November 39, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand and Marilyn.

Team Billand only found two critters on the west side. There was a Christmas Parade in the area which made traveling near impossible. They stopped at one location and found Kala RH76 and RIP RR70.

RIP was on lower rocks throughout the day snoozing alone.
Kala RH76 was to the right on the rocks, snoozing in the same spot all day. 
Not too much happening but at least Team Billand had a chance to find these two.


Marilyn didn't have much luck either. There was a parade in Hawaii Kai along with an accident that caused the Kalanianaole to be closed. This prevented her from viewing Rabbit Island from the pier.
Marilyn did do a quick check of the HK sites and spotted a seal midbeach at one of the locations.
There was R016 Right Spot hauled out in some old tire tracks in the sand. This is always a scary site to see. It was very windy out there today and the sand was blowing. Marilyn called the hotline and stayed with Right Spot for over an hour. Right Spot eventually moved closer to the water while Marilyn was there but did not enter the water.

RIP

 Kala

R016 Right Spot

November 29, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Tammy of Team T&D, and Lesley. Lesley's Ka'ena Update is part two of the dailies.  I also received a link to photos of Rabbit Island taken by Tony Q yesterday with his drone. I'll post them as (part 3) Rabbit Island drone footage.

Tammy did Ka'ena Trek solo today and her first find were the snow geese near 10 minute beach. Next in the NAR she came across the albatross near the path.  When she got closer the albie was standing and there was an egg! The albatross based on the band and Lesley's feedback was ID'd as 289.
Finally Tammy found a flippered critter. There was little RL74 "Kami" resting peacefully on the coral beach. 

Team Billand was up and at em before 7 am and watched the sunrise while looking for seals. Team Billand went to get their flat tire (from yesterday) fixed this morning. 
They finally got back to searching at 9:30 and arrived at plains to find Buster V08. This was a surprise to find him here. According to the life guard he arrived close to 8 am when they roped him off with signs.  Buster is looking healthy, but they did notice a small "wound" to his right fore flipper.

There was a soda can right next to him, which makes for a humorous image, but also very sad that folks just leave their trash behind.

Next stop for Team Billand after 10 they found Pohaku RO28 hauling up on the reef as they arrived. There were folks swimming in the area, and thankfully they left.  Then there was a dog off leash, and the owner assured them the dog was fine. ( I honestly hate when people say that). Finally they left the site.  

At 11:30 they hit the jackpot! RIP RR70 was on lower rocks sleeping, RH76 Kala was to the right on the rocks sleeping. Then there was RH36 Kawena in mid rocks very well hidden. It took them a bit to get the ID. The good news, there was no hook or line seen. 
Team Billand stayed for two hours, and the three seals were the only ones on site. All the seals are looking healthy with no concerns.

Barb did the Ka'ena West trek and found Ka'ena RO40.  Much to her shock and awe she found RH92 Nalani at the 30. This was a total surprise finding her out there.
As if that wasn't a big enough surprise Barb got to meet little RL74 for the first time. She is the little Molokai female who showed up on Oahu.

RL74 Molokai female Kami

Snow Geese - Silly goose there's no snow on Oahu!

 Albie 289 and an egg

Buster and his soda

 Pohaku RO28

 RIP RR70

 kawena RH36

 RH76 Kala 

RH92 Nalani

 RL76 Molokai Girl Kami

 ka'ena RO40

November 29, 2019 (part 2) Lesley's Ka'ena Update

Took a break from Aunty duties and walked down to check the beach. I was still on the path when I saw 2 bumps, yup 2 seals right on our door step.

The first one made me smile from ear to ear, I knew it was him from at first look. His scars gave him away in a blink. "My" boy is back after 7 months MIA

That's RK36 Kauai Kolohe for most of you.

 His last visit here in front was 2 days before RN58 Luana gave birth. He showed up with RG40 Holokai and pestered Luana.  He was seen in Kauai a couple of times, then he went MIA. Speaking with Marilyn today she mentioned that she thought she saw him on RI sometime in October.

The other seal was RW02 PVKauai. By the wallows and the trails up and down the beach from our Naupaka line they may have overnighted.

More tomorrow

November 29, 2019 (part 3) Rabbit Island Drone Photos

In yesterday's news Tony Q was out at the pier on Thanksgiving day and got some very cool footage of the seals on Rabbit Island. I am not sure how they match up with Marilyn's photos and observations, but maybe Tony or Marilyn can match them up.  ENJOY!  It's very cool to see the seals and Rabbit Island from this perspective.

Very COOL view of the pier