Monday, August 23, 2010

8/22/2010 DB Dailies

My first look at Rabbit Island was a bust. When we got to Spitting Cave we found Buster doing 7 minute dives.

At 0825 COSTCO posse member Momi called to report 2 animals at Irma's near the Kealahou traffic light. When we arrived at 0835 we found A/F Lona (R017), and A/M RI13 (a Molokai boy), together on the beach. We got a cordon up , but had to redo it 4 times as Lona kept moving away . At 1043, with Lona in the lead they entered the water and I followed them as they passed Sandy Beach, and then Blowhole Lookout. I went ahead to Lanai Lookout and was waiting for them when they arrived. Lona lead them into a secret inlet on the town side of the Lanai Lookout, a very difficult place for two legged things to access. Lona got up on a rock flat, but she would not let RI13 up. He was forced to remain on a lower rock area, keeping him in the water. As the tide began to rise he was forced to float just off shore and wait for Lona to do something. At 1151 Buster showed up, and he and RI13 did several rounds. Ultimately, Buster took off. They were still there at 1430.

At 1815 Hanauma Bay posse member , Martha called to say that they had animals on the beach. (Gee I wonder who that could be). I raced to HB and at 1830, lo and behold there were RI13 and Lona together on the beach at the left end. The Bay was closing so they have the entire place all to themselves. I'll be back first thing in the morning.


RI13 is a Molokai boy. He made one previous trip to Oahu back on 12-31-06. He was documented by Barbara Billand and John Johnson at Kaena Point. At that time Barbara christened him "Charlie", after her father. He had not been seen on Oahu since that trip, but he is a regular in the Molokai gang.

Lona is an Oahu/Maui girl. She was last on Oahu on 5-4-10 at Hanauma Bay, and the next day at Sandy Beach. She went off to Maui after that, and then gave birth on Molokai in mid June. This is her first documented sighting since then.

I got a call from posse member, Kathy at 0902 reporting an animal at Wind Sock, Kalaeloa Beach. The Billands were in the area, but the animal was run off prior to their arrival, however they could see the critter swimming toward White Plains. At 0934 Team Billand found Benny, who was the traveler, and Makaiwi together on the EB side of the east end perimeter fence at White Plains. A lay net, and the usual crop of idiots made for another White Plains kinda' day. Benny and Makaiwi departed at 1848.
At 1500 Team Billand responded to a call about an animal at Iroquois Point and were able to confirm Rocky at 1547. That was a bit of a surprise since Rocky swam all the way to town to do a day at Magic Island, only to turn around and go back to the SW quadrant.

Team Kenyon did the Ka'ena Point trek and found RI37 and Kerby at the end of the world. It had been a while since Kerby was seen, so that was great. The RI37 sighting was interesting because Dana had called around 1400 with the report from hikers that there was "an animal in distress", on rocks below the trail approximately 1/2 mile in, on the Waianae side trail to KP. Dana called again at 1429 to say that the hiker/callers had decided to help the animal out of the rocks, When they got close, it took off. They decided maybe it wasn't in distress after all. According to the rescuers it was RI37.
Looks like someone lost their cell tag

1 comment:

Barbara said...

Wow, great photos of Charlie RI13 now 2BE/2BF..didnt know that. He lost his transmitter, tsk.tsk. He is looking mighty bulky now, still really clean animal, real healthy, nice to see. And Lona..she was our first Female seal, she is lovely herself. Ya done good finding them out there..thanks for the trek. Seems a dangerous rough area. Its funny how Charlie waited for Lona, guess he really wanted her badly. Well, she is cute. Again, nice shots DB.