MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: October 12, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

Saturday, October 12, 2019

October 12, 2019 Monk Seal Dailies

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

Team Billand started their morning at a westside location. They did multiple checks of this site throughout the day first being at 6:30 am and last being at 2:00 pm. Along with multiple checks they found multiple critters.
On their first stop there were four seals, Lei Ola RH48, Kekoa RK72, RG28 Lefty and RN14
Kalani.
Lei Ola was on lower rocks with Kekoa Alii. (personally this warms my heart).

RG28 Lefty was on a small patch of sand alone and RN14 Kalani was to his right, but departed only to return and leave and return. ( a little restless).
On another visit Kawena had moved and hiding in the rocks and RG28 moved to lower rocks.
Then to the right Team Billand spotted two seals fighting, on the rocks, landing in the ponds and arguing more. This was Ka'ale RH32 (butthead) fighting with his old bosom buddy RN14. RN14 would leave once more.

At 7 am Team Billand went to check KoOlina and found Pohaku R028. There were signs up and Team Billand spoke with security who brought some rope. Pohaku is 98% done with her molt this morning and pretty sure she will be 100% by the end of the day.
Team Billand did their Monk Seal 101 to those folks asking questions. It was enjoyable morning especially with people expressing their appreciation for their coming so early in the morning.
Volunteer Tammy arrived as Pohaku was moving down to the water and Team Billand left at 9:30.
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Marilyn made a few stops on the eastside today and much to her delight she found RK24. He was ID'd by his tags K24 - K25, new coat, juvenile size and male belly. He has a small line scar (less then 1 inch) on his right ventral side, that may be a useful marker for future IDs. RK24 is looking fit and healthy. Marilyn initially spent over an hour hanging out with him and about 15 min before she left he entered the water and relocated to some rocks.
She did a recheck on him in the afternoon, he was still on the rocks but had moved up a bit with the tide.

Marilyn then went to the pier and viewed Rabbit Island from noon to 1:45 pm. She found four seals on the island and a flapping masked booby chick.

U/J alone on Left Point Beach near the waterline. Unknown Juvenile with new coat, light belly, possibly female and two tags. This seal later moved up the slope and departed sometime before 1:30.

The rock flats on the Makapuu side of Seal Rock Inlet were two seals. An U/M adult, male belly, old coat and unsure about tags. This seal has either a lighter umbilical area or a small natural bleach near the umbilical scar. this is the same seal that she had labeled as "unknown male #2" on 10/6.
About 10 feet further east was R1KT, adult size, new coat, male belly and a partial CC scar on his left ventral side.

On Rocky Right Beach was an unknown sub-adult male, new coat, male belly. The rear flippers were hidden by the waterfront, so she is unsure about tags.

The real fun for Marilyn when she observed one of the parents with the masked booby chick. But for the first time she watched the chick/fledgling fly for 15-30 seconds on two occasions.
For all our birth enthusiast fledging occurs 109-159 days after hatching. Marilyn first spotted the chick on July 3rd making today 101 days. The chick will continue to say on island for a while and the parents will continue to tend to the fledgling for 1-2 months, ( interesting and much longer than a monk seal mom and pup).

Pohaku R028