Thursday Update

I think I experienced every possible type of weather today! From a beautiful rainbow at sunrise to dark clouds and sideways rain, to enough sun to charge the batteries to 100%, to now window rattling wind as I type this. I guess that’s technically not EVERY type of weather, but at this point I wouldn’t be shocked by a snow storm before dark.

Weather aside, today was still very productive which is my favourite kind of day. No boats in the reserve today which wasn’t surprising.

Facility work:

Cleaned outer windows of both houses

Finished work on desalinator; it has been leaking so Cedric did some work on it yesterday and I finished putting it back together this morning but unfortunately it still leaks so more work to come!

Lots of cleaning and organizing inside the house, the wind is too strong for much else right now. My favourite thing to do when the weather is bad is to bake so I quickly whipped up some banana muffins during the rain. I always do my best to not waste any food and make the most of all my supplies here so this was the perfect opportunity to make use of my very brown bananas. 

DND:

– 6 blasts throughout the day; minimal animal disturbance noticed (although I nearly jump out of my skin every time!)

Unphased

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy, sun and clouds in afternoon
  • Wind: Low of 17 knots, High of 20 knots, gusts up to 31 knots
  • Sea: Rough, whitecaps
  • Temperature: Low 9•C, High  15•C

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

A Slow Sunday

Not much to report today! The wind picked up today with highs of about 34 knots and on and off rain. Thankfully I got most of my outdoor tasks done yesterday so was able to work indoors today as much as possible.

There are still four female elephant seals here today, no sign of Ollie though for the first time all week! Lots of gulls, I love watching them fly and hover in the strong winds.

No vessels in the reserve today, a few freighters/cruise ships in the distance and the odd sailboat. 

Weather:

    • Sky: Dark clouds, on/off rain
    • Wind: High of 34 knots, Low of 26 knots
    • Sea: Whitecaps
    • Temperature: Low 9, High  11oC

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

January 17th Census

Looking South from to the Lighthouse towards the Elwha.

Weather: Overcast morning, with a sunny afternoon. Winds 15-25knots. Big storm on January 11th that blew our doors and windows open.

Visitors/Traffic: After a week of no visitors we got 4 boats today: a whale whatching boat, 2 small fishing boats and a yellow sailboat that was very interested in getting in close to the jetty.

Ecological Notes: Immediately after the last birth a new female showed up on the island (January 11th). Cheermeister’s mom left him on January 12th (21 days of nursing) after making with the Beachmaster 76 times over 3 days. I didn’t inspect every event, so the total could higher than that, but it was an impressive feat. The Beachmaster has shown no interest in any of the other females. There are still 2 large males on the island, with the Beachmaster (previously referred to as Bernard) staying with the females and the other male hanging out around our compost.

The new seal gave birth last night, bringing our total seal pups to 4!

Jocelyn gave birth to her pup last night with lots of shouting and fanfare.

Elephant Seal flippers look so ridiculous when they’re born, just oversized and floppy. Kinda like puppy paws.

Tons of eagles on the island this morning, which usually coincides with a reduction in other birds counted.

Cheermeister: fat and alone. I don’t understand how he still gets fatter after being weaned.

The Beachmaster checking if anyone is interested in mating yet.

Census:

Gulls: 136

Cormorants: 360

Eagles: 40

Turnstones: 13

Elephant Seals: 9 [2 bulls, 3 females, 4 pups]

Steller Sea Lions: 142

California Sea Lions: 155

Harbour Seals: 6

 

Peace descends over the nursery. Seriously though, Elephant Seals are soooo loud.

Bonham over drumming next to the compost where the Beachmaster can’t find him.

