The public can now get a rare look at an Oystercatcher thanks to a web camera on Race Rocks Island.
Victoria’s Pearson College stationed a nestcam on the island after a pair of elusive Oystercatchers were spotted building a nest in a rocky quarry on the reserve.
This marks the first time in Race Rocks’ history that outsiders can see the magic of this small island from the comfort of their own home.
“This is something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time and it’s because of the fortunate timing of our ecoguardian, the birds and our current tech abilities that we can offer this rare glimpse into a typically unseen world,” the college’s director of operations, Chris Blondeau, said.
According to the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of British Columbia, the Black Oystercatcher is a year-round resident of the B.C. seashores – patrolling the shorelines for mussels and limpets. Most of the species’ breeding range in the province is remote and inaccessible.
Oystercatchers are common to the area, but became iconized by Victoria artist Anne Hansen, whose paintings of the coastal birds have been shown across B.C. to raise awareness.
In 1998 Fisheries and Oceans Canada named Race Rocks as one of Canada’s first Marine Protected Area pilot projects for the Pacific Coast of Canada.
Pearson College has been the official ecoguardian of Race Rocks Island since 1997. The island is located in the eastern entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the Salish Sea – about seven kilometres from Pearson by boat.
The Oystercatcher incubation time ranges from 24 to 28 days. The college expects to see chicks any day now.
You can watch the nestcam live here.
