Category Archives: Animals

Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) returns for the winter.

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western grebe

Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) photo by Garry Fletcher

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Western grebe : Taylor Beach Vancouver Island photo by Garry Fletcher

wgrebevert4The Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) overwinter here on Southern Vancouver Island in the protected coastal bays. In the past two weeks they have returned to the waters of Taylor beach.

They are one species which is having a difficult time due to habitat loss for nesting, and are also vulnerable in the event of Oil Spills here in the Strait of Georgia and Strait of Juan de Fuca.

From the Race Rocks website it was noted that three pairs were seen in Pedder Bay throughout January and February of 2006. Although our observations here have them diving and feeding throughout daylight hours, past research has shown that they also feed at night:  following trails of bioluminescence as the fish swim through the water. (see reference below) It may surprize some to know that this is one of the few prairie-wetland nesting birds which do not migrate South during the winter, but instead migrate West over the Rocky Mountains to the Coastal Bays of Vancouver Island.

 

A western grebe hangs out with a flock of Surf Scoters

A western grebe hangs out with a flock of Surf Scoters

The Western Grebe is classified by the Alberta Government as a Species at Risk. This Field Summary gives further information on it.

night foraging

Research on Foraging indicating a night-feeding pattern is presented in the research of James Clowater, See the link to his thesis at the bottom.

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Sub-Phylum Vertebrata
Class Aves
Order Podicipediformes
Family Podicipedidae
Genus Aechmophorus
Species occidentalis
Common Name: Western Grebe

The Shoreline of Metchosin: What do we have to lose with tanker traffic

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Along the shoreline of Metchosin and underwater we have ecosystems which are at risk of being heavily impacted in the event of an impending oil spill catastrophe given all the proposed projects which will increase ship traffic to unacceptable levels in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The presentation by Garry Fletcher linked here was done on the evening of October 23rd, 2014 at the Metchosin Community Hall organized by Karyn Woodland and the local Dogwood Initiative Group. ( NOTE: comments are included under the images and all images are copyright of the photographers who took them, John Harper(GeoBC); the ecoguardians at Race Rocks: Ryan Murphy, Raisa Mirza, Alex Fletcher, Anne Stewart, Adam Harding, Mike Robinson and Courtenay Edwards, and myself. The graphics from the first part on Oil Spill Risk are from  posts of Nov.4 on Oil Spill Risks
Link to a description of the three presentations to the Town hall meeting by Kai Nagata of the Dogwood Initiative, Andrew Weaver, Green Party MLA for Oak Bay and Intervenor in the Kinder Morgan hearings, and Garry Fletcher, Intervenor for the Board of Friends of Ecological Reserves in the Kinder-Morgan / Trans Mountain Expansion project hearings. gfpresent

Horned Grebe, ( Podiceps auritus)

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Horned grebe Podiceps auritus off Taylor Beach, Oct 10, 2014

 

These photos were taken by G. Fletcher off the shore of Taylor Beach on Oct 10/14 Unfortunately I didn’t have a telephoto along!

The tentative identification is the Horned grebe.

The following is quoted from From the Species at Risk Registry
“Horned Grebe: Scientific Name: Podiceps auritus
Taxonomy Group: Birds
Range: Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario
Last COSEWIC Assessment: April 2009
Last COSEWIC Designation: Special Concern
SARA Status: No schedule, No Status

Threats NOte Bolded sentence:

The factors limiting Horned Grebe populations in Canada are not known, but several possible causes for the decline have been identified, including degradation of wetland breeding habitat and droughts. Permanent loss of wetlands to agriculture and development threaten Horned Grebe populations. Temporary loss of wetlands during droughts can also negatively impact Horned Grebe populations, and the length and frequency of droughts in the Prairies is expected to increase in the future, due to climate change. Eutrophication, i.e., the alteration of an aquatic environment linked to a significant input of nutrients that increases the production of algae and aquatic plants, as well as degradation of nesting sites from the accumulation of fertilizers used in agriculture or other contaminants could also threaten populations. In the Prairies, the major expansion of some predators, including Common Ravens, Black-billed Magpies and racoons, could be a factor causing a decline in the Western population. Type E botulism has been reported in the Great Lakes since the late 1990s and may be an important source of mortality for both resident and migrating waterbirds. Oil spills on their wintering grounds can also threaten Horned Grebe populations. At sea, these birds are particularly vulnerable, since they spend most of their time on the water. Competition with Pied-billed Grebes for breeding habitat could be a limiting factor for the Western population. Similarly, Red-necked Grebes may exclude Horned Grebes from nesting on some ponds. Finally, Horned Grebes become entangled and drown in nets in some commercial fishing areas. It is estimated that 3000 grebes and loons are netted annually by fishers on the southern part of Lake Winnipegosis in Manitoba. On the Great Lakes, birds are killed annually in fishing nets during both spring and fall migrations.

