Tag Archives: whaler

July 17-21 and Weekly Census

Posted on by

Weather for July 17:
Wind: W 14 to 34 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 13-17 C

Weather for July 18:
Wind: W 9 to 25 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 2′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 11-14 C

Weather for July 19:
Wind: W 6 to 27 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 1′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-17 C

Weather for July 20:
Wind: W 21 to 40 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Foggy in early morning, Partly Cloudy after 10:00
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 4′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-20 C

Weather for July 21:
Wind: W 19 to 40 knots
Visibility: 5-15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-14 C

Maintenance:
I did the routine tasks of cleaning the solar panels and house windows, topping up the water in the 24 deep cycle batteries, fixing the electric fence, tidying, testing the salinity and temperature of the seawater, maintaining the freshwater system, and running the desalinator with solar power to produce fresh water.

Visitors:
I drove the Race Rocks station boat to pick up a friend, who came for the night of July 18. Brad had visited Race Rocks before when we both worked for many summers on campus as coordinators for PSYL (Pearson Seminar on Youth Leadership).

Weekly Census observed on July 20:
Steller sea lion: 14
California sea lion: 1
harbour seal: 124
cormorant: 5
black oystercatcher: 24 adults, 2 chicks
pigeon guillemot: 162
glaucous-winged gull: 396 adults, 147 chicks
surfbird: 30
black turnstones: 87
western sandpiper: 4

Photo highlights from the past five days:

 

July 14-16

Posted on by

Weather for July 14:
Wind: W 15 to 30 knots
Visibility: 15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 11-13 C

Weather for July 15:
Wind: W 12 to 35 knots
Visibility: <1 to 10 NM
Sky: Fog for most of the day, with some patches of Partly Cloudy in afternoon
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 4′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 10-15 C

Weather for July 16:
Wind: W 19 to 38 knots
Visibility: 10-15 NM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Sea: 2′ chop in morning, up to 4′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 11-17 C

Maintenance:
When the solar panels were producing a lot of power on July 14 and 15, I used the desalinator to make a total of 700 litres of water. The output of the desalinator is 1.25 L per minute. It takes about 2.6 kW of energy to run the desalinator, on top of the regular 1.2 kW load of the island.

Today I lowered the boat into the water to grease the boat trailer wheels as well as finish installing and testing the new boat GPS and sonar.

Photo highlights from the past three days:

July 29 and 30

Posted on by

Ecological Notes:

  • I have spotted at least six oystercatcher chicks over the past four weeks, although they are hard to get photos of since they often hide and blend in with the rocks. The parents alert the chicks when I am nearby. On any census day in July, I have only been able to spot three each day. Today I spotted four.
  • I launched the station boat early this afternoon to pick up two volunteers from Pearson campus. On the way to and from Pedder Bay, I slowly and at a safe distance checked out some of the smaller islands that make up the ecological reserve. On the way back with the visitors, we went around the island clockwise to see the sea otter in the east kelp, around the south side of the island, through Middle Channel to see the hauled out sea lions, then landing at the jetty to many watching eyes on the eco tour boats and four elephant seals in the jetty bay.
  • The three juvenile elephant seals (two females and one male), who have been in the jetty bay and on the boat ramp over the past week, have been joined by a large male elephant seal. His huge size, as well as large proboscis (trunk) and back battle scars lead me to believe he is the alpha male I witnessed here in the winter and early spring of 2020. He has also been here as the alpha male for the past two winter birthing seasons. Some past ecoguardians referred to this alpha male as Bernard. I prefer not to anthropomorphize animals. I suspect the three juvenile seals are offspring of the adult male, as the alpha mates with all the females after they give birth. I also believe the juveniles might be the three pups born between December 2019 and January 2020, when I was on the island. They appear to be the correct size for two and a half year olds. They also seem to be friendly with each other as they were in the spring of 2020. See the comparison photo below :)
  • See the photo gallery below for the ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 29):
    • Sky: Partly cloudy with fog overnight until mid morning
    • Wind: W 16-26 kts
    • Sea: Rippled in morning, then up to 2′ chop
    • Temperature Low 11 oC, High 14 oC
  • Today (July 30):
    • Sky: Partly cloudy
    • Wind: W 0-24 kts
    • Sea: Rippled
    • Temperature Low 11 oC, High 18 oC

Visitors:

  • Two volunteers, Jeremias and Abi, arrived today to help out around the island for the next nine days.

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve.

Here are photo highlights from the past two days. Click on the photos for larger views and captions.