2/16/09 - Pu'u Maka'ala NAR, Army Road (1 Viewer)

Due to a kitchen disaster that kept me up all night I got a very late start on Sunday. Wouldn't you know it but Sunday finally had wonderful Powerline Road weather, and I wasn't able to make use of it. Nope, I had to settle for a quick trip to Pu'u Maka'ala NAR. I decided to hunt a new area for ferns, and stick close to the road. I was particularly interested in finding new filmy ferns. There were just a few distinct species - I'll need to try a wetter area I guess. The area I covered had a nice diversity of plants and few weeds. There were a few uncommon plants such as pala, 'aiea, 'akia and 'anini. I pulled or cut a few dozen strawberry guava which were present in small pockets. There were consistently about 7 'apapane, 3 Japanese white-eye, 2 'oma'o and an occasional 'elepaio. There was one kalij pheasant and one northern cardinal. The weather was wonderful - dry, cool and shady. I collected a number of nice fern and plant photos. My feet also got a good rest after the pounding I gave them scrambling all over Mauna Kea on Saturday.