Another blowy, drizzly, cold morning and a disappointingly short outing. One of the coldest days I've ever experienced on the Saddle, and I never took off my jacket which is exceptional. It was dark and raining in Hilo so I skipped the rainforest and went up to the Saddle hoping to get above/beyond the clouds somewhere. It was merely spritzing when I reached the lava fields, so I stopped at Pu'u O'o Trail. Powerline Road was out of the question, and I was too lazy to go all the way to Ka'ohe GMA. The moment I opened my car door the drizzle started. Since I was all geared up I decided to count a couple of places and probably leave. The rain and wind came and went until noon, stopping every time I had decided I'd leave. Around noon there was a sudden clearing and the afternoon was occasionally grey but still cold.
My project for the day was to get as many counts in as I could. I spent the first few hours in the rain listening for the creeper that's often in the area, but again I didn't hear anything creepery. 'Apapane came and went. There were plenty of i'iwi. Both had a considerable fraction of juveniles, but juvenile i'iwi are more shy than adults and they fled my camera yet again. Numbers were fairly typical, except for a slight decrease in white-eyes. I encountered the usual 2-3 'akiapola'au in the main koa grove.
Otherwise I busied my self by looking for new ferns. I also made another futile attempt at trying to find a benchmark that has always eluded me, and followed some odd research flagging. There was a new flagged trail through one of the koa forests, which may be due to the tour company that visits here weekly. There seemed to be hunters around, some of which came quite close to me at one point in the dense forest, judging by the sound of voices. I encountered sheep a couple of times, but no pigs.
My project for the day was to get as many counts in as I could. I spent the first few hours in the rain listening for the creeper that's often in the area, but again I didn't hear anything creepery. 'Apapane came and went. There were plenty of i'iwi. Both had a considerable fraction of juveniles, but juvenile i'iwi are more shy than adults and they fled my camera yet again. Numbers were fairly typical, except for a slight decrease in white-eyes. I encountered the usual 2-3 'akiapola'au in the main koa grove.
Otherwise I busied my self by looking for new ferns. I also made another futile attempt at trying to find a benchmark that has always eluded me, and followed some odd research flagging. There was a new flagged trail through one of the koa forests, which may be due to the tour company that visits here weekly. There seemed to be hunters around, some of which came quite close to me at one point in the dense forest, judging by the sound of voices. I encountered sheep a couple of times, but no pigs.
