had someone out here to look at the desal, hopefully solving that issue soon
Maintenance
we’ve been getting a lot of solar but today is cloudy so I’ll run the generator and desal for a few hours
Ecological
the pups are having fun splashing around
there are 3 females altogether, one of them is quite young probably 2 or 3 years old the other two are much older and they will be molting soon, we should be expecting more females within the next couple weeks
no more male elephant seals around just the pup
not a lot of sea lions but there are plenty of harbour seals on the outer rocks
I have not spotted any goose nests yet but I’m sure it’ll happen soon, not looking forward to that, looks to be at least 8 nesting pairs on island
About a dozen elephant seals out there today, one young male, the rest female
looks like there is a few oyster catcher nests around, I saw the one by the house awhile ago, I hope to see them hatch before I leave at the end of the month but we will see
Visibility: 8 miles in the early morning, 15 later on
Wind: 15-20 knots East, then North, then West
Sky: foggy and overcast, then sunny, then overcast
Scattered raindrops throughout the day
Water: mostly calm, with swells in the afternoon
Ecological
Maya and Tazi conducted 4 intertidal transects today.
Studying an intertidal transect involves measuring out a certain distance from a peg, and then documenting the different species found every 0.5 metre.
In some transects the 0.5 metres are measured by water elevation; in others simply by distance.
By comparing the species found in every zone of the transect with transect data from previous decades, you can see the change in intertidal ecosystems due to climate change.
We saw a California Sea Lion with the brand U374 and another with a tracker.
While most of the gull eggs all look the same, one particular egg is quite different.
Intertidal Transect
Water level elevation
0.5 metres
Photographing the zone
Compass to determine direction of transect
California Sea Lion with tracker
Tracker
Brand U374
Moulting E-Seal
Seagull eggs
Seagull eggs
Before
Maintenance
Maya and I ran the fire pump in the morning.
This added a few inches to the cistern.
We removed the old Canadian flag and hoisted a fresh one.
Tazi and I removed some algae.
Ali whacked away at the thistles.
We cleaned the solar panels.
Boats
Over 150 sailboats from Victoria passed by Race Rocks in the late morning on their way towards the Western horizon.
Some of them started to return as late as 22:30.
The colours of their sales included: red, blue, white, fluorescent yellow, green, purple, black, orange, and many combinations of all of the above.
Some standouts included the Miles Davis sail and the Union Jack.
I couldn’t stop taking photos and ended up with dozens. Below is a selection of the best.
One coastguard zodiac and a search and rescue boat appeared to be accompanying the sailboats.
Several eco-tours came by, including one Eagle Wings tour that drove through the South Channel.
Passing through the South Channel is prohibited as the width is too narrow.
