November 15, 2019 Lesley''s Ka'ena Update

Tammy joined me this morning to try again on our mission find, rescue, find, ID....

It was a beautiful day, needless to say the waves were gorgeous and gigantic. Borderline dangerous because the sets would creep up on you with NO warning. The Costal Rd was washed at every big set. Beaches are very clean now.

Lucky for us the morning turned to a slight overcast making it so much easier to be out there in the field.

Our first seals were RR70 RIP and R330 Squinty right here in front. When we came back in the afternoon they were no longer there

Next was RW02 PVKauai at 10Mnts Beach - he has nearly finished his molt there some very small patches here and there so I'm putting him down as M95%. On our way out we checked on him. He was down on the waterline possibly getting ready to go for a swim.

At the point we found the 2 female weaners side by side. RL74 from Kaulapapa and now RL98 from (???? we'll never now). As she is definitely a 2019 weaner her cohort is "L". NOAA's team arrived just as the girls moved into the water. That's when those LONG periods of waiting start.

The waves tossed the little seals around and ended up separating them. RL74 made her way back to the Main beach where she was marked with a new product and color: a black "N74" was applied on her top left side.

Little RL98 was able to haul out in the back of Ka'ena's Pool. She got a N34 marking (with the older white color) and a non- restrain tag on her LRF with the number "206". These tags are usually used on the NWHI to ID young pus sometimes still nursing, the red plastic Roto does not require restraining the seal.

I got some suggested nicknames for the girls but will only share the chosen ones tomorrow.

Thru all this RO40 Ka'ena, who had overnighted on Back Beach, was sleeping and barely moved during several hours we were there. His molt is in the 30%.

The other mission was with the Albatrosses, we managed to get more photo documentation done, but alas didn't find the bird we were after, perhaps tomorrow we'll see him.

The 2 Snow Geese were in the same area as yesterday.

I stopped for a while to check the beach here in front, waves are washing up to our Naupaka line !

A big shout goes out to Tammy, always great to work with her and Dave - Mahalo !  More tomorrow