No one's keeping score:
Looking back:
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Sand Island
Yesterday I had more fun than I have for awhile. I went down to Sand Island to try and sell some old army crap to the surplus store and to check out the old bunkers at the park. I wanted to do the surplus store and then the park, but I accidentally drove past my turn off and decided to do the park first. I didn't think that I'd be there for nearly as long as I was, but I covered a lot of ground and saw some pretty weird sights. I've been to the park maybe twice, but only did a drive through- I'd never gotten out of the car to do a proper walk about. I don't recall seeing anything particularly notable in my past visits. Recently, I heard that there were some old WWII bunkers out there so I decided to do some investigating. Well, the bunkers are there and right out in the main area of the park so I don't know how I didn't notice them on the past trips or maybe I didn't realize what they were. Also, I don't know how the hell I didn't notice the big tower as it's a rather giant feature right in the midst of the park grounds. I followed the road as far as I could drive and then parked my car and set out on foot through the wastelands. Sand Island is an industrial harbor area of Honolulu. There are a lot of shipping warehouses and other things of that nature. The first thing that I came upon was a set of derelict baseball fields. After that I found a muddy lot of rubble on the shore with a set of weirdly cryptic log arches and a bunch of semi-abandoned construction vehicles. Continuing down the shore of the wastelands I came across two separate nude men, two homeless encampments, a BMX track, a mysterious island with several anarchic squatter type houses on stilts, and a yard full of outrigger canoes. On the way back I walked along the beach around the point rather than trekking through all the brush back through the baseball fields. I saw several more nude or semi-nude men including one older Asian man who was incredibly tan and wearing one of those 80s style wireless AM/FM headsets with the antenna on it. He was staring at me. It was very sketchy. The whole place was sketchy and weird and absolutely, totally heavenly. The park afforded some spectacular views of Honolulu and Diamond Head and the surrounding areas.
No one's keeping score:
Looking back:
No one's keeping score:
Looking back:
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Birds
I just saw a Japanese White-Eye bird (aka Mejiros) eating papayas in my yard.
These birds were introduced to Hawaii in 1937.
(not my picture)
http://www.honoluluzoo.org/japanese_whit
I recently saw a Hawaiian Moorhen* (‘alae ‘ula in Hawaiian) in a drainage ditch down the street:
(also not my picture)
They are endangered and extremely rare. They can only be found on Oahu and Kauai.
http://www.fws.gov/pacificislands/fauna/H
I see these Red-Crested Cardinals (aka Brazilian Cardina) once in awhile.
They were introduced to Hawaii in 1930 from South America.
(you may have guessed, not my pic)
Zebra Doves are the pigeons of Hawaii. They're everywhere!
I see these Northern Red Cardinals in my yard fairly often.
It's the same species of Northern Cardinal found in North America
and was introduced to Hawaii. In the islands it's found on Oahu and
The Big Island. I love catching their flashes of red in the Plumeria Trees
in my front yard!
The Java Finch (Java Sparrow):
This is another fairly common bird that was introduced from foreign lands.
I don't think that I've ever seen any in my yard, though.
We also have owls in Hawaii! I'll never forget the first time that I saw one because it scared the crap out of me! I was on patrol in the Aliamanu Crater and was on an old bunker access road hiding out in the dark. I heard this loud crashing noise in the brush that sounded like a troupe of Menehunes were coming to get me. I saw the shadow of a large bird land on a utility line. I shined my patrol car's spot light up and saw to my amazement that it was an owl! Prior to that I did not know that there were owls in Hawaii. After that I started seeing them infrequently at night, especially while driving through the Dole Pineapple fields at night. On Maui I was sitting in a Heiau at night and there were all these weird bird noises. I was talking to Coral on my cell phone and she said that it was owls. They were making quite a horrible ruckus. Here are a type of owl that lives on Oahu:
Short-Eared Owl* (Pueo in Hawaiian):
This one's endangered on Oahu, but fares better on the other islands.
Cattle Egret:
These guys are also really common and can be seen just about everywhere.
They frequent large grassy areas such as parks and playgrounds, especially when they're being mowed.
I saw one on top of a car in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Pearl City just the other day.
We don't have a lot of endemic avian species left here in Hawaii. Most of them were wiped out by other invasive species such as rats and mongoose. The mongoose were introduced to kill the rats, but there was an error because one species is nocturnal and the other isn't. Then the mongoose ended up finding the local bird species to be an easier prey.
* Endemic to Hawaii
These birds were introduced to Hawaii in 1937.
(not my picture)
http://www.honoluluzoo.org/japanese_whit
I recently saw a Hawaiian Moorhen* (‘alae ‘ula in Hawaiian) in a drainage ditch down the street:
(also not my picture)
They are endangered and extremely rare. They can only be found on Oahu and Kauai.
http://www.fws.gov/pacificislands/fauna/H
I see these Red-Crested Cardinals (aka Brazilian Cardina) once in awhile.
They were introduced to Hawaii in 1930 from South America.
(you may have guessed, not my pic)
Zebra Doves are the pigeons of Hawaii. They're everywhere!
I see these Northern Red Cardinals in my yard fairly often.
It's the same species of Northern Cardinal found in North America
and was introduced to Hawaii. In the islands it's found on Oahu and
The Big Island. I love catching their flashes of red in the Plumeria Trees
in my front yard!
The Java Finch (Java Sparrow):
This is another fairly common bird that was introduced from foreign lands.
I don't think that I've ever seen any in my yard, though.
We also have owls in Hawaii! I'll never forget the first time that I saw one because it scared the crap out of me! I was on patrol in the Aliamanu Crater and was on an old bunker access road hiding out in the dark. I heard this loud crashing noise in the brush that sounded like a troupe of Menehunes were coming to get me. I saw the shadow of a large bird land on a utility line. I shined my patrol car's spot light up and saw to my amazement that it was an owl! Prior to that I did not know that there were owls in Hawaii. After that I started seeing them infrequently at night, especially while driving through the Dole Pineapple fields at night. On Maui I was sitting in a Heiau at night and there were all these weird bird noises. I was talking to Coral on my cell phone and she said that it was owls. They were making quite a horrible ruckus. Here are a type of owl that lives on Oahu:
Short-Eared Owl* (Pueo in Hawaiian):
This one's endangered on Oahu, but fares better on the other islands.
Cattle Egret:
These guys are also really common and can be seen just about everywhere.
They frequent large grassy areas such as parks and playgrounds, especially when they're being mowed.
I saw one on top of a car in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Pearl City just the other day.
We don't have a lot of endemic avian species left here in Hawaii. Most of them were wiped out by other invasive species such as rats and mongoose. The mongoose were introduced to kill the rats, but there was an error because one species is nocturnal and the other isn't. Then the mongoose ended up finding the local bird species to be an easier prey.
* Endemic to Hawaii
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