6/22/2010 DB Dailies

Ewa Girl & pup, with RIP attending, were 80 ft left of 1BS when I got my first look at Rabbit Island at 0649. Once again, RIP was maintaining his 25-30 ft distance, but he was right there.

When I got back to Makai Pier at 0826 I found that Ewa Girl & pup, as well as RIP , where not longer visible. Sadie, however , was still there. I got a couple of fleeting glimpses of EG&P on the first of their 2 swims, but the rough conditions made that a difficult proposition.

I did two Sandy Beach checks today, (0900 and 1300) trying to second guess Benny. Naturally, it didn't work. He was a no show today.

When I got back to the Makapuu Overview , from the first of those checks ,at 0940 I found Sadie starting to move down to the water line. I also found Duke at the right end of the Middle Cliff, where he remained all day.

By the time the time I got to Makai Pier, Sadie was gone.

Team Billand called at 0635 with the report of Makaiwi (4DF) fronting #1704 at the Nimitz Cottages. Barbara called again at 1227 to say that Makaiwi was departing. This , however, would be only a practice departure. As soon and Team Billand finished taking down all the signs and rope, she returned to exactly the same place, at 1238. Yeah...... they look cute, but Monk Seals can have an almost evil sense of humor. Barbara called again at 1338 to advise that Makaiwi had departed for real. Her D#6 molt was 75%.

I decided to do a 1700 check of Rabbit Island from the Makapuu Overview. EG&P were still snoozin' at the left end, and Duke snoozin' away at Right Middle Cliff. To me surprise I found Sadie and RIP together up in the Morning Glory in front of 3BS. I relocated to Kaupo Beach Park to get the ID's. Sadie's D#3 molt is 15%.

Regarding the Maui Monk Seal skeleton report that was in yesterday's blog. Here is the full story on the animal. http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/about/monkseal.html

( I want to thank everyone for their input, I should have been better with my research... or either that start updating the blog a little earlier in the evening. I did fix the original post ).

Ewa Girl and Pup

Makaiwi