Weather

• Visibility: 15 miles
• Wind: 10-15 knots West, later 5 knots South, then 5-10 West
• Sky: clear and sunny!
• Water: rippled

Ecological

• Census day!
• Shortly before 15:30 as I was counting shorebirds, I heard a loud noise to my right. Glancing over, I was thrilled to see a whale surfacing in the South Channel. I managed to get some photos as it resurfaced farther south-west.

1. California Sea Lions: 79
2. Harbour Seals: 69
3. Steller (Northern) Sea Lions: 33
4. Elephant Seals: 3, all on Great Race, 2 young males, 1 weaner
5. Whale: 1 (I think it was an Orca)
6. Seagulls unspecified: 269
7. Pigeon Guillemots: 45
8. Cormorants unspecified: 30
9. Double Crested Cormorants: 9
10. Surfbirds: 37
11. Harlequin Ducks: 27 (15 males and 12 females)
12. Canada Geese: 24
13. Black Turnstones: 20
14. Bald Eagles: 20 (4 adults, 16 immature)
15. Black Oystercatchers: 6
16. Rock Sandpipers: 4
17. Crows: 3

Boats

• A few eco-tours passed by today.
• Second Nature came out with food supplies for me.
• A large navy sailboat passed by north of the reserve.

Visitors

• Kyle and Jeff came out in Second Nature.

Other

• One helicopter flew just south of the reserve in the morning.