Saturday, May 30, 2020

05/30/2020 Saturday Safe-At-Home (67) Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Marilyn, Lesley and film clip from blog reader Nicole. Lesley's Ka'ena update is part 2 of the dailies.

I received an email this evening about a monk seal encounter. Nicole was at Makua Beach when she noticed a very curious monk seal approach the shore line near a father and two children, but the seal swam out.  Nicole went for a swim and noticed the seal was swimming back, made eye contact. She watched from a distance as the seal explored the reef and then swam further out.
Nicole said lit looked like a bleach on the its skin with a N7 or N17.  I can't say for sure but I know RH76 Kala was bleached at the beginning of March with N77 and one of the bleaches by her flippers looks like a "1".  Looking at the clip it is a very "green" younger critter.
Thank you Nicole for sharing.

Team Billand did the Ka'ena West trek today. RW02 PvKauai was alone snoozing in a tiny water hole. He would be their only find.

Team Billand checked out a couple of spots on the west side. They found RH92 Nalani resting alone. Volunteer Melina was on site checking in on the little one too. 

Their last find was RN14 Kalani resting alone on the rocks today. 
Seems our critters were on their own today, everyone snoozing the day away solo.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island this morning for a couple of hours and then again in the afternoon for about an hour. She found both 2020 pups on island today. News is PO3 was alone so he is officially a weaner.  
Weaner PO1 "Kahukai" was on the rocks at LPB about 100 ft of the 1BS. He is weaner size but more slender than PO3. She was able to determine male belly and no tags.
Weaner PO3 "Momona"was about 100 feet right of the 1BS. PO3 is looking plump and has no tags. Marilyn is about 95% sure it is a boy. PO3 was seen with Mom yesterday so she must have left sometime overnight.  The kid was having a little trouble rolling over because, well he's a chubby weaner.
It's would be nice one of these pups was a female, or had some distinctive markings. It's going to be really difficult to tell the difference between the two. 

Video clip of U/J swimming
RW02
 RH92 Nalani 
 Rn14 Kalani
PO1 
 PO3

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