Although this trip has been based out of the Pono Kai resort about midway up the east coast of Kauai, and has not been primarily a birding trip, I’ve had pretty good chances to get out birding, though have not been able to access any of the higher elevation native habitats needed to see most of the endemic species. Rain- heavy at times- and driving sedan with not-new tires has prevented even trying the dirt roads needed for access to Koke’e State Park and the Alaki i Swamp areas I’d have liked to get to bird in.
Still I brought a spotting scope, and have birded most of the lower elevation spots I knew about.
My #1 take away is that it is hard to find many species of birds on Kauai.
Hawaii life list prior to this trip, when I’d really only casually birded near Honolulu, and on Maui and Kauai, was only 20 species on eBird. I’d visited Maui in 1992 and Kauai in 2003. I know I had a few more, but didn’t keep good records so that was my starting point. Now with 1 more day and low expectations for any new birds, my HI list stands at 41.
At first glance that seems pitiful. I must admit I have not really worked the urban areas to try for every possible introduced species. Misses have included Red Avadavat, Saffron Finch, Japanese Bush-warbler, and African Silverbill.
My birding started at the airport in Maui, where I had a 55 minute layover before changing planes to Kauai. I saw House Sparrow and Common Myna there.
I had learned from the Hawaii Audubon Society website 2 most common birds, Common Myna and Zebra Dove. I believe that. This was one of the few lists that did not have both of those species.
On arrival at our condo, it was dark, so Sunday AM we took a brief walk on the Kapa’a State Beach State Park walkway. Very nice paved walk, on abandoned sugar plantation train route, 4 miles long on Kapa’a shore. #1 eBirder for this hotspot is George Gertz from WA. I managed 10 species, including new HI birds for me White-rumped Sharma. As expected, but still really cool, were Pacific Golden Plovers everywhere. Seen in WA in migration, usually fall juveniles. Fly across the Pacific from Alaska. Here seen all over. Rooftops, parking lots, any grassy area. Wonder what Parr is for a golf course in PGPL / hole. My guess is higher than parr for golf shots.
Also Sunday we visited ‘Opaeka’s Falls, a nice view but 4 species of birds previously seen. Farther south along Hwy 50 we pulled out at a scenic lookout, and got nice but distant looks at two new HI birds for me, White-tailed Tropicbird and Rose-ringed Parakeet. Also spectacular vistas of a distant waterfall, the seemingly ubiquitous rainbow we have seen this week, (speaks to the weather) and fought off the domestic Jungle Fowl.
Monday I headed out myself, leaving Marian to explore Kapa’a Town, and fought rain most of the morning. I planned to head south, visiting some urban, forested and wetland areas. As is often the case when visiting new areas access to viewing was difficult, but I had a nice morning. First was Hule’ia NWR. Heavy rain made it tough, but I managed to see a few Warbling White-eyes, (used to be Japanese White-eye prior to a lump of Japanese and Mountain White-eyes in 2018). I tried and failed to find viewable access to the reservoirs around Koloa, but stumbled upon a birdy area of farmland, finding my only Chinese Hwamei of the trip so far, and great looks at adult male White-rumped Sharma with their long streaming tail feathers.
By far my favorite stop of the day was at the Salt Ponds State Park, just past the south tip of the island. A place with open wetlands where sea salt is harvested, making muddy habitat where I found several WATA, RUTU and lots of BNST Hawaiian race, and of course PGPL. I also saw a Brown Booby working off shore, and two species of dabbling ducks, N. Shoveler and N. Pintail. By the time I finished there about noon it was getting really hot, and I headed for the pool and lunch.
Tuesday we had planned to take a helicopter ride, but it rained so hard the trip was cancelled. We only planned to do this because Marian won a 2-for-1 drawing at the condo when the concierge told of things to do nearby. My experience on this trip maybe 20 years ago was of trying not to barf from the diesel fumes and motion sickness the whole trip, so I called this good Karma and gladly bailed. We headed for the dry side of the island, and enjoyed stops at the Kawaiele Wildlif¬e Sanctuary¬ where we spotted the first Hawaiian Coot, Hawaiian race of Common Galanule, and N. Mockingbird of the trip. It was great to show Marian Nene, and BCNH too. The rest of the day was beach stops, swimming and nothing special for birds.
Wednesday we took a bus trip around the island, with little birding, but saw more White-tailed Tropicbirds here and there, and at the Kilauea Light House saw hundreds of Red-footed Boobies and lots of White-tailed Tropicbirds, Great Frigatebirds, and a few Brown Boobies, along with the expected Laysan’s Albatrosses roosting under some pine trees. 20 years ago when I was there, we saw them nesting on grass right by the lighthouse, but this time they were fairly distant looks. Surprisingly we didn’t find Red-tailed Tropicbird, which I had expected to see.
Today we headed back north, with plans for spending some time at the Kilewea Lighthouse Park on a seawatch, and see the RTTR along with hopefully a Wedge-tailed Shearwater. I spent nearly 2 hours on a seawatch. I did manage lots of great looks at the same species we say yesterday, but no WTSH anywhere. I talked to a ranger. She warned me it was late, but any chance for WTSH would be remaining chicks in their burrows. She advised looking for scree on the paved path, and look near there. We spent a few minutes doing this, and sure enough, right behind the pay-station at the foot of the path was fresh scree, and literally a foot off the trail, in a burrow was what appeared to be a soon-to-fledge WTSH chick peeking out of its hole. Really cute and obliging. My first non-introduced lifer for the trip. Yahoo!
The last birding hotspot of the day was at the Hanalea NWR, a large wetlands where I found Hawaiian Ducks and my first Scaly-breasted Munia of the trip. Earlier this AM on an exercise walk near the condo I had seen several Chestnut Munia, so managed both of those species today.
My takeaways for the trip so far is that a birder should not come to Hawaii expecting to easily tick a large number of species. To get many native species plan to get to high elevation areas, spend some time there, and have an all-wheel drive high clearance vehicle to get in and out.
Still, maybe the definition of a first-world problem is struggling to find a large list of birds when getting to the “garden island” of Kauai for a week away from the short days and likely cold rain of the Puget Sound area in November.
It’s been a very enjoyable trip, and I’m having lots of fun, and seeing a few birds too.
Until next time, good birding, and good day!
When I stumbled across the Birdsong Podcast I just loved it. I felt like I was spending a little time birding in with a friend in a area with a representative eastern U.S. avifauna. I heard the narrator quietly walking through the woods, marshes and fields while giving a quiet play-by-play, or really bird-by-bird narrative of what we were hearing. It is simple, novel and well done. Just flat-out cool stuff for a birder to hear IMHO.
