MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 02/24/2020 Monday Monk Seal Dailies

Monday, February 24, 2020

02/24/2020 Monday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand and my Rabbit Island observations.

This afternoon I headed over to Waimanalo to observe Rabbit Island. I tried two locations and it was an hour before I spotted Mom and PO1 let alone any critters. I did however stare at lots of rocks waiting for them to show signs of life. About 3:20 tucked in at seal rock inlet I spotted a shiny rock and it moved (thank god!) I could not tell if this was Mom as I did not see the pup, but I did notice another adult about 20 feet to the right of the shiny seal. More on that seal in a minute.

The shiny seal had just come out of the water so there was hope it might be Momma, and sure enough there was a little flicker of a flipper from behind. It took another 15 to 20 minutes before the pup came around by the front of Mom. Viewing and photographing conditions were ideal so I pushed the zoom on the camera to try and get some type of identifiable markers, but she only showed me her left side which appears to be clear of any markings.

The other seal stayed tucked/wedged in the rocks but I was able to see a light female belly, and would say the seal is an adult. I stayed for another 15 or so minutes and called it a day as the light was changing.
While waiting for a seal to appear I did see HFD fly by, caught a cool chopper shot.

Team Billand was at the outfall at 7:30 this morning and spotted

two critters. Initially it was one RN14 Kalani and then his bosom buddy Ka'ale the butthead arrived. RH32 Ka'ale tried to steal a fish but missed because the fisherman reeled it in at warp speed. Mr. Ka'ale got himself some bad habits. Team Billand left the area after an hour and it was the last time they saw Ka'ale today.

From here they headed over to a west side beach and they watched RG28 come in slowly vocalizing all the way, rolling in the shallows and then hauling up on lower rocks.

Nalu R3CX was already up on seal inlet to the right, snoozing. He stayed until after 2 pm.

They waited and finally another critter was coming in on to the high rocks, but the surge was strong and the seal left to go to the inlet on the right side. They ID'd Kekoa RK72, who wasn't able to land at the inlet so he went back to high rocks and finally hauled out. Poor guy was pooped, pretty much landed and stayed put all day.

Team Billand headed over to another near by beach and found RH36 Kawena, resting peacefully laying to the right of the rocks. Her tags were visible which makes life easier.

To her left was RN14 Kalani looking quite big and healthy. He was laying on his side got up to stretch, and they got to see his CC scars under his belly.

Team Billand returned to the other site and Melody and Diana of HMSPO were on there along with volunteer Melina. The three seals remain, Lefty RG28 in water hole, Kekoa RK72 left high rocks and Nalu R3CX to the right inlet.

Then one of them spots little RL20 Kalua coming into the area. He came through to his buddy RG28 in his water hole, and climbed the rocks, wiggling his butt through the crevice. He worked very hard to get in between the rocks, and possibly stuck for a moment or two. He persisted and wiggled his way out to lower rocks.
At the water hole Lefty RG28 would meet and greet the kid and then Lefty began to heave, and yuck, he barfed out spew! Poor Kalua RL20 moved away, and Lefty stayed in the stinky water hole. Finally the winds blew the stench away.

Momma and U/F