April 11 and 12 – Weekly Census

Posted on Sunday,April 12, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday W-S 0-32 knots, today W-SE 2-17 knots
Sea State: both days calm
Visibility: yesterday 10-15 NM, today 15 NM
Sky: yesterday partly cloudy then clear from mid morning, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 8-14 °C, today 7-14 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 416.33 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The lawn in front of the house got busier this morning with nine elephant seals, two more than yesterday. A tenth seal, the pup, was near the jetty. The two new arrivals have green tags on their tail flippers. One is a male tagged C887. The other is a juvenile tagged G512 on the right flipper and E779 on the right. I will update the information on age and past sightings when I hear back from the researchers. The green tags signify the elephant seals were tagged at Año Nuevo, south of San Francisco.

[UPDATED April 13: I heard back from Dr. Patrick Robinson, the researcher from Año Nuevo Reserve. The elephant seal with green tags E779 and G512 was tagged as a pup in February 2019, where he was born at Año Nuevo. This is the first time the male juvenile has been spotted outside of Año Nuevo, where he was last seen as a weaner in March, 2019. The elephant seal with the green tag C887 is a juvenile male that was born at Año Nuevo in February 2017. He has been seen at Race Rocks in the month of December in 2017, 2018 and 2019.]

There was one boat seen in the ecological reserve on each of the past two days, a pleasure boat yesterday and a sailboat today.

Census results observed this afternoon at low tide:
10 elephant seals (1 female pup, 1 female juvenile, 1 juvenile, 2 sub adult males, 5 female adults)
16 steller sea lions
91 california sea lions
1 sea otter
72 harbour seals
5 bald eagles (2 juveniles, 3 adults)
16 Canada geese
1 black brant goose
99 gulls (mostly thayer’s)
17 pelagic cormorants
4 brandt’s cormorants
5 double-crested cormorants
6 black oystercatchers
24 pigeon guillemots
7 harlequin ducks
2 surfbirds
5 black turnstones

Two eagles on Turbine Rock and a colourful sailboat passing through Race Passage.

April 3 and 4 – Weekly Census

Gallery

Posted on Saturday,April 4, 2020 by Nick Townley

This gallery contains 6 photos.

Wind: yesterday W 15-40 knots, today variable 2-17 knotsSea State: yesterday up to 0.5m chop, today up to 1 m chopVisibility: both days 10-15 NMSky: both days partly cloudyTemperature: both days 4-7 °CAtmospheric CO2: 415.60 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii) … Continue reading →

Three Weaner Elephant Seal Pups

Posted on Monday,February 10, 2020 by Nick Townley

Wind: yesterday 2-15 knots from E to N, today 3-10 knots from S to N to E
Sea State: yesterday and today rippled
Visibility: yesterday and today 15 NM
Sky: yesterday and today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-7 °C, today 5-8 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.73 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The past two days have been sunny, which means the animals and scenery are very photogenic.

There was lots of activity with the elephant seal harem today. Overnight, the third mother left the island, after nursing her pup for 24 days. Her pup is now a weaner, no longer getting milk from her mother. The three mothers whose pups survived all stayed for 24 days. The last female, who’s pup died 17 days ago, left late this morning. After the male mated with her, she was either trying to get away from him or was chased down the path and out into the water by the boat ramp. The alpha male left for about an hour, perhaps to get some food. He’s been on the island the longest of any of the elephant seals. He hasn’t eaten or left the island since before the first pup was born on December 29. That’s almost as long as I’ve been here without leaving, except I eat three meals a day. The female elephant seals will most likely return to Race Rocks exactly eleven months after they left, to give birth to another pup. Stay tuned to the Log next December and January for more pupping season drama.

Now that there are no adult female elephant seals left on Race Rocks, the alpha male’s role has changed from mating with the females, to protecting the three pups that remain. The alpha male is most likely father to all of them, as he was the alpha male last year as well.

Three beta male elephant seals are still on the island. One left for about 24 hours and returned this afternoon. When he slid up the ramp onto the island, he appeared to look around to see if any females were around. Then, he headed for the oldest pup and put his mouth around it. He didn’t appear to be trying to hurt it because no blood was drawn. The pup was screaming. The alpha male came over and scared away the beta male. For the afternoon and evening, the three pups were lying in the grass about 10 m away from each other. It will be interesting to see if the pups interact with each other, as they have in previous years.

Some other interesting sights were a sea otter, two black brant geese, and a very bright Venus visible in the western sky for a few hours after sunset for each of the past three nights.

