March 26, 2109 Monk Seal Dailies: Lesley's Ka'ena Update

Happy KUHIO DAY !

And what a beautiful day it was. Promise of a hot Summer all around.

On the news: the Wedgies are back. I first smelt them, saw there trails on the path then saw their butts sticking out of several burrows

Adult Albatrosses were away when I first arrived then we started to see some fly in from the ocean.

It was also a perfect day for whale watching.

My first HMSeal was RO40 "Ka'ena" hauled out at the entrance of his pool

Next RL42 "Leia" and RW22 "Kolohe" in the Main Pool. 

Seeing "Kolohe" today reminded me of 2008 - the year we started the first HMS Volunteer group on Oahu because of the 2 pups born on the North Shore "Kolohe" & "Hoku" . Then a little guy on Kauai was abandoned by his mom and brought to Oahu: our dear "KP2". We learned so much from those kids. And before them "Ka'ena" & "Penelope" and adult ones also. So many pups came after them, we shared and cheered every birth. News came by coconut wire from one rock to the other. DB was our center of communication. Days like today make me miss him so much. He would have been my first call " Chefinho, you won't guess who I have here" and he would say "NO but I know you're going to tell me". He would go thru his files and call back giving last date seal was seen or whatever. 

Thank you Lesley for sharing this memory....  means a lot to me and I am sure many others.

I had my hands full doing outreach at the point.

When I was heading back, by habit I looked down towards "Molting Beach" (we haven't seen a seal there for a long time) and to my surprise there was RN58 "Luana" try to rest on a reef but being washed by the in coming tide. She looks so big and healthy. Seems that the time to see her only rolling in the shallow waters is getting close.

Ended my day with more outreach at the gate. Many hikers out today making the best of this beautiful day. We even had a mid afternoon shower to cool off.  More tomorrow