Dodging the Rain-Kileaua Light House

We had a sunset boat trip scheduled for Tuesday afternoon on the other end of the island. What should we do in the morning, given the fact that rain was in the forecast?

Of the many National Wildlife Refuges on Kauai, one of the easiest to find is at Kileaua Light House. It stands on a short peninsula, and is home to many nesting sea birds. It also happens to miss the showers building up over the mountains, making it the perfect place to spend the morning.

The cliffs surrounding the Refuge are home to scores of nesting Red-footed Boobies - a life bird for us, since we did not see them in he Galapagos.

Nene Crossing signs are on both sides of the road, and the Nenes don't seem to be afraid of people. We have seen more of them on golf courses than anywhere else. Nēnē are extremely vulnerable to predation by introduced animals like rats, dogs, cats, mongooses, and pigs. Some studies, show that low productivity, perhaps caused by the poor available nutrition in their habitat and droughts also impact nēnē populations. Approximately 1,950 nēnē exist in the wild today with 416 on Maui, 165 on Moloka‘i, 850-900 on Kaua‘i, and 457 on the island of Hawai‘i. As of 2009, over 2,700 captive-bred nēnē have been released statewide either on public lands or private lands managed under cooperative agreements with State and Federal resource agencies. Nēnē have been raised in captivity by the Zoological Society of San Diego at the Maui Bird Conservation Center at Olinda and the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center on the Big Island .Nēnē was listed as an endangered species in 1967 under the Federal Endangered Species Act.

All these cliff dwelling birds provide a challenge to amateur photographers like me. I used burst mode on my camera, taking 5-6 quick photos in succession, hoping to get one good one of a flying bird, but the birds can still fly faster than I can find and focus! Of over 1,000 files, I finally reduced it down to 300 or so after several hours of serious editing. The Red-footed Booby ('A in Hawaiian) is a year round resident at the point. They really do have red feet! It is nesting season, and they were gathering sticks to take back to the nest site. We also found a few Brown Boobies, but no photos of them.

If you look up and think you see a Bald Eagle flying by, you are mistaken. The Laysan Albatross  navigates across thousands of miles of open ocean to return to their nesting grounds, mostly on remote Pacific islands. They are famous for their elaborate courtship rituals, which include sky-pointing, bill-clapping, and bowing. Moli can be seen November – July at Kīlauea Point. Wisdom, the oldest known banded bird in the wild, is a female Laysan albatross that nests within the world's largest albatross colony on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. She is at least 66-years old and a world renowned symbol of hope for all species that depend upon the health of the ocean to survive.These albatross can both fly and sleep while flying, which is handy if you spend months and months at sea.

Just as we asked ourselves where the Frigatebirds were, they showed up, chasing a Red-footed Booby. ‘Iwa roost near Kīlauea Point but no nesting has been documented. Lacking the ability to take off from water, ‘iwa snatch prey from the ocean surface using their long, hooked bills. Their prey primarily consist of fish and squid. Juveniles and adults often obtain food by piracy from boobies, tropicbirds, and shearwaters. ‘Iwa often supplement their diet by this type of harassment. 'Iwas means pirate we were told, making it a good name for them.

Hawaii has both the Red-tailed and White-tailed Tropicbird, but I thought we were seeing only the White-tails. The tails of either bird are long, skinny, and hard to see in the air. To my surprise, I learned that the Red-tails also have bright red beaks as well, so I may have seen more of them than the others. In Hawaiian they are called Koa‘e‘ula. Hawaii has no gulls, even though many birds resemble them here.

Wet and Windy Kauai

The weather forecast for Kauai this week in NOT encouraging. They are predicting 80 - 90% chance of rain each day this week. Today, it was light, intermittent rain. You had to turn on the windshield wipers to see, but didn't need them a few minutes later. The clouds are low and heavier over the mountains than the sea. Not sure if I'll be able to get much in the way of photos of the mountains, but I'll try.