There were no visitors to the island in the past two days. Four pleasure boats and three tour boats were seen in the ecological reserve.

See below for photos from the past two days:

: The majority of the steller sea lions are hanging out on the south end of the island, on a place called south seal rocks. The sea lions in the foreground of the photo are california sea lions.

: This male steller sea lion has been seen here for the past month. I checked with a marine mammal biometrician in Oregon, who reported that this sea lion was branded 347Y at Rogue Reef, Oregon on July 17, 2013, making him almost seven years old. The smaller sea lion by his side is a yearling, between one and two years old.

: Local members of the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue were doing training with the Coast Guard yesterday afternoon, just to the north of the ecological reserve. The buildings near the shoreline in the background are part of the William Head Federal Institution, a minimum-security federal correctional institution located at the mouth of Pedder Bay. The prison is one of Race Rocks’ closest neighbours, located 5 km to the north.

: Mt. Baker, a 3,286 m active glaciated volcano, can be seen in the distance peaking above the clouds over northern Washington.

: The colourful sky after sunset yesterday and one of the male elephant seals on the helicopter pad.

: A bird’s eye view of the area worn down by the elephant seal harem for the past month and a half. The slide marks and flipper prints can be seen in the mud. The alpha male and the two female pups are visible. The oldest pup, a male, is out of the frame near the top of the photo.

: One female and two male surf scoters

: I saw a sea otter through the binoculars this afternoon. By the time I got the camera, I had lost track of the sea otter. Although I did see a pair of black brant geese. A sighting of them hasn’t been recorded at Race Rocks for almost five years. It’s hard to see them in the photo because they were quite far out by the North Rocks. They are small black and white geese with white bands around their necks.

: A juvenile bald eagle perches on top of the fog signal.

: Nine adult bald eagles keep watch on the south islands.

: One of the beta male elephant seals takes a break from sliding out of the water at the boat ramp to converse with a california sea lion.

: The beta male elephant seal let go of the male pup as the alpha male approached.

: The older of the two female elephant seal pups lies in evening sun, with two little daisies poking out of the grass near her head.

: The moon rises tonight with some stars visible.

Well Timed with the Race

Posted on Saturday,May 23, 2015 by Anne Stewart

Winds were calmer today and came from the same general direction, ranging from west to southwest, at a respectable 10 to 20 knots for most of the day. The speed picked up at bit in the evening, pushing behind the first Swiftsure sailboat back with 25 to 30 knots. The sky was partially overcast for much of the day but it was bright and sunlight levels were energetic. The barometer continued its climb started late Thursday, peaked late in the afternoon, and started the inevitable slide back down. The forecast is calling for more wind this evening and more of the same tomorrow.

Stellers Sealions craning their necks to see the sailboats racing by Race Rocks.

There were a lot of vessels, all around Race Rocks today as the Swiftsure Sailing Race passed by, mid-morning and began returning in the evening. None of the sailboats in the race were observed within the Ecological Reserve although a few were drawn close to North Rocks by the currents. Six whale watching boats were noted working in the Ecological Reserve in the morning and one in the afternoon. The usual Saturday dive charter tended a group of divers off South Islands.

Divers enjoy the incredible biodiversity underwater at Race Rocks. The Ecological Reserve includes the creatures on the bottom, so it is a sustainable diver destination with responsible operators like Ogden Point Diving gate-keeping.

The Northern Elephant Seal moult continues, as does mating, nest building, laying and incubating by Black Oystercatchers. The Pigeon Guillemots and Glaucous-winged Gulls are not far behind and the Canada Geese are way out ahead with some gaggles of goslings already larger than chickens.

This female Northern Elephant Seals contributed a skin sample without knowing it.

Skin samples and vibrissae were collected today, from the ground where moulting animals had been lying. Luckily they leave and go for a swim once and a while, so this is a non-invasive way to take a sample. The hope is that funds for isotopic analyses can be found. Information generated by these analyses will give information about diet and trophic level and could be particularly meaningful for tagged animals, for which there is already baseline data. Some of these animals, such as 5850, also had a satellite tag earlier in its life. There is very little information published on the only Northern Elephant Seal colony in Canada.

A single Brant visited today, stopping off on the helicopter-pad to have a rest and preen. Oddly enough the gulls were not that welcoming. It didn’t stay long enough for the Canada Geese to notice.

Black brant goose makes a landing on the heli-pad. It has a long way to fly before it nests in the tundra of the high arctic.

There were no visitors today and chores were routine, of the entropy defying type. Solar power was used to run the desalinator and make lots of fresh water today in spite of clouds.

