Hawaiian Vacation on the Big Island--Part I

Wandering Tattler

         Sharon and I recently traveled to the Big Island of Hawaii for a family vacation. We arrived three days ahead of our son Chris and his family in Hilo where we would meet for 5 more days together. Hilo is on the east side and we would eventually travel around to Kona on the west side of the island. 
          Our flight took us to Chicago, then Los Angeles and finally to Hilo, Hawaii where we stayed in the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel.  
 

Hilo Hawaiian Hotel

           After a good night's sleep, we headed out to Queen Lili'uokalani Park, which just happened to be next to the hotel, for some sightseeing and of course to do some birding. One of my favorite birds that we saw in Hawaii were these Saffron Finches.

Saffron Finch - Female

Saffron Finch - Male

          The scenery was awesome also.

Coconut Island

Bridge to Coconut Island

Ruddy Turnstone

Zebra Dove

Spotted Dove

Common Myna

Pacific Golden-Plover - very common bird

Oriental Style Bridge in park

Another Bridge

Birding Hawaiian Style

Common Mynas - very common everywhere on island

           Mongoose were brought to Hawaii to control the rats that were eating bird eggs. The plan was a big failure due to rats being nocturnal and the mongoose come out during daylight hours. The mongoose has now spread all over the island and we saw them most days, usually in groups.

Mongoose

           Another menace to the Hawaiian avifuana are cats that are running rampant. We saw huge numbers all around the island, yet people insist on feeding them. We saw a couple folks feeding dried cat food and the cats would mob the area. However, the Mynas and Spotted Doves would soon come in and chase the cats so that the birds could gobble up the nuggets. 

           Some more photos of cool birds below.

Another cool bird - Yellow-breasted Canary

Yellow-breasted Canary

Small Tidal Pool

Yellow-billed Cardinal

          For our accommodations this night, we chose a little AirBnB in the middle of the jungle. We had to travel 5 miles on a one lane road and then turn on a pot holed dirt road for another 3/4 of a mile just to get to the cabin.

But the scenery was magnificent along the way.

          That was just the first day. More to come soon.