The Kamehameha Butterfly with Kim and Bob

   Late Thursday night our friends, Bob and Kim Hillis, arrived from Southern Utah.  It was 19 degrees Fahrenheit when they left and a balmy mid 70s when they stepped off the plane at 9 PM at KOA.  Yesterday morning we ate a leisurely breakfast and headed south to the volcano with the intent of watching butterflies.  One nice thing about watching butterflies, as opposed to birds, is that they don't start flying until it warms up.  So unlike bird watching, where a start at the crack of dawn is apt to be the best, mid-afternoon can be the best time for les papillons. 

Gulf Fritillary Butterfly courtesy Wikipedia

   Our first stop was Manukā State Wayside, about half way between Oceanside and Naalehu.  Back in the day, Kim had spotted Painted Lady Butterfly at this park.  In the back seat, Sandra and Kim had been studying Hawaii's Butterflies and Moths by Jamieson and Denny.  As we arrived at the shelter where we were going to have breakfast Kim said, "There's a Passion Butterfly."  This was a chip shot for your faithful correspondent;  the Gulf Fritillary butterfly uses lillikoi, aka passion fruit, as its host plant.  Hence Dean Jamieson coined a common name for his book.  There is no discipline among the butterfly people.   

   We looked at this small orange butterfly fluttering around twenty or more feet away and I asked Kim how she could be so sure.  Apparently her eyesight is much better than mine and it was no problem.  The girls wandered down and had a look then Bob followed, finding the beast in resting position on the ground.  He pointed and I approached within three feet and got a wonderful look at the spotted fritillary wing.  I didn't attempt a picture, so I am showing you a photo from the internet of a gulf frit in resting position. This was a great look and I was really pleased.

The amorous red billed leiothrix recovering on our lanai. 

   We walked around the grounds looking at the flowering plants.  Bob plucked a hibiscus blossom, tucked it behind Kim's ear and off we went to the volcano.

   We arrived at the volcano about 10:30.  It took only a few minutes to get organized and we were off on the Bird Park loop trail.  I had us walking in a counter clockwise direction.  This turned out to be a mistake. There were no butterflies on this part of the trail, the portion where Sandra and I had our best look a year ago.  It was extremely pleasant weather, dry and cool, so we enjoyed the walk.  After about an hour we had a little bird action, a distant view of some apapanes (the red endemic honeycreeper with black wings and bill) and a killer look at a pair of red billed leiothrix.  This latter bird is introduced and Sandra and I have a great deal of experience with it.  Five years ago a pair of RBLs were chasing around Casa Ono.  Every few months one would smash into the plexiglass that surrounds our lanai.  I took some wonderful pictures of these dazed birds as they
recovered on our tile.  Eventually they both brained themselves and we have had no leiothrix

My best picture of our Kamehameha butterfly resting under a leaf.

sightings for a few years.

    By this time we were only about a quarter mile from the end of the trail.  We had not seen any butterflies and the pressure was mounting.  Bob had taken the point and he suddenly stopped and said butterfly.  What he had was a Kamehameha butterfly that had flown in and perched upside down on the leaf of a large mamaki plant.  The butterfly had rotated her back wing forward, a common butterfly tactic in which the cryptically colored ventral surface of the back wing shields the more colorful parts.  So complete was this rotation that we could not see any of the front wing.  Even in resting position, the front wing shows a patch of bright nautical orange. 

    The butterfly was somewhat shaded, hanging as it was under a leaf.  And this leaf was back lit.  We took multiple pictures with Sandra's cell phone camera and with the Olympus TG 5.  Considering that the object of our desire was still and we were only ten feet away, our results were disappointing.

  The butterfly was extremely patient with us.  We were able to approach withing ten feet without disturbing her.    I discovered that close focus with our binoculars was approximately twenty feet; by

Victory is our.  Sandra, Bob and Kim on the Bird Park trail.

receding down the trail a couple steps I could get an excellent look.  Bob had some bright compact binocs and by the time five minutes had elapsed, we had all had our fill of this rare insect.  As she showed no sign of taking wing, Bob was elected to shake things up.  We were hoping the butterfly would rise gently from her perch and flutter about our benevolence.  Using a handy stick, he touched the branch and the butterfly shot into the air in a blur of bright orange. 

   Down the trail, a mere50 yards, a large tree had collapsed.  a crew from the National Park Service was there cutting it away.  Kindly, they ceased their activity and let us pass on an alternate route through the forest.  Soon after we were out of the woods, posing for a photo on the unlit trail.   Mission accomplished.

jeff