Seabirds, Snorkeling, and Waterfalls

Well, it's been awhile since I last wrote - but things have been pretty busy! After coming out of the field from our last trip, the whole crew got dressed up and went out for "Diva Night" to the Tiki Lounge in Kihei. Even the boys got dressed up, as "male divas", of course! Brad was sportin' a fly polyester button-down shirt and brown leather pants - my inspiration was a disco ball, so I wore a dress covered with square silver sequins! Pictures will be coming soon...
We also got the chance to volunteer on a seabird banding project - near sunset, the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters fly in from the sea, where they spend their days foraging for fish. As the sun goes down, they arrive on the shore and head to their burrows (yes, this seabird has a wingspan of a couple feet and they dig underground burrows to build their nests in...cool, huh?). Because they're pretty clumsy on land, you can pretty much just walk up to them and grab them. If that doesn't work and they get away from you, the burrows aren't too hard to find. Some were fairly shallow - I reached into one just above my elbow and pulled out a bird! Others were deep, and our longest-limbed crew member (John) could not reach the birds at the bottom. Now, before anyone gets any crazy ideas about trying to catch nesting seabirds, let me warn you - they HURT!! The tips of their bills are razor sharp, and they are pretty feisty. You can prevent the biting somewhat by holding them correctly and using leather gloves (geez, I've never even worn gloves to handle hawks and owls!). I tried the gloves, and found that I couldn't hold the birds quite as well with them on - so I didn't wear any (as it turns out, the rest of our crew didn't wear gloves either). As a result, those birds shredded my hands! I think everyone walked away in the same condition - but man, what cool birds! It was totally worth it, and I would definitely do it again. :-)
Brad and I also did some surveys (hands-off this time) on the island of Lana'i, which is part of Maui County. We spent three days there - not much forested land, but we had a great time! Much slower paced and smaller than Maui, more of what I consider to be real "island life". But it's probably a little boring if you live there all the time! We spent the evenings listening and counting another species of seabird, the endangered Hawaiian Petrel. They make this crazy noise, "ooooo-ah-ooooo", so you can count the calls pretty easily. We also got to look through night vision goggles to see the birds flying around us, as well as through a thermal imaging camera. Lots of fun electronic toys!
Let's see...other fun stuff...we went snorkeling to a little spot called the Aquarium, which was amazing! So many incredibly colorful fish! I took some pictures with a disposable waterproof camera, and they're being developed right now, so I'll post a few next time. We also went on a waterfall hike yesterday. We had to hike through a bamboo forest and cross the stream a few times just to reach the first waterfall (about 10 feet tall, not very big). But, if you continue upstream, as we did, you come to a second, larger set of falls. Then, if you climb a 12 foot rock wall and boulder hop upstream, there is a third waterfall. And finally, when you reach the end of the trail, if you swim about 100 feet upstream through a large pool, you come around the bend to see the fourth (and biggest!) waterfall. Quite the Hawaiian adventure! There wasn't much water pumping over the falls, due to the recent lack of rainfall, but it was still gorgeous and the pools were awesome to swim in! Again, pictures coming soon...
Speaking of pictures, I've posted some new ones from our hike to the Olivine Pools, which I wrote about in the last post, and also some surfing photos. Don't forget to look at the bottom of the page, there are a few bigger ones down there. Hope y'all enjoy 'em!
We head back out to Hanawi on Thursday - hard to believe we only have two trips left, then we're off to Lake Tahoe! Tomorrow we plan to spend the day surfing and soaking up the sun at the beach...ahhhh. Then it'll be parrotbill time once again! Take care, till next time. :-)