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Beautiful Census Day

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After yesterdays rain, today was super beautiful with some dramatic clouds and even a rainbow! But it was still super windy with waves breaking on the Jetty most of the morning.

Windy day at the Jetty

You can see a hint of the rainbow in the background …

In other news, the Entangled CSL is still around, and also during todays census I spotted a Stellar who has a bad gash… prop strike maybe?

 

Facilities Work (Yesterday and Today)

  • Ran Desal (250 L)
  • Cleaned pathways
  • Chopped wood
  • Cleaned out house fridge
  • Checked and filled Battery levels
  • Filled Generator

Biological Census

  • Canada Geese – 14
  • Snow Geese – 2
  • Turnstones – 10
  • Oystercatchers – 4
  • Seagulls – 183
  • Cormorants – 530
  • Elephant Seal – 1
  • Harbour seals – 4
  • California Sea Lions – 723
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 300

 

Making things pretty

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The last couple days have been pretty chill over here. The seas have been calm, and the sea lions have been behaving.

Yesterday Greg, Mike and Oliver came over to bring a super comfy sectional couch (Gregs kind donation :)) over to the Student house.

The student digs are so cosy now! It is awesome that they have been getting used so much more this year. Fingers crossed, I have some students come stay during my shift!

Today, I ran the desal and I cleaned the goose poop off the pathways. I think of all the poop types on the island, Goose poo is the worst.

GEESE!

Facilities

  • Fixed the Fence
  • Swept/Swiffered student house
  • Ran the Desal (~300 L)
  • Refilled the generator
  • Cleaned the pathways

Weather

  • Sky: Partially Cloudy
  • Wind: 2kts E
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Air Temp: 10C

Endless battles

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Yesterday we had some issues with the wifi. Greg said that this often happens after a windy day, but I am rather inclined to blame the eagle, who sat on the Starlink reciever all afternoon :)

Today I spent a long time fixing the electric fence down at the Jetty. It seems like the more I try, the more the sea lions just don’t care.

5 minutes after I fixed the fence

I also sprayed down all the outdoor staircases with algae killer so they wont be too slippery all winter. Hopefully I will have some super satisfying before and after photos to share in a couple days.

On another note, we have another entangled sea lion. The bright orange flasher sticking out of his mouth was the first thing I saw this morning. I will continue to keep an eye out for him.

Facilities Work:

  • Fixed Fence
  • Filled batteries
  • Sprayed/Scrubbed stairs

Weather

  • Sky: Partially Cloudy
  • Wind: SSE 5 kts
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Temp: 10C

Warden’s Report for Race Rocks Ecological Reserve #97 Sept 5 2025

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On September 5 , I was able to get transportation to Race Rocks for Guillaume Roy and his father Réjean Roy   The photos in the gallery presented here were taken by Réjean.  Along with me was former Pearson College student Brian Nainee who had been an active diver with the college here at Race Rocks in 1980.   Richard from Pearson College drove us out along with a group of marine Biology students.

It is always good to look at the Ecological Reserve through the eyes of a visitor who is seeing it for the first time, so the following gallery of photos has been provided by Réjean Roy 

 

Race Rocks Tidal Current Generator at Museum of Technology

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In the summer of2025 Alex Fletcher and his son Yanou visited the Museum of Technology in Ottawa. They encountered the Tidal Current generator that was installed at Race Rocks Ecological Reserve  in 2006. 

 https://racerocks.ca/tidal-current-energy-project-at-race-rocks-2006-2011/

 

Yanou at the base of the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve Tidal Current Turbine

From the website.  https://collection.ingenium.ca/en/id/2012.0055.001/

The Clean Current technology is an example of a ducted horizontal axis turbine designed for ocean tides and salt water. It is bi-directional (designed for the ebb and flood tides) and highly efficient. It is very simple in design with one moving part, the rotor assembly that contains the blades. There is no driveshaft or gearbox. Clean Current’s direct drive variable speed permanent magnet generator incorporates features that allow the generator to be configured to produce either alternating or direct current.