Black Brant Goose

Posted on Saturday,November 22, 2014 by Nick Townley

Last night the anemometer was reading wind gusts of up to 53 knots from the southwest. That’s 100 km/h! As far as I can tell, nothing blew away overnight. There was a fresh load of driftwood delivered to the beaches. Today, the wind continued to blow from the southwest and west. The wind had low velocity in the morning, rising to the high twenties in the afternoon, and dropping to 11 in the evening. The barometer continued to rise from 990 hPa last night to a high of 1018 hPa tonight. The sky cleared up in the morning, with sun all day.

Four whale watching boats were seen in the reserve this afternoon.

This morning, I saw a black brant goose hanging out with the gulls on the northeast corner of Race Rocks. It was my first time seeing one of these small geese, which rarely visit Race Rocks. This goose might be making it’s way down to the Oregon, California or Mexican coast for winter, from it’s summer home in the Arctic. For more information about black brant geese, see the taxonomy page.

: A black brant goose makes a rare visit to Race Rocks.

: Black brant preening

: Black brant are one of the smallest and fastest of the flying geese.

: Canada geese with sea lions in the background

: Sea lions (mostly steller) gather on the South Islands. The largest sea lion appears to be on top.

: A sea lion leaps out of the water on the wavy west coast of the island

Wildlife

Posted on Wednesday,February 20, 2013 by Alex Fletcher

Bertha left the main island the night of the 16 and I have not seen her since. She was on the island and mating with Misery for just over a week. Zeke stayed around for the first few days and was very interested in the new arrival and activity but after being chased off by Misery a few times he left, I have not seen him in about a week. Misery seems to still be looking for her sometimes. He has been on the main island every day since Bertha arrived and seems to go off the island most nights.

The Pigeon Guillemots are becoming more frequent with a recent count of over 200, they stay mostly just offshore or in the intertidal zone and make their shrill calls. A couple pairs of Black Brant Geese have also been showing up just offshore of the main rock. Most days there are over half a dozen bald eagles in the reserve perched on the crane, the generator exhaust pipe, camera 5, on rocks, on the smaller islands, gliding in the air on the west winds, or chasing each other around.

Census, Monday Feb 18, 2013 Continue reading →

Random Encounters

Posted on Monday,May 7, 2012 by Mike Robinson

A number of infrequent avian visitors have been popping by for a visit, or more likely a rest on their northward migrations. Two days ago a Greater White-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) spent the night, and the next night a Black Brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) had replaced it. The black brand stayed two days and fed vigorously the whole time. I just discovered how rare these birds are with only 115,000 in the world.

I have noticed several pairs of Wandering Tattlers (Tringa incana) in the least few days

And another favourite the Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)

Finally, the California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) have begun to arrive.

Oystercatcher’s territory

Posted on Wednesday,May 12, 2010 by Garry Fletcher

‘Elephant Seal’, 5, ‘Fewer females are visible on Middle Rocks. The tagged female has returned to Great Race Island despite having completed her moult. The larger females on Middle Rocks are in various stages of their moults.’, ‘Ryan’, ’20:56:43 ,
-93, ‘2010-05-12’,

“Brown Pelicans are becoming a common sight at Race Rocks. See the log of May 12, 2010: Ryan Murphy

‘The diversity of bird life continues to increase with the appearance of
Dunlins, Brandts and Pacific Loons today.
Small groups of Brandts flew West throughout the day, followed by several large flocks numbering up to 100 birds in the evening.
A mature Brown pelican roosted here for the night, much to the gulls ” dissatisfaction.
There are still 2 pairs of Harlequin ducks spending their days around Great Race Island, plus
4 Whimbrels were again seen on the SW corner of the island where up to
3 Black Oystercatcher pairs have staked nesting territories. There are a total of
7 pairs of Oystercatchers with territories on the island, but only 2 confirmed nests so far, and of those only one nest with 2 eggs at the moment. Could be a bumper year as a maximum of 5 breeding Oystercatcher pairs have been recorded in the past. ‘,
‘Northern Sea Lion’, 10, ‘The numbers of Northern Sea Lions have been down the past several days, however they are still finding food in the reserve. A commotion right above the tidal turbine today attracted a number of gulls, and I could soon see a Northern sea lion was thrashing a large fish on the surface. Reviewing my photos it turns out the sea lion had captured a wolf eel! Long tasty filets on those protected fish, I can ”t say I ”m not envious!’,

‘Ryan’, ’21:10:38 ,

Branta bernicla: Black Brant Goose–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

Posted on Friday,April 15, 2005 by Garry Fletcher

Branta bernicla Black Brant Goose

The Black brant Branta bernicla is a very unusual visitor at Race Rocks. There are only single individuals that appear, usually in late summer or fall.

