July 31, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Team T&D, Lesley and my Rabbit Island observations. Lesley's Ka'ena update is part 2 of the dailies ( and good to have you back to updating us )

Tammy of Team T&D covered a lot of territory today. She began her morning at 6:30 with Pohaku RO28 and PO5 Nanea.  Mom and pup were in the water when she arrived. Team Billand arrived shortly after that.  Tammy hung out with Team Billand for a couple of hours, which doesn't happen to often. 
I am sure Team Billand is having a great time watching over pup, and from Tammy said they are amazing to watch, listening to their stories and doing outreach with the visitors. 
Tammy headed out about 10:30 and picked up Dave, they headed up to the north shore.  They got to see Right Spot R016 in one of her favorite spots.  There were signs up, so it appears a volunteer had been on site.

Team T&D's next find was RL36 (Honey Girls' kid). He was sleeping and had been woken up a few times by waves and rising tide.  He was resting when they left.  Team T&D wanted to clean around the reef because there has been so much discarded fishing line. But once again the water was too rough.

Team Billand was stuck in west side traffic at 6 this morning, of course they couldn't resist the opportunity to pull over and check a few spots. They were very happy to find Kekoa Alii RK72 and Lei Ola on the rocks to the right.  
On a later visit they were both still there and Kekoa on his side, Lei Ola part in tidal pool with her tags showing.

Team Billand finally got to Pohaku and Nanea and met up with Tammy ( as Barbara said, best cookie maker ever).  Mom and pup were in the water, Pohaku took the pup towards the right side, just 20 ft of the outlet to the open ocean. Mom and pup went in the little opening and went up on the reef. It was was a 0.2 tide, Nanea enjoyed being there a lot with Mom close by. It was a little spooky as some waves came in, but Pohaku kept close watch.

The water session was very long, almost two hours long. Finally Mom came a shore on birth beach to nurse, and they got some sleep time.
Robert retrieved some ropes and signs in the water and handed them over to volunteer Christina. Team Billand left at 10:40 to look for other seals.
They returned at 2:55 and they found Mom and Pup were on shore at birth beach. Nanea wanted to eat, Mom presented herself, but the pup kept rolling down hill. There was an incline that kept the pup from reaching Mom.  
This went on for almost an hour, with Mom moving and the kids rolling down. FINALLY Pohaku moved just enough that Nanea could get to her and nurse.
After the nursing both of them fell asleep, until Mom suddenly moved and entered the water. Nanea followed and the now the tide was high, waves crashing way up. Mom brought the pup over to the right close to a tree where Team Billand was watching.  Then Pohaku turned around and went back to birth beach, pup followed and they landed. Team Billand called it a day at 4:30.

I decided to make a quick stop to Makai pier this afternoon. Since the weather and conditions aren't suppose to be great the next few days I figured I would make the best of it. It was clear and sunny, but sitting on the pier it was very windy and the surf was high and choppy. 
I found three seals today. First seal was to the right of the first blue sign high up on the berm on a sandy patch between the naupaka. An adult size critter that rolled over and gave me a good view of her female belly and two tags. She is being reported as an UF. At one point she looked as though she was going to get into the water, but turned around and went back up to higher ground.
UU (unknown) adult high up in the Naupaka to the right of the 3rd blue sign. I almost missed this critter but the contrast between the bright green naupaka and smooth dark lump drew my attention. 
Last seal was a UJ (unknown juvenile) with an older coat with a very green face. The UJ was about 30 feet to the right of the UU.  The little one barely moved at all. About 10 minutes before I packed up the UU galumphed down to the UJ. There was no interaction and the UJ did not react in anyway.

One more critter to add to Rabbit Island is a masked booby on the hillside. It appears to be the chick that has grown quite a bit.  I only saw one booby ... lol.

Pohaku RO28 and Nanea PO5

 RL36 rocking and rolling 

 Right Spot R016

 Kekoa Alii RK72 

 Lei Ola RH48 

Pohaku and Nanea

It's an uphill battle

UF at Rabbit Island

 UJ

 UU approaching UJ

 UU

Masked Booby chick

July 31, 2019 (part 2) Lesley's Ka'ena Update

And back on the field I was early this morning.

Wrapped up with 5 seals - not bad.

1) RL20 "Kalua" was foraging so it took me a while to find him. But on one of his dives in a tide pool he wiggled his flippers with his tags and there I found him. Hours later on my way back he was hauled out, off to the world.

2) RN58 "Luana" had an overnight @ Hidden Beach - she was still there on my way out but had moved a little to cool off. While I was there doing outreach she had her head on the waterline, after being washed several times she turned around and galumphed up the beach. We may find her there in the morning. There was no sign of molting, she should be cracking any time now

3) RG28 "Lefty" was on a small beach we used to call "BG's Beach". I first smelled him then saw him. He had just rolled in his own fresh poo, there was more to the smell. That musky smell...molt ? Bingo on my way back he was still there, a little cleaner showing his bellie. His molt has started and is less than 5% (I do molt count by 5%, 10%,15%...)

4) RO40 "Ka'ena" was hauled out on the Runway

5) I did some out reach at the point and while I was watching some of those beautiful TransPac sailing boats leaving to get out of here before those storms hit us. From my perch I saw a head bobbing towards the point in a bee line. R330 "Squinty" entered the outer pool like a torpedo. I heard him vocalize and come from no where I saw RO40 "Ka'ena" in there. He literally snuck in. He has FINALLY lost his cel-transmitter. He had it on for 6 months nearly to the day !!

They had harsh words to each other. "Squinty" left and "Ka'ena" sneaked out shortly after, again under my nose.

When I was heading out from far I saw a ship in the bay and lots of rain towards Kahuku Pt. Not common to see a ship here, then when I got home it was a NOAA ship right in front of the house ! Curious Jorge here will find out soon what they were doing here....

More tomorrow