Saw a couple tour boats going by today, and a dive boat
Ecological
The sea lion numbers dropped a little again and the elephant seal numbers have gone up a tiny bit
Census
Sea Lions – 438 (96 Steller and 342 California)
Harbour Seals – 32
Gulls – still around 200
Cormorants – 75
Canada Geese – 14
Black Turnstones – 30
Eagles – 6
Elephant Seals, 2 males, one of them is the alpha the previous two years, Bernard and the other is slightly smaller male and then 1 small female tagged V173 who I found out was born in Point Reyes last February 2019
Humpbacks – 3 are going by just now, photo below is very blurry due to low light
Saw a couple boats here and there, not during the big storm though
Greg is dropping by today with some supplies
Ecological
Seems like some of the sea lions came back when the storm hit, it was blowing up to 40 knots on Wednesday but today it has finally come down to almost nothing
A couple different birds also came by, I’ve been seeing a lot of ravens lately, eagles, snow buntings and one whimbrel
There is a little elephant seal by the jetty today, pink tag V173
Thankfully the storm brought in some driftwood than can be cut up and dried out for next winter
A few boats cruising by today, mostly pleasure crafts and a couple tour boats and even a couple sailboats and kayaks on this beautiful day
Greg will also be dropping by this afternoon to bring some water and food
Ecological
the tagged elephant seal that the previous ecoguardians named Eric turns out to be an Erica, she is female
It is unusual for a juvenile elephant to be sticking around an area for this length of time, typically they would be moving along the coast now
There are so many sea lions right now and it seems she does not mind the smell or the noise but it isn’t unusual for elephant seals and sea lions to be hanging out together
Since I got back on Tuesday there have been approximately 15 boats per day, the number varies a bit each day
On tuesday and thursday we had visitors from the eagle wing crew come for a tour on Race Rocks. It was so nice for them to be able to come check out what Race Rocks looks like from the land after seeing it from the water so many times
Greg and Guy are coming by today so we can do a more in depth orientation on the projects and maintenance going on around the island
Ecological
After my walk around I noticed a couple interesting things, first there was a young steller, not a baby but he was still nursing.
Then an elephant seal, which was so nice to see and it had a green tag on it. Unfortunately by the time I got my camera it was already gone.
There have also been humpbacks nearby lately, the past two days there have been 4. Yesterday when the eagle wing crew was here was saw a fishing boat getting way to close to the whales, the whales were clearly upset and one jumped right out of the water because of it. Luckily we saw one of the whale watching boats from BC tours and got a hold of them and they let us know they had a word with the fishing boat about keeping its distance from the animals.
Maintenance
The fence still needs to be repaired twice a day but the sea lions are starting to stay away from the entrance to the generator room with regular clearing which will also start happening around the burial cairns between the student house and the helicopter pad. The sea lions have started shifting the stones around a lot and we want to preserve this important historic area.
We received a response from the scientists who had tagged the elephant seal mentioned and pictured in this previous post. They were able to share some interesting information about GE103, whom we nicknamed Eric. GE103 was part of a mother and pup interaction study, as well as the subject of a blubber biopsy study.
“Eric”, GE103
Juliette Linossier, a researcher working under a Fyssen grant at UC Santa Cruz/Año Nuevo Reserve, was able to tell us more about the early life of this animal and others. She told us that shortly after the birth of another elephant seal (GE338), there was a huge storm at Año Nuevo and GE338 was separated from it’s mother. The pup was stuck on the beach, and his mother in an protected elevated area. They called to each other for a long while, but were never able to return to each other. GE338 did survive but was nursed by another female in the colony.
The now ’empty nest’ mother of GE338 became attached to GE103! She nursed him, and stayed close to him and his mother, G9474. Thus, GE103 (or as we call him, Eric) was able to take advantage of more than one milk source as a pup; the two mothers even fought over him from time to time.
