Ray's Thought for the Day - The Ecologically Inert

Whut's it good fer?, the ignorant squeak. Well, consider the lowly lemon horse mint, Monarda citriodora. It's common as dirt, almost, reputedly chases off fleas, and provides a foraging substrate for tons of insects. Now consider a cultivar Hibiscus that happens to habitate at the CB. It does not repel fleas, reputedly, and provides a substrate por nada. Oh. Once a dragonfly landed on one of its dead branches. So that Hibiscus is relatively, ecologically inert compared to the lively lemon horse mint. (I suspect that many of the plants on the big island are relatively, ecologically inert, especially the hoards of cultivars).

On the other hand, the whole time we were on the big island, we espied not a single law enforcement officer except at the airport. That's right, not one police person of any sort, anywhere. How about that! Yet generally, all the motorists observed the traffic laws. Ha! Compare and contrast to the Republic of Tejas. Yep. It sure was nice to visit the good old US for awhile.

Now here’s Crumby, my bosom companion with commentary on the birds easily espied on the big island, Hawaii.

All righty then. Thank ye. But first Ray, before I get to the birds, a Potential Safety Topic -Environmental Hazard - Multitasking. In these latter days of civilization as we know it, the most advanced humans need to do several activities simultaneously in order to make progress. This, do all, comes under the general moniker, multitasking. Yet, despite all that, tobacco products and snorkeling do not multitask. So remember to get rid of yer snuff or Red Man before ye snorkle off into the blue Pacific. Ye won’t be sorry.

Hold it. I need to mention another Potential Safety Topic - Environmental Hazard - No Map. Never go anywhere off yer property without a good map. The University of Hawaii Press, for example, puts out an excellent map of the big island. So get a good map before you leave yer property or rental space.

There I was snorkeling along, free of the Demon Snuff, when all of a sudden, up ahead, appeared a turtle of monstrous size. Whoa! Are these turtles dangerous? Will this turtle pee on me if I annoy it. Noper. Not dangerous and so far as I am aware it did not pee on me. But I may have peed on it. Yep. I may have peed in the same ocean I was snorkeling along in.

Back on terra firma, the big island features a great many birds gathered from all over the world. Some of these are ubiquitous and easy to espy, like the Mynah bird. Only the naturally unobservant could miss espying a Mynah bird on the big island. Positioned upon my little garden area porch surrounded by a flower bed, then a lawn, then a jogging track, then a golf course, I espied many Mynah birds. Obviously, Mynah birds are accomplished generalists, exploiting whatever, amicably.

What roils this Mynah bird paradise? Apparently, the kitty cat and the mongoose. Mynah birds keep close track of these mammals and fuss at them when fussing is required, like when a mongoose dashes out of the Pennisetum, that some spell Peniseatum, dominated rough onto the green. That mongoose gets a good fussing.

Sharing the golf course environs with the Mynah birds and the naturally unobservant, overfed humans busily burning off energy on the golf course and the jogging track are lots of littler birds. Easy to espy ones are Northern Cardinal, Yellow-billed Cardinal, House Finch, House Sparrow, Nutmeg Mannikin, Japanese White-Eye, Spotted Dove, Zebra dove, Rock Dove, Gray Frankolin, Java Sparrow, African Silverbill, and Saffron Finch. These birds are possibly even easier to espy on their continents of origin. Yet there they all are, assembled together, watching out for the mongooses and kitty cats.

This zebra dove is thinking about eating some Chamaesyce seeds if any are to be found. This flower bed has lots of Euphorbs. The doves. consequently, patrol it regularly.



On the west end of the big island, apparently, only the irrigated prosper. Think, Big Lake, if you have ever been to Big Lake, in the Republic of Tejas. The grass is burnt yellow or just burnt and the tree is a Prosopsis, plus Acacias taking advantage of the relatively high moisture adjacent to the paved roads. Yet even here many birds must thrive. However, many are not easy to espy from the busy roadways. Plus, those birds with any sense are hanging around the irrigated spots, the baby boomer playgrounds and hotels.

