Tag Archives: whimbrel

Mist Maiden, Whimbrel and Gratitude

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This morning the wind was less than 10 knots and it was a beautiful time to be outside compared with the howling winds the last couple of days. It is from the west and increasing as the day goes on.

Often people ask me why I come to Race Rocks and this morning was a great reminder. As I cleaned the solar panels there was a soft west wind, the sun was in and out of the clouds as it rose in the east. Two California sealions were catching fish and shaking them as they surfaced. An eagle flew over and picked up a fish only to be chased ashore by two glaucous wing gulls. There are moments here when one is called to be present. There are many moments of frustration ( the electric fence is down again) and occasional fear (the wind, the geese) and boredom but then there are moments when one just doesn’t want to be anywhere else. And how often that does that happen in one’s life?

Visitors:

  • Pearson College had about 6 divers in Race Channel today but did not come ashore.
  • Just after noon now and 10 ecotourism boats have passed by

Observations:

  • Mist Maiden (Romanzoffia tracyi) is blooming!
  • I took a picture of the chiton shells and will post below. When walking around there are so many things that are taken for granted. Like the hundreds (thousands) of chiton shells. I suppose they are a stable food source. Has it always fed these birds? Did there used to be more fish skeletons? Sometimes it is good to record the obvious.

Work:

  • Cleaned the solar panels this morning
  • continued wheelbarrowing wood to house
  • cleaned out the wood stove
  • cleaning the house for Jill’s return
This female may be recognizable if this new puncture wound, upper right abdomen, leaves a scar

This female may be recognizable if this new puncture wound, upper right abdomen, leaves a scar

 

wind and mood change

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weather : wind from the northeast today, calm this morning but at 12 to 15 km/hr now. skies mostly clear.

visitors: a couple of eco-tourism boats went by. otherwise very quiet.

energy: solar all day.

Observations: mostly I observed my mood today. This is my  last night here and as I shift my focus to “real life” I am slightly melancholy. And so seeing from that point of view I watched the young eagle hunt over Great Race several times unsuccessfully and wondered if it would be easier to catch fish. I have seen very few fish caught this past week. The island is covered with chiton shells and even goose neck barnacle shells. Then I saw these two gulls, one missing a foot and beside it a gull not able to weight bear. They were both at the periphery of the breeding colony with the immature gulls. I also saw the first Thayer’s gull and I see that in previous years many have nested on the island.

One without a foot, the other cannot weight bear

Thayer’s Gull?

Thayer’s?

Work: cleaning and getting ready for next ecoguardian. chopping wood. sweeping the lighthouse stairs. doing month end tallies. cleaned the student house windows and lower solar panels.

Addendum:I went to sit on the back porch as Mount Baker is quite clear and a new bird ( this week) appeared.

whimbrels

whimbrels, 8 in all

Wildlife Changing with the Seasons

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Weather: 

  • Sky: clear and blue
  • Visibility 10-15 NM
  • Wind 20-25 knots W
  • Sea state: .5 m chop

Visitors: 

  • No island visitors
  • A small number of eco-tourism vessels (only one today).
  • We were saddened to hear this week that a fishing boat we have often seen pass by, Arctic Fox II, sank in rough seas on Tuesday, claiming 2 lives. An article Here.

Ecological Observations: 

  • The seagull chicks continue to practice using their wings, hopping and flapping in the wind. It can be quite comical to hear them “peeping” as they did when they were just hatched- they are nearly the size of their parents now!
  • The harbour seal pups get cuter by the day. We were lucky to catch one nursing this week from the lighthouse (photo below).
  • The sea lions population continues to grow, with a notable increase this week on Main Race Rock. We will need to put the electric fence back soon to prevent them damaging infrastructure.
  • We have been enjoying bird watching this week as migrations continue and the pigeon guillemots are raising their young. There have continued to be very large numbers of black turnstones on the E shore.
  • This week we have also been visited by a handful of ruddy turnstones, and one whimbrel (thank you Daniel for the ID help!)
  • The one male elephant seal is still here. He doesn’t seem to be actively moulting anymore, aside from a tiny bit of remaining skin around his neck. He spent the entire day yesterday drifting and napping in the peaceful and sheltered jetty waters. We have not seen V173 in quite some time.
  • We find a lot of joy in watching the elephant seals move from higher ground down the jetty ramp and into the water. If you are not familiar with their undulating movements, this video is an excellent example. It’s a lot of blubber to get off the ground!
  • We spotted one sea lion with a fishing flasher hooked onto his face a few days ago. We haven’t seen him since but we are hoping that we will, so a rescue attempt can be made to remove it.
  • We also saw a sea lion with what we thought could be an infected brand. We sent a photo to a wildlife officer in Oregon who tracks these branded sea lions and he shared with us that it is likely a shark bite!

