Tag Archives: wind

July 11 and 12

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Ecological Notes:

  • I believe most of the gulls eggs have hatched, based on the nests I can see with one to three chicks and discarded empty eggs nearby. The gull parents feed fish to their young. I am impressed how many whole little fish a gull catch then regurgitate for their chicks.
  • I am seeing more nursing harbour seals and pups around the south and east sides of the island. Today, I heard a pup communicating with its mother by little grunting sounds.
  • This afternoon, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a river otter scurry along a path by Tank Shed. I could not see if it was heading for the water or underneath the boardwalk, as they are elusive.
  • See the photo gallery below for more ecological happenings from the past two days.

Weather:

  • Yesterday (July 11):
    • Sky: Clear
    • Wind: W 1-33 kts
    • Sea: rippled, then 2′ chop in evening
    • Temperature Low 11oC, High 20oC
  • Today (July 12):
    • Sky: Clear, fog between 08:45-09:30 with foghorn
    • Wind: W 16-39 kts, gusts up to 44 kts (81 km/h)
    • Sea: 1′ chop in morning, then up to 4′ waves in afternoon and evening
    • Temperature Low 12oC, High 15oC

Visitors:

  • Yesterday, Greg came from the college to refill the diesel tank.

Facility Work:

  • Scrubbed and squeegeed solar panels, routine tidying and checking infrastructure around the island. With the clear days, the solar panels have been fully charging the batteries.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve. There were much fewer boats today, with the high winds.

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

New Elephant Seal + Pupdate

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Rhi=Rhi came back and is ready to birth!

Ecological Notes:

We have a new female Elephant Seal on Race Rocks! While she looks suspiciously like one of the returning mothers, without a tag it is hard to tell. She was thoroughly investigated by our local Beachmaster, and sassed Mikey for getting too close. Mikey seems to have learned his lesson to stay out the Beachmasters way, after a few small bites Mikey is now quite mobile and has learned the paths on the island to avoid further conflict.

Lil Blasty in one of the few moments not blasting squawks.

As for the other Elephant Seal Pup: named Nereo by it’s mothers namesake, but I have been referring to it as ‘Lil Blasty’ due to his extreme volume while ‘chirping’. The current theory is that Elephant Seal moms and pups learn each others vocalizations to identify each other, and regardless of the background noise present, they seem to always vocalize at the same volume.

Jocelyn’s vocalizations come in around 50-70db, where Lil Blasty is clocking in at 100-110db with his vocalizations. For reference: WCB recommends not being exposed to over 85db for prolonged times due to hearing damage. It definitely hurts to be outside when he’s shrieking.

The Beachmaster being grumpy that no one wants to mate with him.

Facility Work:

We bucked up the logs that were snagged over the last week, and got them off the boat/seal ramp. Heavy algae growth over the last 2 weeks so we’re started pressure washing the algae to keep things from getting too slipper.

DND events:

Canada’s Navy has started doing tester laps outside of Esquimalt.

Feature Event:

Mikey has learned to avoid the Beachmaster when he’s on the prowl, and decided to explore off the beaten path to avoid any conflict. We suspected he would fall off the ‘mountain’ climbed today, but displayed some remarkable manoeuvrability for a chubby little seal.

Mikey mountain-climbing.

A hallmark of the maturing pup is the wear-pattern on their chins. The chin is a key instrument for Elephant Seal locomotion: where they re-arrange their belly by lifting it up with their chin. The chin can also work to level the seals bulk up onto rocks, steps, and rough terrain.

Mikey starting to show his all-important chin patch.

Weather Events:

January means the start of some epic sunsets.

The last couple of days the temperature has dropped down to 4°C with light N winds around 10-15knots. This is log weather.

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php

Census

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*Note, extreme heat, followed by very high winds most likely has affected this survey

 

  • Bald eagle juvenile 2
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western,  Adult 78
  • Gulls, chicks …. many, but unable to count without being disruptive
  • Pigeon Guillemots 18
  • Oyster catcher 13
  • Canadian goose 11 – including “goslings” as they look about the same from the tower

Mammals

  • Northern Elephant Seal Male 1
  • Northern Elephant Seal 6 month old pup 1
  • Harbour seal 162
  • Harbour Seal pup 4
  • Steller Sealion 1
  • Sea Otter 1

Pigeon Guillemots

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Ecological Notes:

  • Still 7 Elephant Seals on land, including the 2 pups. As mentioned in previous blog, they are all getting thin.

Should head off to feed once the molt is complete

  • Although it looks a bit chaotic when in larger flocks, Closer attention reveals that the Pigeon Guillemots are pairing up more now. Lots of courting displays, and ducking in and out of the rock crevasses and gaps in the boulders. A species of bird in the auk family (Alcidae) , they normally lay 1 or 2 eggs in a clutch.

 

Facility Work:

  • As always, lots of cleaning!

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 3 Ecotourism boats, all with good behavior. 2 private vessels, sightseeing with good behavior, and departed the reserve at proper speed!

Feature Event:

  • Part of working as an Ecoguardian here at Race Rocks, is making time to just take in the view. The steps inside the tower are each carved from sandstone blocks, and include 99 steps from floor to floor.

Weather Events:

  • Slight haze most of the day, visibility of about 10 nautical miles. Westerly winds at 15 – 20 knots until mid afternoon, rising to 35 – 40 knots by evening. High winds, combined with tide action created 1.5- 2 meter  swells, topped with up to 1 meter foot chop. Not a great place to be in a smaller boat.

 

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

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Cleaning and Maintenance

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Ecological Notes:

  • 7 Elephant Seals, including 2 “pups” still using the grass areas
  • Monday saw a dramatic reduction of animals and birds in the reserve (almost no guillemots or Sealions, and about half the number of gulls) but they are gradually returning.
  • An anecdotal possibility is that Sunday night had a 50+ knot storm, lining up with a high tide and lots of big ocean swells, making the reserve a very nasty place to be!
  • Noticing more Black Oyster Catcher nests. These are more just an indentation in the gravel, and the birds rely a lot on the camouflage of the eggs. Due to high egg loss rates (here, primarily gulls snatching them), Oyster catchers can lay up to 3 or 4 replacement clutches in a season.

Very distant photo

Visitors:

  • Guests left Sunday
  • 4 Pearson College students on Monday, for an informal visit, with some discussions on marine mammal adaptations life in the ocean.
  • Was also nice to re-instate the visitor log in the newly painted and repaired Visitor Welcome Box

Facility Work:

  • Trouble shooting power interruptions originating from the Student Building
  • Cleaning and minor repair to the housing on the Camera 5 unit.
  • There’s an old prairie saying “Make hay while the sun shines” …… out here, the addendum could be “Clean stuff while the rain falls!” Rain makes it much easier to clean paths and windows, and through the rain collection, provides water for the pressure cleaner.

DND events:

  • 6 or 7 loud blasts today, all sealions left the rocks again

 

Weather Events:

  • Westerly winds, 15-20 knots brought rain showers in the morning. Mostly sunny with cloudy periods in the afternoon. Calm seas. Clear skies and 20 knot westerly winds in the evening

 

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

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Tank Prep

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Ecological Notes:

  • 8 Elephant seals, not much action today
  • Many sealions have moved to the southern most rocks (due to blasting?)
  • Another Canada Goose nest has eggs hatching, 2 goslings so far

Sat a long time, at distance with a zoom lens, to wait for this shot! (and cropped even more)

  • Nature in action! Gulls steal eggs from nests (in this case, the egg was not viable)

Gulls gotta eat too

Visitors:

  • 2, Greg (Waterfront Coordinator), delivering new tools, repair parts, drinking water, and groceries
  •  Allan Forster, contractor with V.I. Tank Services, to survey water tank and prep for cleaning

Facility Work:

  • Prepping electric fence for set up on the pier
  • Water tank survey, to prep for clean after desalinator servicing

DND events:

  • 4 large Detonations today, (6 yesterday), sealions and birds very reactive

Weather Events:

  • Mid day sun, moderate winds, storm blew in later in the afternoon, bringing some rain and westerly winds of 40-45 knots, gusting up to 50 knots by 1700hrs
  • Brought the flag down early though!

 

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

 

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

August 28

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Wind: W 16-37 knots
Sea State: calm in morning, up to 1m waves in afternoon and evening
Visibility: 0-15 NM
Sky: fog in morning and evening, clear in middle of day
Temperature: 11-16 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 411.60 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

There were two visitors mid afternoon from Pearson College to drop off supplies.

Here are some sights from around the island today:

Full Power Restored

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Wind: yesterday 0-34 knots from N to W, today 18-36 knots from W
Sea State: yesterday calm in morning changing up to 1m chop, today chop up to 1 m
Visibility: yesterday 5-10 NM, today 10-15NM
Sky: yesterday overcast and rain, today clear changing to rain in evening
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 6-7 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 413.81 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

After twenty-five days with backup power, there is now full power on the island. The replacement part for the generator head was installed today. Thanks goes to the team who spent six hours on the island today, hauling the 450 lbs unit from the boat to the generator room, doing the installation and other needed upgrades. It was a busy day here for Greg, Alex, Lawrence, Stephane from Frontier Power, Ric and his apprentice Stephane. Lots of other staff at Pearson College made it possible for this fix and temporary power to be successful.

With full power restored, there is now enough power to more quickly top up the batteries and operate all the equipment on the island without draining the batteries too much. A few important pieces are now running again: the desalinator, Ocean Networks Canada’s CODAR, UVIC’s Davis weather station and both live cameras.

There are still four male elephant seals and three pups on the island. There was some fighting amongst the males last night, evident by the fresh cuts on the backs of three of the males and near the eye of the youngest female pup.

The number of sea lions on the rocks has decreased in the past two days. It could be related to the strong west winds that blow into some of their favourite haul out spots.

There was one tour boat seen in the ecological reserve today.

DND was conducting demolition training on nearby Bentinck Island today.

DND Blasting

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Wind: yesterday 0-10 knots from E, today 0-46 knots from NE to E
Sea State: yesterday rippled, today rippled in the morning and up to 2 m chop in the late afternoon and evening
Visibility: yesterday and today between 10-15 NM
Sky: yesterday sun, today mostly sunny with rain in evening
Temperature: both days 6-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.96 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

For most of the past two days it has been sunny with calm winds. A storm warning is materializing this evening that is bringing rain and strong winds of up to 45 knots from the east.

Today, the Department of National Defence was conducting blasting training at nearby Bentinck Island. I heard ten blasts today that shook Race Rocks. See the photo and video below.

Video clips of two blasts that occurred this morning. It takes a few seconds for the sound to reach the island and the sea lions to react. The sounds of gulls and bald eagles can also be heard.