On Saturday I went up into Pu'u Maka'ala NAR from Volcano Village, with the goal of exploring some of the 'Ola'a rainforest fencelines in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. It threatened to get rainy so I had to be conservative with my time, and didn't do many bird counts. Birds counts were low compared to last week. 'Apapane in particular were just 1/3-1/2 of last week's numbers. They really do move around the island a lot.
I went up the usual trail to Kulani, but before I got to the Kulani boundary road I took a short cut through the forest to the 'Ola'a fenceline along a monitoring transect. The transect was pretty easy to follow. This forest is open canopy with a closed hapu'u tree fern subcanopy and mostly ferns in the understory. The only really interesting thing I saw along the transect was a collapsed lava tube with a nice pala fern growing on the exposed rock wall. (Pala ferns are fairly rare, though not endangered)
I followed the 'Ola'a pu'u unit fenceline, at the northwest corner of the 'Ola'a section of HVNP. There were a few interesting native plants near where the pu'u unit meets the Pu'u Maka'ala NAR lava flow unit, including the clermontia tree with the wonderful flower I posted a photo of last week. No real evidence of new plantings, though. I had hoped to run into something rare.
I followed the pu'u unit fenceline South for a while, taking in the new forestscape, and eventually came to a corner I didn't expect which turned the fenceline exactly the opposite of the way I wanted to go. Hmm, my map downloaded off the internet was wrong! Daylight was running out, so I was a bit nervous. I followed the wrong-way fenceline quickly, hoping it was just a small jog around something, and was amazed to suddenly find myself near the top of the pu'u that the pu'u unit is named after! Through the fronds of the tree fern canopy I got snippets of a big view across the 'Ola'a forest towards upper Puna down below. I would have enjoyed it for a while, but didn't have time. I descended the slope of the pu'u, hoping that the fenceline would turn back the other way at the bottom....but no, I came to the edge of an even larger slope with another huge view out across 'Ola'a.
At that point I had to turn around and make haste back up the pu'u. I guessed that what my map omitted was that the fenceline went all the way around the pu'u before heading back West. I got back to the unexpected corner and jumped the fence and started following a monitoring transect generally West. If this didn't get me to the other side of the pu'u unit fast I'd be backtracking the looong way up around miles of fenceline back to my car in the dark and rain. Fortunately the transect cut off the southeast corner of the pu'u unit, crossing the back side of the pu'u, and dumped me on the fenceline I needed to return to Pu'u Maka'ala NAR. From there it was a couple kilometers of smooth sailing back to the parking area, and I was all stoked to return the next morning and follow even more remote 'Ola'a fencelines.
I got back to the car with about an hour of daylight left. I did a quick exploration of the old tree fern harvesting area down a side road. The State conservation people have planted a number of rare plants along the network of abandoned skid roads, and I'll have to check back periodically to try to catch some of them flowering.
Along the way I found come clermontia parviflora flowers at their peak:
I went up the usual trail to Kulani, but before I got to the Kulani boundary road I took a short cut through the forest to the 'Ola'a fenceline along a monitoring transect. The transect was pretty easy to follow. This forest is open canopy with a closed hapu'u tree fern subcanopy and mostly ferns in the understory. The only really interesting thing I saw along the transect was a collapsed lava tube with a nice pala fern growing on the exposed rock wall. (Pala ferns are fairly rare, though not endangered)
I followed the 'Ola'a pu'u unit fenceline, at the northwest corner of the 'Ola'a section of HVNP. There were a few interesting native plants near where the pu'u unit meets the Pu'u Maka'ala NAR lava flow unit, including the clermontia tree with the wonderful flower I posted a photo of last week. No real evidence of new plantings, though. I had hoped to run into something rare.
I followed the pu'u unit fenceline South for a while, taking in the new forestscape, and eventually came to a corner I didn't expect which turned the fenceline exactly the opposite of the way I wanted to go. Hmm, my map downloaded off the internet was wrong! Daylight was running out, so I was a bit nervous. I followed the wrong-way fenceline quickly, hoping it was just a small jog around something, and was amazed to suddenly find myself near the top of the pu'u that the pu'u unit is named after! Through the fronds of the tree fern canopy I got snippets of a big view across the 'Ola'a forest towards upper Puna down below. I would have enjoyed it for a while, but didn't have time. I descended the slope of the pu'u, hoping that the fenceline would turn back the other way at the bottom....but no, I came to the edge of an even larger slope with another huge view out across 'Ola'a.
At that point I had to turn around and make haste back up the pu'u. I guessed that what my map omitted was that the fenceline went all the way around the pu'u before heading back West. I got back to the unexpected corner and jumped the fence and started following a monitoring transect generally West. If this didn't get me to the other side of the pu'u unit fast I'd be backtracking the looong way up around miles of fenceline back to my car in the dark and rain. Fortunately the transect cut off the southeast corner of the pu'u unit, crossing the back side of the pu'u, and dumped me on the fenceline I needed to return to Pu'u Maka'ala NAR. From there it was a couple kilometers of smooth sailing back to the parking area, and I was all stoked to return the next morning and follow even more remote 'Ola'a fencelines.
I got back to the car with about an hour of daylight left. I did a quick exploration of the old tree fern harvesting area down a side road. The State conservation people have planted a number of rare plants along the network of abandoned skid roads, and I'll have to check back periodically to try to catch some of them flowering.
Along the way I found come clermontia parviflora flowers at their peak:
