Wind: yesterday W 0-25 knots, today mostly W 1-22 knots
Sea State: both days calm
Visibility: yesterday 15 NM, today 10-15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-8 °C, today 6-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.58 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)
Today marks the official start of spring at Race Rocks and the rest of the northern hemisphere. The days will keep getting longer until summer solstice, on June 20.
Two of the elephant seal pups marked the occasion by going for a swim this morning. When the sun rose, they were all on the boardwalk near the crane. When I went out to check the salinity and temperature of the water at the 9:09 high tide, the oldest and youngest pups were at the edge of the water on the boat ramp. The other pup was still up on the boardwalk. The youngest pup stayed at the water’s edge for about two hours. The all spent the rest of the day on the grass, basking in the sun.
Yesterday, the boats in the ecological reserve were three pleasure crafts, two tour boats and the Pearson College boat Second Nature to drop off food. Today, four pleasure crafts were in the area. Greg and Lawrence from Pearson came in Second Nature to drop off new solar panels to be added to the array. They also helped clean out the gutters on the Science House.
Here are photos of some views from the past two days:
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- The three elephant seal pups lined up from oldest to youngest, top to bottom.
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- The older of the two female elephant seal pups napped with her head in the daffodils for most of the yesterday.
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- A bald eagle in the intertidal zone
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- Two elephant seal pups in the shallow end on the boat ramp
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- Two elephant seal pups on the boat ramp
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- The youngest elephant seal pup stuck around and blew bubbles in the shallow water.
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- The adult female elephant seal, tagged T563, returned this morning after being away for a few days. She quickly went back to her favourite place with the comfiest shrub pillows. *UPDATED March 23: I was able to take a closer look at the tag today and noticed this elephant seal is tagged T562 and T563, one on each tail flipper. This means she’s the seal that was here from mid December until January 21. She gave birth to the first pup of the season on December 29. She was seen again at Race Rocks on March 3 and has come and gone a few times since.
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- A sea otter floating off the south islands today, seen through the spotting scope in the lantern room of the lighthouse.
