Race Rocks is famed for its biodiversity (have you checked out our extensive, illustrated taxonomy yet?) – so imagine my surprise when during my regular morning round I encountered a hitherto unspotted species…
Lepus Paschalis (Scotolatae Helveticae)
Whilst our new visitors are cute, as an invasive species I was left with no choice but to take them away for further inspection, and, err, removal from the ecosystem…
HAPPY EASTER TO ALL THOSE WHO CELEBRATE!
A relatively calm Saturday on the Rock provided ample opportunity to finish off various tasks I didn’t quite have the time to complete over the last week – including the monthly calibration of our salinity measurements. What’s that, you ask?
For decades, Race Rocks has been an important site for collecting seawater data – thus creating a valuable longitudinal data set. Every day at maximum flood,* a measurement is taken from the end of the jetty (lifejackets mandatory, especially in rough conditions!), recording both current salinity and temperature.
The digital Salinometre
It’s a quick and straightforward process – submerge the probe to a depth of 1m / 3ft, wait for the readings to stabilise, and press ‘Enter’ to save the data. But it wasn’t always thus – and once a month, the Salinometre is calibrated using the ‘old method’ – i.e., collecting water with rope & bucket, transferring it to a beaker on the workbench, measuring temperature and specific gravity, and then working out salinity using the charts provided.
It’s a bit more complex than the digital measurement – but always reassuring to see the results align!
______
*or, historically, an hour before high tide
Ecological Notes:
Facility Work:
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Weather – Current:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather – Past:
Race Rocks is an island without natural water sources – so every drop of water needs to be desalinated. It’s an elaborate process, usually producing no more than 1.5 litres per minute. Come along for a look behind the scenes!
First, we need to get lots of seawater into the main cistern, located between the lighthouse and the Keeper’s cottage. This involves running firehoses (the old Pearson College firefighting setup!) from the cistern down to the dock, and hooking it up to a portable generator (aka ‘the trash pump’).
Filling the Cistern
It takes several hours to fill up the cistern – leaving plenty of time for step 2: the desalinator.
The ever-fiddly desalinator
With a reverse osmosis system and secondary UV filter plus various pumps required for operation, running the desalinator is probably the single most energy-hungry task, taking baseline consumption from 1.3kW to a load of around 3.8kW: not something you want to risk on batteries alone! As a result, we try to desalinate as much as possible in the early afternoon hours on sunny days, when solar power generation can exceed 5kW. During the winter months and on grey days, the only option is the diesel generator – making every drop of water even more precious.
The main generator
Once desalinated, the water is stored in a big white tank next to the desalination bunker, whence it is distributed to the residences, and filtered one more time before it comes out of the tap. There’s still quite a lot of sediment to be washed out, as you can see from the filters I changed this morning:
Out with the old (right) and in with the new (left)
It’s been a busy day, but lots of tasks are now ticked off the list: thank you Cedric for coming out to help with a few things that required two pairs of hands!
Thank you, Cedric!
Ecological Notes:
Visitors:
Facility Work:
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Weather – Current:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather – Past:
With the days getting longer and (in theory…) warmer, nesting activity is picking up – more and more seagulls continue to arrive to stake out their territory, collecting grass bedding and defending their budding nesting sites.
Checking out the prime real estate
The Geese are well ahead, with three pairs already nesting – one right by the Keeper’s cottage, one just outside the generator room, and one at the back of the tank shed. Constant vigilance is required, however, lest a greedy seagull comes for the freshly laid eggs…
Ecological Notes:
Visitors:
Facility Work:
Noted Vessel Traffic:
** All wildlife 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:
Today, it was time for the weekly animal census on Race Rocks – a longstanding tradition (see the full archive, here) that allows us to keep track of an ever-fluctuating population of birds and marine mammals. The morning weather wasn’t particularly promising, with wind, rain, and dark overcast skies.
Combined with high tides and a rough sea state, perhaps it wasn’t entirely surprising that the numbers seemed a bit lower than usual – with the harbour seals in particular mostly hiding out in the waves surrounding the South Rocks, and thus rather tricky to count. Alas – who was about?
