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| The author with Allan Richards, Royal NP, NSW |
While Allan is a really nice fellow, there was a quid pro quo in all this. He is one of the rare breed determined to see as many of the birds in the world (that aren't extinct yet) as possible. The Hawaiian archipelago is home to about twenty of these and our island boasts about eight. Allan is going to come to Hawaii in April and Sandra and I are going to play host for a few days.
Now, I used to be a pretty good birdwatcher. If you are reading this blog, you realize that my main interest for the last thirty years has been fish. But 25 years ago, when I was in my transition phase, my good friend Ken Brunner came with me to this island and we pretty much saw most of the birds that weren't extinct yet over the course of a few days. With Allan coming, it was imperative that we update the knowledge necessary to find these birds and renew our skill in finding and identifying them.
Editor's note: The bird pictures presented here are not my own.
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| Do Not Take the Left Fork at this "T"! |
, HF&T and a handful of academic naturalists have a corner on those permits. This is important as at least one of those eight birds, the Akepa, is now found only in the Hakalau Forest.
I apologize to those of you who are still with me. That was a lot of background information, but you are now ready to hear about yesterday's adventure. Sandra and I got up at O Dark 30 and by 7 AM we were heading into the rising sun, ascending the Saddle Road, which has just been bypassed by a new public work, the Daniel K. Inouye Highway. (Only in America would we build a beautiful new freeway to cut the drive time between two podunk towns like Kailua and Hilo by 15 minutes!) Reaching the summit, we turned into the Kilohana Hunting Area. I use this name, because that is how it is signed at the entrance. On maps, you may see it denoted as the Ka'ohe Game Management area. Ornithologists known it as Puu La'au (forested hill).
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| Amakihi Photo US Fish &Wildlife |
At the entrance, it is signed for 4WD only. Big yellow signs. I had driven up here 25 years ago and H. Douglas Pratt and others suggest that the road seems acceptable for normal cars, so up we went. In fact, this is an excellent dirt road. On the way up, we passed a road grader and and something that looked like a mini steam roller. We drove very slowly because much of the time we were going straight into the sun, who was poking his fiery head over the crest of Mauna Kea. By 7:30 we had passed what we assumed to be the prime spot for the Palila and parked by the Puu La'au cabin. Our instructions suggested turning left at the T in the road. We chose to walk the 100 yards to the left, only to discover that what looks like a peak in the road is actually a significant precipice, from which we enjoyed a killer view of Haleakala, 80 miles away.
Back at the car, we added a layer or two of warm clothes, it being a bit nippy at 7,500 feet. Our book (A Pocket Guide to Hawai'i's Birds, by Pratt and Jeffrey) didn't discuss the Palila's call, but Sandra, who is the Lt. Uhura on the HMS Swinetrek, was able to pull up the distinctive twitters on her cell phone. (Did Capt. Kirk have it so good?)
Armed with all the requisite knowledge and assured of our location, we drove back to the best spot for the Palila. Only to find the snazzy van of Hawai'i Forest and Trail, twelve well heeled birders and their guide, all wearing orange hunting vests and enjoying petit déjeuner served al fresco on folding tables. We bid them a good morning and proceeded through the gate down the obvious trail into the best looking stand of māmane.
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| The Palila Photo US Fish &Wildlife |
The Palila is one of three finch or parrot billed honey creepers that lived in Hawai'i. The o'u was last seen on Kauai 25 years ago and is now extinct. The Maui Parrotbill, an insectivore, is the object of strict conservation and a few hundred doughty survivors remain in refuges on the windward slopes of Haleakala. The Palila, on the other hand, eats mainly the seeds of the māmane tree, although it also takes other fruits and seeds and caterpillars, which it feeds its nestlings. Habitat destruction, mostly in the form of destruction of māmane trees by sheep and goats, has resulted in a catastrophic decrease in the numbers of this species.
In 1990 Ken and I saw this bird fairly easily. Jack Jeffrey told me that since then it has undergone a 80% decrease in numbers! This is despite the fact that the Ka'ohe GMA has undergone a significant policy change. Around 1980 the Palila was designated an endangered species. In his book, The Birdwatcher's Guide to Hawai'i, Rick Soehren relates the following: Environmental lobbyists succeeded in changing the hunting policy in the area, to the effect that there is far less regulation on taking ungulates. The idea behind this was that unregulated hunting would markedly reduce the number of sheep and goats and allow the māmane trees to recover. The success of this policy has decreased the numbers of game animals in the area and created hard feelings among some hunters. Perhaps this is why it is recommended that birders wear brightly colored clothing when in the hunting area, even on days when hunting is not permitted. Hunting is only permitted on weekends, access to birdwatchers, who may or may not be regarded as a game species is limited to week days, except state holidays.
As we walked down the slope, I saw two birds flying, gray on the back and yellow below, that may have been a pair of Palila. The elevation of the Ka'ohe GMA is so high, that the number of species is rather small. The Palila is substantially larger than the Amakihi, which is the common yellow bird in the area, so I was pretty sure about this pair, but of course we wanted a better look.
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| The MāmaneForest Continues behind the Puu La'u Cabin |
About 100 yards downslope there was a fine grove of māmane and naio trees, a small central patch of grass creating a delightful amphitheater. Sandra and I hung around the grove for about twenty minutes identifying several Amakihi and one gorgeous red house finch. We saw close up the seedling māmane trees, suggesting that the hunting policy was making a difference, even if the birds were not recovering as expected. The group from Forest and Trail strolled by, stopping on the outer edge of the grove. Figuring we had given this spot enough time, we went back up to the car park. Looking up the hill, we spotted a single bright yellow bird, which we were able to approach to within 40 yards. Gray back, white below, lemon yellow breast. Bingo.
