Aloha!

After a long day of flying, I arrived in Honolulu only half an hour behind schedule. Sharon Doughtie was circling the airport waiting to fetch me and my luggage from the arrivals deck. Unfortunately, the baggage claim area was a total zoo because one of the carousels had malfunctioned. So, I had to wait for the previous flight's bags to come off before they loaded my flights. Poor Sharon was circling for quite a long time. It was a nice surprise to receive a beautiful lei from her when we finally connected.

First stop in Hawaii? Borders book store so I could pick up a local bird guide. The choices were pretty slim as there isn't an equivalent guide to those that we have on the mainland. The best one I could find was a small booklet put out by the Hawaii Audubon Society called, "Hawaii's Birds."




At any rate, the goal was to keep me up as late as possible to help me adjust to the time zone so I did a walk around the neighborhood of my local hosts (Craig and Teri Mason). Craig walked with me over to the canal a couple of blocks from their house.



Here are some photos of the local birds:





Red-vented bulbuls (alien species). These were in the neighbor's back yard.









Common myna - another alien invader.













Cattle egret - also an alien.
















Male Pacific Golden Plover, a winter migrant. This one is changing into its breeding plumage.












This is the female Pacific Golden Plover. I thought it might have been a black-bellied plover, but the habitat is wrong.









This is an interesting mallard hybrid - look at that bright blue bill. I think it might be a northern pintail mix in there.









This is the female that was paired with the mallard male - looks pintailish to me, but who knows? Mallards are so promiscuous.












Another alien - a Brazilian cardinal, also known as a red-crested cardinal.










And yet another alien - a spotted dove. Most of the urban birds are introduced.

In addition to the ones I photographed, I saw a Japanese white-eye, zebra dove, house finch and house sparrow.





The walk kept me busy until Sharon Doughtie and Pat Kramer came over, bearing a large portion of the evening meal. Pat had been busy preparing curry (he roasts his own herbs and spices) and flat bread dough.

This is Craig Mason and Sharon Doughtie. Craig's holding my new bird guide.





While Pat was busy in the kitchen, Craig brought out some traditional drums made from hollowed branches. Wow, they're loud! Sharon gave a pretty good demonstration of how they're played for traditional dancing.








Here's a close-up of the drums. I can't remember the Hawaiian name for them. Maybe Sharon will post a comment and give us the details.

















Pat Kramer rolling out some bread dough.










Craig is finishing the grilling of some lovely salmon fillets.









Here's part of the outdoor buffet spread. Wow, what a treat to have such a lovely meal my first night here. It was a very enjoyable evening of food, wine, and fellowship. I don't think I was quite up to speed having been up for 24 hrs, but I sure had a good time.