Tuesday through Thursday I participated in the annual Kilauea-Keauhou-Kulani bird survey. (Hopefully this yearly survey will grow to include other adjacent K's such as Kahuku, K'au, Kapapala and the Kipuka Mosaic in the future!) The weather was nearly ideal for bird surveys, though it was nearly to windy to count on Thursday. I won't be able to finish this entry tonight, but will add to it later.

Tuesday was the calibration day. We met at Keauhou Ranch above Volcano Village, organized and went up to the mauka crossfence for exersizes. At the mauka crossfence (near the old IBA site) we walked around hoping to hear some of the endangered birds. There were a few (3+) 'akiapola'au, but no 'akepa or creepers that day. We did some distance estimation exersizes/calibration. There was some lunching and chatting and we went back down in the mid-afternoon. Afterwards I went to the Pu'u Maka'ala NAR Wright Road Unit behind Volcano Village to do a few bird counts in the rainforest and check a mint vine for flowers.

Wednesday was the first day of the survey. I counted the lower 11 stations of transect 292 in the Kilauea Forest, which are the points plotted at the upper right of the attached map. The initial counts at the upper edge of the forest were difficult, with a huge canopy above full of too many 'apapane to keep track of. The lower stations weren't as difficult. I counted 2 endangered birds Wednesday - an unseen 'akiapola'au and an 'akepa that helpfully visited the station so we could get a good look at her bright orange-gold bib. I also thought I heard one more of each at previous stations, but not distinctly enough to confirm them. The density of birds is a bit lower than I usually encounter in the Powerline Road area on the Saddle. This was not my first visit to this area. Last year I did nearby lower transect 293, and I had visited the place where we started transect 292 during December's Christmas Bird Count. This was the first time I was able to go deep into this specific part of the Kilauea Forest behind Kulani Cone. It's not a particularly diverse (flora-wise) forest, and very similar to transect 293 and the fencelines I've walked previously. After the count it was raining on the windward side of Volcano Village, so I just went back to Hilo to sleep before another pre-4AM wake-up.

Thursday I surveyed a very different habitat. I counted the upper 9 stations of transect 301 in the former pastures of Keauhou Ranch. It was around freezing when we started, with gusty winds. We had to wait a half hour at the first station for dawn to begin, and then waited a bit more past sunrise to see if the wind would die down a bit - quite cold all the while. It remained gusty all day, but not quite bad enough to prevent the survey. It was difficult to hold a pen in my stiff cold fingers to write the data for the first few stations, but fortunately the deep pasture grass was relatively dry so we weren't miserable. (walking the pastures after a wet night often gets one soaked with cold dew) The upper end of the transect was primarily koa and scattered small stature 'ohi'a. As we moved East along the transect the trees became progressively larger and more 'ohi'a than koa. By the last station many of the huge 'ohi'a were covered in bloom, and the 'apapane were very numerous in the canopy. The only endangered bird I encoutered in the pastures Thursday was an 'io, which flew low over the station during the count. At the first station I had wild turkey and Japanese bush warbler, but the counts quickly settled into the most common upper elevation birds with few exceptions - 'apapane, 'amakihi, i'iwi, 'oma'o, 'elepaio, white-eye and leiothrix. In the afternoon I returned to the rainforest behind Volcano Village, and shortly explored a new part of the 'Ola'a Rainforest unit of the national park.

The attached map shows the locations where we surveyed, and the different habitats in the area. The East side is the Kilauea Forest, which is intact tall native forest. The blocked-out upper middle area is part of Keauhou Ranch where koa was logged, and this was subsequently reforested with young koa which are not very tall yet. The lower area with scattered trees was Keauhou Ranch cattle pasture, which is slowly being reforested. At the North and West edges are lava flows and scrub forests. At the upper right corner is Kulani, and the road through the forest leads to the summit of Kulani Cone, which is the bright white spot. Pu'u La'la'au is the nearby oval of dense trees in the middle of one of the pastures. Lower transect 292 is shown in the upper right, and upper transect 301 at the lower left. The waypoint in the middle is the fenceline intersection where we did calibration exersizes, and the annual Christmas Bird Count area. This area is the upper edge of the windward forests, where the trees used to grow to their greatest stature and tree diversity was once high. Kulani and the Kilauea Forest harbors one of the concentrations of endangered species on the island, including endangered birds. If reforestation continues the former ranch will become an important native species habitat as it recovers over the next 100-200 years. I also attached the satellite image I posted for the Christmas Bird Count entry, which shows a wider view of Keauhou Ranch and Kulani.