All the Birds (and the end of the adventure)

When I knew that I would be spending a week at Race Rocks, one of the first things I did was draw up a wishlist of birds I might see from the island. By the end of the week, it served as the list of birds I didn't see. One of the big attractions of these offshore islands is that hungry or tired birds might stop by for a bit of rest and refueling.  Race Rocks has turned up several impressive birds over the years, although most have been noted in the winter.  I was excited to see what might land while I was there. I now realize that an exhausted small bird would probably end up in the belly of a gull during nesting season!

Brown Pelican was near the top of my list, and I may have seen one my first night, but it was so far away, I wasn't confident enough to include it on my list. Other no-shows included any jaegers, any phalaropes, and any shearwaters. Since my return to civilization, they have all turned up within eyeshot of the island!  I guess I was just a couple of weeks too early. 

Other than the gulls mentioned in the first blog about this adventure, Pigeon Guillemots were the most numerous birds at Race Rocks, some days numbering well above 100. They were all in breeding plumage, with no young.  I know they nest on the island, but am quite curious about the lack of chicks. I suspect that most are lost to hungry gulls, although I did see a few sneaking fish into crevices. There may have been a few still in the nest. Besides their cute look, bright red feet and mouths, they have a very appealing "spaceship" or "laser beam" whistle that could be heard almost as constantly as the gull chatter. There were a few Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants, mostly on the north side of the island.  I suspect they will be there in much higher numbers soon as they return from their breeding sites.

Pigeon Gullemot

At great distance, Rhinoceros Auklet, Common Murre, and one Cassin's Auklet put in appearances. None of these would have been noticed without binoculars or identified (at least by me) without a scope. On three occasions, Daniel Donnecke and I compared seawatch notes for an hour starting at dawn. Daniel was a few kilometers away at Beechey Head, but I didn't see any of the groups that he was noticing moving east during that period.  Of course, there's a good chance that he was seeing birds several km out in the channel, and by the time they passed Race Rocks, they would have been farther still. The only likely duplicate was a significant group of several hundred California Gulls that left Race Rocks heading west that showed up at Beechey Head a short time later.

Distant Rhinoceros Auklet

There were a few shorebirds as well: Black Turnstone, Black Oystercatcher (one very young), Least Sandpiper, and Western Sandpiper. There is a tiny, pebbled bay on the east side of Great Race that draws most of them, although the area of the dock is fairly popular with the shorebirds, as well. Killdeer could also be heard on the island, although only at night.  A couple seemed to arrive around 9:30 pm but were gone by first light.

Black Oystercatcher with young

Black Turnstone

Least and Western Sandpiper

I was honestly surprised at how few "landbirds" made their presence known during my stay. There are not a lot of hiding spots on the island, especially if you rule out gull territories. Here's the entire list:

1 Anna's Hummingbird (heading north)

1-3 Brown-headed Cowbirds (seen three times, but could have been the same individual)

Brown-headed Cowbird

1 Feral (Rock) Pigeon

1 Song Sparrow (same bird hiding out in a wood pile away from the gulls for several days)

Song Sparrow

1 Bald Eagle (on the rocks between Great Race and Bentinck Island)

22 Purple Martins (made 1 loop around the lighthouse and headed south)

And the bird of the week: 1 Yellow-headed Blackbird!

On my last morning, as I was doing the chores, I rounded the corner back to the house and there, on the ground, was a non-gull bird!! I immediately recognized it as a blackbird, but the colours were not what I expected. The head and breast were buffy in contrast to the darker body and wing feathers.  There was also a white patch on the belly. I was pretty sure it was a Yellow-headed Blackbird, albeit a bit odd looking. Where was my camera? In the generator building, of course, where I put it while washing the solar panels. I took a couple of really bad shots with my cell phone, and retreated to get my camera.  Of course, when I got back, no blackbird. After searching around a bit without any luck, I climbed the lighthouse for a view of the whole island.  I could pick out Black Turnstones, so I thought I should be able to see a blackbird, too.  No luck. Resigned to just having my cell photos, I returned to the house to pack up for my trip back to Victoria.  Then, while I was on the phone about an hour later, I looked outside, and there he was! The call was ended, and I spent far too long and FAR too many pixels documenting this bird. The strange colour was starting to bug me, though.  Could this just be another Brown-headed Cowbird?  Occasionally, pale-headed varieties are seen.  I'd already put the word out about the blackbird. Would I be eating crow about the ID? However, zooming in on one of the photos, I could clearly make out a few bright yellow feathers.  Whew!  It turns out this was a young blackbird, just going through the molt that will make him easily recognizable as a Yellow-headed.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

That little episode cut into my cleaning and packing plans, and I barely had things wrapped up when Greg and Jeff showed up at the dock to take me back to Pearson College. Greg took over as the island's resident for the weekend, something he had not yet had the opportunity to do, while Jeff whisked me back to my regular life. 

