Kōlea on rear-view mirror. ©Tiana Burdick

February 11, 2025

The kōlea season is going strong. Our birds are back, counters are counting, and plover lovers are sharing photos and stories that make my day. They’ll make your day too, as will the following results from your reports.

Thanks to Dr. Wendy Kuntz, biology professor at Kapiʻolani Community College and Hawaiʻi Audubon board member, we can see summaries of this season’s (2024) arrival data.

Most kōlea watchers reported seeing their first returnees in August.

From the Big Island: Our neighborhood kolea “Kula” was first spotted August 5, 2024 ~ 1:40pm. She arrived August 6th in 2022 & 2023. We’re happy, relieved, grateful she made it home! We’re enjoying Kula’s return…

A few birds arrived in July, either adults that failed to raise chicks or experienced adults that have this breeding thing down pat and fledged chicks early. Adult females usually return first.

From Kailua: Lady returned this morning, July 24, 2024.  This completes her 10th full cycle with us. Interestingly, she returned in August the first 4 years but has since been returning in the latter third of July. Her July return dates have been remarkably consistent.  Go, Lady.  Hoping her offspring are equally successful.

A September arrival, Oahu North Shore. Because kōlea begin dropping their breeding feathers (molting) while still sitting on eggs in Alaska, it’s impossible to tell males from females when the birds arrive in Hawaiʻi.  Some are mottled. This one is already wearing its winter outfit. ©Laura Zoller

Other kōlea watchers recorded birds arriving in their yards or parks as late as November. These are probably the summer’s chicks, which stay in Alaska as long as the weather is fair and bugs and berries are abundant. We should give these late comers a warm welcome. They gained enough weight to make the flight, survived Arctic predators, and successfully navigated to Hawaiʻi on their own.  Bravo, kids.

This parent is guarding its newly-hatched chicks. Migratory shorebirds have so many obstacles to overcome it’s a miracle of nature that any survive at all. ©Wally Johnson

This Citizen Science project is in its fourth year with some of us counting year after year, and others joining the fun for the first time. There’s no wrong way to count kōlea. All data, including zero, is useful. Rich Downs, another Hawaiʻi Audubon board member (and Hui Manu o Kū leader) is compiling KōleaCount data with eBird data to see where our birds spend winters, and in what concentrations.  Results are pending at season’s end.

But besides numbers, locations, and dates, KōleaCount adds joy to counters lives. I know this from my own experience and from the notes and photos participants add with their observations.

Here are a few:

Some kōlea are extra friendly. From Mililani: This bird loves our son’s (new place, just moving) backyard! Isn’t very afraid of people and is content to forage about while my grandsons play nearby.

Other plovers don’t tolerate other birds. From Aina Haina: What made this [front yard bird] uniquely interesting is that the Kolea was actively aggressive towards a larger white pigeon. The pigeon may have had a wounded wing.  I watched for a few minutes as the Kolea repeatedly jumped at the pigeon pecking at it.  The pigeon went to the property next door and the Kolea followed still jumping and pecking at it.

This kōlea let a driver know that this parking place was taken: From Joint-Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam: This little one landed on my car as I waited for my kids at Taekwando. He hopped on and off my car throughout the hour. His behavior showed that he may have been a little upset or territorial over the area where he as trying to get at. At the end he would peck at the car and flap his wings on the windshield/roof. Once I left, I witnessed him back in the grass foraging for food. I figured I was in the way and he was upset. Beautiful birds! (Video, Tiana Burdick.)  

 

A new homeowner emailed asking how he could keep a yard kōlea from roosting, and therefore pooping, on his car roof in the driveway.  My answer: Either cover the car or move it. Good winter foraging territories with predator-safe spaces (such as a car roof) are a matter of life and death for kōlea. Given that ultimatum, it’s hard to change their minds.

Thank you, fellow kōlea fans, for sending your plover photos and stories. I don’t have room to share them all but know that they remind me often how lucky we are to live in a place where Pacific Golden-Plovers view humans as friends and neighbors.

Chu-weet,  Susan Scott

Kōlea love the Turtle Bay Golf courses–and so do we plover lovers. Volunteer Laura Zoller (right) drove a cart, courtesy of Turtle Bay Golf Shop, for a recent morning count. (Craig and I took turns minding Nala, a friend’s super-sweet dog.) We counted a total of 466 plovers on Palmer and Fazio courses. ©Craig Thomas