3/24/2020 Stay at Home (1) Tuesday - Monk Seal Dailies

Aloha good people!
Well today's dailies are a little different, after last night's announcement I got an email from Oahu resident and blog pal Susan C. So in honor of Susan's email we are going to honor her favorite seal Irma R010.  
Susan first met Irma shortly after moving to the east side and taking walks on the beach. That is when she met Irma and her pup.  Kaiwi just a couple of days she born in August of 2011. Susan had never seen a seal before and this was an amazing introduction.
Since Irma was last seen in 2013, Kaiwi has become her number one. ( Well after meeting her as a baby it is only natural.)  Susan had the good fortune over the last 10 years to learn and get to know people like, DB, Marilyn and Gayle.  
Thank you Susan for sharing your experience and reminding us about Irma, one of our significant females that added to the HMS population. 

Just a couple of facts:  (Interesting Kaiwi is the only female that I information on).
Irma was first seen on Oahu in 2001 and was untagged. She was given the N3 applied bleach mark from 2001 - 2013.  She has given birth on Oahu to five seals: 
May 3, 2003 RIP ( Rabbit Island Pup) RR70
May 22, 2004  Mojo RI17 also born on Rabbit Island
July 6, 2006 Ka'ena RO40 born at Ka'ena Point
August 11, 2011  Kaiwi RK96 born at Alan Davis
July 4, 2013 Kea RN46 born at Alan Davis
(Between 2007 - 2010  Irma would leave Oahu being very fat and return skinny, chances are she went to another Island to give birth)  Back then we didn't quite have the same network of people that we have in place today.

Here are a few images to enjoy!  Video from 2006 is of Ka'ena taken by old posse pal Karen Harris who made the trek to Ka'ena Point on a regular basis. She was one of the early seal posse folks that DB relied on.

Irma and Kaiwi only a couple hours old

 Irma was a big Momma 

 Irma and Kea 2013 her last known pup

 One of the last photos taken of Irma  November 14, 2013

01/30/2020 Thursday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Lesley, Posse Pal Vicki and Team T&D.

Vicki went up to the north shore today and on her way a critter at Hauula. There was a volunteer on site who was very busy. Vicki was unable to get confirmation on the seal's ID although she strongly suspects it was Sadie RB12. 

Vicki continued her adventure and found Mr. Holokai RG40 on

shore snoozing.  There were waves washing over over him and he continued to snooze until 3:45 when he entered the water.

Team T&D met up with Lesley at Hidden Beach on their way out to the point, Lesley was heading back.  In the seal world they found Kami RL74 on the waterline.  Squinty R330 and Luana RN58 were in the main pool.
In the bird world they saw 3 Laysan Albatross chicks! Let the fun and excitement begin in watching them grow.

Team Billand watched two critter  RG28 Lefty and RW22 Kolohe from the outfall. They never landed during their observation, just played in the water for hours.

LATER after 10 am they found Kolohe at KoOlina. He was alone and appeared to be tired. Auntie was keeping an eye on him.

Team Billand made multiple visits to a west side beach. On their first visit they found RK72 Kekoa and RW02 PvKauai.  Kekoa was

on lower rocks snoozing in peace.
RW02 was seen sleeping in the playboy pond stretched out like a person. He remained there the entire day. 

Their second visit they found RL20 Kalua on lower rocks, snoozing the day away in the hot sun.
To the right of him, was RIP RR70 on lower rocks, snoozing and flipping over and over to stay cool. He's a big boy! 

 Holokai G40

 Sadie ??  Is that you?

Luana and Squinty

 Kalua

 Kolohe Foraging

 RG28 Lefty

 Kolohe and Lefty

Kolohe visiting with Auntie Nettie

Kekoa Alii RK72

 RW02 PvKauai in the playboy pond

 RL20 Kalua

 RIP RR70

01/29/2020 Wednesday Monk Seal Dailies

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

Team Billand found a critter as soon as they headed out along the coast. They spotted a seal alone on shore snoozing. They were able to ID RW02 PvKauai surrounded by some junk (trash).  They called the hotline to report.

Next stop by the outfall they spotted two seals again playing near where the divers enter the water. Both seals were very active and playful.  There were no diver interactions.

Team Billand also got to observe the whales today. Did you know that Team Billand originally started out as whale watchers long before they got involved with monk seals.

Then at a west side location they found Kekoa RK72 already hauled up on lower rocks snoozing.


They spotted a seal off shore foraging doing 7 minute dives. He eventually hauled up to lower rocks with no interaction with the other seals. They ID'd RIP RR70.

Then they noticed way to the right on lower rocks a seal snoozing. It was R3CX Nalu with his butt in the water on his back. He then moved into a shallow water hole. He kept to himself and rested.

Team Billand headed back out to check other locations and near the outfall they spotted RN14 Kalani just coming in onto the rocks.  There was a dog from one of the camps nearby. Hopefully it's a well behaved pooch and will not bother the seal.

RW02 PvKauai

Two seals frolicking

RK72 Kekoa 

 RG28 Lefty 

Whales!

Kekoa hauled out

 RIP 

Nalu R3CX

 RN14 Kalani