Census equipment – species list, binoculars, and a clicker to keep track of everyone
March 27th Animal Census
Birds:
Oyster catcher: 22
Harlequin duck: 15
Gulls: 195
Cormorant: 73
Pigeon guillemot: 101
Juvenile eagle: 1
Adult eagle: 1
Canadian geese: 9
Shore / Surf birds: 15
Turnstones: 10
Marine Mammals:
Steller sea lions: 14
Harbour seal: 21
Male Elephant seal: 1 (back on land after a lengthy morning expedition)
Female elephant seal : 0
California sea lion: 24
The weather did eventually start to calm down a bit – still hopeful to catch my first RR sunset of the trip later tonight!
Facility Work:
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Weather – Current:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather – Past:
I woke up quite early this morning (not difficult when the seagulls keep jumping around on your roof, and the sea lions continuously bark at one another…!), and was rewarded with the most astonishing full moon:
The moon (!), the stars, and Race Rocks Lighthouse
The clear night translated into a beautiful sunny morning, so I headed up the ladder to the roof of the generator room to give the solar panels a good scrub and maximise energy generation…
Everyone’s favourite task…
… and duly managed to run the desalinator purely off solar power from just before noon until around 3:30, when the clouds started to fall in.
Generation eventually went as high as 5kw!
Ecological Notes:
Always keeping a watchful eye in between snoozes…
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Facility Work:
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Weather – Current:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather – Past:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?
Hello dear readers!
I’ve been lucky to come to Race Rocks on and off for just over twenty years – and there is still nothing quite like the magic of pulling out of Pedder Bay and first catching a glimpse of the lighthouse on the horizon.
I arrived yesterday afternoon to glorious sunshine and a warm welcome and handover from Kendra, and quickly felt at home once more amongst the island’s sights, sounds, (and smells!)
The weather had turned to grey and windy this morning – but who can worry about inclement conditions when there are boisterous sea lions going about their morning stomp down to the jetty for a quick dip?
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the island, re-familiarising myself with facilities and SOPs, and frequently just stopping for a moment to marvel. It’s great to be back!
Ecological Notes:
Visitors:
Facility Work:
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Weather – Current:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather – Past:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?
This morning’s sunrise made up for yesterday’s gloom. All 3 elephant seals are still on the island. I’ve nicknamed the smaller female “Petal” because every time I find her she is squashing a different bed of flowers. Tonight she settled on the largest patch of grape hyacinth behind the house, but not before flattening the majority of the remaining daffodils.
The darker of the new sea otters spent the morning around the South Island snacking on bright red urchins. It amazes me how they can make their way through the sharp spines and remain completely un-phased. I have not seen the little blonde one or Ollie this week.
This afternoon I counted 26 California sea lions on the rocks near the jetty. I know this number may seem low for anyone whose here at busier times of the year but until today the most I’ve seen is 10! There was also one large Steller who snuggled himself in amongst the significantly smaller California boys.
Lots of eagles around lately too!
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Today was very grey and rainy but it didn’t stop the animals from showing off.
All 3 elephant seals (1 male, 2 females) are now on the main island. The smaller of the 2 females has been asleep in the grass behind the student house since last night. The larger one was chased up the boat launch by the male. For about 20 minutes he chased her around, lunging and throwing his head, grabbing her hind flippers and shaking them, both were very vocal. Since they are large and not so graceful this event (I’d call it a low-speed chase) involved lots of rest breaks. Finally the male made his way back to the water and the female found a place to sleep in the grass.
The torrential downpour was the perfect opportunity to deep clean the main house. Between cleaning I spotted 2 transient orcas, as well as the darker of the new sea otters a little while later.
So close but yet so far
This place is pretty unbelievable even when the weather isn’t!
Facility Work: (today and yesterday)
Noted Vessel Traffic:
Weather Events:
** All wildlife 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:
March 22nd is International Seal Day and what better way to celebrate it than with the arrival of a female elephant seal FINALLY coming onto the main island. That being said, the male has spent the whole day on the North Island so there is still only one elephant seal here right now, but I will take what I can get!
True seals (especially the harbours and the ellies) have always been my favourite animal and I’ve been so lucky to spend these past 3 weeks surrounded by both. I’ve included some of my favourite seal photos below, hope you enjoy!
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **