Lost Kolea

The Kolea (Pluvialis fulva, Pacific Golden Plover) is lost or kinda confused or perhaps it is a young bird (although it has the breeding colors of an adult male). It showed up at Maunalani Park again today. It flew in, then flew out; I just barely got a photo of it this time. I'll have to keep watching for it and see if it stays through out the summer.

I've got 5 other photos that look like the one I took on May 8th.

Curtis needed to be in town early this morning, so we went to breakfast at Zippy's Kahala really early. We actually sort of opened up the sit-down eating section; the sign said it opened up at 6 a.m., we were seated at 5:57. Curtis had the Chili Moco, I had the Zippy's Chili Omelette.

We got seated before they officially opened.

Chili Moco. (Photo by Curtis)

Chili Omelet with wheat toast.

Since I was up so early, I got a lot done this morning before I needed to head up to Maunalani to relieve Curtis. The biggest task was reconciling all of Dad's accounts, I had been rather lax during the period he was bouncing around between the ER and Kaiser Moanalua and Maunalani. Fortunately Mom had put a lot of things on auto-pay, and I have been doing it for long enough I knew which things I needed to look for in the incoming mail to pay individually, so everything is fine. I also mailed off birthday presents to Mary Ellen (already 2 weeks late!) and Robert (whose birthday is tomorrow so when he receives it, it will be late). I also spent some time coordinating my flight and Kai's flight to Wisconsin & Michigan. It looks like I will be in transit for about 12 hours to get to Green Bay! Whatever, being able to spend time with Vivian, Margaret, & Jess is worth every minute of it! As an added bonus, we'll also be able to spend some time with Robert!

While running around doing errands I also saw a hover of helicopters flying in formation. Not sure what that was about. I have also on occasion seen a bunch of helicopters flying by from Maunalani.

I am surprised at how good a shot I was able to get with my phone.

A major thing I noticed today is how much hotter it is in Kaimuki town where I was running errands, than it is up at Maunalani. It felt like there was at least a 10 degree difference at around 2 pm when I went up. I wonder if they can grow strawberries there? My plants are struggling in the heat down in the lowlands. I have read that when they grow them on the slopes of Haleakala they start at the lower elevations at the colder time of the year and steadily plant beds at higher elevations as the year warms up.

Happy Birthday to Gary!