Living on a small island for a week made me think about things I often don't. In my case, these included:

• my own biological waste (the surprising volume and having to deal with it), 
• how much we take a reliable energy supply for granted (and how much we use!), 
• the amount of large ship traffic through the strait (easily more than 10 times as much as I would have thought),

Massive load of logs

• how almost devoid of natural vegetation and covered in introduced grasses and plants these small offshore island are (and how impossible that might be to change when gulls and wind would constantly be reintroducing seeds from adjacent lands)
• how much foreign material/chemicals we introduce into the ocean every day

There was a sign above a sink that reminded residents that the drains went directly into the ocean. If I'd been asked to go empty a bottle of dish-washing soap into one of the bays, there is no way that I would do it, but every day, most of us do it little by little, often without a thought. Same with our detergents and microfibers from our laundry, the oils and grease we wash into our drains, and heaven forbid, the paints, caustic cleaners, and who knows what else! Our treatment plants aren't going to have much of an effect on many of these substances.

What have we put into that fish?

In the 1970s, a saying I often heard was "The solution to pollution is dilution."  It made sense to me then. But now I wonder at what point does the saturation level become toxic to life in the sea? It seems to me that we are already past that point. I don't know how we can change our course, but I left Race Rocks thinking that this may be as important an issue as climate change, but not one at the top of our minds. 

The time passed very quickly, just about the point I was feeling like I was getting the hang of things. I hope I get a chance to be a relief Eco-guardian again to put what I've learned to use. Thanks, Pearson College, for the wonderful opportunity!

Pulling away from my adventure. Have fun, Greg!

From Feathers to Fur

 See also the official Eco-guardian's Log: https://racerocks.ca/category/ecoguardians-log/

There is no doubt that the gulls were the dominant life form on Race Rocks, but the location is well known for its mammals as well. Tour boats by the dozens come by to see the sea lions, both Steller's (Northern) and California hauled out on the islets and Great Race itself. The California Sea Lions had just started to arrive, with more and more coming ashore each day. It can get so intense that there is now fencing around a section of the island to keep them out of the way of the humans. Hundreds of Harbour Seals can be seen on the rocks and in the water around the island, many still with nursing pups in August. 

California Sea Lion

Steller's Sea Lion

Seal pup nursing

Awfully cute!

In the water, if you are lucky, you can catch a glimpse of Harbour Porpoises surfacing, usually following the tide lines. I saw these on several occasions, but too far and too fast to even get a bad photo.  Humpback Whales are frequenting the waters of the Salish Sea in good numbers, and I even managed to spot one of these before the whale watching boats did. 

I only saw Orcas on one occasion during my stay.  I was inside writing my official blog entry for the day when several people on the VHF radio started talking about them nearby.  I raced to the window, and sure enough could see a small pod over by Bentinck Island. Of course, what I could hear, anyone could hear, and within minutes, there were several tour boats between me and the Orcas. They were incredibly active, though, and moving towards Pedder Bay.  Only a few minutes later, I saw one breach right beside a private fishing boat while another was at the bow.  I bet the folks on that boat were surprised!  It reminded me of a day several years ago when a few volunteers from Rocky Point Bird Observatory took a visiting volunteer out for a boat trip with the hope of seeing whales.  We had a very similar experience in just about the same spot.  He not only got a chance to see Orcas, he could look right into their mouths! News from Victoria media that night indicated that several groups of Biggs Orcas were seen throughout the nearshore waters that day.

Bet they weren't expecting that!

Race Rocks also occasionally gets River Otters on shore, but I didn't see that while I was there.  There were some disruptions in the "force" of gulls some nights though, so I wondered if something was going after them. Ollie the Sea Otter, whose sighting has become a regular goal of commercial and private visitors, did not put in an appearance for me.  The most recent report of him had been about 10 days before I arrived. 

No doubt, though, the mammalian star of the show was a HUGE Elephant Seal that was undergoing his molt on Race Rocks. In recent years, Elephant Seals have been spending time here, even giving birth and mating on the island. All but one had finished molting and moved on to feed by the time I arrived. I was told that he had lost about 500 lbs during his molt and he likely would be departing soon. 

Elephant Seals are not inconspicuous.  They also get to be wherever they want to be. Amazingly unperturbed by human presence, this one had taken up residence right alongside the sidewalk I walked down many times every day. There were almost always three young gulls looking at him. I figured out after a few days that he was probably smack-dab in their territory, and they weren't quite sure what to do about that.  He was unperturbed by them, too. 

A favourite spot

"Except that it's OUR spot!"