 

Spring Census and Swimming Seal Pups

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Wind: yesterday W 0-30 knots, today mostly W, SE in early afternoon 1-28 knots
Sea State: both days calm in morning, rippled in afternoon
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 6-8 °C, today 6-11 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.34 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

All three elephant seal pups were swimming near the boat ramp both yesterday and this morning. The middle aged pup has taken to a napping spot on the concrete between the boat ramp and the rocks.

When I did the census observations today, I was surprised there were only 84 pigeon guillemots. I counted twice to make sure. The little black and white birds with bright red feet appear to be everywhere around the shoreline and in the water around the main island. They are constantly moving about and making their high-pitched whistling call.

I had a great view of a sea otter this afternoon. While out in the boat taking a photo of the main island, I heard what sounded like a slapping sound on the water. I turned around to see the sea otter about 20 m from the boat crack open clamshells on its chest. The otter had a few clams lined up. I turned off the engine and watched the otter quickly eat a few clams, then repeatedly dive down and eat more.

Today, there were nine pleasure crafts, one sailboat and the Race Rocks station boat in the ecological reserve, the most boats of any day this year. A pleasure boat with five people stopped at the jetty this evening. Three people walked along the jetty to get a closer look at the elephant seal pup napping beside the boat ramp. I approached and drew their attention to the large sign that explains the purpose of the ecological reserve and that permission is needed to come ashore. They were very nice and asked a few questions about the marine mammals before they left. No boats were in the ecological reserve yesterday.

Census results from today:
4 elephant seals (1 adult female, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
10 steller sea lions
82 california sea lions
1 sea otter
50 harbour seals
8 bald eagles (3 adults, 5 juveniles)
11 brandt’s cormorants
6 double-crested cormorants
19 pelagic cormorants
9 Canada geese
251 gulls (mostly thayer’s gulls)
8 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
26 harlequin ducks
84 pigeon guillemots
4 surfbirds
12 black turnstones

Here are some photos from the past two days:

Two short videos of the youngest elephant seal pup learning to swim in the shallow water. In the first clip, she appears to be playing with a little bull kelp. In the second clip, she is blowing bubbles. The sounds of many species can be heard: california sea lions, thayer’s gulls, black turnstones and pigeon guillemots.

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 0-19 knots from W then E, today 2-19 knots from N then W
Sea State: yesterday calm, today calm in am and rippled in pm
Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: both days clear with cloudy patches throughout day
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 4-6 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.23 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Six visitors briefly came to the island yesterday morning. Lawrence installed the new deck hatch he made for the station boat. Everyone helped transport and load eight of the old batteries onto the college boat to be taken back to the shore for recycling.

I ran the water pump for five hours to fill up the cistern with cleaner seawater.

Three tour boats were in the ecological reserve yesterday. Today, a dive boat had several divers in the water just north of North Rocks at slack tide in the mid morning.

There was a lot biodiversity in the ecological reserve today. Here are the results from the weekly census:
6 elephant seals (1 adult female, 2 adult males, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
57 steller sea lions (all on Middle Rock)
50 california sea lions (19 on Great Race, 31 on Middle Rock)
52 harbour seals
1 sea otter
6 bald eagles (4 juveniles, 2 adults)
8 Canada geese
18 brandt’s cormorants
16 double-crested cormorants
35 pelagic cormorants
2 ravens
141 gulls (mostly thayer’s gulls)
14 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
86 pigeon guillemots
16 harlequin ducks
10 surfbirds
28 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 song sparrow
1 fox sparrow

Groundhog Day

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Wind: yesterday 0-52 knots from S to W, today 0-18 knots from W to NE
Sea State: yesterday rippled with waves up to 1 m in afternoon and evening, today rippled
Visibility: yesterday 5-10 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: yesterday rain then patches of sun, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-12 °C, today 3-5 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.49 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

This morning at sunrise, the elephant seals saw their shadows. As the lore goes for their fellow mammal the groundhog, that means six more weeks of winter. Hard to believe with the crocuses blooming and daffodils buds almost ready to burst. Although, there is snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow as the temperature drops to 0 °C.

