The Road To Hana

One of the many gorgeous views along the road to Hana

There is a popular stretch of road on Maui that will take you to Hana.  It's a harrowing drive along beautiful forests and cliffs as drivers face one lane road conditions.  For birders and tourists alike, it's a VERY memorable day.  

I don't know how we did it, but we made spaces work as parking lots while we explored the vast network of waterfalls.

Along the way, we stopped at gardens and food trucks.  Bring cash as most of the vendors don't have credit card machines NOR do they have connection to the internet.  For as popular as Hana is; it's pretty remote. 

Micheal feeds the birds at a garden stop

While strolling through a garden, we found this Chinese Hwamei(below) singing away.  This is an exotic.  While this species was fascinating to observe, I was hoping to spy REAL native sea birds along the ocean. On this beautiful day, the bird gods would grant me my wish. 

Chinese Hwamei

A Maui must, if you've never done it before, is to take the beautiful road to Hana. There is TOO much to see and do on this day.  In fact, many try to squeeze it all into a few hours. We stopped at state parks to hike, food trucks to eat, tried the banana breads offered along the "highway", and had a fruit drink while observing the infamous Green sea turtles.  Basically, we ran out of time during our trek to Hana. It's a fun day out.  

Great Frigatebird

Eventually along the ocean, I began to see Great Frigatebirds.  It made me so happy. I love frigatebirds in general.  We would see these birds often along the shores of Maui. 

Great Frigatebird

Then something magical happened.  I always wondered what it would be like to see my first noddy.  We made a fun stop at Wai'Anapanapa State Park to look at the black beach.  Then I noticed something else that was black, a noddy.  And not just one!

This sighting was an absolute thrill for me as we watched Black Noddy after Black Noddy fly to and from various rock islands.  Then we noticed an idiot tourist who disturbed the birds on one of the rocks.  See video below and tell me what you think the Noddies are trying to tell him.

Aside from that incident, I was stoked.  A Black Noddy is a cool bird.  It was the only time I saw them on our trek to Maui.  Personally, when I see a natural bird to the islands, it feels good.  It's hard to explain the experience, but for birders, it's a solid birding observation. The bird was never introduced by an outside source because it was naturally there since the beginning of time.

Black Noddy

And just like in the books, they posed well for the camera.

We stopped for Banana Bread that later served as our lembas bread(Lord of the Rings reference) because I put it in the glove box and forgot about it.  One day, we were in the middle of nowhere on the dry side of the island and got hungry.  I remembered the glove box and that mini loaf became lunch:)

When something is native to an island, like the Green sea turtles or the burrowing Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, it's a beautiful thing.  THIS is also Hawaii.  This was the part I had been longing to see, not the made up stuff.

We came close to these exhausted turtles taking a break from the rough surf of the ocean.

Green sea turtle

There is a reason why they are so tired.

I sat with Micheal for several hours watching the shearwaters blast out of their burrows and enjoyed viewing happy sea turtles surf for food along the rough waters near the rocky shore.

Don't throw your LEI into the ocean!!!!  Take the flowers off instead and throw them in!

Then we saw this woman throw her lei into the water and I went, "WHAT?!!"  Twelve sea turtles were swimming along the shore! 

This line can get tangled around the turtle's neck or fins!

 It's traditional for people to throw their leis into the ocean when saying good-bye to the islands, but what this woman did was a bit ignorant. I looked at her and then she realized what she had done, but it was too late.  These leis were the perfect size to get around a turtle's head.  She should have properly dispatched the flowers into the water and NOT the unnatural string.

Happy sea turtle comes up for air

After she left, Micheal went after the leis and took them out of the ocean so that the turtles wouldn't strangle themselves.  As you can see, there are lots of tourists who don't use their heads. Our wildlife suffers because of our ignorance. We can prevent many things from happening if we just used common sense and cared more.

Red-billed Leiothrix

Throughout the forests, I would hear many exotic birds not native to the island.  No honeycreepers at all.  A Red-billed Leiothrix popped out in the open for just a second to say hi.

a white speck dots the sheer cliff

The most magical moment happened when my lifer, the White-tailed Tropicbird, flew past my head as we hiked up a steep cliff.  These birds nest along the cliffs and it was here that we had amazing views.  

White-tailed Tropicbird beams an angelic white against the dark forested cliff

A scenic lifebird?  Oh yes.  4 of these amazing angels gracefully danced around a huge waterfall along a forest at the edge of a cliff.  It was a bit scary, but the observation was well worth the effort.

It was an amazing hike where fresh air moved the sitting humid moisture away from our bodies.

celebrating our White-tailed Tropicbird sightings

Afterwards, we stopped at a food truck along the ocean to watch for the Hawaiian Petrel while having a local favorite chicken dish, the Huli-huli.  Oh man was that good!

Micheal got the chicken tamale. It was a memorable night as the waves crashed against the shore and the petrels flew out to the rock island.  Sometimes, you put your camera and binos down and say to yourself, "Enough is enough. Just enjoy the moment."  I can say now that I hate carrying a camera with me. But without documentation, I cannot tell the stories.  You'll just have to believe me when I say to you that it was a great night. 

The wind whipped through our hair.  The ocean mist sprayed against our faces.  My search for the native sea birds was a success. The road to Hana was worth the adventure and risk.

But now it was time to deal with the white elephant in the room, extinction.  The following day, we hiked through a silent forest and that is where I'll leave you for this week.  Next week, we'll explore something that I have never felt before while birding.  We'll conclude our Maui birding adventure with a bang. 

You'd be surprised how many idiots went past this sign. When people die from tourist accidents, it's due to their lack of intelligence. Darwin works in mysterious ways.

Until next time....