Category Archives: Bird Notes

A New Moon

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Last night’s full moon and near-complete eclipse was certainly a sight to see! Alas it was a tricky business getting a clear photo in the wind.

It’s my last night on the ecological reserve. Before leaving to come here, a friend asked how I could bear to live alone for such a long time. I jokingly replied, “I won’t be alone, I’ll have more than a thousand neighbours out there!”

And truly, this has been one of the liveliest neighbourhoods I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of. Whether watching the chicks grow from wobble-kneed balls of down to crazy crash pilots, seeing a sea lion stuck so long in a painful bind finally be freed, or learning to notice and know the whales that pass by- every day has been filled with hard work and wonder. Over the past month I’ve learned so much, from fixing facilities while dodging the liquid assaults of protective gull parents, to wildlife photography and the daily curiosities of marine mammals.

Without taking up too much space on the log, I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone at Pearson College, the ecoguardians, researchers, sponsors, supporters and all those who lend their time, talent and treasure to make this space possible, and the peoples of the Salish coast, long stewards of this land.

 

Wildlife Notes

Discarded down from the fledgelings has settled all over the island. Not even the strong winds have been enough to sweep them all away yet! Their white summer snow is dotted here and there with stray tufts of fur from the molting sea lions.

On a slightly less fun note, I noticed this sea gull chick didn’t seem too wary of my presence when I stepped back to take a photo of the new jetty fence configuration. It was definitely alive, but not running away even though I was only a few feet away at the time. When I came back around after a few minutes, it had died. I don’t believe that any of the adults nearby came to attack, and I wonder what may have caused its death- I’ve heard mention of widespread die-offs previously when the gulls were unable to find enough fish and were feeding their chicks with contaminated garbage. I hope this is not a repeating trend.

 

Facility Notes

  • Cleaned panels
  • Refueled Generator / oil check
  • Final deep clean of main house
  • Reconfigured jetty electric fence

 

Weather

Cloudy, with periods of clear skies. Winds mostly West by Northwesterly, from 15 to 26 knots. Temperatures from 13 to 17 degrees.

 

Vessels Observed

Ecotourism: 16

Private: 2

Ramping up

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Wildlife
There’s a seagull chick I’ve named “Phelps” due to its tendency to escape into the water next to the jetty every time someone approaches from the path- I have watched this little one sprint to the water and hop right in at least once a day. It’s down has slowly given way to progressively more feathers, and Phelps is noticeably bigger since my arrival, but still far from big enough to take on a whole lineup of California Sea Lions!
This is becoming an issue. Now my path down to the end of the jetty involves a sort of sideways sneak-around, to avoid scaring Phelps off the side of the jetty into the busy waters below. This is complicated by the crowd gathered on either side of the raised concrete pathway, which set the nesting parents and chick itself much more on edge than before. I hope this little one survives the increasing popularity of its shoreline nesting site.

Facility notes
– Cleaned panels
– Cleaned main+ student house windows
– Finished student house kitchen inventory/ food storage
– Topped up batteries

Visitors
Greg and Richard came by to troubleshoot and fix up the jetty fence; we’re operating at pretty much full power now. A friend from the College came with, taking the opportunity to spend an hour or so away from the hustle and bustle of the UWC reunions and pre-term prep. Little did she know just how much hustle and bustle there is here with all the seagull chicks!

Weather
Sunny, dry, clouds. Strong Westerlies from 19 to 29 knots. Daytime temperatures from 12 to 18 degrees.

Vessels
Ecotourism: 12
Private: 1

August 07 Census

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California Sea Lion: 92
Steller Sea Lion: 116
Seal: 47

Seagulls (adult): 750 (+another 300 or so chicks)
Oyster catcher: 13
Rock Sandpiper: 12
Black Turnstone: 141
Cormorant: 47
Pigeon Guillemot: 112
Bald eagle: 1

I noticed from the lighthouse an interesting nesting pair; I am not entirely certain but they’re either Western Gulls or hybrids of some flavour. I’m still only beginning to get familiar with the various types of gulls and their identifiers- what an incredibly deep rabbit hole to explore. This guide from Bird Studies Canada : Identifying Hybrid & Immature Gulls in Coastal B.C. is a great place to start.

