Because they make me smile...

Happy Weekend Everyone!!

PK1 and PK2

Here are a couple of cute shots I took yesterday while monitoring the two monk seal pups.

The first shot is of PK1. He is 17 days old in this photo and gives his momma the berries. She barked at him to go into the water, well he just barked back and galumphed up the beach far away from the water. Momma barked again and then joined him!! Guess PK1 won that battle!! He's quite pudgy as you can tell by this picture.

 PK1-day#17

 

Next is PK2. The gender has yet to be determined, but I'm going with a male here too. We should know in the next week or so...stay tuned!! They are so cute when they fall asleep upside down, not a care in the world. I'm sure mom will have him/her out swimming sometime this coming week. Maybe it will happen when I'm there for my next shift.  If you look closely at the right front flipper you will see a small white spot on the very tip. This is a natural bleach mark--basically a monk seal birth mark!! I will be interested to see how it changes as he/she turns a beautiful gray/silver color in the next few weeks.

PK2--Day#3

 upside down :)

oh that cleaning stuff can wait.....

The fridge was calling.....CLEAN ME!! So today it was going to be a quick walk with the girlz. Actually the walk was shorten due to the fact that somebody forgot the leashes. So we did an abbreviated version and I headed back to the call of the fridge. Cleaning house was going to be my priority today and the fridge was on the top of the list.  It's been awhile and it amazes me the things your find in the back of the fridge.
That crazy task was finally completed when I got the call!! I was summoned to jump into my car and proceed directly to the beach to look for seals. Heck yes I yelled, the kitchen counter(next on my list) could wait. Off I went. I arrived at the corner that I was suppose to turn left and found myself going right. What the heck?? I drove a short distance and stopped at an area where seals are found but my first look I saw no seals. Next I'm jumping out of the car to survey the cliff below....I looked, and looked and then there he was my little pal 4DD fast asleep on the rocks as the water lapped upon him.  Bingo, I had found the little guy that I had been sent to find.

and yes, I did manage to get the rest of my house cleaned too!

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!?!?!

I know, I know....

I know it's been a rather long time since my last post and I apologize. Life just ate me up. We had dear friends from the mainland here for 10 days, so I had to play!!  I've also been dealing with some life issues that included headaches, heart beating out of my chest (or at least it felt that way) hot flashes and cold flashes and not to mention insomnia!!!  My mom has reassured me that no woman has ever died from these issues, I just need to learn to deal with them and going to the beach sure helps!

Anyhow, today I spent the day at the beach monitoring our newest Kauai Monk Seal.  He's not a baby, just a juvenile that just arrived last Friday, presumably from the nearby island of Ni'iheau.  He is a cutie and wowed the tourists today with his sweet face.  So I leave you with some shots of our newest Kauai resident---male seal tagged 4DD/4DU approximately 1.5 yr.

P.S. big shot out to new monk seal fans from Texas and Florida. Thanks for helping to take down the SPZ and for sharing the Monk Seal Story. God Bless you all!!!

 Dare you not to say awww.............

 

So how many times did you say it???

 

 

Happy Hump Day!!

 

 

Be back soon.

 

Val

A seal, a honu and a pair of albatross....

One of my favorite activities on this island is hiking. Today I packed up the backpack and headed to the beach in hopes of seeing Hawaiian Monk Seals!! Well, I did see "a" seal, in fact I saw him three different times in three different locations. I was just sad there wasn't more than one.

 This is RK05, an adult male seal. What you see on his back is a cell phone tag. It records his activity and will fall off in a short time. He was also equipped with a Critter Cam about a month ago. That has been removed and data is being processed. Can't wait to see the footage.
P.s. check out his curly whisker!!!

Next, I came upon this HONU snoozing on the beach. They say you can tell the sex of these turtles by the size of their tails. I need to do some more research concerning this.

Lastly, this was one of more than a dozen pair of Laysan Albatross (that I saw) that are now nesting on the north shore of Kauai. They spend most of their life out to sea and only come ashore to nest.

