More Hawai’i endemics

 Tomorrow I am taking the day off from birding so the group can go to high elevation (9,000 ft.) to look for birds we couldn’t find at 7,500 ft. today - that’s just a little to high for me and the thought of getting sick and having to drive for an hour down a VERY bumpy/potentially washed out road is not appealing.

Tuesday, our last day on the island will be spent at sea.  We will be spending 8 hours on a boat looking for sea birds. 

I’iwi

Apapane (look at the white underpants he wears)

Kukanene - “Nene (the state bird) Poop”.
The berries are actually eaten by the Nene’s

Pua Kala (Hawaiian Poppy)

Mandy and our "Black Beauty" suped up 4-wheel drive van that can go through deep puddles and over washed out roads

places we birded on the big island

Hawaii - Waimea and Hakalau

Today we got very lucky and were permitted into Hakalau National Wildlife Refuge - the only NWR set aside specifically for endangered birds.  Hakalau is closed to the public - the only way to gain entrance is with a authorized guide.  This is the reason I signed up for the trip.  Then Hurricane Lala hit the Big Island mid-August and they closed the park due to roads being washed out and fallen trees.  Sadly, DOGE fired all but one employee at the park , and he was not able to complete the extensive repairs to the road on his own, so it’s been closed ever since.  But…Suprise!  Our local guide Mandy was able to pull some strings and we got access to a small area today.  We were the first people to bird Hakalau since Hurricane Lala!

Lawn Ninja, aka Common Mynah

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, female
This is the only place to see them in the U.S.  
They are native to Africa and Asia.

African Silverbill

Rosy-faced Lovebirds

Nene, the Hawaii state bird 

Hawaiian Hawk
This is the only raptor found in the state and it only lives on the Big Island.

Gray Francolin

Hawaii Elipaio

Hawaii Creeper

ʻAkiapōlāʻau

He is pecking holes in the branches and pulling out longhorn beetle larva.

More Oahu Birds

 Yesterdays birds.  Today I am taking the day off to take care of some little things - go to the post office, wash some clothes and re-pack, get a torn fingernail fixed, and venture over to the Moana Surf Rider Hotel to look at their antique photo collection.  Tropical Storm Norbert d

Wandering Tattler wintering from Alaska

Zebra Dove

Red-crested Cardinal

Saffron Finch

All the places we stopped to bird on Oahu

walked 8,512 steps, 3.54 miles
saw 1 rainbow
low 77⁰, high 90⁰
added 12 species, 1 endemic, 2 endemic sub-species, 1 lifer

#1500 Bristle-thighed Curlew

 There are only about 4,000 of these birds left in the world.  They nest in Nome, Alaska and then winter on islands in the Pacific Ocean.  This is the only place to find this birds in Hawaii - the spend winter on the north shore of Oahu next to a golf course and old Japanese cemetery.

Bristle-thighed Curlew

Oahu - Ko’olau Mountains and Walupe Valley

Starting off the trip strong with a new lifer right outside our hotel - Blue-billed White Tern #1,499!

Our guides - Tiffany and Mandy are VERY nature / ecological / ethically-minded.  We are staying at Hawaiian owned hotels and eating at Hawaiian-owned restaurants. 

Blue-billed White Tern #1,499

Oahu Amakihi (endemic)

Oahu Elapiao (endemic)

White-rumped Sharma (back view)

White-rumped Sharma (front view)

Red-vented Bulbul

Rose-ringed Parakeets

Common Waxbill

walked 8,886 steps, 3.64 mi.

saw 1 rainbow

logged approx. 15-20 species (will update when I get final count) - 2 endemics (only found on Oahu) and 1 lifer in 8 1/2 hours

low 75° high 90° 

Runde, Norway

 We drove 254 miles north from Bergen to Runde specifically to look for birds.  We stopped for dinner a half hour short of Runde just after 8pm and started to research which part of the island would be best for spotting puffins in the morning.  That’s when we learned that the cliff where they nest is on the west side of the island which is only accessible by foot and the only time to see them on the cliff is in the evening after 7pm. Since we weren’t planning to spend the whole day in Runde tomorrow,  we hurried along and drove straight to the trail head by 9:30pm.  The hike was a half mile trail with approx. 980 foot elevation gain (I’ll save you the math, that’s a very steep hike). I told Avi that it’s a good thing that I am fairly lazy about researching ahead of time, because otherwise I would have said no-go to this birding spot.  It ended up being VERY worth the pain when we saw THOUSANDS of Atlantic puffins flying around and roosting on the cliff face! Also, even though sunset is after 11pm, it remains light 24 hours, so we weren’t hiking in the dark.

Atlantic Puffin - same species as found on the east coast in North America.
The area where the puffins were nesting / the cliff face was roped off, but the birds seemed unaffected by their spectators and came pretty close.

Eurasian Oystercatcher 

Great Skua - landed at 11:30pm.  Still plenty of light to see it!
Lifer #1492

Why birding is so hard, Norway edition…

 Spot the differences of these common birds in Oslo, Norway:

L to R: Stock Dove, Wood Pigeon, Rock Dove (the common feral bird you see in every urban area)

L to R: Eurasian Tree Sparrow, House Sparrow (abundant worldwide)