Today we signed up for a few activities (optimistically including an airplane ride later in the week), then drove around Princeville to get oriented. The brochures say that Princeville is named for the young son of one of the Hawaiian kings. I think it means you have to have a Prince's ransom to be here for any length of time. The St Regis Hotel is at the end of the street, so we thought we would check it out. However, there was no place to park a car without a code from the hotel. By law, anyone can have access to the water, but it is often only a dirt track between two buildings. On Kauai, there aren't as many lava rocks, just nice sandy beaches. The brochures talk about the best beaches, but don't say how you are supposed to access them. Hmmm. The beach in Hanalei is long and sandy with plenty of parking space, but because of the high surf warnings, it was closed for swimming.

Wow! Watch the spray coming in the air as the waves crest and come crashing down! Lightweight windbreakers let us walk around and stay mostly dry, while my camera and binoculars could snuggle in the dry under the jacket.

The Hanalei National Wildlife Reserve is just over a one-lane bridge going into town. We hope to explore it and another botanical garden while we are here. If we can find a place to park the car, of course.

Two new birds today - this Red-crested Cardinal is surprisingly melodic and afraid of nothing.

The little cinamon and black Chestnut Munia plucks small seeds off the grass...

...while the roosters crow non-stop. The buildings are constructed with a small space underneath, and I think all the chicken use that area for roosting.

Underwater Fish Photography

Black Triggerfish

I learned to snorkel for the first time 20 years ago, when we made our first trip to Hawaii. Kealakekua Bay is where Captain James Cook was first welcomed to the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, and where he was killed in 1779. The British put up a monument to him there. This morning, we didn't have any sun and the water felt pretty cold.

Black Triggerfish and Yellow Tang

Among tourists, however, this harbor is renowned as one of the best places to go snorkeling. The waters are calm and protected and huge varieties of fish swim with no fear of those funny looking things floating on the top of the water.

Today I learned some valuable lessons about trying to photograph fish. The first thing to consider is getting a camera that will safely go into the water without frying its electronics. The second issue is finding a strap to put on it so it won't sink to the bottom when dropped. Yesterday, we snorkeled some at a terrific nearby beach, and I only dropped the stretchable strap that held the key to our locker with all our stuff in it. Luckily, Dick was able to go down in the shallow water to retrieve it. Our waterproof camera didn't have a place on it to fasten a strap at all, so we couldn't use it. They make watertight plastic bags to put your cell phone in, but that seemed like too much of a risk to me. "How about a GoPro?" the woman at the snorkel company asked. "We rent them, and the photos are taken digitally, so you take home the memory card and bring back the camera." It comes with a strap and takes movies as well as stills. The thing is remembering to turn it off when you are done with a shot. Otherwise you get these odd looking combinations of air and water.

Blue photos

The other thing to remember is that water changes the light. It removes the red and yellow part of the light, leaving only the blue, so everything looks blue for the most part. These corals were quite colorful, and the fish were outstandingly bright, but they all fade together. When we got home, I looked it up, and if you really want good underwater photos, you have to use a flash. Well, I'm not sure if that's worth the bother or not.

Sea Cave

We rode in a Zodiac type boat today, with inflated sides and 2 giant motors in the back. We went really fast, leaping from one wave to the next, or falling hard into oceanic potholes. Ugh! But our crew took us along the shore explaining some of the lava formations to be found there, and stories related to them. By the time we reached Te Fiti, my camera didn't work any more, but she looked just like she did in the movie Moana. Pixar got ideas for Finding Nemo here as well as Moana.

After returning to the condo, I spent most of the afternoon throwing away blue photos and movies I took in the morning. I'll try to put some of them together sometime, but here is one that turned out pretty well. The room still won't stop moving up and down, so I'm going to bed soon. Up early in the morning to go birding with a local birder!

Goddess Pele

Of course, Hawaii was created by a magma hot spot in the middle of the Pacific Plate, and as the plate slowly moves over millions of years, the magma rises to make and island, then the plate moves northwest and a new island forms. The island of Hawaii has active volcanoes and the National Volcano Park does a great job of explaining the process. When we were here 20 years ago, we drove down to watch the lava pour into the ocean at sunset, but that flow has stopped for a while.

Hawaii actually has 5 volcanoes, 3 of which are active. You can see lava flows from 200 years ago when driving to the airport at Kona on the west coast. We were at about 4,000 feet elevation when we went to the park, and the summits are much higher. 

