End of the Season

I did warn you that I might not update this thing until after my 17-day work week. It just also happened to include my 6 days at home as well! So, big things: the Kilauea volcano was erupting!! For a solid couple of weeks the level in the lava lake rose a couple hundred feet and overflowed into the Halemaumau Crater (the lava lake is a little spot in the crater, and the crater is a little spot in the Kilauea caldera). For the first few months we could only ever see smoke rising from the lava lake because it was just too low. But after it rose, you could clearly see lava being all bubbly and wibbly wobbly on the surface. I saw it during the day a few days before I was able to see it at night, but that was even more spectacular – you could see the orange cracks in the surface that weren’t as visible during the day, and the bubbling was even more obvious. It was awesome. And before we knew it, it was gone! Eventually the lava level dropped by a couple hundred feet and it was no longer visible. The only evidence was the dark areas of overflow on the crater floor (it increased the lava lake rim height by like 20 feet!). But I am SO glad that I got to see the lava! That was the one big thing I wanted to see while out here, and it worked out so well! This was the highest the lava lake has been in 7 years, so it was pretty good timing.

A couple of good bird updates – on one of my last re-sighting days I got to watch a family of Akiapola’au foraging in the trees. I think I mentioned before that they tap holes in the trees with their straight lower mandible and fish things out with their upper mandible, so I first realized they were around when I heard a super low tapping sound coming from nearby. When I finally found them, I saw that there were three! Two of them were banded (the male and the baby), and the female was unbanded. I watched them for a solid half hour, and got a decent video of one of them foraging (we’ll see if it works on here).

The other cool bird thing is that another Nene chick recently hatched, so we get to see this cute little fluff ball walking by our cabin most days. When it was really young it was ADORABLE because its feet were too big for it and it would basically trip on grass. Sometimes the adults would also accidentally step on it, which was also adorable (and unfortunate), but it was mostly fluff so no harm done. Maybe. The bigger problem will be avoiding predators while it's still so young and vulnerable. This has been an excellent year for Nene chicks (we banded 5 earlier in the season), so hopefully this little guy makes it, too.

In our second to last week our entire crew did a volunteer day for the refuge where we helped Steve (refuge biologist) plant some endangered plants in a protected area (so the pigs don’t immediately kill them). I should say that MOST of the plants were endangered… there was one species (Phyllostegia brevidens) that was extinct! That plant (a native mint) was thought to be extinct for decades, and at some point someone was studying plants on Mauna Kea and took a sample of one individual without knowing what it was. It was some time before someone from our refuge looked at the sample and realized it was that “extinct” species, but when he did, he went out to try and collect. Unfortunately, that individual was dying as well, and the only seeds on it were molding, but the guy collected them and did some horticultural magic on them and was able to propagate over 1000 individuals that people (like us) have been replanting over the years. Unfortunately they are all genetically identical since they came from a single plant, but it’s something. According to Steve, P. brevidens is still officially listed as extinct, so we can say we planted an extinct species! No pressure or anything…

After that long week I got an event-filled weekend at home – I bought a new laptop (perfect timing as my old one basically stopped working this morning before heading to the airport), I saw The Book of Mormon in San Francisco (hilarious), went to a Giants game (they lost, but hanging out with friends/family was fun), and did a paint-and-sip thing where a woman walked us step-by-step through a painting of a hummingbird feeding on a flower. There were also mimosas, which helped marginally with the nerves. I also had lots of cuddling and playtime with my niece and my dog, so it was a great weekend.

Now I’m sitting in Kona waiting to get picked up after the guys finish work. (Most shuttle drivers probably aren't expect you to tell them you want to be dropped off at the intersection by a Starbucks and a Safeway upon arriving in Hawaii.) I’m heading straight into the field for an undetermined amount of time, so who knows when I’ll update this again. I DOUBT it will be anything super long, but at least through the weekend. We don’t have a set schedule at the moment, but instead we’re just rotating around to follow up on the last nests of the season. Meanwhile there are a bunch of summer interns moving in to our house in Volcanoes, so hopefully my bed is obviously claimed. But it will be fun to meet a new set of people!