A little higher up though, 3000' - 4000', the grasslands get more moisture. There are big trees in lots of spots, like the goofy Ironwood and Eucalyptus spp. Also, there is less busy driving and lots of places to pull over. There are even dirt roads where you don’t have to pull over. Get ready for the gallinaceous. Whoa! Stop the car. There’s a dang turkey. The easily espied are Short-Eared Owl, Hawaiian Hawk, Black Francolin, Erckel’s Frankolin, California Quail, Wild Turkey, Ring-Necked Pheasant, Chestnut-Bellied Sandgrouse and Sky Lark.

Charging on up in elevation, the west slope of Mauna Kea is supposed to be where the Palila is easy to espy. Er. But only in the spring. One Palila was easy to espy, maybe, maybe. But at the time of espy-ization, somebody had forgot to know what a Palila looks like. However, Amakihis were very easy to espy. Lots of Amikihis, House Finch, Northern Cardinal and Japanese White-Eye. Then too, the Elepaio was eventually espied, but not easily.

The west slope of Mauna Kea is spelled forest. But it is actually more shrubby. Where are the bcvs? Yep, the Mamane and the Naio are more shrubs than trees in those parts.

Detouring back down the mountain and heading down, down to the north coast, there is plenty of moisture. In those parts are fields full of guinea grass (Panicum maximum). The guinea grass gets so tall that the cows are hard to espy. Often, only their ears may be espied. In some places, where the cows have munched off the guinea grass, or there is bermudagrass instead, the Cattle Egret is easy to espy.

Mixed in with the guinea grass are tree farms and confusing lowland forests in the gullies. These lowland gully forests are very confusing. The bird espied, but not easily, in the lowland confusing gully forest is the Melodious Laughing Thrush, sometimes referenced as the Merciless Laughing Thrush.

Out in the blue Pacific in these parts, where there is lava sticking up out of the ocean, at Laupahoehoe Point County Park, the Black Noddy is fairly easy to espy. They sit on the lava rocks when they are not dashing over the waves.

Roaring along throught the middle of the big island, from west to east, between the two big mountains, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, the moisture perks up to the east and so do the plants. But first, there is a goofy stock tank where Nenes are easy to espy. Looks like they could use some rain.

Off east from the Nene stock tank, is the Ohi’a plus Koa dominated upland woodlands and forests. These are generally broken up by the various lava flows. The different ones that survived the lava flows are woodlots, known locally as kipukas. Easily espied birds in these various kipukas are Apapane, Amakihi and I’iwi, not so easily. There are also plenty of House Finches. Most of these House Finches are yellow, not red. Then there are plenty of Kalij Pheasants. Why these are common, running around in the understory, beats me. They are actually underfoot. Yikes! They look like too much like chicken and probably taste like chicken, to be so common.

Uh oh. Looks like Hawaii DOT is going to 4-lane through these parts. Mercy! Lava makes good road base.

Here we go. Down into the goofy gully forests again with intimate human habitat all adjacent plus crops and tree forests on the east coast. Then heading back west up to Kilhauea Crater, we are shocked to espy a White-Tailed Tropic Bird flying over a kipuka, locally known as the Bird Park. That prepared us though for even more White-Tailed Tropic Birds in the crater itself . Shocking! What the heck do they eat? At this kipuka, Bird Park, we espied maybe a hundred Apapanes. We also espied Yellow-Fronted Canarys, maybe. However, we were not anticipating those canaries, again, because somebody forgot to know what they look like.

All righty then. That’s about it for all the easy to espy birds of the big island. By the way, Mynah birds, Japanese White-Eyes and House Finches are easy to espy, everywhere.

Now, if any CB Druids visit the beautiful big island a second time, or if we move the CB to those parts, we shall know what to look out for birdwise, and espy some of those that were not easy to espy this time. Praise the Goddess!