Big Year Birding in Hawaii - Part 6

I arrived in Kawaii for the second time quite late on the evening of Monday, October 23, 2023. I used my hotels.com app to find lodging. I was disappointed to learn that the cheapest hotel available was $300 per night (the Kauai Inn). Fortunately, it was just minutes from the Airport. I reserved for two nights. 

I was up and out on the road before sunrise on Tuesday, October 24, 2023. I headed to Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge where Red-tailed Tropicbird was being seen daily. During my 4.5-hour visit, I was able to secure a few brief distant views of a tropicbird with entirely white wings flying out over the ocean from the cliff overlook.  No photo, no witness. Not very satisfying. But it counted for my USA and Territories list as bird number 813. Later that afternoon I met up with Adrian Burke across the island. He showed me his favorite sea watch spot at the Port Allen airstrip. He was able to observe a couple of Newell’s Shearwater in fading sunlight that I didn’t see. 


On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, I checked out after breakfast at the Kauai Inn. A family of free-ranging Indian Peafowl had wandered into the outdoor dining area to eat fruit scraps set out for them and the many free-ranging Red Junglefowl. On my last day in Hawaii I headed to the KoKe’e State Park for a second opportunity to find some endemic honeycreepers. The weather was much better at the Pihea Trail during this second visit and I was able to make much more progress on this steep muddy trail. I finally got good views of Chinese Hwamei and Japanese Bush-Warbler. I checked every Apapane and Elepaio carefully and eventually spied a Kauai Amakihi (814) that I was also able to photograph. I had just enough daylight left for a return to the rocky shoreline at Port Allen Airport. There I did get eyes (through my telescope) on the lingering pair of Newell’s Shearwater (815) just as the sun was setting. Returning to the airport, I found a flight that would transport me overnight to the California Coast.  I had reserved passage on a pelagic trip from Half Moon Bay on Saturday, October 28, 2023, organized by Alvaro’s Adventures, Alvaro Jaramillo’s birding tour company. Kathy Kay (from Denver) was also on the pelagic, and was arriving early to chase rarities. I arranged with her to be picked up at the San Francisco Airport late Thursday morning.  She had arrived at Oakland at the same time and picked me up in her rental car. We were crossing the Golden Gate Bridge by noon headed to Arcata Marsh National Wildlife Refuge (a four-hour drive) in search of a staked out Garganey. 

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