I realize that there has not been a blog in a while. In fact, some of you guys are in full clamor. The bitter truth is, its hard to write a blog about nature experiences when you haven't seen something a little special. We have continued to snorkel at Kahalu'u and the pier with results so mundane that the camera
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| The Io keeps an eye on Ono Road. |
hardly makes it out of my pocket. And we took a snorkeling trip to Ho'okena where the most surprising thing we encountered was the mob at the Coffee Shack, where we made a quick stop for a takeout cinnamon roll. Yes, the Snowbirds (or as my beloved is want to call them, the Snowboarders) are back. But they are not real birds, so they don't count.
The closest thing we had come to recently in the way of an interesting nature encounter was an Io that we spotted in a tree on a morning walk about a week ago. We see a Hawaiian Hawk in our neighborhood occasionally, but this was an especially good look as he was perched about thirty feet up in a jacaranda tree right beside the road. The Io is interesting because it is probably the only native Hawaiian land bird that occurs in our neighborhood. We have turkeys, francolins, pheasants and parrots. And cattle egrets and barn owls. Not to mention and all manner of introduced songbirds. But as far as I know, the hawk is the only native.
Suddenly this morning our luck changed. As I was going through my emails, I spotted something from the Hawaii Birding Facebook page. In the wake of a fierce winter storm, an Inca Tern had appeared at South Point. The bird was first noted two days ago and the post was from Lance Tanino, the moderator of the page and, I assume, a crack birdwatcher. Lance noted that the tern was being fed by local fishermen. He admonished us, should we go to look at the tern, to be careful around the cliffs and to be respectful of the bird, i.e. keep your distance. He included several magnificent pictures and noted that this was
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| Cows and Windmills on the way to South Point. |
almost certainly the first time this bird had been seen in Hawaii.
In fact, a little net surfing revealed that this is a fairly rare bird in any event. It is found on the coast of Peru and Northern Chile and in the Galapagos Islands. Throughout its range it is pending on being listed as threatened.
This enticing tidbit got schmoopie out of bed. Soon sandwiches were made, binoculars and spotting scope packed and we were on our way south. We made the turn onto South Point road an hour later, at about a quarter to nine. I had hoped that we would see birdwatchers on arrival, pointing the way, but as I noted to Sandra, it was pretty early in the morning. Would any birdwatchers have left Kailua or Hilo before 7:30?
Before we made it all the way down the narrow road to South Point, we had to stop just over a rise for Sandra to take a picture of cows grazing in the field with electricity generating windmills behind them. Not only was this an opportunity to capture an interesting visual , the antiquity of grazing cows juxtaposed with modern technology, but it afforded us the chance to get creamed by another automobile as it crested the hill at fifty miles an hour only to find us stopped in the middle of the road. Fortunately that cataclysm did not occur.
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| The Inca Tern, South Point, Hi. March 2021 photo SKG |
Before we made our way down to South Point we detoured inadvertently to the parking lot for the Green Sand Beach. There a young couple were gearing up for the hike with the most up to date sun repellent gear. They didn't know anything about rare birds, but the gentleman in the pickup, waiting to taxi tourists to the GSB, directed us back to the turn to the point.
Soon we were parked at the end of the road, next to a family that was clearly not involved in bird watching. We slapped on some sunscreen and made our way down to the precipice where several young men were fishing. Hoping that these might be the tern keepers noted on Facebook I asked if they knew where the rare bird was. One gentleman told us that he was not present at the moment, but if we waited half an hour, he was sure to fly in. In the absence of a group of bird watchers ogling our object of desire, this was about the best we could have hoped for.
As we walked away, one said to his fellows, "He's a little late for breakfast." A moment later, a large Polynesian fellow caught up with us and said,"Here, I'll show you where he is." Our new friend walked a mere twenty feet to the edge of the cliff and beckoned me to come stand beside him for a look at the bird.
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| Helpful Fishermen on the Verge of Celebrity |
From about a foot or so back from the precipice I leaned forward and asked if the bird was down by the large blue fishing float, fifty feet below. "No, step closer and look down."
I did as I was told and at that moment I released a spontaneous F Bomb. I was looking at the Inca turn from a distance of about eight feet, well within close binoculars focus. For a long moment my neurosis was set aside. The Inca tern is a gorgeous bird, a stately gray, his cap tending towards black, with magnificent white mustaches. This fellow was sitting peacefully on a small lava outcropping virtually at my feet.
After I enjoyed my look, Sandra took her turn and nabbed the picture you see here with her Samsung cell phone. We each had one more look and then headed back. The admonition about care around the cliffs had been appropriate, but who could have known we would be led so close to the bird. Certainly he didn't seem disturbed and I was hoping we had not denigrated his wild integrity.
As we walked towards the fishermen, Sandra nabbed a photo of the group. Turning around, we were
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| Our Fisherman Friend feeds Buddy, the Inca Tern. |
now able to spot the tern on his lava perch from about thirty feet away. There he sat, six feet below the edge of the cliff. At that moment the Inca Tern took wing, a gray apparition in the warm breeze. He flew just past the group of fishermen, turned and landed about ten feet from them. At that juncture, our new best friend stepped towards the bird and flipped him a small piece of bait. "You missed." one of his colleagues admonished. And so he returned to the bait box and cut a couple more. These were slivers about a half inch thick and two inches long, roughly the size of one of his fingers. We were able to watch through the binoculars from about twenty feet as our friend kneeled a few feet away from the bird and flipped tidbits to the grateful tern who did his part by chomping them down.
At this point we discovered that the rare Peruvian tern had a name. Like Bill Clinton's dog he is named Buddy. As in, "Buddy, do you want some more?"
When he stood to cut some more I asked if that was squid. "No," he said. "it's fish. He won't eat squid. And he won't eat shrimp. Only fish. And its got to be fresh fish. He's a choosy bugger."
Thanking the group, Sandra and I turned to go. Almost immediately we met an earnest young Caucasian, binoculars draped around his neck, carrying a spotting scope in a fancy canvas bag. "You're not going to need the scope." I greeted him with the smile only a life bird can bestow. A few feet further along we encountered a husband and wife team of about our age. "Have you seen any terns?" the fellow asked with a smile.
"Just one." I replied. Thinking at the same time that the group of fisherman were just about to find out what a rare bird frenzy is all about.
Jeff
All pictures in the blog were taken by the redoubtable SKG. For some amazing pictures of Buddy, check out this link from the Hawaii Birding Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HIBirdwatchingLT
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