There were no visitors to the island. Two eco tour boats were seen in the reserve this afternoon.

Here are the results for the weekly census, conducted in the afternoon of Sunday, February 2:
10 elephant seals (3 female adults, 4 male adults, 1 female pup, 1 male pup and 1 unknown gendered pup)
147 steller sea lions
288 california sea lions
104 harbour seals
10 bald eagles (5 adults, 5 juveniles)
1 raven
109 brandt’s cormorants
182 pelagic cormorants
49 double-crested cormorants
24 canada geese
931 gulls (most are thayer’s gulls)
18 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
1 surf scoter
8 harlequin ducks
16 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 fox sparrow

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 0-15 knots from E to S, today 0-10 knots from E to N
Sea State: yesterday and today rippled
Visibility: yesterday and today between 10-15 NM
Sky: yesterday cloudy with periods of rain and sun, clear overnight, today cloudy with periods of sun
Temperature: both days 7-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.08 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The five day old elephant seal pup died overnight. It was in rough shape yesterday, possibly from attacks by other elephant seals. In the morning yesterday, it had fresh blood on its face and the alpha male was lying on the pup. Ravens and black turnstones have been pecking at the seals face occasionally for the past day.

The first elephant seal pup, which is fending for itself now as a weaner, was lying on its back today and I could tell it was a male. See the photo below. I am not sure the sex of the other pups, as I haven’t had a good look at their abdomens.

There were four visitors to the island yesterday. Jeff brought out Greg, Alex and Ric to work on the power issues. They hooked up a backup generator to help power the island and top up the batteries. In the afternoon, Greg brought a diesel delivery. Now, the island has a full supply of fuel for when the main generator gets fixed within the next few days. In the past few days, there has a been some power generated by solar energy, which has helped keep the batteries charged. Thanks to some IT help from Dan at the college, now there is internet for the weather systems and monitoring the power.

Four eco tour boats were in the reserve over the past two days.

Results of weekly megafauna and bird census done on Saturday afternoon:
10 elephant seals (3 pups, 3 adult females, 4 adult males)
355 california sea lions
111 steller sea lions
6 harbour seals
36 bald eagles (29 adults, 7 juvenile)
2 ravens
312 pelagic cormorants
62 double-crested cormorants
51 brandt’s cormorants
972 gulls (the majority are thayer’s gulls)
2 canada geese
61 black oystercatchers
1 whimbrel
7 harlequin ducks
41 surfbirds
47 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 fox sparrow

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 15-46 knots W, today 3-14 knots W shifting clockwise around to S
Sea State: yesterday up to 2 m waves, today rippled water
Visibility: 10 NM
Sky: yesterday overcast, today mainly sunny
Temperature: yesterday 6-7 °C, today 3-5 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.56 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The last two days were spent doing some tasks around the island like running the desalinator, topping up the batteries with the generator and cleaning. Today, the sun in the morning and early afternoon was taken advantage of to get a great view of all the species for the weekly census and do a solar powered load of laundry.

The only visitor was Greg, who came out from the college this afternoon for an hour to show me how to use some equipment and remove a load garbage from the island. No other boats were seen in the ecological reserve.

I am glad to hear the Race Rocks live video cameras are being used by the grade 10 students in the Trek Outdoor Education Program, in Vancouver.

