Category Archives: Places

V-22 Ospreys

Two V-22 Osprey aircraft land at Upolu Airport on the Big Island.Two V-22 Osprey aircraft leave Upolu Airport on the Big Island.
I’m not a bird watcher per se, but I’ve increasingly enjoyed the wide variety of bird life that I see when I’m out and about. Recently, I’ve been seeing a couple of pairs of nene, the Hawaiian goose. There’s a family of zebra doves that huddle up together on the mock orange outside the kitchen window. On a daily basis I encounter pairs of mynah birds, saffron finches, northern cardinals and several more.

What does that have to do with these photos? Well, for some reason, my first thought on seeing these two V-22 Ospreys thundering toward Upolu Airport was, ‘I wonder if they’re a breeding pair?’ All things considered, I suspect they are.

Firehose of lava at sunset

As the sun sinks slowly in the west, a firehose of lava from Kilauea Volcano gushes into the sea.
As the sun sinks slowly in the west, a firehose of lava from Kilauea Volcano gushes into the sea. More photos here. A good video of the firehose, since the cliff collapse, can be found here.

For more information about Kilauea Volcano and it current eruption, go to hvo.wr.usgs.gov/activity/kilaueastatus.php.

Going to the flow

Cyclists head to the Kilauea lava flow where it enters the sea.
I posted here about the current flow from Kilauea Volcano entering the sea, in a dramatic, firehose-like outpouring. In that post, I mentioned that the day after my visit, a cliff collapse caused the firehose to disappear from view. Things have settled down again and the firehose is once more visible, though another large crack not far back from the cliff is expected to cause another collapse soon.

From the Kalapana side, it’s about four miles to the viewing area and a thriving trade in bike rentals has sprung up. When I was down that way last July there were a few bikes available for rent. Now there are maybe 200 or 300 available from a large number of vendors in the parking lot. At the viewing area, bikes were piled alongside the road, and locked in clumps.

I preferred to walk, seeing the towering column of smoke and steam getting gradually larger on the way out, and enjoying a star-studded night sky on my return.

For more information about Kilauea Volcano and it current eruption, go to hvo.wr.usgs.gov/activity/kilaueastatus.php.

Māmane

The flowers of the mamane tree in Hawaii.Mamane trees on the slopes of Mauna Kea.
Māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) is an endemic Hawaiian tree which grows in the dry forest on the sides of Mauna Kea. These māmane are in the recently-opened Palila Forest Discovery Trail at an elevation of around 7,000 feet.

Māmane is an important plant for several endemic Hawaiian birds including the endangered palila, which is found only in this area. Palila depend on māmane trees for 90% of their food, the most important item being immature māmane seeds. These seeds are poisonous to other wildlife, but not palila.

Palila Forest Discovery Trail is part of an ongoing effort to reestablish the high-elevation dry forest on Mauna Kea, which has been greatly impacted by non-native goats, sheep, and cattle.

For more information about Palila Forest Discovery Trail, go to dlnr.hawaii.gov/restoremaunakea/palila-forest-discovery-trail/.

Nene calling

A pair of nene on the Big Island of HawaiiA nene calls on the Big Island of Hawaii
When it rains, large puddles form off to the side of the runway at Upolu Airport. These puddles are popular with a variety of birds, including these two nene, which were in fine voice.

The nene, or Hawaiian goose, is the official state bird and endemic to the islands. It’s also an endangered species and people are encouraged to report sightings to help track the birds. Here on the Big Island, nene sightings are reported to Hawaii’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife. The person I contacted there, Raymond B. McGuire, gave me this information about the birds:

“All of the nene that have the gray bands (like these) are part of a Governor’s Proclamation to move nene from Kaua’i (where they were nesting in a golf course near the airport) to the Big Island and Maui. In total, the Big Island received 598 nene in a 5-year period (2011-2016), this more than doubled the resident population prior to the project. The bands not only tell us where the nene came from, but also the sex. There should be two bands on the nene. One is metal with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service number (really tiny and hard to see) and the other is made of colored plastic and much easier to read the ID numbers (though the gray bands are not always easy to see on a gray legged bird). These gray-banded birds were banded by sex: males will have their plastic bands on the right and females will have the plastic bands on the left. These two particular nene, T86 and T87 were brought to the Big Island in 2014 and according to my records T86 is a male, and T87 is a female. They were brought as a breeding pair with 4 offspring. The translocated birds have been exploring the island more than the local birds have been. Although most of the introduced nene have been mixing with local nene and frequenting already established nene areas, we also now have nene frequenting areas that historically have not seen them or used to see them very infrequently, such as in Pahala, Punalu’u, Hawi (including Upolu), Waimea, and Kukuihaele!”

For more information about Nene and other native Hawaiian birds, go to state.hi.us/dlnr/consrvhi/forestbirds/.