Hawaii again

Expecting to take a pelagic boat trip from Kona, Oliver and I had redirected our flight from Pago Pago to Kona (was originally to Kahului, Maui). We arrived in Kona (on the island of Hawaii) the morning of December 14, 2023, after flying all night to Honolulu. First stop for birding was the Waste Water Treatment Facility near the Kona airport. I hoped to find the wintering Sharp-tailed Sandpiper that I had seen here in October, as Ollie had never seen one. Rare birds here included Pectoral Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Greater Scaup, all of which were present in October as well. 

I reviewed what species had been reported within 50 miles in the last two weeks using the Birds Eye app on my iPhone. The app told me that just one species had been seen nearby that I still needed for my ABA Area year list-Palila! Recall that in October I had roamed the momane forest of the Mauna Kea  volcano for a total of 16 hours looking for Palila. Unfortunately the long standing drought has severely impacted the highly specialized food supply of the Palila, and the population has taken a huge hit. I knew that Japanese Quail was also possible on the same mountainside. So there were two species to chase. Several pelagic species were also theoretically possible, such as Cook’s, Mottled and Bonin Petrels, so I took Ollie to the northwest corner of the island for an afternoon sea watch. All we found flying beyond the surf were boobies and noddies. By the time we arrived at the Palila Discovery Forest, it was dark. To be in place at dawn we decided to sleep in our rental vehicle. 

Sleeping in the car turned out to be very uncomfortable. The air temperature dipped to 35F where we were, at 7000 feet elevation. Shortly after sunrise on December 15, 2023, we glimpsed a candidate Palila as it flew away from us. Unfortunately we didn’t get enough of a view to count it on my list. After four hours of searching, we gave up. Likewise we could not raise a Japanese Quail either. We returned to the sea watch location but again just found boobies and noddies. 

On Saturday, December 16, 2023, we joined the annual Christmas Bird Count for North Kona. Compiler Lance Tanino assigned us 5 residential neighborhoods. A pair of beautiful Lavendar Waxbill was our reward. This scarce exotic species from India has lurked around Kona for decades but is not yet in the ABA checklist as a naturalized species.  

At 3 PM, we returned our rental car and boarded a plane to Honolulu. Ollie connected to Maui, and onward to Denver and Honduras. I stayed at the Airport Hotel in Honolulu and waited for my connecting flight Sunday afternoon for Guam. 

I had spent four days in Hawaii and failed to score any new species for the Biggest Year. That spelled trouble. To reach my goal of 900 species, I would need to capitalize on every opportunity. Also troubling was that Nick Jr.’s flight from Houston left five hours late and he would miss connecting with the flight to Guam. I departed for Guam on December 17,  traveling alone and still at 849 species.