Thursday, April 14

Well we should really finish telling you about yesterday afternoon. We hiked from  Ke'e Beach at the end of the road on North Kauai for about 2 miles south down the Napoli Coast on the Kalalau Trail--which, if you go all the 11 mile trail  you can spend the night on a fabulous beach, then hike back the next day. But, we just did the 2 mile trail - starting about 3:30pm- so only had 4 hours til dark.

It was really beautiful, mostly in the forrest, but with regular views of the ocean- a steep drop off below-- a real 'cliff hanger". It was totally either up or down- not much level ground.That, plus the race against dark at the end reminded us of our hike with Sarah in the Chiracua Mountains. We spotted our first White Rumped Shama - of which we have now seen many, and a Red Crested Cardinal ( an import from Brazil). These birds do not fear us mere humans, so we have gotten pretty close to them.

We had some great views of the Ke'e Beach and the Napoli Coast::

We tried to see the sunset, but it was totally overcast, so we limped back to our car, and went home. Had a great dinner, and then to  bed.....

Today, had an early start- we seem to get an early start daily due to the birds getting up early! This morning it was off on a birding expedition w/ Carl Berg- and we had a really great time- 4 hourrs of being taken to all the right spots. We actually started back at Ke'e Beach, where we left off last night. We were informed that the "rooster'" that we have been seeing all over are really Red Junglefowl ( brought to Hawaii by the Polynesian colonosists in about 800 AD).

Neal appreciated the ginger honeysuckle that Carl showed us - boy did it smell good:

SWe saw a number of other birds- the Common Moorhen, and the Hawaian Coot, and several others. We saw Hawian Geese -

Then it was on to see the Laysan Albatross - which always nests in the same spot every year-so when they built homes in Princeville, in an area where they nest, the Albatrosses kept coming back anyway, so there are nests in the bushes/ lawns of this very upscale area of resort homes. We really got to see a baby Albatross up close. It's parents were out at sea finding for him/her:

By the way, his name is 'Robert Frost', per the gentleman who owns the property!
Next is where we saw the GreatFrigate Birs, the Red Footed Booby, the Red Tail  Tropicbird,,  and nesting Wedge Tailed Shearwaters:

After lunch, a great fruit smoothy from Banana Joes, and a nap  -we went back to Ke'e beach for snorkeling. It was really great, but we don't have an underwater camera, so can't really share it with you, other than a picture of the beach.

We decided to stay for the sunset. It was partly cloudy, especially on the western horizon, so it was not spectuclar, but still very pretty:

So, after another terrific dinner, at a place called Postcard Cafe, we are now very ready for bed. Tommorrow we hope to kayak on the Hanalei River, and bay, and then we have to leave this part of Kauai, and move onto the western area of Waimea Canyon. More to come... so stay tuned.  Deb/Neal