Hoeman, Vincent D.
1964
5
Here we soon spotted apapanes, Himatouine sanguinea, my first endemic
native. These bright red birds make lots of noise, but at first they
were hard to pick out among the thick foliage. A bit earlier we'd
called Hill Robins, Leothrix lutea to us and heard the secretive Chinese
thrush, Garrulax canorus. On up where some eucalyptus were abloom we
saw the Amakihi, Loxops virens, some white-eyes, and at the highest
point we visited, two ElepaioS, Chasiempis sandwichensis. A mammal
believed to be a mongoose was seen briefly. Man seems to use this
road very little, though two jeeploads of men resembling what we've
heard of Castro's guerillas passed us there in "the Sierra."
Next all of us except Ely, King,___ went to an area of ffallow
fields and sugar cane residue with two dry or nearly-dry ponds at the
head of the Waipio Peninsula in Pearl Harbor. Ricebirds, Lonchura
punctulata, were numerous. Our Virginia Cardinal, Richmondena cardinalis,
gave its characteristic call from the brush and some were seen as were
a few Braxilian cardinals. In the open skylarks, Alauda arvensis, scoured
and sang and we flushed cock then Ring-necked pheasant Phasianus colchicus
seemingly pure form. A short-eared owl, Asio flammeus, was flushed
from the grass and at the little pond about thirty shovelers, Spatula
cylypeata, half a dozen black-necked stilts, Himenotopus mexicanus,
and two American coot, Fulica americanus. Big flocks of black-headed
maniakins, ___________, were seen in the grass. There were cattle
egrets nearby. Several dried up dead toads were seen and one live one,
greenish brown with yellow sides, 4 or 5 inches long. Back to Honolulu
by noon.