Aloha for the birds
They had mowed the field in front of our condo near Kapaa, Kauai, causing huge disruptions in the routine followed daily by the voracious egrets. At the same time, the mowing resulted in the revealing of many wondrous devourables so relished by those same feral birds.
With huge amusement I watched an egret that had happened upon a special prize -- one of those hideous, vicious, nightmarish Hawaiian centipedes that are to ours of the same species as a Honda Civic is to a Mack truck, the Hawaiian version being the Mack.
The egret would throw the hapless centipede into the air, catch it, attempt to devour it, think better of it (the little bastards pack a brutal bite), chomp on it for a time, attempt to scarf it again, and so on, with numerous repeats of the same procedure. In all, the process must have lasted 10 minutes before the creature was finally consumed.
Egrets are feral birds on Hawaii, introduced a few decades ago to clean fields of assorted destructive insects. They have taken to the place with the sort of enthusiasm to be found in the pharmacist from Milwaukee or any other less-than-salubrious spot. They like it there. Why wouldn't they? The climate's swell, the pickings are good, and there are no known predators.
Tourists come to Hawaii and marvel at the avian life there. One is invariably awakened by birdsong, and what could be more pleasing?
Beaches and meadows are cluttered with clacking Mynahs. The lovable little zebra doves are bold enough to walk straight inside a condo if the slider to the lanai is left open. And there are cardinals, Japanese Whiteyes, meadowlarks, sparrows, thrushes, and more and more and more. And not one of the aforementioned birds is anything but a haole. They are all outsiders. They are all feral.
The only glimpse the average tourist gets of a 'real' Hawaiian bird, in most cases, is by casting an eye skyward where a glimpse might be had of the magnificent albatross or a soaring frigate bird. But even those pelagic creatures are not truly Hawaiian, they are high seas creatures to be found throughout tropical seas worldwide.
Hawaiian birds, those elusive, endangered creatures are only to be found in the high forests. Hawaiian birds, with their unique tails and curved beaks, the exotic honeycreepers are are never to be found around the garishness and noise of Waikiki, but far inland, where there remaining numbers are moderately (just moderately, mind) safe.
Hawaiian birds, adapted in Darwinian fashion to their environment over millennium after millennium are so rare that in all my travels there (a dozen or more times) and treks into the high country of Kauai (the best island for birds), I am yet to see more than a fluttering of wings in the trees, nothing ever close enough to be identified.
Hawaiian birds, with more vowels to their names than can be grasped by most Mainlanders -- there are two species with no consonants whatsoever (the Ou, and the Ooaa) -- are representatives of what can happen in the larger world if we take the example of what has happened in a microcosm.
A dreadful pity it is. The magnificent and utterly unique birds of Hawaii fell to a surfeit of landclearing, chicken diseases, mongooses (mongeese?), cats, dogs, pigs, 'outlander' birds, and mainly people.
Go to Hawaii, fall in love with it all, be enchanted by the birdsong, and be aware that none of your feathered friends are any more Hawaiian than you are. If you want to real thing, get lots of mosquito repellent, some goods boots, and hike miles into the sodden Alakai Swamp on Kauai, and you might just get lucky. If you are, it won't be better than sex (nothing is), but it will still be very, very good.
With huge amusement I watched an egret that had happened upon a special prize -- one of those hideous, vicious, nightmarish Hawaiian centipedes that are to ours of the same species as a Honda Civic is to a Mack truck, the Hawaiian version being the Mack.
The egret would throw the hapless centipede into the air, catch it, attempt to devour it, think better of it (the little bastards pack a brutal bite), chomp on it for a time, attempt to scarf it again, and so on, with numerous repeats of the same procedure. In all, the process must have lasted 10 minutes before the creature was finally consumed.
Egrets are feral birds on Hawaii, introduced a few decades ago to clean fields of assorted destructive insects. They have taken to the place with the sort of enthusiasm to be found in the pharmacist from Milwaukee or any other less-than-salubrious spot. They like it there. Why wouldn't they? The climate's swell, the pickings are good, and there are no known predators.
Tourists come to Hawaii and marvel at the avian life there. One is invariably awakened by birdsong, and what could be more pleasing?
Beaches and meadows are cluttered with clacking Mynahs. The lovable little zebra doves are bold enough to walk straight inside a condo if the slider to the lanai is left open. And there are cardinals, Japanese Whiteyes, meadowlarks, sparrows, thrushes, and more and more and more. And not one of the aforementioned birds is anything but a haole. They are all outsiders. They are all feral.
The only glimpse the average tourist gets of a 'real' Hawaiian bird, in most cases, is by casting an eye skyward where a glimpse might be had of the magnificent albatross or a soaring frigate bird. But even those pelagic creatures are not truly Hawaiian, they are high seas creatures to be found throughout tropical seas worldwide.
Hawaiian birds, those elusive, endangered creatures are only to be found in the high forests. Hawaiian birds, with their unique tails and curved beaks, the exotic honeycreepers are are never to be found around the garishness and noise of Waikiki, but far inland, where there remaining numbers are moderately (just moderately, mind) safe.
Hawaiian birds, adapted in Darwinian fashion to their environment over millennium after millennium are so rare that in all my travels there (a dozen or more times) and treks into the high country of Kauai (the best island for birds), I am yet to see more than a fluttering of wings in the trees, nothing ever close enough to be identified.
Hawaiian birds, with more vowels to their names than can be grasped by most Mainlanders -- there are two species with no consonants whatsoever (the Ou, and the Ooaa) -- are representatives of what can happen in the larger world if we take the example of what has happened in a microcosm.
A dreadful pity it is. The magnificent and utterly unique birds of Hawaii fell to a surfeit of landclearing, chicken diseases, mongooses (mongeese?), cats, dogs, pigs, 'outlander' birds, and mainly people.
Go to Hawaii, fall in love with it all, be enchanted by the birdsong, and be aware that none of your feathered friends are any more Hawaiian than you are. If you want to real thing, get lots of mosquito repellent, some goods boots, and hike miles into the sodden Alakai Swamp on Kauai, and you might just get lucky. If you are, it won't be better than sex (nothing is), but it will still be very, very good.
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