MonkSealMania.blogspot.com: 02/25/2020 Tuesday Monk Seal Dailies

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

02/25/2020 Tuesday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Lesley and my Rabbit Island observations.
Lesley's Ka'ena Update includes a couple of days of observations is part two of the dailies.

Team Billand was out before 7 am and found Nalu R3CX sleeping on the rocks on a westside beach.
They left to check another area and returned a little bit later to find him still there in the same spot. Now he was being pushed around by the upcoming tide, the tide got really rough and waves took over the entire site.
On their last visit to this beach Nalu was not there.

At 7:30 Team Billand got a call from a friend of a seal at KoOlina. They headed over and found RH92 Nalani resting in a zone. Everyone was very respectable while they were there. Nalani is looking healthy with no new markers.
Team Billand stayed and educated the tourist and they were eating up all the information. The tourist were very appreciative of their time, especially since they do this on their own.
Team Billand called the hotline and left.

Team Billand made a stop by the outfall and found RG28 Lefty hauled out at a nearby beach. He was resting peacefully. He was ID'd by his many CC scars and mint green color. They left to not draw attention to him.

From there Team Billand went to check up on Nalu R3CX and he was sill in his spot. They noticed another seal coming in. Kekoa RK72 had no problem hauling up on the left high rock. He had lots of waves coming in to lift his big boy body. Then he galumphed to the inner rocks and went to sleep.

They waited for a bit and sure enough another seal was swimming off shore, doing 5 minute dives. To their surprise it was RL20 Kalua foraging.
He came into the area and stopped at the lower rocks, took a rest and then galumphed up on lower rocks. He was looking for his buddy, actually went over to the water hole, but still no RG28 to hang out with. RL20 Kalua went to sleep for the day inland on lower rock. This little one is learning to take care of himself and hold his own with the big boys.

On their way home they made a quick stop at Yoks and the beach was crowded and the waves were huge!

I went to observe Rabbit Island with Diane this afternoon. When we first arrived there were two juveniles on island. UJ by left point beach eventually showed her light female belly.
The other juvenile was to the right of the 3rd blue sign. Both critters were similar in size and I believe they are likely to be last years pups.
They both slept the entire time we were there.

Mom and PO1 finally surfaced from the same water hole they have been hiding for the last couple of days. Once again Mom did not show any clues as to who she may be, this is a real mystery as all our usual suspects have been accounted for. It's hard to tell through a scope, but what we do know is she has a light color belly, very bright tags and light coloring around her muzzle.
Meanwhile it appears little PO1 has a rather large bleach on the inside of one it's front flippers.
There wasn't much action between Mom and PO1, except the kid flapping its' flippers.

R3CX Nalu