A Little More Rain

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  5-15 W
  • Sky: cloudy all day with little breaks of sunshine
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had quite a few ecotours cruise by today

Ecological

  • nothing new, approximately 300 sea lions on island, maybe more

Notes

  • Finally now that it has rained a bit more I can start pressure washing pathways and buildings, clean things up a bit

Windy Day

Weather

  • Visibility:15 Miles
  • Wind:  20-30 NW today
  • Sky: cloudy today with bits of sunshine
  • Water: choppy at least a metre at one point

Boats/Visitors

  • Some ecotours braved the ind and came around today

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around and a bird I have not identified yet but included photos

Notes

  • Very windy today and even a little bit rain but not as much as we would’ve liked

Census Day

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles throughout the day
  • Wind:  0-10 NW throughout the day
  • Sky: clear all day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Mostly just whale watchers and other boats cruising by on this beautiful sunny day

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around but not as many as I thought there would be

Notes

  • DnD was blasting again today
  • I finally have a full fresh water tank so hopefully it rains soon so I can start pressure washing and cleaning the pathways and buildings off
  • Significantly less sea lions I expected I suspect many of them went for swim while I was doing the census because it was a rather hot day today but here are the numbers are I have right now

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 68
  • California Sea Lions – 97
  • Harbour Seals – 72
  • Gulls – 153
  • Cormorants – 73
  • Black Turnstones – 21
  • Sparrows – 24ish, hard to see and fast to fly off

Beautiful Sunsets

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-15 SE
  • Sky: cloudy this morning, cleared up in the afternoon
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had some visitors come out for a sunset cruise, my coworkers had to drop off another spot checker for me

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around and it almost seems like there is more birds too, census tomorrow

Notes

  • DnD was blasting again today
  • Having some issues with spot checker, hopefully this other one works well
  • Here are some pictures of the beautiful sunset tonight and lastnight
  • and a photo of a sea lion who looked like there was something wrong with his hind flipper

Wishing for Rain

Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles this morning cleared up to 15 in the afternoon
  • Wind:  0-5 SE throughout the day
  • Sky: overcast this morning, clear skies in the afternoon
  • Water: calm all day

Boats/Visitors

  • quite a few ecotours

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around

Notes

  • having a hard time with the fence between the generator room and the guest house, the sea lions tear it down every couple hours
  • Also I have not seen the sea lion around that recently had the garbage removed from around its neck, I’ve been looking around for him
  • We could use some rain though, it would be easier to pressure wash around here if it rained first

Visitors

Weather

  • Visibility: 0-15 Miles throughout the day
  • Wind:  0-10 SW throughout the day
  • Sky: foggy morning only until about 9ish then it cleared up but still overcast
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had Garry Fletcher come for a visit along with a year 4 Pearson alumni and another friend.
  • some ecotours came by today too

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around

Notes

  • Guy showed me how to use the pressure washer so hopefully get a few of this buildings looking nicer on the outside

Warden’s report Race Rocks September 2017

I was able to get out to Race Rocks Ecological reserve with Guy today and went with former student Joao Luis de Castro and Yan Corriveau. I  wanted to check on what changes have occurred on Great Race Rock Island  since my last visit. Since it was an exceptionally dry summer, the effect on vegetation was evident. The spread of hauled out sealions into parts of the island traditionally not invaded also has left a significant impact on vegetation. It will be important to  follow up on vegetation recovery once the rains start.

This year the sea lions have hauled out and inhabited many parts of the island formerly not used as a haulout . I am concerned that erosion because of obliteration of most of the plants in the area of the First Nations burial cairns could be detrimental to the cairns. It will be inprtant to check on this once the sealions have left again.

The lack of precipitation since May has resulted in a shrinking of the stonecrop that covers the top of the Reservoir. I had never seen it quite this dry before.

 

The sealion haulouts at Race Rocks do not segregate by species as they do in some other parts of the coast. Note the cookie-cutter shark bites on the California Sealion on the right hand picture.

 

Garry Fletcher, Sept 25, 2017

Long term record for harbour seal at Race Rocks

Pam Birley sent this picture today that she took with the remote camera of Six-spot, a harbour seal she has photographed over a several year period. see previous post at https://www.racerocks.ca/6-spot-the-harbour-seal-observed-at-rr-since-2008/

Caught in the Fog

Weather

  • Visibility: from 0-15 throughout the day, mostly 0
  • Wind:  10-15 SW
  • Sky: overcast in the morning caught in the fog most of the day and overcast again around 5:30pm
  • Water: choppy less than a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Some ecotours today

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around

Notes

  • My fog horn was going off for hours today
  • ran the desalinator a bit, trying to get back up to a full tank
  • the electric fence was pretty tangled today but I got it back up

Sunny Days

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles throughout the day
  • Wind:  10-15 SW throughout the day
  • Sky: cloudy this morning and cleared up in the afternoon
  • Water: calmish, fast current

Boats/Visitors

  • quite a few ecotours throughout the day

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around

Notes

  • wind was blowing a bit harder today but it was still sunny, no visitors or anything out of the ordinary