A Little More Rain

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  5-15 W
  • Sky: cloudy all day with little breaks of sunshine
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had quite a few ecotours cruise by today

Ecological

  • nothing new, approximately 300 sea lions on island, maybe more

Notes

  • Finally now that it has rained a bit more I can start pressure washing pathways and buildings, clean things up a bit

Windy Day

Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind:  20-30 NW today
  • Sky: cloudy today with bits of sunshine
  • Water: choppy at least a metre at one point

Boats/Visitors

  • Some ecotours braved the ind and came around today

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around and a bird I have not identified yet but included photos

Notes

  • Very windy today and even a little bit rain but not as much as we would’ve liked

Caught in the Fog

Weather

  • Visibility: from 0-15 throughout the day, mostly 0
  • Wind:  10-15 SW
  • Sky: overcast in the morning caught in the fog most of the day and overcast again around 5:30pm
  • Water: choppy less than a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Some ecotours today

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around

Notes

  • My fog horn was going off for hours today
  • ran the desalinator a bit, trying to get back up to a full tank
  • the electric fence was pretty tangled today but I got it back up

Sun and Fog

Weather

  • Visibility: 0 Miles this morning, the fog horn was going off for a good portion of the morning but I am getting a very clear and beautiful sunset now
  • Wind:  10-15 SW which went up and down slightly throughout the day but around 10ish knots
  • Sky: thick fog for a bit and then it cleared right up in the afternoon
  • Water: pretty flat

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a few ecotours came by today

Ecological

  • The unspecified birds are still around and I have determined them to be black turnstones, however it is weird to see such a high number of them at once so it is possible there are some other species of surfbird mixed in there too

Notes

  • Had some power issues today, hopefully get everything fixed tomorrow and the dryer won’t die on me halfway through drying my laundry

Lazy Day

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  10-15 SW
  • Sky: overcast some rain
  • Water: pretty flat throughout the day

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours came by today

Ecological

  • Definitely more sea lions everyday plus that one female elephant seal that is sticking around

Notes

  • Puttered around today, almost have a full water tank again, and enjoyed taking photos of the frequently napping sea lions
  • Now that there is more cloud cover the solar panels aren’t bringing in a lot of energy so I do need to run the generator to run the desalinator

Foggy Day

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles sometimes less throughout the day
  • Wind:  10-15 SW sometimes a bit lighter sometimes a bit stronger
  • Sky: Cloudy this morning for a bit and then foggy for awhile, cleared up in the afternoon now you can see some blue sky and sunshine
  • Water: mostly flat a little choppy

Boats/Visitors

  • Had a special visit at 6:30 this morning, the Parliament Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada and Minister of Youth dropped by for a quick visit

Ecological

  • Have to update my census, I saw an elephant seal this morning, a young female
  • the unspecified birds in the photo from yesterday are a type of gull that I still have not identified
  • There appears to be more sea lions everyday

Census Day

Weather

  • Visibility: Started off at 10 miles but closed in to the point the fog horn was going off for a good part of the morning and then a sunny break this afternoon and back to pretty cloudy now
  • Wind:  10-15 W this morning picked up to above 30, same direction
  • Sky: pretty cloudy with a little break in the afternoon
  • Water: pretty flat but the current is very visible and moving

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours today

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions, not really seeing elephant seals, also there was about 26 of these birds I will post a picture of but I wasn’t what bird it was, will look into it.

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 176
  • California Sea Lions: 153
  • Elephant Seals: 0
  • Harbour Seals: 24
  • Unspecified Gulls: 212
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 0
  • Cormorants: 18
  • Canada Geese: 8
  • Oystercatchers: 8
  • Harlequinn Ducks: 0
  • Crows: 0
  • Unspecified bird: 26

Notes

  • Have not spotted the river otters again
  • Sea lions refused to budge when I went to get the water sample, I gave up and found a way around the one that would not move
  • They somehow dragged a ladder down the jetty so I had a tough time retrieving that because the ladder was attached to a rope that got wrapped around a rock, I managed to bring it up behind the boat shed, also the boat shed door looks to be in pretty rough shape the sea lions are always piled up against it