DB Post Monday 2/2/2009

Those of you who are regulars know that it's a damned rare day when Rabbit Island is certified Monk Seal free, but alas, today was one of those rare days. I have no clue.

Team Billand had a pretty sparce day also. The called at 1142 to report Kermit on the west side of the Nimitz Beach jetty, and that was the only find. They did call again at 1445 to report that they had seen an animal from afar fronting the cottages on Nimitz Beach, well away from the observation site at Wind Sock, but the animal was in the process of departing due to human presence. No ID was possible.

They also responded to a reported animal at Maili Beach Park, but the animal had departed prior to there arrival.

I received mail from Joanna Tabor about her 2-1-09 (Sunday) trek to Ka'ena Point. Though her camera batteries were dead, she did manage to ID and report RI37 there. Initially, I didn't recall having seen that number before, but I looked it up, and lo and behold found that was a female , born at Moloaa, Kauai between 5-1 & 5-3, 2005. She had received an incorrect cohort tag. The 2005 cohort letter designation is "V", and she had inadvertently being tagged with a 2004 "I" tag. The last thing in the world a girl needs is to be thought of as a year older than she actually is, but she is stuck with it.

The story gets even better because our little girl is the first documented child of none other than R5AY (mother of Penelope & Hoku)

As if things could get any neater, there is one last paragraph to the tale. Though I'd initially thought that RI37 was an unknown to me, but my Monachus Gene persisted in telling me that the number was familiar. Why did I know that number??? Tadaaaa !!!!!!! When I checked the records of the many Bloy/Pike Molokai Expeditions, I found that RI37 had been seen by them on Molokai on 12-27-08. Obviously, this little girl gets around. Aloha, DB

RI37

RI37

Kermit

Kermit