Friday morning I helped with bird counts in Keauhou Ranch, as part of the Kulani-Keauhou bird survey. The wind is now out of the South, so the summit caldera plume was blowing across Volcano Village, and Keauhou Ranch was cloudy with sprinkles most of the morning. The windward side became the leeward side and vice versa. The recent transects are in the lower end of the ranch, and the variety of birds was fairly low. There was just one 'io Friday, and a yellow-fronted canary (my nemesis) appeared at one station to taunt me. The common birds were a bit quiet due to the dark overcast and intermittent sprinkles.
Afterwards I went to the wet forest to find some dry air in this funky weather. Partly cloudy skies over Stainback turned to thick fog soon enough, but there wasn't any rain and the afternoon was quite pleasant. I stopped at Road R on Stainback Highway to go down a trail that has a variety of interesting rare plants and which I thought might yield some interesting ferns. Unfortunately I discovered that a new pig had moved in on the far end of the trail, where it drops into weedy mud pits, and that yet another of the rare sub-adult 'aku was eaten in the last year!!! That's another 'aku that never got the chance to flower and make more 'aku.
The pig squealed in the distance, mocking me. I worked out my frustrations on the weeds, pulling dozens of strawberry guava, a few Japanese anemone, cutting and uprooting various passiflora vines, and also taking out a baby angiopteris evecta (big-ass alien fern).
Road R was loud, with a fair number of 'apapane and 'oma'o. Quite a contrast from the quiet summer months. There was one 'elepaio, but I didn't hear the i'iwi that was nearby last weekend. Not too many aliens - the sparse Japanese white-eye were joined by a couple northern cardinals and house finches. I ran across just one kalij pheasant. I shooed away one mosquito. I departed at sunset, with just a few more fern photos in my camera but lots of mud on me from weed pulling.
Afterwards I went to the wet forest to find some dry air in this funky weather. Partly cloudy skies over Stainback turned to thick fog soon enough, but there wasn't any rain and the afternoon was quite pleasant. I stopped at Road R on Stainback Highway to go down a trail that has a variety of interesting rare plants and which I thought might yield some interesting ferns. Unfortunately I discovered that a new pig had moved in on the far end of the trail, where it drops into weedy mud pits, and that yet another of the rare sub-adult 'aku was eaten in the last year!!! That's another 'aku that never got the chance to flower and make more 'aku.
The pig squealed in the distance, mocking me. I worked out my frustrations on the weeds, pulling dozens of strawberry guava, a few Japanese anemone, cutting and uprooting various passiflora vines, and also taking out a baby angiopteris evecta (big-ass alien fern). Road R was loud, with a fair number of 'apapane and 'oma'o. Quite a contrast from the quiet summer months. There was one 'elepaio, but I didn't hear the i'iwi that was nearby last weekend. Not too many aliens - the sparse Japanese white-eye were joined by a couple northern cardinals and house finches. I ran across just one kalij pheasant. I shooed away one mosquito. I departed at sunset, with just a few more fern photos in my camera but lots of mud on me from weed pulling.