 

Beaver (Castor canadensis) on Taylor Beach

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This week Alex Fletcher reported seeing a beaver (Castor canadensis) come ashore and go up into Gooch Creek which flows into the ocean on Taylor Beach. He is well aware of what the river otters which usually come into that creek look like so was able to identify this as definitely being a beaver. I checked the tracks later on that day and was able to confirm the set of beaver tracks over the beach and into the stream entrance on shore. The tell tail heavy wide groove left by the dragging tail was clear. We have been on the watch for evidence of it up in Gooch Creek since but have not seen anything.

I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has seen evidence of beavers this far south on Vancouver Island. ( See attached distribution map)

 

Shiner Perch, Cymatogaster aggregata on the beach

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This Shiner Perch, Cymatogaster aggregata was at the water’s edge on Taylor Beach this morning. Cause of death is unknown. They are often found along our coast in shallow waters, and eel-grass communities, and serve as important forage fish, especially as juveniles.

2014=aug-perch1
Classification from Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: April 2013
Animalia
Chordata
Actinopterygii
Perciformes
Embiotocidae
Cymatogaster
Cymatogaster aggregata Gibbons, 1854

Ammodytes personatus -Pacific Sand Lance spawning at Taylor Beach

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Sand lance and ruler in centimetres

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Sandbar at the North end of Taylor Beach

This morning with the extreme low tide, (tonight is the full moon)  the small sandbar off the north end of Taylor beach was exposed for a few hours. As the tide came back in, a crow and a glaucous winged-gull were patrolling the area and picking up sandlance as they emerged from the sand, flipped around a few times and then died.  In 15 minutes walking  back and forth along the 40 metre stretch of the sandbar, I picked up 15 of the dead sandlance, forage fish. Several that were still active were returned to the water where they died within a few minutes.  Perhaps this a solution–  having  direct predation as soon as they emerge from their sand burrows in order to prevent  fouling of the beach..

Species recognized by IRMNG:

Kingdom: Animalia +
Phylum: Chordata
Class : Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Ammodytidae
Genus: Ammodytes Linnaeus, 1758
Species: personatus

The Future for our Elephant Seal Population in the Event of Oil Spills.

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Elephant seal mother and pup born at Race Rocks Ecological reserve on January 14, 2014

Elephant seal mother and pup born at Race Rocks Ecological Reserve on January 14, 2014,  Photo by Alex Fletcher

This post has been adapted from a January 24 entry on the racerocks.ca website

British Columbians and Metchosinites in particular can take great satisfaction in the fact that an Elephant seal colony is being slowly established in British Columbia right on their doorstep, We can can still go to camera 1 on racerocks.ca to see an elephant seal pup being nursed via a webcam on an island beside Metchosin.  The reality is that the risks these animals face in the Strait of Juan de Fuca if they are to maintain a population increase are now becoming even more challenging.

Currently about 6,000 large commercial vessels transit Canadian and U.S. waters toward Vancouver or Washington ports each year. Each month about five large oil tankers ply the waters down the international border within a few kilometres of the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.

Under the Kinder Morgan Pipeline Proposal, up to 34 tankers a month would be loaded with oil at a terminal outside Vancouver, then travel through Haro Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca for export to markets in Asia and the U.S.  These are tankers in excess of 200 metres in length. 

The $5.4 billion expansion project would nearly triple pipeline capacity from about 300,000 to 890,000 barrels of crude oil a day to meet customer demand. Much of that future cargo will likely be diluted bitumen from Canada’s tar  sands. If approved, the expansion is expected to be operational in late 2017. The pipeline is operated by Kinder Morgan Canada and owned by Houston-based Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP.

