot more springlike. The ground is drying out, after lots of sun and little moisture lately. The elephant seal pups are now fending for themselves, as there are no signs of adults around. The female, tagged T563, hasn’t been seen for three days.

Today marked the first day this winter with more than 12 hours of daylight. The sunrise was at 7:21. The sunset was at 19:23. Each day adds three and a half minutes of light.

The pressure washing continues, in an effort to clean algae off the exterior walls of the buildings. Other maintenance tasks are happening like cleaning the solar panels, chopping wood, keeping the paths clear and running the desalinator. There is still lots of time leftover for watching the seal pups, eagles, pigeon guillemots and learning about this amazing place.

Yesterday, there were two tour boats in the ecological reserve. Today, Pearson College’s boat Second Nature and captain Greg came to deliver fuel for the generator. This afternoon, there was a pleasure craft touring, quite quickly at times,  around the islands. With lots of marine mammals in the water and along the shore, it’s important for people to drive at a slow speed in the ecological reserve.

Jan 16th 2018

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Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 NE
  • Sky: Partly cloudy, mostly sunny
  • Water: Choppy less than a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a couple ecotours went by today

Ecological

  • The 7 day old pup is doing well
  • The mature male elephant seal is staying near the pup and mother
  • Saw one of the 3 juvenile males around but the other two were somewhere else today, didn’t even see them when I went to do the water sample by the jetty

Notes

  • had some beautiful sunrises and sunsets lately so I haven’t had to run the generator as much

 

Godwit and Guillemots

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Marbled Godwit

Marbled Godwit

Ecological Happenings

  • Calm overcast day with light winds and settled seas.
  • Allot of driftwood and deadheads floating past in the current around the rocks from the storms and high tides of late.
  • Marbled Godwit spotted on the main island in the afternoon.
  • Pigeon guillemots and Surf scoters observed around the main island to the North and East.
  • The female Elephant seal remains on middle rocks, while the males and smaller Elephant seal remain on the main island.
  • Pod of Orca seen passing to the south, feeding in the straight. Approximately five in group consisting of males (larger dorsal fins), female and a calf. Group of accompanying birds (gulls and cormorants) circling and highlighting their position.

Marine Vessels

  • One Whale Watching boat through the reserve.
  • Courtney visited on 2nd Nature, from Pearson College, dropping off the winter fuel and a set of repaired steps for the jetty.

Maintenance

  • Steps and fuel unloading from 2nd Nature.
  • General tidying and preparation for end of shift.

Cracking Sunrise

Cracking Sunrise

Cormorants taking a rest on some drift wood

Cormorants taking a rest on some drift wood

Pigeon Guillemots

Pigeon Guillemots

Marbled Godwit and Black Turnstone

Marbled Godwit and Black Turnstone feeding

Immature Bald Eagle landing

Immature Bald Eagle landing. Beautiful plumage.

Double-crested Cormorants

Double-crested Cormorants and Thayer’s Gulls

Courtney prepping 2nd Nature

Courtney prepping 2nd Nature to come into the jetty

Male Orca in strait

Male Orca in strait

Female Orca and calf

Female Orca and calf

March 8 – Visitors Galore

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Sunny, with patches of fog in the afternoon
Wind: Light northeasterly in the morning and afternoon, calm in evening and switching to 8 knots W at night
Air Temperature: Low 6°C, High 10°C
Ocean Temperature: 8.9°C

There were a lot of visitors today from a leadership program being put on by the Roy Group for twenty-four students visiting from Texas Christian University. The two groups of twelve students made their way around the island to discover the four archetypes of mythical leadership: magician, sovereign, lover and warrior.

Fog in the mid afternoon made it tricky to navigate the boat to and from Pedder Bay in the afternoon. I benefited from the waypoints that Courtney programmed into the plotter on the boat.

Chunk is still camped out on the grass by the helicopter pad.

There was a dive boat with five divers to the west of South Islands this morning.

Photos from the past of couple weeks

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