According to her bio, Juliette wants to investigate the link between allonursing and maternal cognitive abilities using new approaches. Using time-lapse photography, chemical profiles and other techniques she plans to look at variables such as maternal age, pup similarity, genetic connection, spacial proximity and more to further understand what drives allonursing in these interesting creatures. Thanks for sharing, Juliette!
GE103’s blubber biopsies were taken for the purpose of furthering the understanding of pollutants bioaccumulating in marine mammals. Read more about this subject here.
Many thanks to Patrick Robinson, director of Año Nuevo Reserve and lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, for helping us learn more about this work.
We left Race Rocks last Monday (October 30th), and hours before leaving we were surprised by the landing of a Bell 412EPI Coast Guard helicopter. They came to Race Rocks in order to replace the solar battery bank beside the foghorn (near the base of the lighthouse). We were able to get great video of them landing as well as taking off!
Unfortunately, as one can see at the left of the video the landing scared many sea lions off of the rock in a rush. Without knowing that they were coming we had no chance to gently move any vulnerable animals away from the helicopter pad. We were able to speak with someone at the college about this, and the Coast Guard will hopefully be able to better work with Race Rocks in the future to ensure the safety and comfort of the animals.
The pilot was kind enough to take a moment to show us around and allow us to take some pictures. He explained that a smaller helicopter could have been landed near the house, but the 412EPI’s cargo capacity (over 6000lbs) was needed to transport the batteries. The helicopter is powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6T-9 turboshaft engine that makes over 2000hp (about 1500kW), and it’s made in Canada!
Loading old batteries into the helicopter.
Fresh batteries getting installed.
That’s not your regular engine!
We enjoyed our time at Race Rocks (a big thanks to everyone who supported us during our term), and hope to return and continue this work protecting and observing the fragile ecosystems and the animals within. Until next time!
as many of you noticed the cameras were down, that is because there was an issue without the router on Saturday, we just got replacement parts today and everything should be up running this also includes my internet which means I can post on this blog again
Ecological
A lot of elephant seals lately, there are 7 females and 4 males, this includes the pup
The males are very small, no big noses yet, they must be 2 or 3 years old, one of them has a green tag D018
the female pup left two days ago but the male pup is still here, he will probably leave any day now
only one of the females has been molting so far, the other 6 will probably start soon
I have counted 6 goose nests so far, I haven’t been able to addle them because I do need someone to help me fend off the geese while one takes the eggs. We do this is a population control method and have a permit to addle goose eggs
had a couple of visitors today, come by for a little tour
Ecological
Turns out the elephant seal we have been identifying as female since it first turned up in December 2017 is actually a male. It is tagged, a green tag C887
I noticed he went through a major growth spurt since spotting him in December 2018 which is common in male elephant seals but not really in females, he is hanging out with the tagged elephant seal that had the pup here in January
the pups are doing great, swimming in the mornings when the adults are out of the water, they don’t interact much with the mature elephant seals
had someone out here to look at the desal, hopefully solving that issue soon
Maintenance
we’ve been getting a lot of solar but today is cloudy so I’ll run the generator and desal for a few hours
Ecological
the pups are having fun splashing around
there are 3 females altogether, one of them is quite young probably 2 or 3 years old the other two are much older and they will be molting soon, we should be expecting more females within the next couple weeks
no more male elephant seals around just the pup
not a lot of sea lions but there are plenty of harbour seals on the outer rocks
I have not spotted any goose nests yet but I’m sure it’ll happen soon, not looking forward to that, looks to be at least 8 nesting pairs on island
quite a few boats the last couple days, from canoes to sailboats and some people from the college
Maintenance
There has been so much solar, I don’t need to run the generator very much, so thats been really nice
Ecological
There was a pretty young sea lion pup on the rock by the crane today
the pups have not gone in the water today but they are wandering around quite a bit, so they will probably be splashing around soon, I think the female pup might have put her flipper in for a moment but I’m not sure
One of the mothers came back very briefly, the tagged female, pink tag T562, who gave birth to the female pup on Jan 4th was here for maybe a couple hours then she went back into the water
