Birdwatching the Alakai Swamp

Ever since I lived in South Africa, I have had an interest in birds.   Today, we went on a beautiful and exciting birding walk in the high Alakai Swamp area of Kauai, led by a local bird photographer and expert, Jim Denny.

The birds we hoped to see were the famous forest passerines, endemic to the island.   Jim is the author of a number of books on Hawaiian birds, his most recent being A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawaii (2010).  As he writes in the introduction:

Serious birders often include Hawai'i in their list of "must-go" places because these Islands are home to a wonderful assortment of brids, some of which can be seen nowhere else.  .... The most sought-after species, of course, are Hawaii'is endemic forest birds."

 These forest birds are sought after indeed.  They require seeking, most existing only at high altitudes where invasive species have yet to destroy native forests and invading species such as feral pigs and mosquitoes have yet to decimate bird populations.

The Alakai Swamp is the last outpost for many of Kauai's endemic forest birds so we met up with Jim at the Koke'e Museum parking lot at 8am for a walk in the woods.  We were very lucky with the weather - pale clouds misted the high peak Waialeale - the wettest place on earth - but lower down on the old caldera the forests were sunny and green.  Despite the sun, signs of wetness were abundant:  ferns and moss, mud dried footprints, slippery planks, dense green slopes plunging into valleys wreathed with moss and damp.

At first we didn't see many birds but learned from Jim about local plants and some of their uses.  Further into the swamp the vegetation changed and there were increasing numbers of Ohia trees with red flowers reminiscent of banksias.

Ohia trees against the far forest canopy

We followed the boardwalk to the intersection with the Pihea trail and the path to the lookout down to Hanalei Bay.  Instead of following that route, we retraced the path to the left towards Koke'e and saw an abundance of endemic birds:

Endemic
Kaua'i Elepaio
'Anianiau
Kaua'i Amakihi
'Apapane
'I'iwi
Akeke'e  (Endangered)

I'iwi by Jim Denny

Introduced:
Japanese white-eye
Hwamei - Melodious Laughingthrush
White-rumped Shama
Red Junglefowl
Erckels Francolin
White-tailed tropic-bird

The most brilliant and exciting bird was undoubtably the I'iwi but the Akeke'e was probably the rarest.  Before I sleep, let me leave you with some pictures from the walk.  On the walk home we passed many other hikers with binoculars who had hoped to see and identify some of the birds we had found with Jim's help.  I would highly recommend him for a walk like this, without his keen eye and experience in the area we would have not had half the 'luck' we enjoyed today.

Natasha, Shannon and Mum off the Pihea Trail

Me, with the introduced and invasive ginger

First snack, second snack, Snickers... they all blur when you're outdoors
(Natasha, Jim and I on the trail)

The moss and ferns abound

Mum, happy to be seeing birds

The Wild Things

I grew up in Durban, South Africa, and was one of those kids who have a series of hobbies which consume them. One of these obsessions was bird watching. Durban has a very rich birdlife and once I set up a bird table in the tree outside my bedroom and stocked it with seed and bone meal I had an exciting range of birds to watch. I still recall the day I saw burchell's coucal on my bird table and there were always weavers and barbets as well as the ubiquitous indian mynahs which nested in the park nearby. Over the years my family took over the birdwatching habit and even now, whenever Mum and Dad visit me we end up bird watching and sharing binoculars. Even Wren knows that when you see a bird you shout "give me the binoculars!"

So it was utterly utterly frustrating to arrive at Cape Disappointment on Friday night and find the sea filled - from horizon to horizon - with tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of birds. From horizon to horizon the birds were flocked over the ocean, diving and flying past.

A small section of the huge mixed flock on 7/31/09

Words cannot really convey what it was like. Photo's don't either. There was just SO MANY BIRDS out over the sea. They were constantly moving, weaving, plunging, some swaying in formation - long lines of 50 pelicans and 100 cormorants rising and falling in gentle parabolas. Flocks were out beyond the break diving and splashing into the sea while others were passing by like the flock of 70 pelicans I saw flying so close to the surface that I could see each bird reflected in the water beneath it. Further still, the horizon blurred with the sea and the small fishing fleet gathered in the fog marked the reach of the sea.

The beach was awash with feathers

On the beach the lines of yellow scum at the waterline were matted with small brown feathers. Ropes of kelp occasionally dragged dead birds - cormorant, small dark feathered things. Birds, birds, birds but no binoculars! Later, we stopped at the interpretive center and I asked their bird experts about what I had seen. Neither had seen the huge flocks I described but said that they had many schools of "bait fish" at this time of year - sardines, anchovies and another I could not catch the name of - and the birds follow the fish. This certainly conforms with my observations of the birds and you may see some of that if you enlarge the photo. They also mentioned that the fall migration begins in July for many species and it could be the beginning of this movement as the larger flocks gathered.

Wren learned the word "maggot" from a dead baby seal being consumed near the tide-line. "Want to see the magnets again!" he kept repeating. "See the magnets again." His new vocabulary saw more use at the dead whale.

Walking towards the bluff at the North end of the inlet, we found the tail of a whale, long dead. It had skin on it and smelt of rot from downwind. Some distance off, I saw bones protruding from the sand and dug about in sand to excavate a large vertebra (I had thought they were ribs). Liz, who is a naturopath and studied anatomy, was interested to understand the skeleton which was hard with so much buried.

I later googled whale beaching in the area and suspect it was the carcass of an immature Gray Whale which came to shore some months ago and was probably buried by the Parks Service to avoid a health hazard as it decomposed. The body was broken and parts may have been swept away. There was very little flesh remaining considering how large the whale must have been.

Wren was impressed by all the carnage on the shore and kept saying "saw a DEAD WHALE" and "see DEAD WHALE AGAIN?"