I am catching up with my birds … before I head to the Hilo Airport to fly myself! Mid week I had the delightful time of watching a new shorebird for me … the Hawaiian Black-Necked Stilt … endangered due to development on the Big Island of Hawaii, but its mainland cousin is somewhat common.  Perhaps the real cool part of the two early mornings I spent with the stilts was talking and learning from the manager of the acqueline wetlands (he has a degree in Marine Biology) that a luxury Hawaiian Robert Trent Jones golf course hired a number of years ago to manage this special habitat that the stilts need to survive. This link is to the Kohanaiki Golf Course on sustainability … well deserved kudos!

Anyhow … an abundance of Black-Necked Stilt photos, or as known locally … the Hawaiian Stilt. In closing the text part of this blog post, the State of Hawaii has a nice resource / web service for birding which even notes where one might find some of their cool feathered friends.

Later today Molly and I start the long trip back to northern Minnesota. Home will apparently greet us with -15F weather upon our return on Saturday night. Uff dah!

It has been a fun time on the Big Island of Hawaii, but as noted this area is not a traditional birding destination. Of the 50 states, Hawaii ranks dead last in terms of the number of eBird reports. My own research has shown that the number of bird species which live upon the island is not huge compared to some regions. Wikipedia states there are 337 bird species on Hawaii. The very local climates dramatically affects the types of birds depending upon elevation and rainfall (actually kind of neat). Minnesota by comparison (Mississippi River Flyway) has 432 sighted bird species according to eBird. Gulf States and Arizona have even more … 559 for Arizona.

My experience on the Big Island is as follows:

• The eastern side (Hilo) is much less developed, and allows one many more opportunities to chill out, enjoy island life without hordes of other people around. One just needs to get away from Hilo itself. Molly and I loved the peacefulness and serenity of our guest house (Bowmans) near Pahoa (a funky small town)
• The western side is much more built up with condominiums and hotels … it is about beaches, surfing, snorkeling and restaurants.
• We spent 10 nights near Pahoa on the east side, and 5 nights in Kona on the west side. Both of us on future trips would stay 100% over near Pahoa, and take day trips to the west side for snorkel excursions. Finding good birding spots and private land on the western shore due to developments was a challenge.
• Mountainous areas in the interior are not built up or populated. However, depending upon past lava flows over the years, and the amount of rainfall, this land can be quite brown or just plain rocky. However, Volcanoes Nation Park is super cool, and we even were privileged to see an erupting volcano.

Some of my favorite birding / nature destinations on the Big Island have been:

• Bowman’s Big Island Guest House for Hawaiian birds
• Saddle Road for Short-Eared Owls
• Honaunau Bay for Snorkeling and the Hawaiian Historical Park (Two Step Beach)
• Honokohau Beach (for Sea Turtles and Shorebirds … also check out the fish pons)
• Kohanaiki Beach Park for Black-Necked Stilts (the ponds)
• Volcanoes National Park (sometimes even an erupting volcano)
• Waterfalls (many on the east side)

Over the past three days I have also added two lifers, both a type of francolin. The Erckel’s Spurfowl (or Francolin) only lives above 6,000 feet and is an import from North Africa.

The Gray Francolin is an import from India and I found them within yards of the ocean (back beyond the beach in the grasses).

Hawaii was fun, and I enjoyed my birding, but it is not a birding destination like Costa Rica.

Subscribers are receiving a second, finished copy of this post. I clicked upon publish before the post was anywhere near complete. Sorry.

Today is my last full day on the Big Island of Hawaii. I decided to get up well before sunrise and look for the Hawaiian Pueo … a sub-species of the mainland Short-Eared Owl which colonized Hawaii not too long after Polynesians arrived from the South Pacific. Not only did I find one owl, but two very cooperative birds which hunted for almost three hours. In fact, the owls were still “on the hunt” when I decided to leave … an amazing time for me. The birds were rarely more than 35 yards away! (learn more about this owl) All the photographs and video are of the same bird and hunting sequence. (video link for email subscribers)