The Big Island

Our hotel here was the ‎⁨beautiful Royal Kona Resort⁩ in ⁨Kailua-Kona⁩. The lobby and restaurant were open air and right next to the ocean. Unlike Oahu, the coast here was composed of jagged lava and beaches were small and few. Most of the swimming was done in the pool. There were gigantic wooden carvings representing the ancient Hawaiian gods scattered around the common areas. The grounds were beautifully landscaped with a large fishpond and waterfall in the entrance.

So by 7:30am we left this lovely spot to see the water treatment plant, then the skate park and then the cement plant. We added a few new species at each site but they were all naturalized and not native to the islands. We did some roadside birding and finally made it to the Palila Forest Discovery Trail near the middle of the island. . Palila is the name of the bird you can expect to see here. It wasn’t cooperating that day so we missed it . But we did get to see the Hawaii Amakihi and the Hawaii Elepaio, both endemics. I had a few minutes to relax on the balcony after dinner.

We got up early the next morning so we could be at the harbor by 6:15. We were going on a pelagic tour! Little pig was prepared with his life jacket! I was prepared with sunscreen and ginger candy and a big hat. The birds we saw were listed in one hour segments. Each list has a unique location and shows up in your eBird report with a track. The map at the top of the page shows these entries as blue dots out in the ocean. The vessel was a small fishing boat, just big enough to hold eleven passengers and two crewmen. As it was a fishing boat there was also some fishing going on from the back of the boat. The crew has been taking our guides and company out routinely so they were adept at getting to where the birds were. There are very few gulls in Hawaii and it was odd to be on the water and not see and hear them. The big Wedge-tailed Shearwater was by far the most numerous bird. It is brown above and mostly white below and moves around in flocks. We saw a total of eleven sea bird species all day. There was a moment of excitement when one of the guides thought he had a rare shearwater. Careful study of the photos later showed it was just a very light colored Wedge-tailed Shearwater. The real find was good looks at a few whales. They turned out to be Cuvier’s Beaked Whales. The experts can identify individuals by their dorsal fin and the markings visible on their skin. Back on land we saw a lovely rainbow.

October 6 was the last guided day of the tour. We had seen a lot of great birds except for the most sought after honeycreepers. They lived at high elevation in hard to reach and strictly protected areas. We headed out at 8:00 am, driving to the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge. It was a long drive from the hotel and the last ten miles were unpaved and extremely rough. It was very slow going. Finally we arrived There is no public access but there are a few local guides that have permission to access the area.

Excerpt from the website:

“The Hakalau Forest Unit was established in 1985 to protect and manage endangered forest birds like the Hawaiʻi ʻākepa, ʻakiapōlāʻau, and ʻiʻiwi, and their rainforest habitat. Located on the windward slope of Mauna Kea, Island of Hawai‘i, the 32,733 acre unit supports a diversity of native birds and plants.” “Hakalau Forest (NWR) is currently closed to self-guided activities because of concerns about a disease called Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death, which has killed thousands of acres of mature ʻōhiʻa trees in forests and residential areas in Puna and Hilo Districts of Hawaiʻi Island.  The disease can be transported on contaminated soil found on vehicles, tools, shoes and clothing. Protocols are being developed to ensure that visitors to the Refuge will not spread the disease. ”

We were required to spray our shoes with sanitizer as soon as we got out of the van. This part of the trip was described as cool and wet, and they suggested we wear jackets and even gloves. The guides were surprised and dismayed to find that it was as warm and sunny as the lower altitudes, presumably a result global warming. The main threat this poses to the birds is mosquitoes carrying avian malaria. The mosquitoes normally avoided the higher altitudes due to the cooler temperatures. But as the temperatures rise, the mosquitoes are spreading higher. The preventative plan is for the Division of Forestry and Wildlife to release male mosquitos exposed to the naturally occurring bacteria Wolbachia. Eggs from the female mosquitos that mate with those males introduced into the bird habitats will never hatch, and wildlife officials say that should suppress the population of insects carrying avian malaria.

We spent over five hours in the forest and managed to find most of our targets. We were excited to see these rare species but they were a challenge to find. Our guide did not resort to “playback”-the practice of playing a recording of the song of the target species, hopefully causing the birds present to come in. Instead she did a lot of loudly smacking her lips on the back of her hand. Most of the birds were busily feeding on insects or nectar from flowering trees. But the sound did attract some of them. One of the challenges was a matter of communication between birders. Most birds had names that were Hawaiian and difficult to pronounce. I referred to them by size and color. In all we had nine native Hawaiian birds. I couldn’t get photos of the Hawaiian Hawk as we saw it only briefly flying through the trees.

We were all ready to get back to civilization, including bathrooms, after the 5 plus hours at the preserve. At dinner we celebrated what was essentially the end of the guided tour. The next day we were on our own for checking out and eating breakfast. I spent sometime with another birder as I waited for my evening flight. I also had some quality time with Little Pig, exploring corners of the resort and the shoreline.

October 7th-Aloha!