Underneath the hau was mud and sodden cow poop, which oozed between my toes and flip-flops, and clouds of large biting flies seemed to rise out of the slime wherever I stepped and gathered around me. There was a scattering of fresh fallen yellow flowers. Overhead, a large family of mejiros , a small, green, nectar-eating bird introduced from Japan, chirped in unison as they followed each other from blossom to blossom.
I was trying to get a photograph, feeling the incubation may be nearly complete. There was hardly any light, and I was just about to leave, - very quickly, as the flies were feasting on me - when she stood up beside the nest, revealing four perfect white eggs. She began to cover them with a light covering of loose feathers from the side of the nest and finished with a big fresh fallen leaf. At the edge of the hau she ate a little, but there was no sign of the male. After only two or three minutes she headed back, stretching and flapping her wings in the last open space before she entered. She watched a procession of roosters climbing over fallen branches beside a patch of rushes at the edge of the river 30feet away, then she returned to the nest. Without removing the thin coverings, she lowered herself over the eggs, with her feet on the edge of the bowl. The outside of the bowl appeared to be newly covered with fallen leaves, after yesterday’s soaking.
I was trying to get a photograph, feeling the incubation may be nearly complete. There was hardly any light, and I was just about to leave, - very quickly, as the flies were feasting on me - when she stood up beside the nest, revealing four perfect white eggs. She began to cover them with a light covering of loose feathers from the side of the nest and finished with a big fresh fallen leaf. At the edge of the hau she ate a little, but there was no sign of the male. After only two or three minutes she headed back, stretching and flapping her wings in the last open space before she entered. She watched a procession of roosters climbing over fallen branches beside a patch of rushes at the edge of the river 30feet away, then she returned to the nest. Without removing the thin coverings, she lowered herself over the eggs, with her feet on the edge of the bowl. The outside of the bowl appeared to be newly covered with fallen leaves, after yesterday’s soaking.
Hanalei, Dec 14 2008: Nesting female nene leaves her nest, revealing four eggs, which she carefully covers before leaving for a short feed.
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