Visitors
Two technicians came to work on the CODAR SeaSonde from around 11:00am to 2:30pm today, accompanied by two of the Pearson waterfront folks and two others from campus.

The CODAR SeaSonde is a coastal radar system that monitors ocean currents and wave conditions like height, direction, and period. It works by sending out radio waves and analyzing the signals bounced back from waves that are half the radar’s wavelength. Combining data from multiple stations like the one positioned on the South-West corner of the rocks allows it to calculate total ocean current speeds and directions where coverage overlaps. You can go to this post from 2018 for more information about the setup and project as a whole.

Facility notes
– Cleaned house decks
– Cleaned panels

Weather
Heavy fog, strong gusts in the morning, opening up to a calm sunny afternoon. Winds mostly west-by-southwesterly, from 15 to 33 knots. Temperatures from 10 to 15 degrees.

Vessels observed
Ecotourism: 22
Private: 3

Squeegee Skills and Other Wisdom

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I was lucky to spend time with Christine, following her around like a baby seal learning to swim in the slow eddy of the South Seal Rocks. Together we went through some of the duties of an Ecoguardian; the log, making water, battery and solar panel maintenance, the census, how to prepare the house for a change of shift. In a day and a half of showing me the ropes, I could feel myself catching her infectious love for this place with each story-saturated task.
Brushes and squeegees in hand at the base of the energy building, she turned and offered a piece of advice that encapsulated something of both the reality and the magic of this place:

“Whatever you’re doing here, you have to be doing it 100%. Focus on one thing at a time.”

There’s near-perfect cell service and wi-fi across the rocks, and we carry a handheld VHF; but when it comes to emergencies, it might still be a while before any help can arrive. Living and working here, situational awareness is non-negotiable.
And what a delight! In a world where one is often juggling five tasks with one hand, typing twenty-three replies with the other while three different media streams play in each ear, it’s a relief to focus entirely for a moment on the placement of my rubber boot on a ladder rung. Standing on the roof in the morning sun and stiff sea breeze, surrounded by a symphony of gulls and sea lions, it’s not hard to enjoy being fully present. (Also, this would be a rather inconvenient spot to break an ankle.)

Wildlife

Facility Work
– Daily water sample
– Topped up batteries
– Gathered final monthly report figures
– Cleaned Ecoguardian living space

Vessels
– Ecotourism: 16
– Private: 2

Weather
Sunny. Mostly westerly wind, increasing from 10 to 31 knots by early evening. Temperature from 12 to 18.4 degrees.

More Elephant Seals!

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Ecological Notes:

  • 2  Adult female Elephant Seals
  • 2 young ones…. 1 is this years pup born here… the other is a bit bigger,  it seems pretty big to be a new pup, but a bit small to be a yearling….. we will see when the moult starts

The 2 newest ones

  • Gulls and Oyster Catchers still paired off, no noted nest building yet
  • Orca and a Humpback passed the reserve, without entering
  • Although most have given up, found a new Canadian Goose nest…. easy to miss them when they use an old site, and cover it well when they’re not there!

Visitors:

  • Greg And Richard for fuel and grocery delivery
  • Guests of Pearson College came to the Rock to stay in the Student Building
  • Greg also brought the future Eco-Guardians for a quick overview of the site.

Facility Work:

  • Richard sealed a crack on the desalinator bunker roof

  • Solar Panel cleaning
  • Fuel transfers

DND events:

  • Several Blasts on Wednesday and Thursday

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Starting to see more Eco-Tourism vessel
  • Weekends also included more private vessels coming through to observe the wildlife

  • RCMSAR  vessel did a bit of a tour through the reserve

 

 Noted Infractions:

  • none

Weather Events:

  • Wednesday, April 22:
    • Sky: haze overhead, clouds in all directions on the horizon
    • Wind: WSW 10-22kts, variable throughout the day
    • Sea: rippled to 2′ chop
    • Temperature Low 9.3oC, High 12.4oC
  • Thursday, April 23:
    • Sky: High overcast with haze on all horizons…. giving way to mostly clear late afternoon overhead
    • Wind: W/WSW 16-37 kts
    • Sea:  light chop turning to flat by afternoon
    • Temperature Low 9.0oC, High 11.8oC
  • Friday, April 24:
    • Sky: Sunny and bright, some haze on the horizon lines though
    • Wind: Variable wind, mostly NE to SE, 5-15kts
    • Sea:  light chop turning to high waves by evening
    • Temperature Low 7.6oC, High 15.9oC
  • Saturday, April 25:
    • Sky: Sunny and bright, some haze on the horizon lines 
    • Wind: Variable S SE winds 0-10 kts
    • Sea: very little chop, some slight current lines
    • Temperature Low 7.3oC, High 16.6oC
  • Great Solar generation today so far! (the “from battery” number includes everything drawn during the night too)

