Honolulu Star-Advertiser © Susan Scott
November 23, 2019
Of the nearly endless things I’m thankful for this year, Hawaii’s shearwaters are high on my list.
These seabirds are extra special to me right now because last week I had the pleasure of helping measure and band some of the wedge-tailed shearwater chicks at the Hawaii Audubon Society’s Freeman Seabird Preserve (bit.ly/2rco1uS). As the sun set over this remarkable colony, a 1-acre coastal plot in Honolulu’s Black Point neighborhood, I got to hold, cuddle and baby-talk several charming chicks.
This oceanside parcel of rocky land has long been a nesting area for wedge-tailed shearwaters. Today it is the only remaining breeding area on Oahu’s South Shore for this protected native species.
Researcher David Hyrenbach holds a newly banded (right leg)
wedge-tailed shearwater chick at Freeman Preserve in Black Point.
©2019 Susan Scott
In 2006 the plot was up for sale. During land-clearing, workers noticed burrows beneath the surface and among the rocks. Inside were wedgie chicks, waiting for their parents to bring them their daily fish meal. When the parents returned to their ruined nests, they gave up on the half-grown chicks. Compassionate humans, however, did not.
People from public and private organizations, as well as some Black Point residents, built new homes for the 25 or so orphans and implemented a feeding schedule. We volunteers fed the chicks tiny store-bought fish a neighbor kept in her freezer. To everyone’s delight, some of the chicks thrived and fledged.
The following year, the Houghton Freeman Foundation bought the land for $7 million and donated it to the birds, naming the Hawaii Audubon Society (bit.ly/33bA612) as caretaker.
Audubon member David Hyrenbach, a professor of oceanography at Hawaii Pacific University, monitors and maintains the gated colony with other Audubon members.
After the chicks fledge (about now) and before adults return in March, volunteers pull weeds, plant native shrubs and build homes for the wedgies. This year 626 breeding adults nested in the preserve, the highest count to date.
This rare city seabird colony isn’t open to the public, but you can go there by volunteering at the above websites. (Kaena Point and Oahu’s windward islands also host wedgie colonies.)
Some of this year’s chicks have already gone to sea, but more have yet to take flight. Tuesday and Wednesday are November’s new-moon nights, making next week dangerous for the youngsters. It’s common then for some chicks to mistake our city lights for the ocean and fall to the ground.
You can help the birds by turning off lights and rescuing fallen fledglings. Search the internet using the words “seabird fallout” to learn who to call, and where to take, a grounded wedgie.
This Thanksgiving I’m thankful that I live on an island where a plot of land in a posh neighborhood belongs to hundreds of shearwater families. The birds, and the people who care for them, give me hope for the future.