I just returned from the bird survey in the Kona unit of Hakalau Forest NWR. It was a very enlightening experience in many ways. I got to talk at length with a number of biologists, some of which have extensive experience here, and learned a lot. I was flagging and trail cutting, since this forest is still a bit beyond my bird counting skills in terms of distance estimation and keeping track of the dozens of birds ('apapane) at each station. It was sweaty muddy work, and we stepped in hundreds of cow pies. This is the first forest I've visited in central Kona, although it in many ways resembles the Nature Conservancy's Kona Hema preserve several miles to the South.
The Kona unit of Hakalau Forest NWR was formerly part of McCandless Ranch, and is known to some as the area where the last wild population of 'alala (Hawaiian crow) once lived, and where the ill-fated reintroduction attempt took place. Unfortunately this means that like much of Kona the forest has been ranched, logged and abused for decades, and is in terrible shape. Clidemia and christmas berry are also taking over the lower end of the refuge. I was told that the forest has even degraded a lot since it was first acquired for the refuge because there hasn't been any budget for staff to monitor it, remove feral cattle and pigs (and horses and donkeys and goats and sheep and cats...etc...), or begin any restoration. The NWR was already facing cuts long before the economy went sour. By some miracle they've started to bulldoze fencelines, so hopefully there will be some progress in coming years.
Kona is where the first large bird extinctions and extirpations occured on the island of Hawai'i. Visiting the refuge helps to understand why. The elevation gradient is much greater than on the windward side, so there is less habitat at any elevation, and the lower and upper elevations are much closer. Early ranching and agriculture quickly degraded or replaced Kona's forests, and alien and feral animals are abundant. You could say it's a zoo. The Kona parcel was acquired for the refuge because of its population of several endangered birds - 'alala, 'io, 'akepa, hawai'i creeper and 'akiapola'au. Unfortunately the 'alala no longer live in the wild, and 'akiapola'au have recently disappeared from Kona. 'Oma'o were extirpated from Kona long ago. 'Akepa and Hawai'i Creeper numbers have dropped dramatically, and they may be extirpated from Kona soon. Ranching is still a major industry in Kona's upper elevations.
On the plant side, the forest understory is almost entirely lost to cattle browsing, and is being invaded by primarily clidemia. This must be causing massive devastation to the insect and snail populations. A number of clermontia hang on as epiphytes in the trees, and there is still some canopy and large tree variety left. The one bright spot is that some scattered lava tube skylights have become tiny refuges for understory plants, out of reach of pigs and cattle. This morning we passed a skylight that was filled with cyrtandra, cyanea and other understory plants that have been entirely lost from the rest of the forest. The cyanea may have been Kona's highly endangered cyanea marksii. There are plans to build a small fenced unit within the refuge to start outplanting the displaced understory plants raised from seed gathered within the refuge. If the endangered birds don't last much longer the rare plants may become the primary focus of the refuge.
On the first day of the survey I was flagging the mid-elevation (3500-4500 feet?) section of one of the transects. It was open mud and grass under a fairly solid tree and tree fern canopy. We encountered numerous pigs and cattle. Unfortunately for us the cattle here don't fear people. We had staring matches with young bulls, considering which trees to climb if charged, before each finally waltzed off. We also encountered cows with calves. The first ignored us, but the second cow moved toward us to try to drive us away and we had to climb into a tree until she also decided to move on. The counters on the upper level of the transects only counted a handful of 'akepa and Hawai'i creeper for the day.
On the second day I cut and flagged a lower transect while the counter followed. The lower elevations have thick tangles of 'uluhe and clidemia through which the cattle have carved numerous trails. There are a lot of 'uluhe-loving Japanese bush warblers in these areas. One Hawai'i creeper may have been counted in the middle transects on the second day.
'Apapane were by far the most abundant bird. I'iwi were fairly abundant in the upper half of the refuge. 'Amakihi are much less common than at Kona Hema, and diminish at lower elevations. 'Elepaio were scarce since there isn't much understory. There were a few 'io around. Tiny numbers of 'akepa and Hawai'i creeper as noted above. Japanese white-eye were the most common alien, but not as common as in the windward forests. Red-billed leiothrix were here and there. Japanese bush-warblers infest the lower half of the preserve, where they live near thick 'uluhe and clidemia snarls. There were very small numbers of northern cardinal, saffron finch and yellow-fronted canary. Kalij pheasant, wild turkey and Erckel's francolin were also scarce.
I did pretty well with my hammock. I was very comfortable at night and my down underquilt stayed dry during the rains on Tuesday. I did have some trouble finding the right configuration of trees in the pastures for hanging the hammock, and had to use a corner fencepost as one of my anchors. That left me vulnerable to any pig or cow that happened to walk along the fenceline, but none came into the camp.