The potential of collision and oil spills is unparalleled, and you can’t clean oil off a two ton marine mammal very easily let alone the volumes of marine life it consumes daily for survival. It would be a miracle indeed if we still have elephant seals at Race Rocks in 2020, the 40th anniversary of the Ecological Reserve. 

G.Fletcher

References we could all consider seriously:

  • Financial Liability for Kinder Morgan – Georgia Strait Alliance,

    “Residents of the Salish Sea region—Vancouver, Victoria, the Gulf Islands and Washington State—could see a four-fold increase in the number of oil tankers traveling from the Port of Metro Vancouver through Juan de Fuca Strait, if Kinder Morgan is permitted to build a new pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands to markets in Asia. Such a dramatic increase signals exponentially higher risk of oil spills and raises many questions about what is at risk, how the oil is “cleaned up”, and who pays for oil spill response. “

  • The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Marine Mammals by the marine mammal Commission, an independent commission of the US government
  • Effects of Oil Spills on Marine and Coastal Wildlife–“Oil spills can impact wildlife directly through three primary pathways: —ingestion – when animals swallow oil particles directly or consume prey items that have been exposed to oil .—–absorption – when animals come into direct contact with oil inhalation – when animals breathe volatile organics released from oil or from “dispersants” applied by response teams in an effort to increase the rate of degradation of the oil in seawater. ——inhalation – when animals breathe volatile organics released from oil or from “dispersants” applied by response teams in an effort to increase the rate of degradation of the oil in seawater”
  • Effects of Oil Pollution on Marine WIldlife ”  Seals are very vulnerable to oil pollution because they spend much of their time on or near the surface of the water. They need to surface to breathe, and regularly haul out onto beaches. During the course of an oil pollution incident, they are at risk both when surfacing and when hauling out.”
  • Marine mammals and the Exxon Valdez Auteur : LOUGHLIN Thomas R. “This recently published book is a unique longitudinal study of the demise of an ecosystem due to a single acute environmental perturbation.”

Posts on this and other  local websites about the effects of Oilspills.

Mergansers out in full force today.

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In the Christmas Bird Count this year, one of the marine birds noted in particularly high numbers was the Common  Merganser, Mergus merganser, with a count of 258 along the Metchosin/Sooke shores.

I noted today( rainy and overcast)  that there were 32 Common Mergansers ( 6 males and  26 females down on the north end of Taylor Beach . Often when we see them there throughout the winter, they are in smaller groups and are continually diving for food. Today the pattern was quite different as they were all in  courtship mood.  The males have a distinctive forward bow, then an upward stretch of their necks  and then a quick scurry on the surface around  a female. These are probably one of the most colourful seabirds on our coast and well worth looking for in protected bays and inlets during the winter. (Pedder Bay also often has a dozen or so) .

Of course these birds as other over-wintering seabirds in our water are very vulnerable to oil spills. If the Kinder-Morgan Pipeline goes through, The current risk from a maximum of  5 oil tankers going through the southern entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca each day, is bad enough, but when one contemplates the added risk of accidents from 34 tankers (each over 200 metres in length) plying our waters  by 2015, the future for overwintering birds like this is rather dismal.

Other articles about this concern:

 

Sharing our Shoreline

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Values and Views
Island Trust Communities
Marine By Nature
The Islands within the Salish Sea have been  shaped by ancient glaciers and modern oceanic forces. Whether you visit the islands seasonally or live here year round, Islanders treasure the marine environment.  The North Pender Local Trust Committee has developed this brochure to introduce you to where sensitive marine habitats exist, how you can recognize them, and what simple steps you can take to ensure our local waters continue to support a vibrant and abundant marine ecosystem.

This PDF has been produced by the North Pender Island Local Trust Committee: Sharing Our shorelines_lowres

IslandstrustContents:

Clean Water
Shoreline erosion
Coastal Bluffs and Shoreline beaches
Marine Riparian Vegetation
Intertidal Habitats
Beach-spawning Forage Fish
Eelgrass habitats
Kelp Forests and Rocky Reefs
Marine shorelines as critical fish habitats