Booby Finger Puppets

Before I arrived, I had gotten an email from Hawaiʻi Wildlife Center with pdfs of finger puppets of 3 species of boobies and the Manu-o-Kū. I had good intentions of printing them to have for Kaia but never got around to it. While I was visiting HWC last Tuesday, Rae printed them for me; she even cut out the Manu-o-Kū! Today Kaia decided that is what she wanted to do. Kaia chose the Red-Footed Booby (Sula sula) to start with; as its name implies, it has bright red feet. Kaia was in love with it and had to show Sarah and Leah when we met up with them for lunch.

Red-Footed Booby meets Mommy.

Red-Footed Booby meets Leah.

Red-Footed Booby meets Rainbow Boots Mouse.

Sarah & Leah were up early to do an early morning hike in to Pololū Valley so they could avoid the large crowds and horrible parking situation later in the day. I was too optimistic when I was thinking that the Saffron Finch would no longer be singing under my window because the heliconias are gone; it did this morning. I took advantage of the wake up call to see if Sarah & Leah needed anything for their hike.

Birdrise 36 minutes before sunrise.

Looking easterly 23 minutes before sunrise.

Kaia woke up about an hour after they left. The 1st thing she wanted to do was feed Wiley! And Wiley was waiting there for her at about 6:45 in the morning, which is a lot earlier than I have fed the cats before! Kaia has learned to do a slow blink whenever Wiley looks in her direction to signal that she is friendly.

Kaia sees that Wiley is here.

Kaia comes back in the house after leaving Wiley's food out.

She quietly watches Wiley come to eat.

Whenever Wiley looks at her she does a slow blink.

A happy Kaia!

I had made a list for Kaia of, "Fun Things to Do". But before we could do them this morning, there were a couple things I needed to do, so I made another list of "Things Aunty Has to Do Before Having Fun with Kaia!" She helped me cross items off the list; she also helped me by keeping a hold of the list so it wouldn't get lost as we did our errands.

The List.

Helping with Item #3; she's reading the sign for me.

As we were starting on the finger puppet, Kaia noticed a Gold Dust Day Gecko was at the other end of the table, licking something off of the table top. We couldn't really see anything but the gecko found it! I could not tell if it was Martina or Spot but I don't think so since it was not as comfortable around us as those 2 were. (I have not figured out how to signal to a gecko that we are friendly.)

Our plan was to meet at Bamboo Restaurant for lunch before Sarah & Leah headed off to the start of their yoga retreat. But Bamboo opened half an hour later than we thought they did so Sarah texted for us to meet them at the Tropical Dreams Café across the street from Bamboo. She actually meant the Kohala Coffee Mill; she had always thought it was called Tropical Dreams because of the very large sign on the front of the building advertising the fact that they sell Tropical Dreams Ice Cream!

From the Kohala Coffee Mill website.

Sarah called just as Kaia & I were pulling out of the driveway. She ordered for us to speed things up since they needed to get their rapid COVID-19 test before the retreat started. They had originally intended to get their test on Monday after they picked up their rental car, but they spent so much time at the rental place they were unable to get to the testing station so they needed to do it today. Sarah had the Veggie Wrap, Kaia had the Caprese Sandwich, Leah had the Breakfast Panini Wrap, and I had the Chicken Pesto Panini.

Veggie Wrap.

Chicken Pesto Panini with Purple Sweet Potato Salad.

Breakfast Panini Wrap.

Kaia with her Caprese Sandwich.

As we were on our way back home after Sarah & Leah left, Kaia wanted to go to, "thank the ladies that gave us the puppets," so we headed to the Hawaiʻi Wildlife Center. She had the Red-Footed Booby puppet on her hand as we walked in to the HWC office to thank them. She was a hit with everyone! It turned out they had just given a Red-Footed Booby a bath to clean off its feathers. I will be sending them photos as we complete each of the puppets, like this photo after we finished the Masked Booby puppet.

Masked Booby & Red-Footed Booby are dancing for Rainbow Boots Mouse.

We also fed the cats again this evening. Wiley is becoming very used to Kaia feeding her. Today Wiley's brother, the gray mackerel tabby & white cat who has now been temporarily named "Mack", came to eat in the evening, twice; he seems to be getting better about coming to eat although we can't yet look directly at him while he is eating. We also saw Meyer Kitty Lemon near the ramp but he would not come up to eat. 

Wiley is in the cat loaf position which means she feels relaxed here.

Wiley's 1st evening meal around 5 pm.

Every time Mack looked at Kaia, she did a slow blink.

He sees the slow blink & doesn't run away.

One more check to see if it's still safe; Mack begins eating after this.

This is as close as Meyer Kitty Lemon would come to the food bowl.

At 6:45 pm we saw Wiley taking a nap in Jessie's yard.

Mack strolls in to eat during the 2nd evening meal around 7 pm.

Mack was more relaxed during this meal.

It's a good thing Sarah has her own rental car and stayed overnight at Leah's hotel tonight. Their 1st day ended about 9:30 in the evening and they have to be back at 7:30 tomorrow morning! She & Leah ended up not being able to get their COVID-19 test before the retreat started; there was a fatal accident on the Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway, apparently just before we started out lunch, that caused the road to be closed & they had to detour around that section of highway while the police investigation was being conducted. They got to the venue just in time for the start of their retreat!

The lava lake at Kīlauea seems to be getting smaller. At least the heat signature is smaller than it has been before. At this rate, I'm not sure how long it will take to get to where it can be seen from the overlook, if ever.

There were 64 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 33,329. There were no new deaths reported so the death toll remains at 488; currently there are 1222 cases considered active. The 7-day average of new cases on Oʻahu is 61 with a 2.0% positivity rate.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Esther & Alan!