Windy Day

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Today we had a very windy day with 30kt gusts all day.

The sea lions took this opportunity to nap hard.

Facilities Work

  • Filled Generator
  • Swept out battery room/generator room
  • Fixed fence

Weather

  • Wind: SW 25 kts
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Sea State: 2 ft wind chop
  • Temp: 10 C

 

We have WATER!!!

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Today was a very PNW day… a slow steady rain all day.

I know it gets old quick, but I really love a nice, cozy, rainy day at Race Rocks!

But also because of the rain, most of the sea lions spent the day in the water, making the census counts low.

Of note today, Greg came out to the island, and we fired up the Desalinator after more than an entire year of issue after issue. Greg was jubilant to say the least :).

Facilities Work

  • Checked and filled battery levels
  • Fixed fence
  • Ran the desalinator (300L)

Weather

  • Sky: Rainy (12mm)
  • Wind: NNE 5.2 Kts
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Air Temp: 9C

Census:

  • Harbour Seals – 5
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 79
  • California Sea Lions – 99
  • Seagulls – 353
  • Cormorants- 515
  • Turnstones – 15
  • Oyster Catchers – 12
  • Canada Geese – 3
  • Snow Goose – 1
  • Elephant Seal – 1

 

Im Back Baby

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Hello All!

I am so excited to be back here after more than a year!! And I am thoroughly enjoying my loud and stinky welcome from the Sea Lions.

I actually got to the island on Tuesday to relieve Kendra, but have had some login issues so i’m posting my first blog of the shift today.

The weather this week has been stunning, blue skies, low winds, and beautiful sunsets, so no complaints from me.

I have spent the last couple days getting reacquainted with the daily routine!

Kendra’s Entangled Sea Lion is still hanging around the dock

I think I saw my first snow goose here today!

Facility Work

  • Fixed fence
  • Chopped Wood
  • Refilled diesel in generator and tidy tank

Weather

  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Wind: WSW 10 Kts
  • Sea State: Choppy
  • Air Temp: 12 C

 

Thanksgiving Update

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So much to be thankful for out here! 

With Greg’s help we managed to get the algae off the student building, still needs a bit more to do but looking great! We also filled the water tank with 5 loads of water which is always a great feeling. 

The weather has been great, a bit windy and rainy yesterday but supposed to be gorgeous all week long so will get lots done on my last few days here! 

The female elephant seal is still hanging around, and I finally saw a sea otter today! It was quite far away but doesn’t appear to have a pink nose like Ollie and he was apparently seen elsewhere today so not sure who this is! 

I’ve also sadly found an entangled sea lion so working with all the right people to hopefully get that sorted for him. 

Lastly, here is the census from Oct 11 – it was a rainy day so numbers are low. 

Mammals:

  • California sea lion: 487
  • Steller sea lion: 221
  • Harbour seal: 15

Birds:

  • Gulls: 288
  • Cormorants: 770
  • Bald eagles: 3
  • Canadian geese: 10
  • Turnstones: 6 

And if you made it to the bottom, here is a photo of my surprise doorstep visitor a couple nights ago! He kindly made his way back to his side of the fence when I asked nicely. 

 

Busy Day on the Rock!

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Got lots done today! The next few days are supposed to rain so spent most of the day outside. 

Scrubbed and sprayed the algae on the main house, tank shed, and wooden walk ways (at least where I could reach). They aren’t perfect and will need a good pressure wash when the desalinator is back up and running, but they are better than they were! 

Richard dropped off 3 loads of water which is about 2,100L which is awesome. The hardest part of that task is keeping the sea lions off the hose! 

I ran the generator during the day today so I could do an equalization charge on them which is good to do once a month to keep the batteries healthy. 

DND did some blasting today, 5 in total. The sea lions flushed into the water on the first one but after that were just on high alert/sitting up when the rest would go off. 

The little elephant seal L334 was hanging out on the jetty today, I hope she’ll come up onto the grass but the sea lions are currently blocking her path!!Â