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

March 23, 2020 Blog Annoucement

Aloha good people,

As of 4:30 this afternoon the Island of Oahu is under orders to stay at home. I will not go into detail as to what is allowed and not allowed, you can reference it on the web.  We are facing very unusual circumstances, and personally above and beyond everything I pray we get through these difficult times here in the Islands and through out the world.

It is important we all do our part, so I will ask people to take care of themselves and their families.

Chances are there will be little to no seal reports coming into the blog. I would like to propose to our followers some feed back or maybe have a little fun, since we have time on our hands.
You can email me at  dabella50@gmail.com .

How about we start with WHO's your favorite seal?  AND why?

I appreciate all of your ongoing support and I will do my best to update any information as it comes in, but in the meantime let's have some fun.

03/23/2020 Monday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand and Team T&D. 

Team T&D were on the north shore today. They were probably doing a beach clean up and due to the high winds ended up getting sandblasted.  While out and about they came across K80 resting peacefully. 

Team Billand found Kaale RH32 foraging in the outfall at 7:45 am.

At 8 am Team Billand arrived at a west side location and found a rather large seal. Upon closer inspection they ID'd Aukai RL12 resting by herself on shore. They called the hotline to let them know she was there.

Their next stop they found RG28 Lefty resting on the rocks to the right. He was fine on his own.

Then they found Kala RH76 slumped over some rocks snoozing peacefully.
Kekoa RK72 was laying on his back just snoozing the day away.

The best find of the say was RL20 Kalua. They were watching a kid throwing some rocks into the water, when they saw something move to the left. They went to look and it was RL20 Kalua looking green and alert. He was aware of the kid being there, and want to mention the kid was not throwing the rocks at the seal, just into the water.

Team Billand returned to check on Aukai. She was still there and now had company.  They noticed the seal was a male but all sandy no much to go on. Then after a little bit they could see it was none other than Kaale RH32 hanging out with  Aukai. 
They called it a day after that.

K80 resting peacefully

Ka'ale RH32

 Aukai RL12

 RG28 Lefty

 Kala RH76

 Kekoa RK72 

 RL20 Kala 

Aukai & Kaale 

 Kaale checking out Aukai

 silly boy

03/22/2020 Sunday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Team Billand and Marilyn.  Before I get into the dailies, I want to acknowledge that this afternoon the Mayor of Honolulu issued "Stay-at-home" Orders for the Island of Oahu.  All of this is being done to keep us safe from the spread of the COVID-19 virus, and to give our health workers the support they need by not over burdening the system. Having said that, I am not sure what these changes will be to monk seal sightings.   I will do my best to update all of you as information is passed on.  Who knows if there are no seal updates I may have to indulge and show off pictures of my pups.

Okay back to our regularly scheduled program: Team Billand arrived at the outfall before 7 am and spotted Kaale RH32 foraging. He made his way in and out of the outfall, at one point stealing himself a fish.  They spotted him with a second seal in the outfall but they could not get an ID.
Later they found Kaale hauled out at a near by beach. He was on the rocks.

Then by the outfall they spot another seal foraging. They recognized his head scars and were able to ID Benny RE74.

At 10:40 Team Billand went to a west side location and found Kala RH76 and Kekoa RK72 on the rocks to the far right, combating the waves. They were there all day taking the punishment from the waves.
Kekoa made a few advances, but Kala flipped him off with her hind flippers. He just stayed with her the rest of the time.  Be pretty cute if they had babies!

Marilyn observed Rabbit Island today from 12 til 2. There were 5 seals on Island today. Way our on the rock flats of LPB was an UU #1, juvenile size, with two tags, lighter belly.
On LPB were two seals, RG32 subadult/adult size and N11 applied bleach giving a positive ID. (we

love applied bleach marks).
UU #2, juvenile size, being blocked by RG32 so Marilyn never got site of tags or it's belly.

Down by Seal Rock Inlet RF34 Pua and PO1. For the first hour they were in a dip in the shoreline which made it difficult to see.  They finally hauled out for a nursing session. The pup rolled over once and the belly appears to be getting a little lighter. There might be a natural bleach on the left front flipper. We have talked about this before I hope it's true which will make for an easy ID in the future.

Thief ! Thief !   RH32 Kaale 

Kaale and UU

Kaale hauled out

Benny foraging

Kala RH76 

Kala RH76 and Kekoa RK72

RG32 and UU#2

 UU#1

RF34 Pua and PO1

03/21/2020 Saturday Monk Seal Dailies

Today's dailies are brought to you by Lesley, Team Billand and Marilyn.  Lesley's Ka'ena update is part two of the dailies.

Team Billand found Kekoa RK72 resting at a west side location before 7:30 am. He was on lower rocks and the waves were coming in and covering him. He stuck it out and continued to rest. 
On their recheck he was still there and the only critter that was at this location today.

Just before 9 am Team Billand found Ka'ale RH32 at the outfall. He made is way in and out of the outfall foraging. He was good today and did not steal any fish, well at least while they were there.

At 10 am they found Kawena RH36 at a near by beach. She was on the rocks, alone resting peacefully. 
On their last check of the area they found Kawena still on the rocks, only now she had company. Ka'ale RH32 was next to her, both alert. The waves were getting to them but they were okay.

Marilyn viewed Rabbit Island today for close to 2 hours today. Initially there were 3 seals on the island.
RK37 was left of the 1BS, ID by female belly, juvenile size, 2 tags and NB on her left rear side. 
At 11:15 another seal joined her for a bit, but departed shortly after. It may have been RG32 who later hauled out.

RF34 Mama Pua and PO1 were near seal rock inlet the entire time. For the 1st hour they were in snooze mode with PO1 hidden behind mom. Later PO1 nursed and then spent time playing in a nearby pool before going back to snooze mode.

Marilyn became aware of two juvenile seals playing near the water's edge at Left Point Beach. they returned to the water then hauled out on the far left of LPB. Then about 45 minutes later RG32 joined the two of them He was ID'd by his adult size, barely visible N11 applied bleach. He and the other two unknown juvenile seals interacted and moved about.  Then RG32 and one of the juveniles reentered the water and played in the shallows for awhile and then disappeared.

Kekoa

 ka'ale RH32 @ the outfall 

Kawena RH36 

 Kawena and Ka'ale

RF34 Pua and PO1

 RK37 and UU

 RK37

 Two Seals @ Left Point Beach

 RG32 and two juveniles

 three seals