When you travel over 6000 miles non stop, of course you want your own patch of grass. Actually, you deserve it.
This deserving avian wonder is the Pacific Golden Plover (or Hawai’ian Kolea)—a petite shorebird that is very common in Hawaii and who I first met on the island of Oahu.
Pacific Golden Plover
Rhymes with Lover
The Pacific Golden Plover (“It rhymes with lover” Steve explained to me) nests in Alaska and spends winter in Hawaii and other islands in Polynesia. In Alaska they’re quite shy, but when they get to Hawaii they become quite tame and can be fed by hand. I have to admit, Hawaii makes me feel more vibrant and social too. It’s those nice tropical trade winds I suppose. And I’d be open to anyone feeding me by hand too, especially if it’s coconut macadamia nut shrimp.
Coconut Macadamia Nut Shrimp. Please feed it to me by hand.
The Pacific Golden Plover’s journey from Alaska to Hawaii is about 6000 miles and takes about 3-4 days. When Steve explained that to me I thought, “Hmm…that makes sense.” But then he added, “That’s without stopping.“
So imagine, you’re flapping your wings constantly. No stopping to rest.
“You rest and you die,” Steve added with dramatic emphasis.
Hey kid, get off my lawn
When the Plover gets to Hawaii he becomes very territorial, staking out his claim and protects it against other Plovers. You’ll find them in pretty much every park, football or soccer field, but they won’t be in a group. You’ll find just one guy. In fact, it’s almost like there’s one Plover per household lawn.
After a couple of days our vacation turned into a spot-the-Plover game–kind of like that game where you punch the arm of that person next to you whenever you see a Volkswagon Bug.
“Hey! Plover!” Punch.
10 comments
Comments feed for this article
November 30, 2012 at 12:04 am
jmgoyder
It’s such a cutie!
November 30, 2012 at 12:19 am
Ms. Boice
I know, I agree! I became rather fond of him. He was so approachable it was almost like having a little pet at the condo where we were staying.
November 30, 2012 at 7:11 am
Sue
Interesting that they are so territorial on their wintering grounds.
December 2, 2012 at 11:44 am
Ms. Boice
Sue, I thought the very same thing. You’d think it’d be the opposite.
November 30, 2012 at 11:35 am
Ms. Boice
Reblogged this on The baby aspirin years.
November 30, 2012 at 1:25 pm
Life in the 50's and beyond...
Very interesting… and that shrimp looks delicious!
December 2, 2012 at 11:42 am
Ms. Boice
That shrimp WAS delicious!
November 30, 2012 at 9:56 pm
notquiteold
I harbor an old resentment against plovers. Unfortunately, the piping plover of New England – a protected species – had its nesting ground on Moonstone Beach in Rhode Island. The plovers were given the beach. And it had been New England’s ONLY nude beach. I feel for those little birds – but I miss the nude beach!
December 2, 2012 at 11:40 am
Ms. Boice
What a funny story! So New England doesn’t have anymore nude beaches? What a shame.
December 29, 2012 at 11:17 pm
Finding birds on O’ahu, Hawaii « The Accidental Birder
[...] But this time around it was different. Why not try to find some interesting birds still? Without doing any hard-core birding (the get-up-around-dawn kind of birding with a local guide) we were able to spot 24 bird species with nine of them being lifers (see in bold below in the list) during our four days on the island of O’ahu. The Pacific Golden Plover seemed to be everywhere, as he was wintering in Hawaii. (See my previous post, Aloha to the Pacific Golden Plover.) [...]