After losing my plane ticket, my computer broke, my drivers lisence expired, and my binoculars broke. I'm glad I don't have a car anymore because if I did it would break down tomorrow. But, as devastating as the binocular breakage is, I'm very lucky indeed to be doing what I'm doing right now.
We've only been banding twice so far, but will be doing so for the next two months up in the kipuka on the saddle road of the Big Island. Liba, the Stanford postdoc, warned us that we probably would only be catching a handful of birds each day (as in, 1 would be exciting). But today we caught 12 plus a recap. Mostly Red-billed Leiothrix, but several I'iwi, a Japanese White-eye and a Hawaii Amakihi. The I'iwi are cool to look at head-on; their bills are so curved and delicately thin. The family of honeycreepers, Drepanidinae, has a distinct birdy smell. We're color-banding, and will spend most afternoons re-sighting, which is one of the main reasons why my binoculars breaking is so unfortunate.
It's also just so wonderful to be working out in the vegetation islands surrounded by lava. I can look through the Ohi'a and Koa trees to see the hyper-white cloud bank moving up the slopes of Mauna Kea, rolling up towards the round astronomy observatories perched on the summit. The sense is similar to the cloud bank moving into Palo or engulfing the golden gate bridge, but with starker scenery.
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