I Used to Hate Birds

Kauai Lagoons Golf Course is located very close to the Lehue airport which made it both the first place we birded as well as the last.  There are lots of little roads to drive around and several parking areas to get out and walk also.  Best of all there are birds everywhere.


Common Myna

Red-crested Cardinal

White-rumped Shama


Scaly-breasted Munia

We parked in a lot full of chickens and walked around one of the ponds for a bit.  Here we saw Common Gallinules with young, Hawaiian Ducks, the Hawaiian Black-necked Stilts, and Nenes.



We drove around to another area and found several Northern Mockingbirds.


And the bird that can be found in all the most ridiculous places:

Pacific Golden-Plover

Driving along the airport fence turned up Chestnut Munias.


And later some female (or young?) Red Avadavats were in tall grass along the road.

Sadly no males

A drive back around to the Marriott turned up Black-crowned Night-Herons and more stilts.



This was ridiculously easy birding and a great way to kill some t…

We had been super excited to spend one of our days in Kauai exploring Waimea Canyon and hiking the trail to Alakai Swamp, a high elevation bog on the north side of the island where several endemic honeycreepers are found.  Our first stop before we even made it to the canyon road was for my first Hawaii owl:


It was cool to see an owl, though on Kauai this is a non-native predator that is not exactly welcome.  We made our way west and found the road that would take us up into Waimea Canyon.  Quickly Jacob spotted yet another owl, this time the native and A-OK Short-eared Owl.

Unfortunately this is when something else rather memorable occurred:  the car door shut on Jacob's thumb.


He was not psyched but he sure as heck wasn't going to let that stop him from going to check out the owl.


While we were watching the owl there was a steady stream of Rose-ringed Parakeets flying overhead.


As we made our way up the canyon road Jacob spotted a Black Francolin, which quickly disappeared in…