January in Volcano Hawaii

 

Christmas Birds (Cheap Entertainment)

Our house in the forest - Mauna Loa in the background

It's been winter here in Volcano on the Big Island and at 3500 feet elevation 'this' Hawaii differs greatly from most peoples' impression of white sand beaches along the ocean. Here we are surrounded by a true "cloud forest;" it has been drizzling for a few days. But just as we were wishing for SUN we woke up to blue skies and fluffy clouds breezing by.

This time of year is good for bird watching - one form of "cheep" forest entertainment. We have a wider variety of birds at this time of year: beautifully bright red Cardinals, eye-popping Saffron finches, South American Cardinals wearing their tuxedos, tiny speckled seed-eating Manniqins. This time of year the trees are filled with the invisible song of the honey creepers - Apapane' whose lovely songs you can hear but are not easy to spot***. Year round we have hawks, but our favorite "locals" are the Kalij pheasants.

It seems it is mating season for most of them, so even the traditional female Cardinals have a bright look to their feathers as do the Saffron Finches, but it is the Kalij who are fun to watch. Here's a couple photos of Kalij in our front yard taken last winter.


Today, three males hopped over the driveway gate and tactfully followed a lone female inside the yard, while one other paced frustrated outside the gate the others had just flown over. He paced back and forth at the gate sticking his head underneath rather than flying over. During the yard-courtship he paced back and forth and 15 minutes later finally flew over to join the party, during which one of the largest males offered a wonderful display of feather fluffing and flapping of wings. She never "engaged" and finally wandered off, followed closely by by the four unsatisfied but patient males.

Here's a link to the calls they make (click on link) -- especially when there is a cat patrolling the bird feeders. Male Kalij calls --- and the sweet song of the Apapane:  Apapane' Song

Hawk Visitation

The Hawaiian Hawk is called 'Io -- the only hawk that is native to Hawaii.  The fossil records show that at one time these raptors also lived on other islands, but only live on the big island at this time.   They love the native Ohia trees which grow prolifically in our area.

This appears to be a different hawk than the one that visited us about this same time last month.  There is protected forest land near here -- across from the geo-thermal plant, so our subdivision is in their range.

Phil just completed a painting (see below)
featuring the light hawk who came for lunch in April, and now he is inspired to do another painting of this one.

On our first visit to Hawaii a few years ago, one of the things we purchased was a painting by a local artist of a baby 'Io under the moon.

Birds of a Feather

There are many kinds of birds who live in and around our property, and they sing throughout the day, but especially in the morning and evenings.  We have a pair of Laughing Melodious Thrush (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdlAMlOn4u4) who offer a huge variety of songs and who, like our Mynas can also sing variations on other birds' songs.  Mynas are a hoot to watch and we have a mated pair who are building a nest at the west side of our house.

We have a pair or Cardinals (this is the male) who sings several songs (different songs in morning and evenings).  The small Japanese White Eyes are little greenish birds who flit around quickly moving in small groups from tree to tree singing sweet little songs.  There are a couple different kinds of doves -- small and large with their coo-cooing.  A number of different "honey creepers" are regular visitors too.

One spectacular surprise a few days ago, was the arrival of a hawk (Io) who landed in the large Ohia tree just outside of our kitchen.  We spotted him while we were washing up the morning dishes, and dropped everything and each grabbed our respective binoculars (kept on a hook by the dining room table.)

This large predator was only about 20 feet away, and we had front row tickets!  He swiveled his head around for 5 minutes, just taking it all in (reading the menu actually.)  Then Mr. and Mrs. Myna started dive-bombing him trying to scare him away -- because their nest is so close.  We managed during the antics to get out the tripod and, balancing one leg in the sink, we managed to take several photos.  When he made a giant swoop down to make a kill, his wings fanned out to full width as he attempted to protect his catch.

After his morning snack, smug as you can imagine, he returned up to the very same branch -- maybe waiting for dessert.

Finally, though, with a powerful s-w-o-o-p of his enormous wings, he "lifted off" and Phil managed to get this amazing shot.  The hawks here come in a couple varieties, dark and light -- this one is a light variety.

Perhaps as a thank you for such a good meal, he left a lovely long feather in the Ohia which Phil rescued before one of the Myna's could carry it off for their nest.