 |
| L to R: Instigators Eric & Keith opening the Manu o Ku Festival. |
Besides a lot of information booths & 3 presentations, there was also a Manu o Ku walking tour led by Rich from Hui Manu o Ku. We saw several Manu o Ku sitting on eggs and one chick. While we were standing under the tree listening to Rich talk about the chick, an adult flew in and started feeding it! Rich also told us about one Manu o Ku that was seen nesting in 2016, that had been banded in 1981; it was still successfully breeding after 35 years! (The birds are banded as chicks since that is when they are easy to capture for the procedure.)
 |
| Rich, standing in front of a marked nesting tree. |
 |
| Manu o Ku brooding an egg. |
 |
| Manu o Ku brooding an egg. |
 |
| Chick (L) being fed fish by an adult (R). |
In Hawai'i, Manu o Ku are found only in urban Honolulu and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Apparently this is because of no rats on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and good rat control in urban Honolulu. The Manu o Ku population on O'ahu had been increasing substantially since 1961 when the 1st contemporary nest was found in the Koko Head area.
 |
| Approximate distribution of breeding pairs. |
I'm glad I was able to go; I made a lot of good contacts. And I also signed up to get information on 3 different citizen science projects. One project is to do field work with a biologist from the State of Hawaii Division of Forestry & Wildlife and record occurrences of Pueo either at Hamakua Marsh or in a Dole Plantation pineapple field; Kyle said it would be great to be paired with a volunteer that didn't need to be trained on the difference between a Pueo and a Barn Owl! Another project is to record Manu o Ku sightings with Hui Manu o Ku. The last project is volunteering at the Bishop Museum assisting Molly with their vertebrate collections.
One thing I learned about the Manu o Ku is that the Hokulea navigators use them to help find land. When the adults are feeding the chicks they carry fish in their bills back to the young, so if the navigator sees this they know which direction to go to find land; the chicks must be fed daily so land is within 120 miles or so.
As soon as the last presentation was done, I headed up to Maunalani. Dad is now on the intravenous fluids and Clindamycin for the respiratory infection which turned out to be pneumonia. The results for his flu test have not come back yet, but I do know they are keeping 3rd floor and 2nd floor residents separated because it is going around. And also asking 2nd floor visitors to wear masks as they pass through the 3rd floor on their way to the 2nd floor. Dad's temperature and blood pressure are normal, but his oxygen saturation must be low since they have him on oxygen.
The air quality was much better today since the tradewinds are back. So I did my power walk down and back from Maunalani Park. I went about an hour later since I got here a little later than I usually do since I got there later due to the Manu o Ku Festival. It was a little cooler also since the sun was further down. There were only mynahs at the park today and no dogs. And hardly any people.
No one was scheduled to cook tonight. One of The Roommates is at his parents house, in preparation for Mother's Day tomorrow. The other was at work until late. So I had leftovers for dinner.
This morning I found more shreds of skin sloughing off of my tattoo.
 |
| Shreds at the top sloughing off of my tattoo. |
Last night Chibi was chasing a large cockroach through the family room. She is now the favorite cat of The Roommate That Doesn't Like Roaches.
 |
| Chibi jumping on the cockroach. |
 |
| Chibi waiting for the roach to get up and run away again. |
 |
| Ooops! There they go! |
Last night Xander left me a present in the living room. I guess the MiraLax is working on him. I just don't know why he is not using the Cat Genie or the outside litter box. Hopefully he won't do this every night.
Happy Birthday to Darla & Victor!
 |
| Darla's birthday lunch made by Jim. (Photo by Darla) |
No comments:
Post a Comment