Pahoehoe is the lava that flows smoothly and makes ropy formations.

A'a is lava that makes sharp rocky formations. The black beaches are lava that exploded into small sand sized pieces when entering the ocean. There are even green beaches, where the lava formed olivine, a green stone.

When the first humans arrived, there was little variety in plants and animals. Huge tree ferns were everywhere.

Pigs brought by people and released, love to eat the fiddleheads in the tree ferns, knocking then completely over to reach them. Thus the ferns became harder to find. The Park Service built a big fence around the park boundaries and killed the pigs, so these ferns and many other native plants and animals are thriving now. We heard native birds in the trees, but I only saw one red one distinctly.

The native ohi'a tree is the first to grow in a lava field, and has several adaptations to help it survive in such an inhospitable place. 

The highlight of this trip was seeing a flock of about 15 Nene geese grazing on a golf course! They are endangered as are many of the native species. 

In 2008, Kilauea developed a lava lake in the bottom of the crater. The level rises and falls a mile away from the observation area. At night, the lava glows in the bottom of the crater, and the park stays open for viewing it. Really exciting! Our guide says that sometimes you see the goddess Pele in photos of the steam rising from the crate. Take a look -- do you see anything?

Hiking to the Waterfalls

Today we took a tour with Hawaii Nature and Trail company to hike up to some waterfalls at the north side of the island. After driving along dry lava fields along the airport, we passed areas where the lava fields were covered with grass and mesquite trees. Our guide Jeff was a wealth of information about the geology, astronomy, botany and history of Hawaii. Then, in the blink of an eye, we turned a corner and saw the wet Hawaiian forests around Hawi. At Hawi, we transferred from a very comfortable Mercedes van, to this much older and less luxurious military surplus vehicle so we could traverse the cattle fields on the way to waterfalls in the highlands. No one argued about wearing the mandatory seat belts in this open air transport!

The cows just stared blankly at us when we bounced around their pastures to reach the top of this privately owned ranch. This side of the island can have 100" of rain per year sometimes. The river is crossed by a series of tunnels and sluices to redirect some of the water to the dryer area for sugar cane plantations. Actually, all the sugar plantations closed in Hawaii about 1975, he said.

 We all know that Hawaii is overwhelmed with invasive plants and animals. Some arrived accidentally, and others were introduced. They fight an endless battle with guava (yes, like the juice). Large piles of wood in the pastures were evidence of the unsuccessful efforts to keep it under control. One hillside was absolutely covered in these trees. Jeff picked a few and cut them open for us to try. Not bad, but not something I'd choose for a fruit. It's easy to get in to the pulp, and the pulp is full of seeds. The birds love it, and spread the seeds so more trees sprout no matter how much they chop down the older ones. Scientists are working on a fungus to attack the trees. Oooh, be really careful with that.

Many of the beautiful plants that look like they should be native aren't, such as this African tulip tree, blazing in people's yards. It is very invasive but doesn't spread as much as the guava.

Pineapple plant

Along the river, we found a small field, farmed in the old manner. A pool of water hosted taro plants, while pineapples grew along the sides with ti plants. Jeff described ti leaves as Hawaiian saran wrap, used to carry just about anything.

The waterfalls, of course, were totally awesome, but, as always, the paths were steeper and the steps higher than I could easily manage.

Our reward for the morning's hike was our lunch spot! According to the map, the road ends, and there is only an overlook (not the spot were we were on the ranch). The cliffs are completely vertical, with caves dug out by the waves, and black sand beaches. Trees grow by leaning away from the never ceasing winds.

Islands near the cliffs are rocks left when the cliffs collapsed.

White-tailed Tropic Bird

I was very excited to see long tailed Tropic Birds soaring in the strong winds along the cliffs. 

Cattle Egrets picked bugs off the backs of cattle in the fields, and other invisible birds sang all morning, but I couldn't see any of them. At lunch, we were joined by another bold little Yellow-billed Cardinal, looking for a handout from our lunch.

Just listen to the roaring Ohana Waterfall!