To complete our exploration, we went back up to the cabin and parked on the far side of the eucalyptus grove. There is a substantial māmaneforest there. In 1996, Rick Soehren said this was the best spot to see the Palila. We saw lots of Amakihi and an Elepaio.
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| The View of the Valley Beneath Mauna Loa |
Driving back down the hill was much easier; the sun was higher in the sky so we could see the excellent roadway. Hiking up the road was a group of four or five birders.We encountered them about a mile from the spot where we had seen the Palila. As we saw there car, not terribly unlike our Honda sedan, at the bottom, its obvious that they were making the hike of almost five miles and about 700 feet of elevation gain, to see the Palila. I'm not that enthusiastic of a hiker. There are suggestions in the literature that a permit may be required., but we did not see any signs regarding permits. And its not at all clear why the main road should be restricted to 4WD under dry conditions. For sure there were killer views of the the inter-volcano valley with its many cinder cones on the way down.
Once down it was an easy twenty mile drive to the milepost 22 area. With the last bit of construction in place, the saddle road is now a fast, safe route to Hilo. In fact, it has been transformed from a roadway forbidden by rental car companies to arguably the best road on the island.
We watched the mile markers and spotted the sign for the Puʻu ʻŌʻō Trail. Coming from the west, the car park is hidden behind a hill, but we found it and were the only car there. Packing some food and water, we headed onto the trail. Just as we began our hike, two large Canada Geese flew low overhead. At first we thought they were nene, not realizing that Canada goose was possible in Hawai'i. However, the long
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| Ohia Blossom on the Puʻu ʻŌʻō Trail |
After passing over two rises, we entered a large meadow. Soil has filled in a large flat pahoehoe lava flow creating a hold for grasses and Ohia trees. Under the late morning sun, this setting was quite beautiful. We passed the ohia, with their red blooms, hearing some birds but seeing very few.
For us old folks, stepping from one lump of pahoehoe to the next was more exercise than we had anticipated. For this reason, the Puʻu ʻŌʻō trail is unlike a flat forest trail and our progress was commensurately slower. We made it to the first kipuka, probably just half a mile across the meadow, in about 45 minutes.
I'iwi was common in this kipuka. We heard lots of birds and saw one I'iwi singing nearby. After waiting in one spot for five or ten minutes, we heard some twittering back down the trail. A few steps revealed an oma'o low in the bush to the right and an elepaio to our left. We got a solid five second look at the oma'o, a plain gray thrush similar to Swainson's Thrush, but decidedly darker.
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| The I'iwi tilted back its head as it sang. Photo Chuck Babitt |
The Elepaio, on the other hand stayed near the trail. He worked the shrubbery, apparently gleaning insects, occasionally looking at us. He was a gorgeous little bird, much like chunky wren, though larger that the species in the northern U.S. Chestnut below, his black shoulders were spotted white. At one point he sat, rather owl-like, upright on a branch eight feet away for several seconds. He was looking right at us, the white feathers that circle his neck looking like a delicate collar. Sandra whispered, "He likes being around us." This intimate behavior is reported in the literature, but one really doesn't expect to experience it. Our few minutes with the small, curious Elepaio created a poignant memory.
We decided that this was our treat for the day. Recognizing that the Koa kipuka was probably an equal distance to what we had already iked, we turned back. As we left the kipuka, we saw a small yellowish bird that i immediately thought was an amakihi. It was readily apparent that it was a Japanese white eye, one of the most common of Hawai'i's introduced birds. We did not see Amakihi, Creeper, or Akiapoa'au, but we did not make the additional trek to the Koa kipuka. We did meet the birders from Hawai'i Forest and Trail, now devoid of their orange bibs, trooping across the meadow. We exchanged pleasntries and continued on, seeing a flock of apapanes in a tree fifty yards from the vehicles.
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| The Elepaio perched like an owl. Photo Jack Wilburn |
It was now into the early afternoon. Even though it was overcast, it was getting hot.We had one more thing to explore, however, and so we turned towards Hilo. Kipuka 21 was supposed to be a significant refuge for the birds. This kipuka is supposedly surrounded by a'a and this sharp lava has protected the plants from trespassing ungulates. What we found just uphill from the 21 mile marker was a gate across a new road and a sign giving the following information. The road was not open due to dangerous trees that are awaiting removal. The new road may be accessed by foot and it gave a Hawaiian name for this new park that I can not recall. Hawaiian names are like that.
I have researched this on the internet and reviewed my correspondence with jack Jeffrey. Although I did not go down the new road, it appears that this kipuka is now polluted by contact with undesirable feral animals and probably does not provide a chance for akialopa'au. The Akepa, as reported by Jack Jeffrey, et al., is long gone from the Saddle Road.
We had a great day birding the Saddle Road. With the Inouye Highway bypassing the first part of the highway, access form Kona is now a breeze. Sandra and I look forward to getting back to the Puʻu ʻŌʻō Trail and Kipuka 21 for some early morning birding in the near future. As I'm sure you realize, Sandra and I prefer to create our own adventures. If you have an interest in a guided experience, we can attest that Hawai'i Forest and Trail puts on a first class tour for up to 12 itinerant naturalists.
Watch out for those Makahiki Hos,
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