Donnelly Oceantics: KOKE'E APRIL-MAY 2013

KOKE'E: IN THE FOREST APRIL/MAY 2013

The charm of Koke'e

Panorama of the meadow

Museum and Lodge on left

We try to go to Koke'e for three days every month (no phone, no internet). Our favorite cabin at the CCC camp isn’t always available but we flex our calendar so we can stay there. (see post Koke'e 2012) Sometimes we are the only folks on the hill at night; sometimes it is overrun with volunteer groups and others. Once it was doctoral students from Stanford studying the dirt, one time Tibetan monks, last time it was an odd combination of hula students collecting sacred plants while an ROTC group was running around in camo (boys and girls) shooting each other with air pellets (practicing to be fodder for America’s endless wars): the many levels of Kauai.

So, we went in both April and May. After unloading ALL of the gear I take, mostly food related, I walked a residential road I had not been on and these are some of the cabins I saw.

Clearly these have been leased for many years and are well maintained

Coming back I found the meadow empty and got this shot from the far end. This is where the Queen Emmalani Festival is held each October; see the post from last year for the contrast. This is also the meadow our previous governor wanted to pave for tour busses! Good riddance Linda Lingle.

Behind me and to the right is camping by permit

It is rare to not see a picnic, soccer game, kids chasing chickens, or all of the above here

We take plenty of indoor work with us in case of rain or strong winds: me, my book and Gil his sketchbook, plus movies and dice so we don’t fret about the weather. The trails are hazardous with rain.
The fact is that Kauai continues to erode (now only one per cent of the original landmass is above water) and one trail has been permanently closed as it has sections that are only six inches wide! It does not keep people from engaging in the lure of danger that often puts rescue workers at risk trying to get them off the mountain, scared and hungry or injured.

The new sign!
Wai'ale'ale: one of the wettest spots on earth, elevation 5140 ft.

I love the new sign, the old one was so worn it couldn't be read. As for the mountain it is pointing to, I've never been able to see it even on a clear day. this is also the trail head for the Pihea trail, (see my Koke'e 2012 post for a dryer report of the hike).

We have a little secret spot we visit in the winter/spring. We set up stools and lunch, take our umbrellas, bird and plant books, cameras and binoculars and enjoy the forest while listening to the native birds. We have learned the songs we hear first thing in the morning are the elepaio (eh-lay-pie-yo) an adorable tiny brown bird with attitude. We see plenty of flitting through the sky and much busy-ness in the branches. The red ones are native, the brown ones can be anything from sparrows to our little elepaio, the green ones can be natives or the Japanese white-eye that is taking over territory from the suburbs to the high forests.

Thumb size Japanese White Eye with bill buried in 'ohia tree

We see the Apapane most often, but hear I'iwi all the time

the red-orange bill leads me to lean toward this little nectar eater being an I'iwi

(see Maui blog for distinctive I'iwi bill)

During my forest trekking in April I got caught up in capturing strange tree trunks.

Twists of Nature

Much of the distorted growth is likely aftermath to the ravaging Koke'e suffered during hurricane Iniki in 1992. The beauty is that nature moves on and it is common to see vertical growth coming out of a downed log.

My other favorite details on a slow walk are the mosses, ferns, lichens, and fungi.

Mossy trunk

Moss flowers!

I had to lay on the ground to get these

Yes, another fiddle head. I can't help it, I LOVE spirals!

This ama'u fern has the unfurling spirals nearly completed

This little curly-q is a new fuzzy tongue-fern leaf

This smooth tongue-fern is showing off its millions of spores on the back side of one leaf

These soft, damp fungi always remind me of ceramic soap dishes

They are still growing even thought the tree has fallen

If you have followed my blog you know that Koa and 'Ohia trees are the backbone of the native forest and that I have a fondness for them both that rivals that of family. They are so different from one another and each rich in lore, but the awe I feel for these trees is about their strength and endurance and their immobile witnessing of moments and eons that bring climatic and social change.

The magnificent Koa

Koa at ground level

Wind broken branch

These dead koa leaves remind me of the Hawaiian feather capes

Remains of an old Koa growing lichen

The rich colors are a lesson of opposites on the color wheel

More lichen on the fallen portion

On closer examination . . .

Lichen flowers!

Many trees did not regenerate after Iniki, of course, and between the ones that did and did not, invasive plants and trees got a foothold. Strawberry guavas take up 30% more water than native plants and crowd out the understory, what you might think of as a very greedy plant.

Guava road

In April we noticed thousands of leaf buds on the 'ohia trees and I was anxious to see them open in May. The flowers are more open in taller trees but I’m looking forward to seeing them next month too.

Not flower buds, these are actually leaf buds on this 'Ohia

standing on the edge of Kalalau Valley in April

In May, this tree-top was sporting leaf buds, newly opened silver leaves,

silver flower buds and a flower just beginning to open

Remember that 'ohia is the tree and lehua the flower - the whole thing is an 'Ohia-lehua

The scientific name metrosideros polymorph indicates that the tree has many variations within the species and these lehua buds below are not expressing the silver color as the ones above.

Did you grow up being amazed by time-lapse photography?

You can nearly watch this flower unfold, yet another spiraling

This tree exhibits fully opened blossoms as well as partials and many, many unopened buds

I'm excited for all the little honeycreepers that drink the nectar

End of May there is a festival at Koke'e that Marsha Erikson and our neighbor Jennie Hutchings dreamed up 24 years ago. Many people join to collect the invasive vines of the banana poka and while they are green they weave them into baskets. Jennie hasn’t made it to the festival for over twenty years because she is on the Mainland in May. We are all hoping she will be here next year for the 25^th Annual Poka Festival next year.

Banana Poka is the vine, upper right, with upside down pink flowers

While being adorable in a cartoon fantasy, they are damaging to the forest

The red hump in the background is the final challenge of the Kalalau trail

One of our joys in being in the forest is "seeing" more closely. We watch people come up to the lookout and if it is clouded over, they jump back in their cars and head back to town feeling cheated.

I actually took some video of the mist filling the valley

but I was so mesmerized by it the file was too big to download.

You get to use your imagination

We did more bird watching in rainy May than in April, but did not try the bat hunting this time. When we see movies about birders (always portrayed as eccentric nerds) we laugh because we have turned into them ourselves.

Gil has his new Eagle Optics binocs plus a camera (secondary)

I have my camera and an old small pair of binocs (secondary)

This is definitely an Apapane with his white pants (Apa-panties)

Off to drier grinds? We are

Rain or shine may be our Koke'e motto but there comes a point when we need to go in because we cannot see through Laka's mist and all the meal planning is going to pay off.