Not the day I had planned....

Ever had one of those days that just didn't turn out like you had planned??? Today was one of those days. My intentions were to go and survey a couple nearby beaches for seals and look for sea glass. I thought I'll only be gone a short while because the past two days I've done this trek I've been "skunked" in the seal department. I loaded up a small day pack and headed to the beach. Little did I know I would find this cutie when I popped out on the first beach. They just make me smile!!

 This is 4DD, the little male seal that arrived on Kauai 3 weeks ago.

 We've been searching for him for the past 2 days.

 

 He was just having a nice snooze on the beach. I set up SPZ (seal protection zone) and proceeded to do some outreach and some beach cleanup.

It's only 1:30 p.m. and I realize I could be "seal sitting" until dark. It would give me time to experiment with my new camera--that's cool. 

 At 3p.m. he began to stir with the rising tide.

 

 

He rolled around in the water like a playful puppy.

 

 or maybe he'll just go back to sleep...

 

nope, it was time to hit the water... and away he went.

 

Now seal sitting was fun, but the real adventure began after 4DD left the area. I met some new friends while doing seal education. This is the part that was totally unplanned. Meet Jennifer, Reed and Van(pictured below).They are vacationing here from Seattle. Reed squealed with excitement watching the small seal play at the waters edge and I loved witnessing his enthusiasm. Once the seal left I asked if they would like to hike to 2 other coves to see if we could find our little seal again. The three them were eager to see the "wild" side of Kauai. You know, places where most tourists don't go. What adventurers they are and get this, they had just gotten off the plane not two hours prior to our meeting and now they were hiking Kauai with me!! 

Unfortunately we didn't find anymore seals, but we had a delightful time exchanging stories and exploring. Reed told me when we said our alohas that this was just the BEST day ever.

Now that made me smile....a totally unplanned encounter, meeting new friends, sharing my love of the Hawaiian monk seal and the island. Yep, I'd say it was a pretty good day.

 

Just want to give a shout out to this fun family. I hope that our paths will cross again one day.

You guys made my day!!

 

Jennifer, Reed and Van

Kauai's newest seal fans!!

 

Coincidence or divine encounter!?!?!

The Scouting Team...

For the past week Schatzie and I have been on the scouting team with mom. We've been on the lookout for a monk seal known as R018.  He's in the process of molting and everyday mom goes out to find him.  This morning mom found him high up in the vegetation and straddled among the rocks. Now don't worry, we are not allowed off leash during our scouting and we are very careful as to not disturb any seals. We just locate them and then mom rushes us home for our breakfast!!  A car ride, a walk and breakfast now that's what a call a good start to the day.

Here we are in the Seal Mobile!!!  BOL

 

Molting is a very stressful time for the seals. They just feel yucky and don't wanna do much.

 

See how far he was away from the water and he looks just like one of the rocks.

 

 A little more old skin to fall off and then he'll be just like new!!

Notice the flip flops...those aren't mom's or R018's, someone just left them at the beach. Besides everyone knows seals don't wear flip flops!!

 



 Later this afternoon he went down to the waterline for a quick cool down and then

played a game of peek.

 

 Pretending he's a snowplow!!!

(He's using the sand as a loofah to get rid of that old dead skin)

 

 at the end of the day R018 had made his way back up into the vegetation,

safe from the crashing waves.

 

Stay safe R018, stay safe!!

 

 

gracie :)

Just Relax....

Linking to Camera Critters

Woman on Mission...

On Sunday R and I played tourists and  found Kumukuma Beach aka Donkey Beach. It's  only a short distance from our home and would deem perfect for my mission.

Suppose I should tell you a bit more about this mission...

When we lived on Molokai a few years ago, my hubby, seal pal Diane and I did a weekly monk seal monitoring trek to Laau Pt. This hike is approximately 8 miles round trip, with amazing vistas and  we would often see a dozen seals along the way.  Unfortunately, we also encountered vase amounts of rubbish and plastics. Not only is this trash ugly and dirty it's causing problems for  marine  life, birds and other wildlife. They are often  found entangled, feeding it to their young and the plastics are poisoning them.  One day we decided to take a trash bag with us every time we went out to collect as much trash as we could handle packing out. So every week we hauled out someone else's trash and debris that washed ashore. At first it appeared we weren't making a dent  but after numerous trips, believe or not we could see the difference. My mission is to continue that practice here on Kauai and Donkey Beach looks the perfect place to begin.

 Looking south on Donkey Beach

 Some of the beautiful driftwood on the beach

 

and  the not so beautiful plastic

 

 My goal is to take my 5 gallon bucket and pick up junk until it's full.

Took me about 1 hour to collect this bucket full.

 

I love the beach and if you ever come visit I want the beach to be beautiful.

 

So once or twice a week this will be me...

A woman on a Mission!

 

 

Note:  Here on Kauai there are at least  2  groups (that I know of)  called Surfriders and

Net Patrol that do weekly debris cleanup and I plan to join their efforts.