Much fun was had by all, though the all-too-short visit was overshadowed by the continued deterioration of nature in Kona. No nature photos, since the work was intense during daylight hours.
The Kona unit of Hakalau Forest NWR was formerly part of McCandless Ranch, and is known to some as the area where the last wild population of 'alala (Hawaiian crow) once lived, and where the ill-fated reintroduction attempt took place. Unfortunately this means that like much of Kona the forest has been ranched, logged and abused for decades, and is in terrible shape. Clidemia and christmas berry are also taking over the lower end of the refuge. I was told that the forest has even degraded a lot since it was first acquired for the refuge because there hasn't been any budget for staff to monitor it, remove feral cattle and pigs (and horses and donkeys and goats and sheep and cats...etc...), or begin any restoration. The NWR was already facing cuts long before the economy went sour. By some miracle they've started to bulldoze fencelines, so hopefully there will be some progress in coming years.
Kona is where the first large bird extinctions and extirpations occured on the island of Hawai'i. Visiting the refuge helps to understand why. The elevation gradient is much greater than on the windward side, so there is less habitat at any elevation, and the lower and upper elevations are much closer. Early ranching and agriculture quickly degraded or replaced Kona's forests, and alien and feral animals are abundant. You could say it's a zoo. The Kona parcel was acquired for the refuge because of its population of several endangered birds - 'alala, 'io, 'akepa, hawai'i creeper and 'akiapola'au. Unfortunately the 'alala no longer live in the wild, and 'akiapola'au have recently disappeared from Kona. 'Oma'o were extirpated from Kona long ago. 'Akepa and Hawai'i Creeper numbers have dropped dramatically, and they may be extirpated from Kona soon. Ranching is still a major industry in Kona's upper elevations.
On the plant side, the forest understory is almost entirely lost to cattle browsing, and is being invaded by primarily clidemia. This must be causing massive devastation to the insect and snail populations. A number of clermontia hang on as epiphytes in the trees, and there is still some canopy and large tree variety left. The one bright spot is that some scattered lava tube skylights have become tiny refuges for understory plants, out of reach of pigs and cattle. This morning we passed a skylight that was filled with cyrtandra, cyanea and other understory plants that have been entirely lost from the rest of the forest. The cyanea may have been Kona's highly endangered cyanea marksii. There are plans to build a small fenced unit within the refuge to start outplanting the displaced understory plants raised from seed gathered within the refuge. If the endangered birds don't last much longer the rare plants may become the primary focus of the refuge.
On the first day of the survey I was flagging the mid-elevation (3500-4500 feet?) section of one of the transects. It was open mud and grass under a fairly solid tree and tree fern canopy. We encountered numerous pigs and cattle. Unfortunately for us the cattle here don't fear people. We had staring matches with young bulls, considering which trees to climb if charged, before each finally waltzed off. We also encountered cows with calves. The first ignored us, but the second cow moved toward us to try to drive us away and we had to climb into a tree until she also decided to move on. The counters on the upper level of the transects only counted a handful of 'akepa and Hawai'i creeper for the day.
On the second day I cut and flagged a lower transect while the counter followed. The lower elevations have thick tangles of 'uluhe and clidemia through which the cattle have carved numerous trails. There are a lot of 'uluhe-loving Japanese bush warblers in these areas. One Hawai'i creeper may have been counted in the middle transects on the second day.
'Apapane were by far the most abundant bird. I'iwi were fairly abundant in the upper half of the refuge. 'Amakihi are much less common than at Kona Hema, and diminish at lower elevations. 'Elepaio were scarce since there isn't much understory. There were a few 'io around. Tiny numbers of 'akepa and Hawai'i creeper as noted above. Japanese white-eye were the most common alien, but not as common as in the windward forests. Red-billed leiothrix were here and there. Japanese bush-warblers infest the lower half of the preserve, where they live near thick 'uluhe and clidemia snarls. There were very small numbers of northern cardinal, saffron finch and yellow-fronted canary. Kalij pheasant, wild turkey and Erckel's francolin were also scarce.
I did pretty well with my hammock. I was very comfortable at night and my down underquilt stayed dry during the rains on Tuesday. I did have some trouble finding the right configuration of trees in the pastures for hanging the hammock, and had to use a corner fencepost as one of my anchors. That left me vulnerable to any pig or cow that happened to walk along the fenceline, but none came into the camp.
Much fun was had by all, though the all-too-short visit was overshadowed by the continued deterioration of nature in Kona. No nature photos, since the work was intense during daylight hours.
