We're down from 7, which is sad, and I'll get the sad stuff out of the way first, then move on to the happy singing stories. #87 (green banded girl) was found, before I returned, on a Pu'u (hill), in the form of feathers, guts and transmitter. The suspicion is that an 'Io got her since a rat would have been more chewy. I'd rather an 'Io get her than a rat. Though, I'd like to announce to all 'Io that Palila birds are off-limits. Go after those HOFI and CAQU chicks instead, please.
And numbers 60 (pink/pink singing dude) and 89 (flighty white banded guy) are missing, presumed dead. Again, I wasn't there when they were released and took off, but have spent the last 9 days looking for our poor little birds. I feel we should post missing posters around Hilo and Waimea with pictures of them, askin "have you seen these birds?" It might also draw awareness of the palila's plight in general. We've looked east and west of the release site, and even around to the west slope (where the core palila population exists) and on the south side along the saddle road. It's been exhausting and depressing to search with no response and, in all reality, no likelihood of finding them alive. The best we can hope for is to find their transmitters and evidence of their fates, if only to inform our future approach to release.
So, on to the good news! Numbers 76 (blue-banded pod-cruncher) and 75 (King of the mamane tree on the hill) found each other after some separation and now occupy an area above the grid (helluva hike uphill) where they eat pods non-stop all day and contact call to each other.
Number 94 (orange flower girl) found her way uphill as well, though not as far as the males. I have seen her eating flowers happily in the morning sun. She was chased briefly from a tree by wild birds RW/RW: Wh/Al and one of the unbandeds. I sat down to write the sightings and observations in my notebook and within 10 minutes she was back, eating pods with gusto. So, she's holding her own and by all appearances is having a blast in her new wild and crazy life.
The littlest palila bird we released, Number 94 (little red-banded one) had been hanging out in the immediate proximity to Hack Tower 2, from which she was released. Koa trees surround HT2, and so she was limited in her options for wild food. She continued coming down for supplemental food, and occasionally interacted with wild HOFIs (mimicking them) and had a friendly encounter with a wild pair (R/G: LG/Al and his unbanded lady), though she didn't follow them when they left. But the day before yesterday she had found her way to HT1, where the mamane trees are abundant and have pods to offer. She was singing and eating. I don't know what her progress has been since I left on Sunday, but my guess is that she will hang around HT1 for a while and make her way up to join 90 uphill and take her place as a wild and crazy palila bird.
In other news, turkeys are lekking and the first of their chicks are starting to run around the mountain. There are lots of pigs up in the forest reserve. Optimistic and dedicated state biologists came to plant mamane seedlings in the mitigation land. And Mana road, 6 miles to the east, is impassable due to serious mud.