Weekly megafauna and bird census results:
7 elephant seals (1 pup, 3 adult females, 3 adult males)
262 steller sea lions
413 california sea lions
45 harbour seals
9 bald eagles (7 adults, 2 juveniles)
1 raven
59 pelagic cormorants
17 brandt’s cormorants
8 double-crested cormorants
663 thayer’s gulls
5 surf scoters
41 black oystercatchers
8 harlequin ducks
1 whimbrel
12 surfbirds
30 black turnstones
1 snow bunting

 

New Desalinator and New Adult Female Elephant Seal

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Wind: 1-44 knots from NE yesterday to W this evening as the wind increased
Sea State: up to 3 m waves breaking on west side of the island
Visibility: 5-10 NM
Sky: overcast with rain and a few sunny patches today
Temperature: 6-11 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.70 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

It was a flurry of activity on the island yesterday. A big change from having no human visitors for a week and a half. Greg brought seven other people on the boat Second Nature. Three volunteers from the college (Lawrence, Sandra and Vincent) came to help with some maintenance and clean up tasks. John and Mike, from Pacific Coast Fire Equipment, were here to do the yearly inspection of the fire extinguishers. Warren and Ric spent almost six hours doing the electrical and plumbing hook ups and tests of the new desalinator. The desalinator room is very cramped quarters with thick concrete walls and only a six foot high ceiling inside. As Race Rocks legend goes, the building was originally constructed as a fallout shelter for Cold War fears of nuclear attack. It apparently contained emergency supplies and two bunks for the lighthouse keeper and assistant keeper. There was no space for their families. In 1975, the building was converted to a water filtration plant.

The non-human activity was busy too, with the arrival of a new adult female elephant seal. She showed up soon after the boat, staying on the boat ramp for a while before coming up to the middle of the island. The alpha male chased her around, they barked a lot, then she settled in the grassy area between the desalinator shed and the flagpole, where she still is this evening. Now there are two suspected pregnant seals hanging out in the centre of the island near the mother, pup and alpha male. The two other males appear to be keeping their distance. One is near the jetty. The other is behind the house by the compost bins.

The desalinator is running well after a total of nine hours of use. This evening, I was delighted to see that it had pumped 600 L of fresh water into the tank. Combined with the 500 L from yesterday, the desalinator has produced more fresh water than has been used since my shift began on December 21. At this rate, the 4,500 L fresh water tank should be filled up in about a week. At that point, the desalinator will be run regularly, but for shorter amounts of time. It’s an energy intensive way to produce water which consists of a reverse osmosis system and secondary UV filter. The temporary method of getting fresh water while the desalinator was out of commission was also very energy intensive. It consisted of filling up a 1,000 fresh water tank at the college, boating it to the island, and pumping it up to the tank from the boat. The water usage is planned to increase a little bit in the near future, due to some much needed pressure washing of the exteriors of the buildings, to prevent them from being overtaken by algae.

See the photos below for some recent views on the island.

First Weekly Census of the Decade

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Wind: 5-21 knots N-NE
Sea State: up to 3 m waves
Visibility: 10 NM
Sky: overcast with rain
Temperature:5-11 C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.64 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The weekly census was done today, because the rain yesterday created poor visibility. This morning, it was overcast but not raining, so there was a good birds-eye view from the top of the lighthouse. Some species that were not last week are a whimbrel, snow bunting and another female elephant seal. The new seal looks pregnant, so there might be another pup very soon. She has moved into a spot on the grass between the desalinator building and the flagpole. That’s a great place for me to watch from the house, which is just 20m away. Last year, the three pups were born between January 4 and January 20.

I heard back from a sea lion researcher about the branded sea lions that were seen on Race Rocks a two days ago. Bryan, from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, let me know about some of the places where the sea lions have been:
California X282: branded at Astoria (Oregon) on Feb 25, 2016 and resighted in Oregon and at San Miguel Island, CA in 2016-2017.
California X392: branded at Astoria on March 8, 2016 and resighted in Oregon and at San Miguel Island in 2016.
California X501: branded at Astoria on May 24, 2016 and resighted in Oregon fall of 2016.
California 1-59: braded at Bonneville Dam (near Portland, Oregon on the Columbia River)on May 19, 2015 and resighted at Astoria and Bonneville through 2017.

The only boats seen in the ecological reserve were two eco tour boats and two kayakers.

January 3 census results:

6 elephant seals (2 females, 3 males, 1 pup)
223 steller sea lions
291 california sea lions
30 harbour seals
21 bald eagles (13 adults and 8 juveniles)
1 raven
103 brandt’s cormorants
16 double-crested cormorants
17 pelagic cormorants
264 gulls (most of them appeared to be thayer’s gulls)
36 black oystercatchers
18 harlequin ducks
1 whimbrel
15 surfbirds
28 black turnstones
1 snow bunting