Imagine my surprise when the very next day, he made his way down to the dock!  He was leaving!  I sent a note to Greg to let him know the news and I went down to the crane site to watch him. The "walk" from his resting spot to the dock was probably about 100m, and he didn't do it all at once.  I can imagine it takes a lot of effort to move that mass.(Click here to see a video of him in action!) Finally, when he reached the water, he blew some bubbles and splashed water over his back with his flippers. (Another video here.) I thought he looked ecstatic.  But then he stopped and didn't go any farther. I found out later from Greg that he'd been doing this for weeks.  Just headed down to the dock and blew bubbles. That became my name for him from that point: "Bubbles". 

Heading to the beach!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Molting is something we normally associate with birds. They drop most to all of their feathers in the process. We think of mammals as "shedding" rather than molting, but in some--including Elephant Seals, it is a real molt.  I had noticed chunks of skin and fur around the sidewalks and houses, and assumed something had lost its life. Nope. Those swatches were molted Elephant Seal!

Bits of Bubbles

For several days, Bubbles slept/rested in the same spot, occasionally huffing at me as I went by, and made his daily excursions to the dock. He'd spend several hours there, entertaining passengers on the whale watching boats.  Sometimes he'd swim in the area next to the dock, but never beyond it. On Wednesday night, though, he didn't come back up to his sidewalk spot, but slept out of the water down by the dock.  On Thursday, he took the plunge and left to get a bite (or thousands of bites) to eat. 

It seemed strange without him. I'd become accustomed to his face. 

Bubbles!

There's Work to Be Done!

 Being a relief eco-guardian at Race Rocks comes with a few responsibilities. There are two houses (the eco-guardian's residence and the student/researcher house), and several accessory buildings including a generator building, desalinator, and others that house the equipment needed to run the island. Of course there's also a lighthouse tower, but that is primarily the responsibility of the Federal government. There is always something that needs to be monitored, cleaned, or fixed.

Student/Reseach house on the left, eco-guardian's house on the right.

Keeping the power going is one of the main duties when you stay on the island.  This is a combination of keeping your electrical consumption low, ensuring that the solar panels are clean, topping up the batteries about once a week, and running the generator when necessary. There is a monitoring app on the computer, so it's easy to keep an eye on things, but you need to remember to check it regularly. The houses don't have any high-energy appliances like microwaves or electric tea kettles, but you need to run the generator to operate the desalinator and the washer/dryer. The eco-guardian before me filled up the water tanks, so I didn't have to learn desalination techniques, but I did get a chance to top up the huge batteries that keep the lights and other power going on the island.  Let the voltage drop too low, and everything shuts down!  Just like new electric vehicle owners have range anxiety, I will admit to having voltage anxiety for the first few days, but by the end of the week, I felt I had a pretty good handle on how the batteries were doing.

Batteries need to be topped up with distilled water every week.

Once a week, the eco-guardian conducts a general census of wildlife in the area. The best way to get a look at the seals and sea lions on the surrounding islets is to go to the top of the lighthouse, and if the wind is calm, outside the light room through a small door in the wall. The view is spectacular!

Great views of the islets where marine mammals haul out!

Looking down the spiral staircase in the tower.

Counting moving objects is always a challenge, so with hundreds of gulls, a little "clicker" is handy. The census lasts the entire day and sightings of passing marine mammals get added to the list. 

General cleanliness is an important consideration, too. You are walking through droppings everywhere you go, so you really don't want to be tracking that through the houses.  Despite being more or less a wilderness location, it's also a "shoes-off" situation before going into the living quarters in the houses, which are very clean and pleasant!

Main living area in the eco-guardian's house

Every bedroom has a view!

And then there's the composting toilet. Needless to say, there is no septic tank or sewer system on Race Rocks. The composting toilets mean that you can have indoor "plumbing" without having indoor plumbing, so that's a big plus. The eco-guardian's house has a state of the art toilet with two chambers: one for liquid and another primed with peat moss and sawdust for solids. Virtually no odor, which is amazing. But what goes in, must come out, and that means that it really is more like a high-tech chamber pot rather than an outhouse (that someone else gets to clean!) This translates to at least a couple of trips outside a week to deal with the contents.

The toilet even has a crank to mix the solids for faster composting.

Outside, the windows are washed frequently, and the siding periodically. Windy days definitely pepper the buildings with flying gull droppings. I made a little thermoplastic scraper to get some of more stuck poop off the solar panels and windows. 

Thermoplastics can be molded into any number of useful objects in a place like this!

A gas-powered washer is used for the siding and the sidewalks--tasks that I didn't have to do during my stay. 

This side of the house really bears the brunt of the westerly winds.

