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View From Here - Hawaii Travel Blog - Birdwatching

Welcome to View from Here, a travel blog, where I write about living in, traveling about and experiencing Hawaii as a malihini, a 12-year-resident of the Hawaiian Islands. My name is Kim Steutermann Rogers, and you're likely to find blog posts here about food--who doesn't like to eat?--and outdoor adventure. Like hiking through Haleakala on Maui. Diving with manta rays off Hawaii (Big) Island. Snorkeling Shark's Cove on Oahu. And paddling Napali Coast of my home island, Kauai. Not that I'm some, young, adrenaline junkie. Those days are long over. I just enjoy collecting life experiences. And that's why you probably won't find much in the way of shopping here, unless it's about a fantastic, locally-made product--like soap--and the charming, young, single-mother who makes it. Then, I gush on and on. Oh, as a warning, I can sometimes jump on my soap box and write about the realities of marine debris, Hawaii's endangered species--like humpback whales and Hawaiian monk seals--great book discoveries and the wonders of nature. And my dogs.

Total Number of Entries - 73

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My Earth Day Celebration

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 4/26/2013

Destination: Kauai

Hawaii is nature and nature is Hawaii. You've got your turquoise blue ocean with beaches of black, green and red sand. You've got your green mountains striated with hiking trails. Your rivers and streams ripe for kayaking explorations. Waterfalls. Botanical gardens. Nature preserves, wildlife refuges and national parks. With so many choices in which to spend Earth Day, how was it that on Monday, April 22, I found myself sitting in an air conditioned office building with fluorescent lights making my eyes burn?
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A Shama Thrush Builds A Home in My House

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 3/29/2013

Destination: Kauai

The skies were blue when I retreated to the lanai with my morning tea. At the foot of the stairs, a rooster stretched his head and let out his best crow. A few seconds later, another rooster on the other side of the house responded, and the domino effect made its way down the valley. Other birds were singing, including a Western meadowlark, its black V set on bright yellow breast. A Zebra dove cooed.
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The Amazing Longevity of Laysan Albatrosses

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 3/8/2013

Destination: Kauai

These Laysan albatross chicks spent 65 days inside a calcium closure before pipping their way to freedom several weeks ago. And, now, if they are able to steer clear of the hooks belonging to long-line fisheries, to evade eager sharks swimming below the surface of the ocean and, more devastating, to resist ingesting plastic that can be mistaken for food, these three Laysan albatrosses just may live to be older than I am. In fact, old enough--if they'd been contributing--to collect social security benefits.
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Species Spotlight: Hawaiian Moorhen

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 1/16/2013

Destination: Kauai, Oahu

The road into the town of Hanalei on Kauai’s north shore bends to the right after crossing the historic, one-lane Hanalei Bridge, and an anecdotal 99 percent who cross the bridge in polite groups of six or eight vehicles at a time head this way. But for taro farmers, hikers, select homeowners and a few early morning photographers, the slip of a road that drops to the left dips into the valley of Hanalei. And here, in the Hanalei Valley National Wildlife Refuge, at the base of waterfall-laced mountains and among ponds of leafy taro, are birds that possess the secret of fire.
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The Mexican Dancer in Hawaii

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 11/26/2012

Destination: Kauai

I call this guy the Mexican Dancer, because he was banded as a chick on Isla Guadalupe in 2003. For the past two years, I’ve watched him tilt his head to the sky on remote bluff of land on the North Shore of Kauai. I’ve seen him bow his head, shake it and dip his bill under a lifted bent wing--as if he’s sniffing his armpit. I’ve heard him whistle, moo and clack his bill. For two seasons, I’ve watched this 10-year-old Laysan albatross perform his species’ complex courtship dance.
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Hawaiian Crow Population Tops 100

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 6/13/2012

Destination: Hawaii Island

I am in St. Louis attending my best friend’s daughter’s wedding, and while I am seeing family and old friends, I am also spotting wildlife that I am not used to seeing in Hawaii: Squirrels swinging from trees; a bunny shyly hopping about the yard; a robin snagging a worm from the ground; a heron pacing the air over a stream; a red-tailed hawk hovering in the sky, its tail feathers fanned. And, in the city, crows. In their own way, they all remind me of Hawaii’s wildlife, from the mongoose to the shama thrush to the black-crowned night heron to the Hawaiian hawk and crow.
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May in Photos

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 6/4/2012

Destination: Kauai, Oahu

May was busy but the photos may not show it. The month started with a tour of Otsuji Farms on Oahu. The farm got its start in 1954, and the city sorta grew up around it, so now you could call it an urban farm. It’s a three-generation farm. The middle generation still makes sure the place runs. Edwin, wearing his signature Crocodile-Dundee-hat, led the tour.
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April in Photos

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 5/2/2012

For me, April saw the breeding plumage of Golden plovers come in. A visit to The Contemporary Museum, now called Spalding House, on Oahu. An afternoon meditation at Broken Ridge Buddhist Temple--in advance of a talk by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. A hike on Manoa Cliff Trail off Round Top Drive in Honolulu, Oahu. An architectural tour of Chinatown. Wedge-tailed shearwaters clean up their burrows and pair up in advance of laying some eggs. The birth of two Hawaiian monk seal pups.
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Birding at Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 4/4/2012

Destination: Maui

Earlier this month, when I was on Maui, my rental car naturally gravitated to a familiar place for me--a national wildlife refuge. Like Kilauea, where I volunteer (on Friday afternoons, stop by some time), this one is dedicated to birds. Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge is located at the south end of the isthmus that runs between East Maui's Kihei and Wailea and West Maui's Lahaina and Kaanapali.
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Kapalua Coastal Walk

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 3/28/2012

Destination: Maui

I didn’t plan it. Seriously. But I went on a bird walk in West Maui. In my defense, I thought it was a fitness walk. When will I accept that I am a birder? Am I in denial of age? Because, stereotypical or not, I always think of birders as, well, older. Or am I in denial of the feathery cute- and cuddly-ness of birds? I met Ben Auerbach at Kapalua Spa at the decent hour of 9:00 a.m. A couple from Wisconsin, a mother and daughter from Dallas, Texas and another couple from Central California joined us.
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