Census

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

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

Visitors

Weather

  • Visibility: 0-15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • a lot of ecotours along with sailboats and fishing boats out today
  • I have a group of students staying in the student house tonight

Ecological

  • still a dozen elephant seals, one male among them
  • looks like the sea otter was out in the kelp again today, I can only tell because ecotour boats kept circling the kelp patch

Other

  • Fog horn started going off at 1am last night and continued until maybe 7 this morning

Census, sailors and kayakers

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

Tuesday

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-20 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • many ecotours driving by today
  • no visitors today but I think guy is coming by tomorrow to help me fuel up the generator

Ecological

  • it looked like the sea otter was in the kelp bed again today, a bit hard to tell from here
  • one of the younger female elephant seals almost looks like one of the babies because of the colouring, but I’m not sure because she looks a bit big to be only 3 months old
  • also I think there is a young male on island, the nose looks a little protruded but not enough to be sure, it might just be a large female

 

Census day

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  0-10 W
  • Sky: cloudy throughout the day and a but of a drizzle this morning
  • Water: calm, but the current was running pretty good

Boats/Visitors

  • The new generator was set up today so we had a few people to come in and set that up which is great

Ecological

  • even more sea lions this time, of both stellars and californias
  • also 2 more elephant seal showed up this morning, both female

Notes

  • tried to set up the electric fence again by the generator room but the sea lions tear back it down in minutes
  • Saw the sea lions today that was darted a couple weeks ago and he is still healing (pictures in gallery)
  • And the sea lion that currently has a band around its neck is still around
  • There was a stellar that I thought might have something around his neck but it was just a gash, possibly from other sea lion?

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 62
  • California Sea Lions – 456
  • Elephant Seals – 5 (all female)
  • Harbour Seals – 128
  • Gulls (unspecified) – 524
  • Cormorants – 367
  • Black turnstones – 32
  • Sparrows – 43
  • Oyster Catchers – 6
  • Sea Otter ( I can’t sea it very well but I’m sure it was around ) – 1

Census Day

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind:  10-20 NE
  • Sky: clear all day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Had some visitors come by from Eagle Wing Tours

Ecological

  • The 3 female elephant seals are still here
  • Spotted some California Gulls today too

Notes

  • There was another sea lion with a band stuck around his neck, will alert DFO so they can come out here and help out the sea lion, the last pictures are of this sea lion
  • It was pointed out to me that I have not been including the sea otter in my census, I admit I have a hard time spotting him from here so I often forget about him

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 42
  • california sea lions – 286
  • gulls – 324
  • oyster catchers – 8
  • black turnstones – 18
  • sparrows – 32
  • harbour seals – 87
  • sea otter – 1

I am Back and the Census

Sorry about my last 10 days being absent but I am back now and here is an updated census.

Weather

  • Visibility: Pretty clear 15 Miles throughout today
  • Wind:  0-5 SW with small range all day
  • Sky: Sunny all day
  • Water: pretty flat but the current is very visible and moving

Boats/Visitors

  • I came in today and so did a few students to have a look around, we also had an engineer to come look at the new generator

Ecological

  • quite a bit of sea lions, I don’t see the elephant seal sticking around anymore and I have not seen any oyster catchers today. Also the sea otter in the north kelp patch is back

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 142
  • California Sea Lions: 186
  • Elephant Seals: 0
  • Harbour Seals: 28
  • Unspecified Gulls: 153
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 0
  • Cormorants: 18
  • Canada Geese: 12
  • Oystercatchers: 0
  • Black Turnstones: 48