Seabird Pick-up & Release

Just before lunch Sam texted to see if I could help the O'ahu Seabird Aid Program by picking up a bird in Waianae. I left right after I fed Dad; I told him I should only be gone for about 2 & 1/2 hours. As it turned out Google Maps couldn't figure out exactly where to go on Kaukamana Road to find Kaleb, the young boy who rescued the wedge-tailed shearwater. Here's a screen shot of what you get when you do a Google Search; all the red highlighted portions below are Kaukamana Road. And there is also a Kaukamana Street, it connects the section of Kulaaupuni between the 2 red-highlighted portions of Kaukamana Road to Farrington Highway. And that little piece of Kaukamana Road that is south of the stream, you have to go all the way around on Mailiilii road to Paakea Road to get to it. I called Kaleb several times, he is about 12 and wasn't able to tell me how to get to his house. So I kept circling around; I asked 3 people on different parts of Kaukamana but none of them knew where his address was. Finally I stopped at the school, the custodian told me that the addresses are based on the lot numbers, which explains why the numbers weren't consecutive and even & odd house numbers were on both sides of the street! She thought Kaleb's address was on the dead end part of Kaukamana.

As I was heading in the direction pointed out by the custodian, Kaleb called me. I told him I started from the school and was heading towards the hillside (north), towards the dead end part. He tried to describe where he was but I didn't see anything he mentioned. So I told him I was seeing a bunch of yellow-painted concrete blocks; he told me to stop because I was at his house. It turns out the yellow blocks were across from his house; it took me over an hour to find Kaleb's house! He came out, hopped on his bike, & led me in the pouring rain to his aunty's house a couple blocks away where the bird was at!

Kaleb, leading me to Aunty Cammie's house to pick up the shearwater.

I should have taken a photo of Kaleb & his Aunty Cammie & the shearwater but it was raining too hard. So I just have photos of the bird in the car. It was very active, turning around in the carrier 10 or 11 times and trying to find a way out.

Ardenna pacifica.

This part of Farrington Highway is notorious for bad traffic; I was stuck in traffic jams going both ways!

Traffic on Farrington Highway on the way to pick up the bird.

Traffic on Farrington Highway on the way back from picking up the bird.

I have not been out in this part of the island in about 40 years. While in college I worked on a research project where we dove outside of Pokai Bay about 5 days a week. So much has changed! Hawaiian Electric's Kahe Point power plant was there, but there was no Kapolei or Kalaeloa or Ko Olina when we were driving out here then. And the traffic was manageable, too. (We used to dive at Kahe Point on our days off from diving on the project.)

Straight ahead is the Kahe Point power plant, to the right is the Ko Olina Resort.

I called Sam on the way back to find out where to take the bird. Because it had taken me so long to find Kaleb's house, and because the traffic was so bad, the zoo would be closed by the time I returned, so she had me take the bird back to the house. I told her it seemed like there was nothing wrong with it but wanted her to check it out. She said if it was all right she would release it tonight instead of keeping it overnight. All total it took me 4 hours to retrieve the shearwater; Dad was still sleeping when I returned.

I turns out the bird, now being called Kaleb, was alright except for having some bruises on his feet. Which is amazing; Kaleb (the boy) said that Kaleb (the bird) got hit 3 times by cars before he could rescue him. I will call Kaleb (the boy) tomorrow to let him know that Kaleb (the bird) was fine & was released tonight.

Sam taking a photo of Kaleb by the light of Kasondra's phone.

Kaleb resting on the sand before he flew away in to the night.

Happy Birthday to Jackie, Karen, Sue, Maru, & Catie!