I saw this Hawaiian Monk Seal resting at Upolu earlier this year. So what qualifies her for Becky’s Squares: Seven? (See more responses here.) Nothing obvious in the top photo, but let’s take a closer look. A couple of scars, one of which looks a bit like a 7, but probably not that.
Hmmm. Too hard to figure out how many whiskers we’ve got here.
Ah, here we go. The tag on the flipper is M37. This is a prime way for researchers to track seals around the islands. I posted a photo of her with an M36 tag, but this one would have been in the other tail flipper.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 151. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
A Praying Mantis giving me the look.A tiny fish wonders what the big lump is in its tide pool.A gecko chilling at the Pepsi machine.A Pacific Beetle Cockroach.Clouds gather around a tree on the slopes of Mauna Kea.An endangered Palila contemplates a snack.
A Giant African Land Snail moves forward with purpose, if not speed.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 144. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.
A monk seal and her pup at feeding time.A Japan Airlines plane taxis before takeoff at Kona Airport.A couple of spear fishermen exit the water, with their catch, in North Kohala.A Monarch Butterfly on a Tasselflower.A Black-crowned Night Heron having a bad hair day.A Lesser Grass Blue Butterfly opens its wings.
Monk seals often come ashore during the day to rest.
I was down at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach Park with my brother, and we were watching a turtle resting on the beach, in an area enclosed by a low rock wall. I told him that most turtles hauled out here, but they sometimes came ashore on other parts of the beach, and I pointed to a dark lump, surrounded by cones, some distance away.
Looking at it, I thought, that’s a big turtle! So I zoomed in with my camera and saw it was actually a monk seal. We hot-footed around and I took these photos, which I later sent in to the Marine Mammal Center, which keeps track of monk seals.
This monk seal looked in good condition, with no visible wounds. The green around the face and flippers is algae and is an indication the seal might molt soon, which they do annually.
They responded to let me know the seal was ‘Imikai, a daughter of RB00, who is also the mother of the last seal I saw (here). ‘Imikai was born on Lānaʻi in 2018 and has had two pups of her own. Apparently, she came to the Big Island in 2023 and has been seen mostly around the southern parts of the island.
Tags in the tail flippers are used to identify the monk seals.
Back on January 25, I posted photos for The Numbers Game that included an old monk seal photo. At the time I thought, I should run this because it’s been ages since I saw a monk seal.
That afternoon, I went for a walk at Upolu and saw this monk seal. I didn’t notice it at first because monk seals tend to blend in well with the rocks they rest on. But when I got closer, I realized what I was looking at. It’s been two and a half years since I last saw one, so maybe I’m out of practice.
I took photos, with a view to being able to identify the seal. I could see red tags in both tail flippers, but the seal’s position left me unable to see what was on the tags. Luckily, just before I left, the seal moved and I was able to get one shot from which I could read the identification.
The seal’s tag read M36, and I sent this photo along with others to the Marine Mammal Center, which tracks monk seals around the islands. I was happy to get a response telling me this monk seal is a female, born in 2020 on Kauai. What was really nice to hear was that she is the pup of BOO, a monk seal I saw several times back in 2016 in the company of I05 (affectionately known as Igor). It’s been almost five years since I saw I05, which could mean bad news or simply that he moved elsewhere. He was not typically a social seal!
Yesterday, I went walking at Upolu for the first time in a week and saw the same seal in the same place. I doubt she’s been there the whole time, but perhaps she’s going to make this stretch of coast her new home. One can only hope.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into your computer’s search bar and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. I typed in a few numbers and up popped photos I’d forgotten about, so I thought this would be a fun way to feature some photos that ran a while ago, but warranted another airing.
Hawaiian Monk Seal resting.Lesser Grass-blue Butterfly.
This week’s number is 126. Ironically, for this first response, it turned out that three of these photos haven’t run before, but have been languishing in my archives.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘A Numbers Game.’ See more responses here. I put all my fingers and thumbs to work for my response, starting with ten Sheep in formation (and ten Cattle Egrets, too, as a bonus).
Next we have nine Spinner Dolphins playing, eight Wild Pigs foraging, seven Cattle Egrets heading to work.
Then there’s six Dung Beetles at work, five Black Triggerfish feeling blue, four Japanese White-eyes bathing.
And finally, three Horses watching, two Hawaiian Monk Seals resting, and one Pueo anticipating zero and lifting off.
Graham's Island 