Balcony Birding in Hawaii

Zebra Dove

2018 will be our 45th wedding anniversary, so we decided a trip to Hawaii was in order! After 10 hours in the air on Sunday, we arrived in Kailua-Kona on the west coast of the Big Island. I know that there are lots of introduced species of everything here, but didn't realize how much of what we would see is actually introduced. The first bird I heard at the airport was a House Sparrow. Really! Why would anyone bring House Sparrows! I downloaded a Bird ID Hawaii app, which is terrific help. It only lists 33 native species of birds, and quite a few of them are sub-species of familiar birds such as the Coot and Mallard.

Spotted Dove

However, many of these species are still new to us. In fact, it's like birding on an international tour since the birds may have originated in China, South America, Australia or just about anywhere. So if we hear a dove, it's probably some kind of dove. The bird that sounds like the noisy Long-tailed Grackles in Texas turned out to be Common Myna. They are distinctive with a broad white wing band in flight. Haven't got a good photo of one yet, but there will be plenty of opportunity.

Saffron Finch

Is it a Yellow Finch? Western Tanager? No, the bright yellow birds are Saffron Finch from South America.

Yellow-billed Cardinal

The Yellow-billed Cardinal (actually a tanager), native to South America, likes to bath in the fountain by the pool.  We had the screen open on the balcony, and one started to walk right into the room!

Orange-spotted Gecko

Of course, there are NO native lizards in Hawaii, but this little guy with orange spots is sure a cutie.

Eagles Weekend at Kenlake

Dick and I have been attending the Eagles Weekend at three Kentucky State Parks on Kentucky Lake for over 10 years - at least I have been taking photos there for that long. Each of the three parks takes a weekend in January or early February. The Masterson's party boat comes down to do tours up and down the lake searching for eagles along with water. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife officers do a program on Friday evening and ride on the boat trips to help spot eagles. On the Saturday morning trip this year we saw a record 67 eagles in about an hour and a half.

In 2012, RROKI was doing the live bird program on Saturday night at Lake Barkley Park. The bridges across the lake were very old and very, very narrow. I always dreaded the possibility of meeting a semi crossing the bridge at the same time I was on it. In 2012, a barge ran into the bridge and completely took out a section of it. It took us 90 minutes to drive north and around the peninsula to catch the boat trip.

 Now they have finished a modern four-lane bridge near Kenlake and are almost done with another crossing Lake Barkley. I felt much more at ease when driving across them this time. However, the clerk at the desk said that another barge had run into the pylons already, but didn't do much damage. We noticed that there seemed to be a lack of warning signs and lights on the approach.

The point of the weekend is to find Bald Eagles which can be difficult sometimes. "There is it, in the tree!" Which tree?

The best sightings are when the bird is perched at the tip of a branch or snag so there aren't any branches behind them. The immature birds don't get a white head and tail until they are 5 years old, and their brown and white mottling varies from year to year. I can seen why many people think our Red-tailed Hawk, Lady, is an eagle-this immature bird resembles her quite a bit, only it's much larger.

We had good looks of 2 nests. This one had 2 adults getting it ready for eggs. In the other nest you see the white head of the female peering over the edge as she sat on her eggs.

We watched a mature eagle catch a fish from the lake. He only got to eat it for a few minutes though...

...before a crowd of hungry immature eagles came in expecting to share the catch.

While watching 2 immature eagles perched together, we also spotted 2 adults flying in courtship behavior! Very exciting!

Of course, there were other birds on the lake too. American pelicans flew by in formation, but we didn't see large numbers of them at once. I spotted a couple Common Loons, but they were always too far away for a good photo.

Here is something new---a small truck looks like it backed down into the water overnight. A small tent was on the shore. Wonder how they will ever get a tow truck in to pull it out again!

I've been doing the RROKI programs for several years now, but this was the first time our directors did not come for the weekend. Three volunteers did it all. Here are our eagles taking a stretch while we cleaned out their cages. 77 people attended the program on Saturday night for the best view they had of live eagles all weekend!

We had a wonderful time, but I was really beat by the time we drove home again. A 2 hour nap, and I was ready for the SuperBowl party with friends.