Saturday, March 21, 2015

3/21/2015 DB's Dailies: Kainoa&U/F@RI, Kea&Buster@BH, Rocky@NIM, Nihoa@Maipalaoa, RIP,Kolohe&R330@KP, U/U@Waimea Bay

Happy Landing Day !!!! Okay, maybe its not all that big deal, but in my myopic little world it’s a kinda’/sorta’s biggy. They Sooty Terns & Brown Noddys (they’re birds, folks) began landing on Rabbit Island today. They had begun showing up over the open ocean on 2-26-15, but today was day that whomever is in charge made the call. From today thru mid July it will be difficult for a Monk Seal to get a decent days sleep.

At 0903 I found Kainoa (RN04) snoozin’ in the Morning Glory, 80 ft right of 3BS. He would move down and remained all day.

On a pan at 0920 I found what would end the day as an U/F just hauling out to the water front rocks at right Middle Cliff, on RI. Despite a day of observations I could not confirm an iD. Maybe tomorrow ?????

Melanie was busy today, covering the SE quadrant, and taking the time to install new signage at accesses to Buster Flats, Lanai Lookout. Hopefully, it will help.

Anyone familiar with trying to get a parking spot at the Blowhole Lookout, knows the nightmare it can be, any day of the week. Weekends are many times worse. On my morning checks nobody was there. Mulitple checks by both Melanie and I , in the afternoon proved impossible. Consequently, it was not until my 1725 check that I found Kea (RN04) snoozin’ in his cove.

A call from Gayle at 1806 brought word of the arrival of Buster (RV08), who had hauled out to join Kea at Blowhole Cove. Thank you Gayle !

Team Billand called at 0700 to advise that Lani had called them reporting “N11" fronting 1806, Nimitz Beach. The Billands confirmed the Rocky (RH58) ID. She would depart at 1828.

At 0956 the Billands advised that Debbie had called with the report of an animal at Maipalaoa Canal. The Billands confirmed the Nihoa (R912) ID at 1026.

 Missus Whisperer did a solo Ka’ena Point trek today, arriving a 0930. She reported RIP (RR70) , Kolohe (RW22), and Squinty (R330) at The End of the World.

Team Billand called at 1343 with the report of Pohaku (RO28) at Pokai Bay. She departed at 1521.

A Karen Banes email, forwarding a report of an animal at Waimea Bay today, included shots from Amanda Kelly. Unfortunately, the photos wee inconclusive, but thank you , Amanda. The animal departed at 1530.

Kainoa
  Unidentified female
 Kea and Buster !   
 Kea's belly 
 Kea's belly and Buster's butt
 Kolohe looking mighty and strong
 R330 aka Squinty
 Rip
 Rip and his radio
Nihoa at Maipalaoa
 holy crap she's huge.
 Pohaku at Pokai Bay
 2 bathing beauties a little too close to a large wild animal
 Rocky at Nimitz.... wonder where she is off too.... maybe heading to Kauai
Signs at Lanai lookout.... think they will help?
 we can be hopeful
 SWEET.... 
 very cool photo.... don't think there are very many from this perspective
 Unknown out at Waimea
 get up and boogie.....

2 comments:

madhatter said...

Still feeling sad about Haupu, I went to the archives and looked at pictures of her. She was a very beautiful seal.
I have read through the archives before and looked at some of the earlier post when the blog started.
it's nice to learn about the volunteers first seal experience and the first one they fell in love with. Is DB the first one to keep track of the ones on Rabbit Island and elsewhere? It's awesome the way the monk seals have brought people together to learn about these beautiful animals.

I realize that monk seals are wild animals but they somehow seem different as they share the beach with people and their personalities show through.

Donna said...

aloha madhatter!

thank you for following along.... I think many of us are still feeling the sadness about Haupu.... It never gets easy, the only time I can honestly say that I can make peace with a loss is when I know a seal has lived a long life as that is what we want in the ends.

DB is one of folks from early on that was out there looking after the seals... I know there were others, but not so long ago you just didn't see as many seals on the beaches. It was rare. I have to remind myself of that at times and with every loss that brings us sadness, there has been growth here on the main islands.

They are wild animals, but because we watch them so frequently we have the good fortune to document their behaviors and habits. I often tell the young kids .... you don't have to watch the discovery channel it's right here in your own back yard. How lucky we are to experience all of that.