Hawai'i Wildlife Center

This morning I spent a few hours volunteering at the Hawai'i Wildlife Center (HWC). I told Alexis to put me where help was needed the most; so I got started with laundry duty. One of the things about volunteering is that there are a lot of things that need to get done for any organization to function properly; most of them are not glamorous. In wildlife rehabilitation, rarely will you be working solely with charismatic megafauna; there's a lot more poop that needs to be cleaned up than there are warm fuzzy moments with the animals. And in fact, you want to minimize the warm fuzzy moments so the animals do not become habituated to humans since that could be fatal for them. I did get to help feed the Masked Booby and Nene; and I watched as Alexis took the Red-Tailed Tropicbird out to the pool to swim. I also cleaned up the mats the Nene pooped on, but laundry was one of the things that needed to get done the most today, so that's what I did.

Before.

After.

Meet Big Bertha, one of the dryers at HWC,

L to R: Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster), Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra). 

This Nene (Branta sandvicensis) has trouble standing so is supported by a sling.

Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) diving in to the pool.

I also got to meet Patrick and his buddy Walden who has been with him for 15 years. Patrick calls me up every so often to see if I am available to transport a bird; I've talked or texted with him so much I felt like I had already met him. I forgot to take a photo of Patrick & Walden; hopefully I can get one the next time I am here. I was more focused on the idiosyncrasies of being in a situation where there could be cross-species pathogens or parasites. (We had a short exchange of "war stories" about these later in the day when my departure was delayed by the removal of a tree that came down across the access road to the HWC.)



This is what my morning view looks like from my bed. It was sunny this morning. In the very early morning the trees have a rosy glow.


Kai & I took down the chochin and had lunch at the church with the fujinkai ladies. We also said our good byes to the Ohtas and the others who were helping to clean up after Obon. One day I will be able to spend more time and help with both preparations and clean-up for Obon; in the meanwhile I will only be able to make monetary donations to help out.

Totoro was also visiting the church.

We dropped in to visit with Uncle Kazu. I had texted Curtis earlier to coordinate a time so that he was with Dad and I was with Uncle Kazu so they could talk on the phone with each other. While we waited for Dad to be awake and in a good mood, Kai and I sat with Uncle Kazu and watched "The More the Merrier"; which had a weird plot line that we had a hard time understanding. But I guess that's what was popular in 1943. Uncle Kazu & Dad had a lively conversation; it seemed to cheer the both of them up.


On our way in to the hospital, we saw 2 signs that were specifically put up for Uncle Kazu! He does several laps around the parking lot after breakfast and after lunch.



After we left the hospital Kai decided we needed to get ice cream at King's View to celebrate National Ice Cream Day. He got he ube again; I tried the Kona Mud Pie since they were now out of chocolate.

We discovered there is a guava tree just on the other side of the fence in the vicinity of my bedroom window. We found out because I saw 2 guavas lying in the driveway and were wondering where they came from since the only trees I knew about prior to this morning's discovery were along the back property line. I have heard wild pigs in Jessie's yard every night; I think one night they were coming after the guavas near the fence.


Here's one of my favorite books at the house, Kohala Kuamo'o: Nae'ole 's Race to Save a King. It explains about the names of the communities in Kohala and also tells about how the people of Kohala helped keep the infant Kamehameha safe.

I packed a bunch of salted limes to mail to Tomiko tomorrow morning. I did not pick any limes on this trip; I will have to do so on the next trip since I am running out of salted limes.

Twenty limes fit well in the small flat rate Priority Mail box.

I do not have a real lamp in my room, so I use this solar lantern to provide light in the evening after I turn the large overhead light off.

This solar lantern could stay on for more than 8 hours.

Happy Birthday to Karon, Pembo, & Paula!