Tag Archives: geese

Still not swimming

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 SE
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • A couple of small tours from the college the past few days
  • there have been some ecotour boats out there as well

Maintenance

  • Lately, I’ve just been trying to get that water tank filled

Ecological

  • The pups still have not gone into the water at all other than day Nemo was in the puddle
  • the alpha is still here but no other males that I’ve seen
  • not very many sea lions, I would say around 100
  • quite a few geese, they will start nesting in a couple of weeks so I’m not looking forward to that
  • there has also been an increase in seagulls

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, some pressure washing

Ecological

  • Haven’t seen the pups today but am sure they are around, there are quite a few sea lions on all of the rocks
  • also some harlequin ducks today and plenty of cormorants
  • the past few days I’ve seen maybe 4 humpbacks

Census

  • Elephant Seal – 0
  • Harbour Seal – 178
  • California Sea Lion – 281
  • Stellar Sea Lion – 344
  • Sea Otter – 1
  • Harlequin Duck – 5 male 1 female
  • Cormorant – 117
  • Fox Sparrow – 12
  • Gull -421
  • Geese – 10
  • Black Turnstone – 15

Visitors and census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy came by with Garry and David a Pearson alumni for a little visit
  • There are still plenty of ecotours around, also a lot of whales, I don’t think the ecotours are giving them enough space when they are cruising by

Maintenance

  • The fence is holding up very well, I still need to extend it though

Ecological

  • No elephant seals at the moment, haven’t seen any for a few days
  • saw two humpbacks today and an eagle so that was nice
  • the geese are also back today, they come and go day by day
  • not as many californias but even more stellars

Census

  • California sea lion – 311
  • Stellar sea lion – 264
  • Harbour seal – 70
  • Elephant seal – 0
  • Cormorants – 44
  • Seagulls – 297
  • Black turnstones – 12
  • Fox sparrows – 6
  • Geese – 8
  • Eagle 1
  • And I suspect 1 sea otter is in the north kelp bed

Blasting

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Flat Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, many ecotours, fishing boats and sailboats
  • Guy came by, we junked out the generator room a bit and he gave me a training session on the winch, soon I should be able to take the whaler out by myself

Maintenance

  • Had to repair the fence a couple times today, hope to extend the fence all the way to the helicopter pad as soon as I get more stick and pegs

Ecological

  • The Geese were around today
  • no elephant seals in sight
  • the blasting from the DND base was scaring the sea lions
  • also there were quite a few killdeer puttering around

J-pod Orcas and the return of the haze

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Weather

  • Visibility: 5-10 miles
  • Wind: 10-20 knts W
  • Sky: Hazy
  • Water: Calm
  • After the strong winds cleared the haze day-before yesterday, the smoke has set in again since the winds died down

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • An average number of whale watching boats in the area
  • Quite a few private boats over the last couple of days trying to get a glimpse of the hauled-out sea lions

Bird notes

  • Spotted a lone pigeon on the island
  • The flock of geese are back on the island in search of food – about 9 of them
  • The juvenile seagulls have started to take flight – the highest I’ve seen one go is about 12 feet in the air, hanging in there for about a minute.

Marine mammals

  • The J-pod of orcas swam past late in the afternoon, going through Race Passage and slowly making their way towards victoria. See here for more details on the j-pod: https://orcaspirit.com/2012/05/the-resident-orcas-of-j-pod/
  • Sea lion numbers have started to stabilize over the last few days, but still growing slowly. Will get an accurate count in tomorrow’s census.

Swiftsure

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • many sailboats for the swiftsure race
  • Guy came by with his family for a little visit

Ecological

  • looks to be yet another goose nest near the tank shed
  • the seagulls should be nesting very soon

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-35 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves 1-2 metres

Boats/Visitors

  • not much boat traffic today, its been pretty windy

Ecological

  • less elephant seals
  • also less sea lions

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 11
  • california sea lions – 15
  • elephant seals – 7 female, 1 male
  • gulls – 180
  • pigeon guillemots – 98
  • oyster catchers – 14
  • geese – 16
  • eagles – 2

Census and Visitors

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • Guy came by with some of the japan house students

Ecological

  • About a dozen elephants seals
  • not many sea lions around lately, some stellars on the south rocks and a few californias on the jetty

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 12
  • california sea lions – 15
  • harbour seals – 23
  • elephant seals – 11 female, 1 male
  • gulls – 180
  • cormorants – 12
  • pigeon guillemots – 124
  • harlequinn ducks – 12
  • oyster catchers – 14
  • fox sparrows – 8
  • geese – 16
  • eagles – 2

Census, sailors and kayakers

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-20 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • along with two kayakers and a bunch of sailboats

Ecological

  • about a dozen elephants, quite a few different birds and not a lot of sea lions about today
  • a possible sea otter in the north kelp bed but I couldn’t see it, but there were boats circling around there
  • saw an oyster catcher nest as well

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 12
  • california sea lions – 25
  • harbour seals – 32
  • elephant seals – 11 female, 1 male
  • gulls – 180
  • cormorants – 18
  • pigeon guillemots – 220
  • harlequinn ducks – 12
  • oyster catchers – 14
  • fox sparrows – 10
  • geese – 16
  • eagles – 2
  • sea otter – maybe 1

So Much Fog

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Weather

  • Visibility: 0-15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-25 SW
  • Sky: From dense fog to sunshine throughout the day
  • Water: A bit wavy, under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • the middle of the day was nice so there were quite a few boats out
  • Guy stopped by today to get the big fuel tank

Ecological

  • Total of 9 female elephants and one young male
  • the geese I think are done laying eggs, but I’m not totally sure
  • it also looks like their might be some oyster catcher nests around, need to take a closer look

Other

  • the fog was pretty dense my fog horn was going off from 10pm last night to 7am this morning and again around 8-9 or 10am