It's dark this morning, no moon or stars, but the roar of big surf in Hanalei bay, and the singing of crickets, so many of them, the sound merges and is constant. Every so often a different sound is amongst them, louder like a small bell being tinkled , it must be another species. They say every miniature eco system in Hawaii evolved a different species of cricket, sometimes only yards apart. The surf is louder, there'll be some happy surfers today. The sound of a cock crowing, but no responses yet.
Yesterday was sunny and the river water clear above the rocks, all the details of the aholehole were revealed, big eyes, that respond rapidly to any movement and sparkling silver sides. Their Hawaiian name means "sparkling" and the fish was used in ceremonies to keep evil away. These are half grown young ones, swimming near the river mouth, moving easily between salt water and fresh. They will spend their later years along the edge of the reef and grow up to 10 inches. Most days I throw some breadcrumbs for them, it is a joy to see every fish come and follow the one that catches it.
Two nene geese came over, one for a drink and the other preened as he guarded the nest. Nene are still on the endangered list, at one time they were down to only 30 birds left in the wild. With captive breeding programmes they have been reintroduced to islands where they had become extinct, but only on, hopefully, mongoose free Kauai have they been able to breed successfully. outside sanctuaries. they still face challenges, last month I witnessed two nests being destroyed by free range pigs, in one instance the pig had the male nene pinned to the ground, luckily only by its tail, and was mouthing his back, whilst another was eating the eggs from the nest as the female stood beside. I was moments too late. The nene drinking is their daughter from last year and she has been using the garden as a place of safety since. A fenced acre with no dogs, only the occasional feral cat. She is the only bird tolerated by the preening male on the other side.
He and his mate have already lost one nest this season, October, November, December, and this is a second and probably last attempt for the year. The eggs are very large and the female is the only one I've seen incubating, she spends so little time feeding, she must be in need of nourishment, two attempts are more than enough.
She sits under the hau bushes, her nest is a bowl shaped mound of dry leaves which she carefully covers when she leaves. Her mate has been a poor guard, often leaving for hours at a time, and even mating with the other young female. Unlike the pair before, whose mate never let his guard down.There is a picture of her on the nest but she is so well camouflaged in the exact centre.
Yesterday was sunny and the river water clear above the rocks, all the details of the aholehole were revealed, big eyes, that respond rapidly to any movement and sparkling silver sides. Their Hawaiian name means "sparkling" and the fish was used in ceremonies to keep evil away. These are half grown young ones, swimming near the river mouth, moving easily between salt water and fresh. They will spend their later years along the edge of the reef and grow up to 10 inches. Most days I throw some breadcrumbs for them, it is a joy to see every fish come and follow the one that catches it.
Two nene geese came over, one for a drink and the other preened as he guarded the nest. Nene are still on the endangered list, at one time they were down to only 30 birds left in the wild. With captive breeding programmes they have been reintroduced to islands where they had become extinct, but only on, hopefully, mongoose free Kauai have they been able to breed successfully. outside sanctuaries. they still face challenges, last month I witnessed two nests being destroyed by free range pigs, in one instance the pig had the male nene pinned to the ground, luckily only by its tail, and was mouthing his back, whilst another was eating the eggs from the nest as the female stood beside. I was moments too late. The nene drinking is their daughter from last year and she has been using the garden as a place of safety since. A fenced acre with no dogs, only the occasional feral cat. She is the only bird tolerated by the preening male on the other side.
He and his mate have already lost one nest this season, October, November, December, and this is a second and probably last attempt for the year. The eggs are very large and the female is the only one I've seen incubating, she spends so little time feeding, she must be in need of nourishment, two attempts are more than enough.
She sits under the hau bushes, her nest is a bowl shaped mound of dry leaves which she carefully covers when she leaves. Her mate has been a poor guard, often leaving for hours at a time, and even mating with the other young female. Unlike the pair before, whose mate never let his guard down.There is a picture of her on the nest but she is so well camouflaged in the exact centre.
Female nene on her nest. She's well camouflaged. Can you spot her - right in the center of this photo?
2 comments:
Very peaceful, nice to hear the familiar sounds. You found the nene nest, hope she stays safe...
wow, what an exciting rescue of the nene' nest, I hope that the rains will stop falling there, good work Bill. Great blog, I hope we get to see babies in the end...
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