So there you have it, a seal, a honu and a pair of albatross!!

Consider yourself......

 

HUGGED!!

 

 

Happy Wednesday

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

I'm going to call him SAM...

 

I'd like you to meet RT12--well that's his science name.

 I'm going to call him SAM!!

 

more about SAM in the upcoming days.

Whiskers...

 

Monk Seal Whiskers

 

RK52

 

 

Tuesday I attended a mandatory training for those individuals wanting to be volunteer

 responders for the Hawaiian Monk Seal.  I had been a volunteer responder when we lived on Molokai. I needed to attend the Kauai group training because they have a few different situations that were not common on Molokai...ie, dealing with tourist in the monk seals face. So today I learned to set up a SPZ (seal protection zone) and how to deal with the public or maybe I should say the Monk Seal paparazzi! It was an interesting and insightful training  and  I am looking forward to being a responder again.

 

These shots were taken last sunday, while R and I were at a beach on the north shore. This seal is a two year old female known as RK52, who has recently molted(basically she shed all of her hair and a layer of skin) and decided she wanted to snooze on the beach.

 a beautiful animal, all shiny and sporting a new gray coat

 

 dozens of peeps now have photos of her to show folks "back home"

 

some got a little too close...

 

 Here you see one of her identification tags,  K52

Red Tag--means she was born in the Main Hawaiian Islands

The "K" denotes the year she was born--2011

The 52 is like her social security number

 

.

 

She enjoyed her nap on the beach....paparazzi and all.

 

***please note all of my photos were taken from an appropriate distance with a zoom lens***

 

Aloha,

Val

The Pup has become a Weaner...

Today I took my new friend Pearl out to the monk seal pup site.

 If you missed that post you can CLICK HERE.

 

Momma Rocky weaned the pup last Thursday afternoon, just hours after I took those momma and son photos.  Momma was seen on Oahu last Saturday(two days after weaning her pup), Oahu is her "home" island  and is about 80 some miles away from Kauai. Can you imagine swimming 80 miles on an empty stomach??  But for a seal it's probably just a couple flipper flaps!! She will now get much needed rest and replenish her depleted

 body with some 'ono grinds" for seals.

 

Once the pup is weaned he is now called a WEANER, stop laughing, that's what they are called, I can't make this stuff up. Anyhow, the chubby weaner will now hang out in the tide pools and his birth beach learning to find food on his own and will be living on those fat stores that momma provided him.  He will probably hang here for a month or so and then begin venturing out to explore his big new world.  I am guessing in the next few days the tagging team from NOAA will come and give him some flipper bling---giving him his own ID.  More about that in a later post.  

my friend Pearl

 

Weaner in the shallows, can you spot him??

 

 Just snoozing, it's tough being a weaner.

 

 His big light colored belly

 Sweet dreams little buddy

 

Hope you are enjoying learning about the critically endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal.

 

 

Some of you asked what Ono Grinds are....

Ono Grinds is the Hawaiian way of saying YUMMY food!!!

 

 

 

Happy Aloha Friday!!

Beach time...

Mom decided she had enough of unpacking boxes and organizing our world, so she put on her adventure slippahs and headed to the beach.

 

 

Sign to the beach...

 

She met this chick at the beach parking lot!! 

 

this was the path to the beach...

 

getting closer...

 at the end of the beach....

mom found this....

Rocky, the Hawaiian Monk Seal.

 

and her chubby pup!!

 

Monk Seal Notes 

This chubby pup is probably within days of being weaned. At birth this little  guy weighed 25-30 lbs today this pup now weighs approximately 150-200 lbs. Poor momma has not eaten in the past 5+ weeks and has lost nearly 1/2 of her body weight since delivering this pup.

Once weaned, the pup will live on his body fat stores until he learns to hunt for food successfully.

Hope to share more on this pup in the future.

 

Hey, tomorrow's Aloha Friday

see you then.

 

Gracie