 

 

** Any wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

https://tempestwx.com/station/190757/

 

Weather – Past:

https://tempestwx.com/history/190757

Animal Census April 12 2026

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  • Harlequin duck                                      8
  • Bald eagle adult                                    2
  • Bald eagle juvenile                                4
  • Turnstones                                             18
  • Gulls                                                       340
  • Cormorants                                            187
  • Pigeon Guillemots                                74 
  • Oyster catcher                                        14
  • Canadian goose                                       8(?)
  • Surf Birds                                                 3
  • Brown Pelicans                                         1
  • Small wren like birds. flickering between scrubs, Pacific wrens?  8
  • Swallow looking birds, black or very dark brown on the back        4

 

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                                            17
  • Harbour seal                                                34
  • California sea lion                                      22
  • Elephant seal pup                                        1
  • Elephant Seal Adult Female                       1
  • Animal Tracking and Injuries:          Steller branded 595Y

Sept. 19, 2025 – Animal Census Day

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Luckily for me it was a clear morning for the day of my first animal census. With coffee and binos in hand I headed up to the top of the lighthouse tower and began the count of every seal, sea lion, whale, and bird in sight… needless to say it took me much longer than expected! The sun was quickly heating up the tower and by the time I was finished counting the hundreds of sea lions, beads of sweat were dripping down my brow. Despite the heat, it was plenty worth the effort as I spotted some interesting animals – most notably, a Northern Fur seal! This little fellow was hiding in amongst the Cali’s and Stellers on the East corner of the island, not making many friends as it was crawling overtop the sea lion’s bodies and getting consistently yelled and snapped at.

Animal Census Report:

* Note the animal census was time limited to the morning only. Due to bright sun & shadows, cormorants were not distinguished by species.

Mammals:

  • Steller sea lion: 371
  • California sea lion: 906
  • Harbour seal: 89
  • Northern Fur seal: 1
  • Humpback Whales: 6

Birds:

  • Glaucus-winged Gull: 201
  • California Gull: 1
  • Western Gull: 6
  • Cormorant Spp: 701
  • Black Turnstones: 8
  • Surfbird: 14
  • Savanah’s Sparrow: 1
  • Western Sandpiper: 1

Facility work:

It was a busy day trying to fit in all my tasks on top of the animal census, as I was leaving the island for the weekend. Thankfully Richard was patient with me trying to get packed to go last minute.

  • Electric fence repairs – corner post on jetty snapped and got replaced.
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Water sampled – just in time!
  • Batteries filled (early as I would be away on Saturday)
  • Animal census
  • Compost and tidying of house

Weather:

  • Sky: Mainly clear and sunny
  • Wind: 5-10kts
  • Sea state: calm
  • Air temp: 23C

I was sad to be leaving for any time at all, given the excitement of the animal census. Thankfully, Bella and the students were incoming to keep an eye on the place in my absence. I’ll be back to it Monday morning!

 

Sept. 18, 2025 – Water refills, Sea lion sillies, and Shorebirds

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A bit of a foggy morning, but nevertheless magical morning on Race Rocks. During my morning perimeter walk I found a few posts of the fence knocked over and the sea lions brazenly taking over the jetty. I need to work on my scare tactics it seems. Greg and Richard arrived again this morning with hopes to fix the water maker. Unfortunately, the desalinator still needs new parts so we pulled out the hoses to fill the storage reservoir from the skiff. The guys went and grabbed another tank full to fill so I’ll have plenty to use while the water maker issues get fixed.

