My Summer Vacation: Kapahulu Tree Inventory

This morning I helped with my 1st tree inventory! We mainly did the trees in Crane Park but also along a short portion of Kapahulu Avenue; this is just a small portion of the area to be inventoried. I got to the meeting site 1st, followed by Cindy & her husband Joe. Cindy is a retired horticulture instructor & will be sending me some information on good references to learn about local trees. The lead Citizen Forester for the Kapahulu inventory is Francisco, he showed up next. Then cousins Zoe & Anna arrived & we got started. Later Lizzie & her friend Olivia joined us with Olivia's toddler daughter Elsa. At this time inventory groups are limited to 10 people due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The map I was sent.

The actual route; I walked a little over a mile today.

The 1st trees we did were along Kapahulu Avenue, almost all of them were Fiddlewoods (Citharexylem spinosum). Truthfully, I have never noticed these trees along this section of Kapahulu before. They are rather unassuming & I learned a new tree species today.

Tree is outgrowing available space; concrete blocks need to be removed.

The canopy is showing some die back.

This trunk has large galls from insect damage.

In the park there were several Benjamin Figs aka Weeping Figs (Ficus benjamin) providing shade for the basketball courts; you might have one growing as a house plant. The 1st one we collected data on also had a Manu-o-Kū (Gygis alba) nest site; the juvenile & both parents were flying around & through the trees.

Closer to the park structures the main trees were Silver Trumpets (Tabebuia aurea); in case you were wondering, the undersides of the leaves are silvery & the yellow flowers are trumpet-shaped. The bark is very craggy with vertical fissures as well as horizontal ones that look like someone started to take a chainsaw to the trunk then stopped, several times, all around the trunk. This is another new species for me.

There was also a Cook Pine (Auracaria columnaris), which looked to me like a Norfolk Island Pine (Auracaria heterophuylla). It is great having Cindy there so I can pick her brain! She said Cook Pines, which are named after Captain Cook, will lean towards the south. (Apparently in the southern hemisphere where they are native, they lean to the north. More correctly, they lean towards the equator.) She also pointed out the difference in bark (rougher & more scaly-looking), "needles" (more of them), & spacing of branch whorls (closer together) than the Norfolk Island Pine. Cindy also said most of what we see here are Norfolk Island Pines. Neither of them are true pines.

L to R: Joe, Cindy, Anna, Francisco (mainly behind tree), Zoe, & Olivia.

That's Olivia to the right of the trunk.

Around the edges of the grassy playing field were several very large Monkeypods (Albizia saman). Anna & I noticed that the playing field side of the trees showed more stress in the leaves than on the other side of the tree which did not have the same intensity of activity over the roots on that side.

On the other side of the fence, behind an apartment building, we noticed a tree with fruit on it; from a distance it looked like a mango tree. But closer you could see that the fruit had a pointy tip & the old, dried fruit that was still on the tree had a very large roundish seed, not a laterally flattened one like you find in a mango. I am wondering if it might have been an Egg Fruit Tree (Pouteria campechiana)?

As we wrapped up the inventory, Francisco told us about some upcoming events. Next week is a tree inventory near the Zoo end of Kapahulu. In November there are 2 events, one will be assessing potential locations for new trees in the area between 13th & 16th Avenues. The other is a tree adoption event on Arbor Day; I found an email about that when I was checking my email this afternoon.

I rushed home because Ikuna was supposed to come by with his crew to trim our mango tree; originally it was for 11 a.m. But he had called me earlier when I was on my way to do the tree inventory; there was a lot of noise since I was driving & I could not hear him well. I could understand he wanted to come earlier because his morning client had canceled, I declined; I thought we then agreed he would come at 12 instead of 11 because he was going to a different client's house. But it was now after 1 p.m. & they still had not shown up; I started to text him & he showed up! It took them about 2 hours to trim the tree & grind up the branches. Here are the "before" photos.

Looking Ewa from westerly edge of driveway.

Looking makai from mauka side of street.

Looking easterly from Ewa side of street.

Looking along phone line entering house.

The trimming looks rather extreme, but it was necessary because there are power lines that run through & above the mango tree. Technically, no part of the tree should be within 10 feet of the power lines; but that would mean removing the entire tree. I just had them clear out the parts that were touching the line or very close to touching it. We also needed to get branches away from the roof so the rats could not use the tree to get in to the house. Here are the "after" photos.

Looking Ewa from westerly edge of driveway.

Looking makai from mauka side of street.

Looking easterly from Ewa side of street.

Looking along phone line entering house; line on right is for power.

After they left I walked around to review what was going on with the trees. The mango & pomelo are too close to each other. And the bay leaf & guava are growing right under the mango. I texted The Roommates asking which they preferred: Mango or Pomelo? The consensus is mango. Now I am thinking of having Ikuna remove 2 branches on the makai side of the pomelo to give the mango more room to spread out. We shall see.

The only cat I could find while Ikuna & his crew were here was Keala; she was lying on the family room couch trying to get a nap. I could not find Luna or S'mores; they were hiding really well. Once they left & it quieted down Luna popped out of her hiding place & was very friendly. I never did see S'mores until it was her dinner time.

Keala was also the only cat I saw before I left for the tree inventory. She was out in the cat run, sitting on the support over the gate, checking things out.

For lunch I had leftover Korean style chicken again, along with some curried cauliflower & Kalamata olives.

For dinner I had leftover BBQ ribs, salad, & curried cauliflower.

Late last night, just before I went to bed, I saw S'mores playing with something in the kitchen. Upon closer inspection I saw that it was a newly hatched house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus). At first she was just batting it around, but later she looked like she was eating something & there was nothing on the floor when I walked by later. It was her midnight snack!

Checking out the baby gecko.

It is now a little flatter.

She licked it but didn't eat it. About 10 minutes late I could not find it.

Kīlauea is still erupting; lava is still coming from one vent on the west side. The depth of the lava lake is now 3 feet deeper than yesterday; overall it is about 151 feet deep since the eruption first started about 3 weeks ago.

The Aix weather app forecast early morning drizzle becoming partly cloudy skies for the remainder of the day for Honolulu; there was no drizzle in the morning but the rest was accurate. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast drizzle in the morning becoming partly until rain later in the evening; Big Island Now forecast mostly sunny becoming partly sunny with only a 20% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station recorded no precipitation for the day. For Marysville, Aix forecast rain or lots of rain throughout the day; things looked damp on the traffic cam in midmorning but I the night photo did not appear to show any precipitation.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 6:35 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 6:35 a.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 6:35 a.m. HST.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 8:09 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 4:13 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 4:13 p.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 4:13 p.m. HST.

Canada-France-Hawaiʻi Telescope looking northwesterly at 4:22 p.m.

The surf on north facing shores started out moderate then increased by the end of the day. The south facing shores had steady small waves today. East & west facing shores were similar.

Laniakea (N) at 6:36 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 6:41 a.m.

Banyans (W) at 6:31 a.m.

Laniakea (N) at 4:31 p.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 4:16 p.m.; it's back!

Waikīkī (S) at 4:17 p.m.

Banyans (W) at 4:17 p.m.

There were 139 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases to 82,730; this number is also more in line with what the usual day's numbers are running. There were no new deaths so the number of fatalities remains at 876; currently there are 1936 cases considered active. As of yesterday there were 2,121,327 doses of vaccine administered, providing 70.4% of the population with full vaccination and 78.8% with at least 1 dose. There are 81 patients in the hospital with 23 in the ICU & 20 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average on Oʻahu was 68 with a positivity rate of 1.6%.