I headed for the south side to do a little snorkeling before my weekly shopping in the big city of Lihue, but with tree trimming, traffic was backed up a couple miles. I decided to retreat and detour around town, including a stop at the Menehune Fishpond overlook. The fishpond is a cultural relic I discuss at length in my upcomingbook. This is a charming view of the old fishpond adjacent to the Huleia River, just upstream from the harbor that now hosts both massive modern hotel sized cruise ships and cargo ships bearing essentials to residents.
Alekoko Fishpond aka Menehune Fishpond
From there, I took a loop through the golf course behind the Marriott and ended up near the airport. It is amazing how much coastline is bordered by golf. One part of me finds it preferable to high rises, condos and congestion and another part of me sees it as a source of pesticide and herbicide washing into the ocean.
What I was most struck by was how many Nene seemed unconcerned and went about their business of eating, sleeping, family rearing, and generally making a living. I'm used to seeing Nene in the north shore refuges or flying between them, so all this complacent activity was an unexpected surprise.
Clearly these goslings are from two different clutches
Two moms? or just parents that adopted someone else's keiki? The little ones will follow surrogate parents if the need arises and some Nene seem to like parenting better than others. Some of these are nearly full sized while the others are considerably younger. It is just heartwarming to find so many when only 50 years ago there were only about thirty birds left, on the brink of extinction.
No comments:
Post a Comment