Hawaiian Living

Breakfast with a movie and Hawaiian mimosa

Aloha! Well I’ve been here for a little over a week, so it’s about time I updated you on life in Hawaii. I’ll start with my flight over – while checking in, I saw that I had the option to upgrade to first class for $100. Normally I wouldn’t even consider it, but this was supposed to be a 5.5 hour flight, so I splurged! It was one of my best decisions. First of all, I was going to have to pay to check a bag, and first class comes with 2 free checked bags, so it really only cost me $75. Second, I got as many free things as I could to offset the cost (hot towel, an Irish coffee, 4 Hawaiian mimosas, 4 mai tais, a fruit plate with a hot pastry, a cheese blintz with scrambled eggs and chicken apple sausages, and 2 free movies). Third, there was a ton of extra space! That was especially nice considering we had a 100mph headwind which added 30 minutes to our flight (and probably an extra drink). I’d say I got my money’s worth.

Halema'uma'u crater

Anyways, one of the project assistants picked me and another technician up from the airport, took us grocery shopping, and then dropped us off at our weekend house in Volcanoes National Park. It was dark by the time we finally got there, so I didn’t see the surrounding area until the next day (Saturday). The other three technicians (Matt, Alex, and Gabby) and I went on what was supposed to be a short hike, but turned into an 11-mile / 9-hour adventure. It was fun, though! We walked along the crater rim past some steam vents up to the Jaggar Museum and got a closer view of the Halema'uma'u crater in the Kilauea caldera. From there we walked along the main highway and up to the Kipukapuaulu trail, which is a nice bird-viewing area. On our way back we stopped to see some tree molds, which are areas where the lava flow encased trees and cooled against them. The trees burn up from the lava and what remains is a mold of the tree in cooled lava! To top the day off, I went out after dark to the caldera rim to see the “orange glow” of lava from the crater – it was amazing! It was probably the best night out of any of the nights people have gone to see it. I went out last night and it was super dim. I guess you need the right combination of clouds and volcanic emissions to get a good glow.

Tree mold, with a new tree growing into it

The "orange glow"

Walking across the Kilauea Iki Crater

While we were sleeping three more technicians showed up (Caitlin, Ben, and Liza), so we met them in the morning. That day (Sunday) we all went and hiked the Kilauea Iki trail, which takes you down into the crater lava lake! It was a really awesome trail because we got to see various other people walking across it while we descended into the crater, we walked across a huge expanse of the lava lake, and then got to see it as we ascended on the other side. It was really awesome. The trail came out at the Thurston Lava Tube, so we went to check that out next. Lava tubes are formed when a lava flow cools on the surface but continues to flow underneath, forming the external crust of a tube. It was pretty cool! So another short hike turned into probably a 7-mile trek. That afternoon the last two technicians showed up (Rachelle and Willow; the tenth technician – George – lives in Hilo and doesn’t stay with us on the weekends, but yes, that means there were nine of us living in a house with only 6 beds and one bathroom).

The start of our trek across the crater

What hiking with birders is like...

Entrance to the Thurston Lava Tube

Our first couple of days of work were just office days here in Volcanoes NP, but on Wednesday we finally headed up to our field station in Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge! From Volcanoes it’s about a 45 minute drive to Hilo (where we get gas and groceries), and then it’s 1.5 hours to the field station, about half of which is on a 4WD dirt road. We stopped at a farmer’s market in Hilo and got a bunch of fresh fruits, veggies, snacks, and stuff – pineapple is soooo juicy and sweet! Our field station isn’t quite what I expected (there are a lot of grasses in the understory), but it’s still beautiful – there are patches of pristine forest habitat and patches of regenerated forests (new habitat for the endangered forest birds we’re studying). The field housing is nice, too – there is a huge kitchen with lots of counter space, a dining area, 4 bedrooms with 2 beds each, a bunkroom with 4 bunk beds, and three bathrooms with 2 showers. Unfortunately one of the pilot lights doesn’t like staying lit, so only one shower had hot water, and on our last day before the weekend the other pilot light went out and didn’t want to be re-lit, so we had no hot water. Hopefully we can fix that when we go back tomorrow. The other downside was that one of the girls in the bunkroom was sick with a cold, and now 3 of us (myself included) seem to have caught it. I guess that’s to be expected when you’re living and working in such close quarters, but it’s still a pain.

Thursday was our first full day in the field, and it was just to test out some of the mist nets that we use to catch birds for banding (there was a big wind storm about a month ago that knocked down a bunch of the set-ups, so this week we’ll still be working on repairing them). Everyone went out for that, including the nest searchers. It was a little chaotic as a result, but it was awesome getting to finally see some of these birds in the hand! We caught I’iwi, Hawai'i 'Amakihi, Apapane, Oma’o, Hawai’I Creeper, Hawai’I ‘Elepaio, and red-billed leiothrix. They were all super cool birds, and I plan to get more pictures as the season goes on.

Hawai'i Amakihi - my first bird banded here!

Petroglyphs on lava

Friday was a day for the nest searchers’ training, so we banders took the backseat for that and also started repairing some of the net set-ups. We all worked on the repairs on Saturday morning, and then headed back down to Volcanoes for a short weekend. Today a subset of us headed down to the coast (finally!) to see the sea arch, which is an arch formed by a combination of lava and the crashing waves. We drove over some pretty extensive lava flows and got to check out some petroglyphs! It was a nice, laid-back morning of exploring. The afternoon has mostly been spent on our computers, enjoying the wifi (oh yeah, we don’t have wifi at the field station in Hakalau; there is a cell booster which sometimes works, but there are a couple of very specific spots around the house where I can get one bar of reception and 4G, so I just need to stand in one of those places to get messages – basically don’t expect quick responses from me).

Tomorrow we’re getting a private tour of a rehabilitation center where the last Hawaiian crows are (they only exist in captivity), along with a few other endangered species. Then we head back up to Hakalau for the week, but the banders and half of the nest searchers will be back down for next weekend (we’ll start our 10-day rotations after that). All in all, Hawaii is a pretty amazing place and I cannot believe I’m lucky enough to work here for 4 months! I look forward to sharing lots of stories and pictures as the work progresses!