Bird

Mr. Necker on October 20, 2022. ©Susan Scott

September 1, 2025

We Hawaii plover fans have been happily welcoming our kōlea back from their summer jobs in Alaska. As of this writing, the kōlea REPORT database has 355 entries of birds returned totaling 807 individuals.

Hawaiʻi Audubon Society’s outreach manager, Elena Arinaga, made these cards to explain our citizen science project Kōlea Count. Get one at Saturday’s kōlea festival (see below.)

It’s thrilling to see a bird that we recognize in a yard, field, or park, and I personally say hello and congratulations to the ones I know. These birds have flown an astonishing 6,000 miles round-trip in about 4 months, and each deserves a verbal pat on the back.

My Jake got one. He arrived August 20^th on his grassy space around a sprawling monkeypod tree.  My first photo of Jake is dated 2016, making this male at least nine years old.

Another plover that gets a gold star on its gold back is Mr. Necker, the bird banded and tagged in Punchbowl Cemetery by plover researcher Wally Johnson in a March, 2022 study. Mr. Necker flew to Alaska, then Russia, then Mokumanamana, former known as Necker Island, in Hawaiʻi’s Northwest Chain.

Mr. Necker in Wally Johnson’s loving hands, October 22, 2022. ©Susan Scott

Because the bird’s battery went dead there, no one knew where the bird flew next. To our delight, Mr. Necker showed up in his precise place in Punchbowl Cemetery on October 20, 2022.  Late for an adult, but that he made it back at all is a miracle.

Mr. Necker gave me the honor of flying into the mist net I was monitoring at Punchbowl Cemetery. We Hawaiʻi Audubon volunteers were there to recapture the study birds and relieve them of their satellite-tag backpacks. I was so excited that Mr. Necker had made it back, I asked another volunteer to take this picture with my phone.

A happy Wally Johnson checking on Mr. Necker’s feathers. The bird’s tiny backpack did not show any ill affects on the bird’s back or legs. ©Susan Scott

We can continue our admiration of this roving bird.  Bird fan and extraordinary photographer, Tom Fake, got photos of Mr. Necker last week, August 21, in the bird’s precise spot in Punchbowl Cemetery.

Mr. Necker looking good last week, August 21, 2025. Note that the bird has already shed most of its breeding-colored feathers. If we didn’t know the identity of this bird, we would not be able to tell whether it’s male or female.  ©Tom Fake

Close-up of Mr. Necker’s leg bands. ©Tom Fake.

Join us plover lovers Saturday at Magic Island to celebrate Jake, Mr. Necker, and all …

Puuiki Cemetery, Waialua September 2, 2024. ©Susan Scott

September 19, 2024

Once again, kōlea are generating joy in Hawaii by another extraordinary achievement: They came back.

One Hana resident’s bird returned on September 1 for the 15th year. With the arrival report, the Maui homeowner wrote. “This kōlea has been arriving on my lawn every September since 2009.”

People often ask what they can do to attract a plover to their yard. The answer is: nothing. The birds choose their own foraging sites, sometimes passing on what looks like perfect territory, and other times picking spots that look dubious, at best.

A Lowe’s parking lot kōlea. Elton Miyagawa photo.

Here’s a September 12^th arrival note from a Kaaawa resident: “First time a kōlea has ever come to my yard. I’ve lived here for 43 years and have a large grassy yard. Finally!”

The birds will continue arriving from Alaska to Hawaii for another month or two, depending on Arctic weather.

On December 1^st, we’ll start counting individuals for the 2024-2025 season. Please let me know in the CONTACT tab above where you like to count, and I’ll add your X to the location list.

You can’t do this wrong. Besides collecting data, part of this project’s aim is to encourage people to notice, and enjoy, these extraordinary shorebirds.

Hawaii Audubon Society members show off their kōlea fandom at Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden on September 6. Memberships and Ts, available at Hawaii Audubon.org, help support research and education.

We are currently analyzing data that kōlea watchers helped collect. I write “we” but the statistical wizardry that’s underway is the work of Hawaii Audubon Society’s board member, Rich Downs. Rich, who wears multiple hats (most feathered),  combined Kōlea Count reports with eBird observations.

Rich and I are exploring ways of displaying and sharing this wealth of information. Below are two examples of Rich’s layered maps using ArcGIS Online. Various colored dots representing various counts can be displayed separately or together on maps. Due to space limits, these show Oahu only but maps zoom in and out to include all the main islands. Putting your cursor on a dot pops up details, including date, location and comments.  Stand by for graphic reports and links.

Flags show golf courses, ideal habitat for our kōlea but currently far under-counted. Green dots are kōlea locations reported in 2023-2024 season. Orange dots are plovers reported in previous years but not 2023-2024. Dot sizes reflect number of years reported. Rich Downs image.

 Kōlea Count and eBird data layered over a Hawaii Land Cover map. Rich Downs image.

Since July 1 of this year, kōlea watchers have made 362 Arrival Date entries on this site for a total of 1,351 birds. That’s not entirely accurate because as I write, reports are coming in. Thank you, kōlea fans, for reporting …