Wednesday I helped (as a secondary) with the Kulani-Keauhou bird survey. We did part of transect 293 in native wet forest, starting at the Keauhou Ranch fenceline and ending on the south face of Kulani Cone. This area should have the rare species, though we were at the lower end of where they're expected, at only about 4700 feet elevation. When I visited in December with the 'christmas bird count' thing there were numerous 'akiapola'au in the koa plantations on the other side of the fenceline, and one creeper was also spotted.
The weather was calm and nearly clear in the morning, in a break with the rare thunderstorms we've been having for several days. We didn't detect any endangered birds on the transect, and I think the next transect up got just one 'akepa. After doing the survey I'm a little puzzled by why they don't count the area for multiple days, or quarterly. We only took three hours to do ours, and the coverage of the habitat is pretty thin. I didn't feel like we were really getting a good tab on the bird population from just one quick slog through the stations, and it's certainly difficult to put a population estimate on endangered birds with such a quick and sparse sampling. I thought these counts were going to take a month or more, but it sounds like they're getting them all done this week. I was hoping to go out on a few more transects, but we'll see...
In the afternoon I tried to go to Pu'u Maka'ala NAR to retrieve my lens cap from Wright Road trail, but it was raining too heavily to make it worth the effort. I went back to kipuka puaulu on the dry side of Kilauea to try to do SOMETHING with the afternoon, but suddenly the thunderstorms were back overhead. I gave up and went back to Hilo to nap on the couch after the exhausting morning.
Here's a link for the big transect map on the windward side of the island:
Windward Transect Map
I checked my eBird summary for 2008, since to become a primary on the big bird surveys they want me to have a certain number of ticks of endangered birds as a secondary first. (after Wednesday I have zero, not counting palila) I had the following native bird totals during my private/recreational 8 minute counts in 2008, not including official bird survey counts which I can't enter into eBird:
Checklists 900
Species 34 (native + invasive)
Birds 11952 (native + invasive)
'Apapane 4545
'Amakihi 1940
I'iwi 851
'Oma'o 1033
'Elepaio 478
Palila 17
'Akiapola'au 41
Hawai'i Creeper 16 (mostly the same reliable bird)
'Akepa 21
'Io 33
Pueo 2
Kolea 3
Nene 0
Koloa 0
The weather was calm and nearly clear in the morning, in a break with the rare thunderstorms we've been having for several days. We didn't detect any endangered birds on the transect, and I think the next transect up got just one 'akepa. After doing the survey I'm a little puzzled by why they don't count the area for multiple days, or quarterly. We only took three hours to do ours, and the coverage of the habitat is pretty thin. I didn't feel like we were really getting a good tab on the bird population from just one quick slog through the stations, and it's certainly difficult to put a population estimate on endangered birds with such a quick and sparse sampling. I thought these counts were going to take a month or more, but it sounds like they're getting them all done this week. I was hoping to go out on a few more transects, but we'll see...
In the afternoon I tried to go to Pu'u Maka'ala NAR to retrieve my lens cap from Wright Road trail, but it was raining too heavily to make it worth the effort. I went back to kipuka puaulu on the dry side of Kilauea to try to do SOMETHING with the afternoon, but suddenly the thunderstorms were back overhead. I gave up and went back to Hilo to nap on the couch after the exhausting morning.
Here's a link for the big transect map on the windward side of the island:
Windward Transect Map
I checked my eBird summary for 2008, since to become a primary on the big bird surveys they want me to have a certain number of ticks of endangered birds as a secondary first. (after Wednesday I have zero, not counting palila) I had the following native bird totals during my private/recreational 8 minute counts in 2008, not including official bird survey counts which I can't enter into eBird:
Checklists 900
Species 34 (native + invasive)
Birds 11952 (native + invasive)
'Apapane 4545
'Amakihi 1940
I'iwi 851
'Oma'o 1033
'Elepaio 478
Palila 17
'Akiapola'au 41
Hawai'i Creeper 16 (mostly the same reliable bird)
'Akepa 21
'Io 33
Pueo 2
Kolea 3
Nene 0
Koloa 0