Strategically, waiting for the nesting gulls to leave and the rains to come makes sense for cleaning the sidewalks

Other responsibilities include making a daily weather report to Pedder Bay early in the morning. While there is equipment to tell you the speed and direction of the wind, and some standards for visibility, you have to make a judgement call on the "sea state" or intensity of the waves.  I had to look this one up!  There is an official scale that requires you to estimate the height of the waves from a good distance.  I really didn't feel confident about that, but felt pretty good about an alternative system I came up with:

1. Looks good out there!

2. Hmmm...  I wouldn't go out in that

3. Are you kidding me?

4. Don't expect me to come and get you. I'm not even looking...

Etc. 

Just kidding!  Thankfully, the sea state at dawn the rest of the week was calm, a description that I could manage.

How would you describe this sea state?

There were no students or researchers on the island when I was there, but in addition to cleaning the windows, I managed to find another task over there. With all the gulls and other wildlife on the island, we've already determined that there is a fair amount of excrement. As with any colonies, there are also nest failures, injuries and other reasons that some of the birds don't make it. With all of this organic debris, there are also a lot of flies, and when you go into a building, you can easily let a few in. Over time, the numbers can build. Fly strips catch the unlucky, but I was looking for more immediate gratification.  Armed with a trusty hand vacuum, I went flybusting!  Surprisingly, this is a catch and release program.  The flies are amazingly resilient, and a small whirly ride doesn't seem to have any effect on them.  I roamed from window to window and caught all that I could before restoring them to a more nutrient-rich habitat.

Catch and release flies!

At the end of the day, the eco-guardians are encouraged to write a blog post. It doesn't always happen, and it can take quite a bit of time to do if you've foolishly taken hundreds of pictures to go through! My official eco-guardian posts can be found for the week of Aug 7-13 here:  https://racerocks.ca/category/ecoguardians-log/

Another amazing sunset at Race Rocks.

Life among the Gulls

Note: for a day by day report on my stay on Race Rocks, please visit the official Ecoguardian Log.

There is no question who is in charge of Race Rocks in mid-August. It's the colony of Glaucous-winged Gulls. Given the age of most of the offspring, I can only imagine what it must be like in mid-July.

Glaucous-winged Gull defending turf.

One day, I walked around the main island with a clicker, and individually counted more than 640 Glaucous-winged Gulls on the ground. This would mean that there were easily more than 700 present given that many were out gathering food. While we're not talking a lot of diversity here, I was privileged to get a chance to learn a lot more about their behaviour. 

The adults were mostly still in pairs defending territories, some of which were in very inconvenient places--like the main sidewalk. It was really interesting watching the bonding behaviours of the pairs, even those with no chicks. They made me think of mini-albatrosses! Many of the pairs had from 1 to 3 chicks which they vigorously defended.  This gull was guarding one chick. Every time I walked down the sidewalk, it would threaten me, but only from behind. If I turned and looked at it, it would look away as if it hadn't been doing anything. It became a bit of a game over the course of the week.

Looking nonchalant now, this gull would charge me from behind every time I walked down the sidewalk.

Great Race is a small island, approximately 4.5 acres in area. The density of gulls, even in mid-August means that there is a lot of bickering, some more bluster than bite, but some quite serious.  Adults will viciously attack other gulls, even chicks, that cross the imaginary lines of their territories. Some of the attacks are lethal. I found it quite interesting that there were fully flighted young gulls as well as a few that were very young. I even found a random egg one night that was gone a couple days later. While I did my best to not disturb them, basically any movement would set the off, and just like dogs howling in a neighbourhood, a good portion of them would start yelling. 

Gull youngsters checking out an Elephant Seal in THEIR territory.

The youngsters all had their secret hiding spaces, so if you moved slowly enough, they'd run and tuck in while their parents came after you. 

One young gull had figured out that it could swim. It's the only one I saw in the water, but it went swimming every day.

Where there are gulls, there is gull excrement, and plenty of it. Keeping the solar panels clean was a priority, as they provide a good amount of the energy for the island.  Depending on the wind, the windows of the buildings became the landing places for what the birds dropped. 

The whole side of the house was splattered. My job was to keep the windows clean. The rest would be handled by occasional powerwashing.

Most of the solar panels had bird spikes to discourage roosting, but some of the birds were clever enough to figure out how to deal with them.

"I got this."

Can you see the band on the gull above?  For the full story, check out the Race Rocks Ecoguardian Log for August 12.

One of the most entertaining things was to watch the older chicks learning to fly. Watch a video here.

In addition to the Glaucous-winged Gull colony, on several mornings, California Gulls were present in the hundreds, feasting on krill that was in the area. Most had moved on by mid-morning, leaving only several dozen on the perimeter of the island.  They were smart enough not to enter the breeding colony.

Most days, there were also one or more Heermann's Gulls in the mix, and the occasional Herring Gull, but I wasn't able to find anything more unusual, despite picking through the flocks frequently.

Breeding will soon be over, just in time for the arrival of hundreds of seals!