Maui! Day 4

One of the days planned the night I booked my flight and hostel for Maui was the eighth of August. Birding has always been a rather private thing for me, a way to experience nature and clear my mind. Since I started in 2016, I've only been to one real birding event which was the 2020 Hawk Weekend Festival at Hawk Ridge. But considering how far Maui is from home, I wanted to do a little extra to try and extract the most from the trip, and so I did a bit of searching and found a small company which offered a birding tour on the island.

I got up early on the eighth to make the walk to the Maui Tropical Plantation for pickup. I arrived early and spent the time checking the Counter Strike going on at IEM Cologne (watching/listening to the quarter finals as I type this now). When my van pulled into the plantation's parking lot, I went over and introduced myself to the tour guide, Wendy, and met my two fellow guests of the day. From the parking lot, we started towards the Haleakala National Park.

On the way to the reputable native Hawaiian bird hotspot Hosmer Grove, we pulled over on the shoulder of Haleakala Highway a couple of times.

My first Eurasian Skylark! We first heard the bird and saw it do a little climb before diving back into the grassy field.

We arrived at Hosmer Grove and spent a little time on the trail, looking for native birds with some success! We spotted several young 'I'iwi, a pair of Hawaii Amakihi, and I was able to nab another Apapne.

We got back in the van and were headed towards the Haleakala summit when we got a bit distracted by a flying bird along the highway.

"Bird flying on the right!"

This Short-eared Owl hunted alongside the road in perfect view of us. And if that wasn't exciting enough, suddenly a second owl appeared. Together, they began to dance, soaring over and around one another, clipping talons and locking eyes. It was really cool to watch. Unfortunately, all the shots I got were through a side window of the van which greatly reduced sharpness, but I will never complain about getting to see wild owls in any capacity.

After watching the owls, we continued to the summit parking lot of the park. The group dispersed to use bathrooms, check out the shop and take in the otherworldly sights provided by Haleakala's crater.

The endangered Haleakala Silversword.

We headed back down to the picnic area of Hosmer Grove for lunch, spotting a distant flying foursome of Hawaiian Geese.

After lunch, we drove across the island for a stop at the Kealia Pond NWR. Amid lots of stilts I got to see my first Pacific Golden-Plovers plus a couple of Sanderlings, Night-herons, Ruddy Turnstones, and other now familiar birds. Sadly, there were no Hawaiian Coots.

Wendy drove us back to the plantation for the day's last birding.

My second set of Chestnut Munias (the little brown birds) were bathing among the doves, mynas, and Java Sparrows.

Wendy said that it might be worth going into the plantation to look for more birds. I took her suggestion and am glad I did. The twenty-minute investment netted me a better look at a Hawaiian Goose, some geckos, a lifer, and my favorite shots of the trip.

A group of Common Waxbills come flying to join some Chestnut Munias foraging in the grass.

This night-heron was too cool to be bothered by all the people around the duck pond. It sat on a rock and struck some great poses with the wind ruffling its feathers.

On the walk from the plantation to the hostel, my legs felt weirdly good. My evening at the hostel would be mostly chilling, a bit of chatting with folks and some more ping pong with the girl from Austria.