Ewa Girl back at Reef Runway... is she trying to confuse us.... Is this a semi-weaning? Although from the looks of it Kekoa is doing just fine exploring on his own and clueless MOM was even close-by. Anyone care to comment on if this is unusual or just another "monk seal moment"? I am sure Barb was happy to see both Mom and Weaner, even though they weren't together.
Weaner Kekoa exploring the his surroundings.
I was going to say, stick or sea cucumber... but I actually think this is a broken bottle. So what is it with these weaners finding broken glass on the ocean floor?
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2 comments:
The problem with EG&Kekoa observations has been that we could only get little windows of exposure, twice a week, so alot has been unknown and unobserved. I have no doubt that Kekoa has been weaned. He is obviouly cruisin' and doing his own thing. Its not uncommon for Moms to show up at birth locations after weaning, but from what I've observed there is never any interaction with the weaners, other than to simply run them off as they would any other unwanted visitor. It would have been wonderful to have Kekoa come back to the site while EG was there, so as to see what the reaction would be, but alas lack of time and EG's departure did not allow that. DB
Yesterday we got to site, saw a large adult,thought, HEY! IS THAT EWA GIRL?? We never found Kekoa. It was Eileen,SECURITY, who found Kekoa in the shallows 7/10's of a mile from his birthing spot. He was exploring, but being we were behind the fence and our vehicles, it was difficult to take photos through the chain link fence. Kekoa was determined to pull up what ever object he found, brought it up to the surface. And it wasnt until we viewed the pics that we discovered he had a wine bottle that was broken. I guess since becoming of age, he couldnt wait to hit the wine, especially since Mom wasnt there. Eileen found Kekoa at 11:01am. We watched the fat guy, in four feet of water, playing, not a care in the world. For us we were getting anxious as we wanted to see him meet MOM.But, that never happened. We did follow Kekoa by foot and car, and he never looked at us once, he never saw us, too busy with his human toys. Then at 11:50am we lost site of Kekoa as he darted out of range into the deep waters. And there were divers near by, one in a boat, one in a kayak. Eileen yelled out to the diver to get back from the fence, there was a seal approaching. Kekoa was headed straight to him. We watched anxiously from land..diver moves away, Kekoa kept going. We charged to Birthing spot, Ewa Girl still there, snoozing away. No kekoa. Dam it!!! 12:00 noon..got to leave. At 1:25pm Eileen called, said Kekoa hauled up at his birth spot near the pot, Ewa girl was gone. Tracks from Kekoa lead to his nest, no where near Mom. Only Mom tracks was noted at her nesting spot. So folks, whoever is paying attention here, Kekoa is fine, exploring his way around the area and healthy. Not good he had the broken bottle and other junk, but, he is fine. Thanks to Eileen, that lady got the best eye sight, she can spot Kekoa from a far. I love this lady with my soul, she is an amazing security guard with so much compassion, so much kindness and patience. And that eye sight, kind of like THE SEAL WHISPERER!!!! Thanks Eileen, you da bestest!!! And Kekoa, next visit, show up on land so we can see how big you are growing. As for Ewa girl, hey, shes on vacation..she is one smart lady..we got the greatest respect for her man.
I still wish we had a longer time to view this fat seal who is quickly growing. I hope he hangs out long enough to view...I wanna see!!! I wanna SEE HIM!!! Bah!!
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