Wildlife Notes

  • 3 actively feeding humpback in Race Passage, sea lions also mobbing around the whales picking up the leftovers
  • Observed the sea lion with flasher in mouth in the same spot again
  • A California sea lion had previous entanglement, with partial rope still embedding in the neck
  • A couple little shorebirds swooped in, and with the help from Merlin I identified them as a Western Sandpiper and a Sanderling

Facility Work

  • Electric fence repairs
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Took daily water sample
  • Assisted with re-fills of water tank via fire hose with Richard and Greg
  • Swept and mopped basement floor of main house

Weather:

  • Sky: Foggy in the morning, gone around 11am. Sunshine with distant haze from fog to the south and some smoke from prescribed burnings to the NW. Fog came in again heavy and quick at 4:30PM, virtually no visibility until it cleared at 6pm.
  • Wind: W 8-10kts in AM, down to SSW 3-6kts by afternoon
  • Sea state: Calm, small ripples <0.5m swell
  • Air temp: High 12C; Low 10C

Flocks of gulls feeding

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Wildlife

Surface feeding by large flocks of seagulls around great Race island ,on a slack tide.

Entangled SSL on north west section of Great Race island today.

5 sparrows noted.

Weather: flat calm conditions in morning. 5 to 10 knots wind throughout the day.

Facility work: Repairing broken poles along fence line, solar panel cleaning, cleaned windows on student residence and main residence.

Visitors:

Two kayakers west of Great Race Rock and one paddleboarder circumnavigating Great Race, both at slack tide.

Vessels: Busy with tour boats around noon, 4 lined up to go through middle channel. 17 tour boats noted throughout the day.

August 23 Weekly Census

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First things first! Time to check out the solar panels, while at the same time, keeping track of what animals and birds are being seen. Census is usually conducted on Friday, but since I didn’t arrive until mid-afternoon, I opted to do it today.

The solar panels were in better shape than I expected given the look of the Science Building windows. I remembered all of the valves that needed to be opened to provide water on the generator building roof, so a single trip up the ladder was all that was needed. Once those were taken care of, it was off to tackle the Science Building. There are some great new tools available for reaching the second story windows, but they are quite unwieldy, especially for someone who is just a little over 5 feet tall! As I feared, the gull artwork was baked on, so although there was improvement, the windows were not fully clean when I was done.

Next, a trip up the tower to count marine mammals and gulls. I found a key outside the door as I entered. The fob looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. I thought one of the guests might have dropped it yesterday, so left it at the bottom of the stairs. A hundred steps up, I remembered why it looked familiar–it was the key to the hatch to the outside of the light. Down 100 steps and back up 100 steps. A double workout for today!

While at the top, I called my friends at Rocky Point Bird Observatory just the other side of Bentinck Island and arranged a neighbourly wave. There is a gap in Bentinck that provides a great view of Race Rocks from the other side.

Census complete, I headed back to ground level. Hmmm..Where are my glasses? You got it–back up at the light! Another trip to the top!  Although I had done a count of gulls from the top, I decided to count the young birds again. They are difficult to see from the light. At ground level, I found about three times as many as I had counted from the birds’ eye view.

The sea lions had dumped most of the posts and their concrete blocks off the jetty again. I managed to get them back up before the tide rolled in and repaired the fence–again. I have to say, I felt that I’d put in a full-day’s labour before noon!

Weekly Census
Observed today because of arrival too late on Friday for a fair census

Mammals:

  • Steller sea lion: 327 (including entangled female detected yesterday)
  • California sea lion: 142
  • Harbour seal: 64

Birds:

  • Canada Goose: 7
  • Black Oystercatcher: 5
  • Pigeon Guillemot: 34
  • Ruddy Turnstone: 1
  • Black Turnstone: 15
  • Brandt’s Cormorant 2
  • Pelagic Cormorant 30
  • Western Gull 2
  • California Gull 270
  • Glaucous-winged Gull 1042 (including about 300 young)
  • Brown Pelican

Facility work:

  • Clean the solar panels
  • Cleaned windows on the north and west side of Science Building
  • Returned posts and concrete blocks to the jetty and repaired the fence
  • Topped up batteries

Weather:

  • Sky: sunny and clear all day
  • Wind: variable 0 – 18 knots
  • Sea: rippled
  • Air temperature: low 15 °C, high 26 °C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 11.6 °C

Photos from today:

Entangled Sea Lion still being seen near the jetty.

Mom and pup Harbour Seal exuding cuteness

Jetty stripped almost clean of all the fencing posts

Young Glaucous-winged Gull in the early morning sunlight

One of several private vessels seen near the rocks today.

Looks familiar!