Category Archives: Year 10

No Noose for the Duluth Mongoose!

Year 10,

Strange title? Yup, but it you are a child of the 1960’s you might remember this catchy phrase because my home town had the ONLY mongoose in the United States. Citizens of Duluth lobbied hard both the Secretary of the Interior, Mo Udall, and Senator Hubert Humphrey in an attempt to save our mongoose, Mr. Magoo! This small mammal had arrived illegally in America via an Indian sailor on a grain vessel. Given mongooses (mongeese??) reproduce rapidly and kill small birds and other rodents, the American government did not want any mongooses in the U.S.A.

Fast forward many years and this morning I watched a mongoose search for breakfast in Hawaii’s Lava Tree State Park. Anyhow, I am happy to tell you that citizens’ of Duluth’s efforts were successful and Mr. Magoo was saved. I hope you enjoy my images and video … and a blast back to the past. Our mayor at the time, George Johnson, was invited to appear on the TV Show, “To Tell the Truth”. His part of the episode about Mr. Magoo starts at the 8 minute mark of the YouTube Video (video link for email subscribers). My media is below the YouTube video of “To Tell the Truth”

Lava Tree State Park Mongoose (video link for email subscribers)

The Royal Hawaiian Hawk!

Year 10

You are looking at one of the rarest birds in the world, the Hawaiian Hawk (see below … an endangered specie). There are only 3,000 of these raptors living, and they only breed on the Big Island of Hawaii. They are occasionally seen on the other islands. Development is infringing on their remain habitat.

My first night here on the big island while watching song birds from our guest cottages’ deck I suddenly heard the mad flapping of wings as 100’s of birds scattered. Moments later I saw a Hawaiian Hawk on the hunt.

With each successive evening I have better learned where this pair of love birds (Ma and Pa Hawk) hang out. It helps they are getting ready to nest and scream a lot.

And some plebeian birds!

Common Myna

Common Waxbill

Hawaii Big Island Birding Bonanza

Year 10

Hawaii may not be a birding destination, and it ranks dead last for the number of eBird submitted reports for the 50 states, but for me the guest house with its own private nature preserve is a birding paradise (see more about Bowman’s Big Island Guest House). Although this vacation has not provided me birding opportunities due to family excursions with my wife, yesterday shortly after sunrise and before sunset I had enough time for short birding walks. These two hikes yielded SIX lifers including the very rare Hawaiian Hawk! This raptor only breeds on the big island and is the “Royal Hawk” of the islands!

My lifers …

Hawaiian Hawk

Common Myna

Common Waxbill

Java Sparrow

Spotted Dove

Zebra Dove

And two repeats … lifers 24 hours earlier!

Saffron Finch

Yellow-Billed Cardinal