5-25-2014 Lesley's Ka'ena Point Trek

Marilyn & I did  Ka'ena Pt hike & monitoring today.

It's said that yearly birds get the best worms, well early hikers get to see the caper flowers in bloom - a little later and the flower would be all faded.

But before that, just at the very beginning of our hike we saw a rabbit and a rooster on the path !!

"Doc" the albatross we have been monitoring for months, is fledging fast. It's replaced a large amount of it's downy chick feathers and has adult - type feathering on the belly, breast, wings, back and part of it's mantle.

We found RO40 "Ka'ena" at the end of the Runway. Due to his body position we were able to see all is scars, NBs on left and right side,as well as his chipped tags.

We made it to the point and hanged around for a while waiting for seals to show up. The only one that did was RW08 "Kerby" doing a replay of is actions on Thursday. He first swam towards the entrance of the Main Pool, he stretched his neck over the entrance wall looking for something or someone, he then swam combing the reefs all the way to the Runway. We heard a bark or two between RO40 "K'aena" and him, he didn't dear stick around and went on combing the coast. Marilyn and I followed him from the shoreline all the way to BGs Pool. He hauled into it and went straight into a deep sleep.

We were lucky and barely got some sprinkle rain drops. We checked birth beach / Mokuleia but there was no trace of RN58 "Luana".

Kimo Lyman checked again in the afternoon and she was still MIA.  Aloha, Lesley 

 Ka'ena 

 Kerby