April 10, 2018--Keauhou, HI--On Sunday evening we had our new friends, Mike & Jenny Myers over for dinner.  Mike is a great photographer and Jenny is an artist.  In our conversation we learnde of a new trail which we had never explored.  The Palila Trail is found by taking and a 4 wheel drive only road 4  miles up from Old Saddle Road (OSR).  Interesting OSR in Texas refers to Old Spanish Trail.  So being as we had a jeep we decided to explore this new area.   We decided to take the OSR which is  also a good birding road.  Shortly after we turned off Highway 190 on to OSR we heard the unmistakable call of a Black Francolin.  This is a bird that has been very difficult for me to find and get a picture of and today I got the best yet, though not what I hope to get. As you can see

Black Francolin

this shot was very far off.  Further along OSR we saw a female Black Francolin, Yellow-breasted Canary, Wild Turkey and an Erkel's Francolin.  This is one of the three francolins found on the Big Island.  The real treat came when a Hawaiian Owl (an Hawaiian subspecies of the short-eared owl). 

Erkel's Francolin

This owl was very cooperative allowing me to walk within 10 feet as he sat on a fence post looking for something to eat.

Hawaiian Owl

Hawaiian Owl

We finally made it to the cutoff for the Palila Trail and began our trip up Mona Kea (the largest mountain in the world).  We soon encountered the Mamane Tree which is the food source that provides 90% of food of the very endangered Palila, the enedmic honeycreeper of the Big Island.  There only about 2000 of these birds left and they inhabit this dry forest habitat.  This is the only place the Mamane Tree is found.  Unfortunately I only had a brief glimpse of an immature one and no picture to share.  We will be taking the group there on Friday and spend half a day so hopefully I can get one then.  We did find an Amakihi which I was able to get pictures of .

Amakihi

Amakihi

It began to rain hard so we headed back to the jeep and made our way down to the highway.

Later this evening two of our group arrived so we headed to the airport to greet them Hawaiian style--with a lei for each.  Daniel & Dianna Hodges were the first to arrive.  A stop at Bubba Gump's Restaurant in downtown Kona for dinner before heading for the condo and bed.