9/26/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: Lesley's Ka'ena Update

It was a very hot and busy day.

Started by watching the sunrise with overnighted R330 "Squinty".

After doing some gate work I did another tour and found RK40 "Napua" hauling out to nuzzle "Squinty". They entered the water for a long play session. Many hours later when I came back they were both hauled out side by side sleeping.

It's so cool to see those 2 together.

It's the time of the year again for the field trips. Today we had a group of 92 kids from Punahou. We did some planting, weeding and watering. Then a swim and hike out to the NARS.

RO40 "Ka'ena" was in BG's Pool doing the hippo and RW02 "PVKauai" was hauled out on the reef island of the Main Pool.  More tomorrow 

9/24/2018 ****** BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT ******

Aloha Good People!
There will be a little interruption to blog updates..... I will be traveling to visit family and it's unlikely I will be able to update from the plane. SOOOOOO be patient I will have my laptop, I will get to all the updates, as soon as I can!   Thank you for understanding and PLEASE enjoy this beautiful photo taken by Melody this evening. <3

9/24/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: (part 1) RH32, RO28, RK72, RN14, RL42, RK88, R303, RH58

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand, Lesley and Melody. Lesley's Ka'ena update is part two of the dailies. Seems like today was full of surprises and goodness.

Team Billand made their morning stop at the outfall but there were no seals, so they headed to the nearby beach and lo and behold there was Kaale RH32 up on the rocks, alert and by his chubby self. Once they knew he was there and safe they left to check on Pohaku. 

From what Barbara reported the park was going to close down at 8 am, so they hurried to the site to check on Pohaku. When they arrived they found Pohaku RO28, close to the road of the grounds. Team Billand immediately called the hotline. They noticed truck tracks all over the beach, not from the lifeguard quads. Looks like there might be some folks using their vehicles to drive out and fish. 
From Team Billands observation Pohaku is about 45% into her molt. Volunteer Karen arrived and put up some signs. Team Billand filled her in and left to check out the other sites.

Team Billand returned to check on Ka'ale and were surprised to find three boys on the the rocks. There was RN14 Kalani to the left on his own. Kekoa RK72 was on the rocks in the middle and Kaale RH32 was heading into the pond to the right of Kekoa.  Team Billand was pretty stoked to see the boys.  Once they ID'd everyone and they were all settled in, Team Billand headed out for their next stop.

The next part of their day was a Ka'ena West trek and they were not disappointed. They found RL42 Leia at the 20. She was sleeping in the water on the rocks, in a familar hippo mode.
When Team Billand hit the 40 mark they spotted a darling little brown seal, sleeping and snuggled in the rocks. It took some work and time but finally a blurry shot of the tag K89. It was Puna RK88/89.

Team Billand was just ready to leave and happened to look to the right and spotted a seal rolling in the water. A large green critter, scar on the left side of the head, scar between eyes, scar on nipple and scar on left side above foreflipper. It's BG R303, she galumphed her way up into the rocks and was pretty hidden. Team Billand was able to get all the markers before she tucked away.  I can safely say Team Billand were happy campers today!

Meanwhile Melody spent another beautiful day with Rocky. Melody went down early morning and today she brought coffee and some breakfast :-) Rocky was there and snoozed for a few hours then started making her way down the sand hill to the waters edge. Rocky finally made it to the waters

edge turned looked back and then was in the ocean.
Melody returned later in the afternoon to see if she was back, and sure enough she came spinning in the waves, which were pretty high this evening. Up the side of the hill she went and when she got to the crest to the morning glories the old girl took her time. She made it up and wrapped herself up in the vines and began her snooze. About an hour later she made her way down to the sand, the sun was gone and the full moon was out (so was Rocky, snoring away).

Ka'ale RH32 

 Pohaku RO28

 scary tracks in the sand 

 she's going to look so pretty when her molt is finished

Da Boys Kekoa and Kaale

 Kekoa 

Kaale

 RN14 Kalani

RL42 Leia

Puna 

BG is back

Rocky sun up

 Rocky in the evening

9/24/2018 Monk Seal Dailies: (part 2) Lesley's Ka'ena Update

Went down this morning and found R330 "Squinty" and RK40 "Napua", both overnighted 100mts from each other

"Squinty" was already moving around while "Napua was in a deep sleep. He started sniffing the air and moving in her direction. I sat down on the dune and watched. It was quite a way so he decided to use the water way. He entered and swam towards her, sneaking up on her. She jumped startled but was OK with him. He rolled a little into the water and she followed him. A fun play session started.

I left to go on doing my monitoring. Spoke to several people on the way and had good laughs with the fishermen.

At Hidden Beach, RO40 "Ka'ena" was hauled out in the corner of the beach. It took me a while to confirm his ID cause all the "signs" I was looking at were the same as RK36 "Kaui Kolohe".

Went I headed back a couple of hours later I found "Squinty" & "Napua" freshly hauled out in front of the house. They were on the waterline and every set made them move to higher grounds.

Did a sunset check, "Napua" was still there and "Squinty" had left. Further down the beach towards CE Pt side RG40 "Holokai" was hauled out all dry and in a deep sleep.  

More tomorrow