: this one was the first one ever spotted there and photographed by Garry Fletcher, in the summer of 2005.

: It was feeding on the seaweeds in the mid intertidal area beside the docks…

: These two images were taken from the remote cam 5-telephoto

: The next sighting of this species was in February, 2006.

Pam Birley has sent the following images taken with the remote camera 5 which we have put into a short video:

Pam writes:
“The dimensions of the Brant are 17″ long and 46″Wingspan, A Canada goose is given as 16″-25″L and 50-68″W (which is quite a variation)
A Glaucous gull is given as 24″L and 50″W Thayer’s are 20″L and 55” W. So according to that the gulls are all bigger than the Brant – so perhaps the camera was not lying “
The goose continued to hang out with the Canada geese for several months.

Black Brant Branta bernicla at Race Rocks see posting of November 22, 2014-for other photos by Ecoguardian Nick Townley

Physical description
The black brant is a small goose with black head, neck, breast, tail and flight feathers. Its abdomen and tail coverts are white and the back and upper abdomen tend to be brownish-black. Its weight ranges from about 1.5 – 2.7 kilograms.

Global distribution
Black brants nest along the shores of the western Arctic, where they lay eggs in June. In mid-September the young travel to the California and Mexican coasts. The main flock flies over the sea, being seldom observed in British Columbia. There is another migration that may winter as far north as Haida Gwaii. However, the majority winters off the coast lines of Oregon, California and Mexico. The favourite stops for Black Brant Geese are Sooke Harbour, Oak Bay and Sidney Island.

Habitat

Black Brant makes a landing on the heli-pad.

Branta bernicla travel in flocks. The amount of geese in a flock varies, though usually remains at low levels. The brants are considered one of the fastest flying geese.Feeding
They feed mainly on eel grass, which is a significant part of their diet. Other marine plants are also being eaten by them, such as green algae.Reproduction
Black brant’s nests are always placed along shores, never far from the water. In June they lay 4 to 8 eggs and by mid-September the young are ready for a long journey. Immature black brants lack white neck marking and are more black at the bottom.

Classification:
Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Sub-Phylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Anserifomes
Family; Anatidae
Genus: Branta
Species: bernicla
Common Name: Black Brant Goose,also called Brent goose.

References:
1. Guiguet, C.J. (1915). The Birds of British Columbia: (6) Waterfowl. Victoria: British Columbia Provincial Museum.
2. Robbins, Chandler S., Bruun, Bertel, & Zim, Herbert S. (1966). A guide to field Identification- Birds of North America. New York: Golden Press.
3. Godfrey, E. (1986). The birds of Canada (2nd ed.). Ottawa: National Museum of Natural Sciences.
See the other posts on this website documenting Brants at Race Rocks
See the index of the Taxonomy of Race Rocks

This file is provided as part of a collaborative effort by the students, faculty, staff and volunteers of Lester B. Pearson College — 2005–Kamil Mika —year 32

Hummingbirds and Black Brants

Posted on Saturday,May 11, 2002 by Carol and Mike Slater

Saturday, May 11, 2002

Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 12.0 C Min. 7.3 C Reset 10.1 C
MARINE LIFE: 2 mature Bald Eagles today, still the 3 geese.There is a lot of bird activity and it is never quiet.Today we saw the usual gulls,oyster catchers,eagles,pigeon guillemots, geese, starlings, crows and savannah sparrows. An added bonus were the 2 humming birds that buzzed around for 20 minutes or so, always amazed to see them so far from the mainland but do see a few every year especially if the winds are light. A couple of black brant geese landed in the small bay on the east side of Gr. Race but did not stay long.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 5 pleasure craft and 13 ecotour boats, the last two enjoyed a beautiful sunset as they left the reserve.The D.N.D. did some blasting on the beach on Bentinck Island between 17:30 and 22:00 but only two blasts about 20:20 and 20:25 were big enough to have any noticeable impact here.The birds took flight en masse each time and took 10-15 minutes to settle down,it was getting too dark to see much beyond Gr. Race.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:09 PM

Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Part Cloudy Vis 15 Miles Wind West 19 Knots Sea 2 – 3 Foot Chop
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:49 AM

Race Rocks Ecological Reserve-

marine ecology educational resource, remote-control webcams,elephant seal colony,Sea lion haulout,sustainable energy, solar energy

Tag Archives: Black Brant Goose