 Happy Friday. This is Kaui Lukas here on Hawaii is my mainland today. I have Randy Bartlett who is the See if I can get it right and Interagency coordinator for the Hawaii invasive species Council. Yes, and that's his official title but What he really is is this amazing photographer of Hawaii's native birds Although he's a local boy from Oahu around he spent 30 years on Maui and There are just every native bird. I think there is you that's alive. Have you gotten them all Randy? Oh, no nowhere close No, no, no, not all the species. I'm still working on it. Okay. Well, let me just tell you if you're on Instagram check out Randy's feed because he's RTB 808 picks RTB 808 picks Extraordinary that's how I got hooked and Then and here you are so thank you. Thank you for having me on your show This is part of my ramp up to the IUCN and taking a look at what we're doing here in Hawaii And what I love is not only is the science side of you going out and finding these birds in their native habitat But they're gorgeous Photographs, did you thank you? How did you how did you get there? Did you just wing it or? We're gonna prayer. Yeah. No, I finally finally Invested in some better equipment better camera equipment a few years ago, and so that that really helped So what kind of you want to talk about that? Um, yeah, I've got a Canon EOS 6d, which is like the cheapest full-frame camera that they have that they sell and I got a decent some my decent zoom lens so I telephoto lens so I could Get close as I could to to the wildlife especially birds are kind of tricky to photograph Yeah, so how far away from them are you and let's let's start Let's let's have a bird to look at and then you can kind of tell the story about when you are out Hunting okay for the perfect shot, which you get Okay, this is this is the this is actually a lie Keokia or like here the white Koot Hawaiian Koot and one of our native endemic species and this one is actually taken on a wahoo at Kauai Nui or Hamakua Marsh complex on the windward side in Kailua So it's fairly close, you know, I'm up on the bank and I'm shooting down at the birds in the water So maybe yeah, here's another shot of the same bird a few yards few yards So if you go by behind down to earth and oh, and here's the other one. Here's the ally oola. Mm-hmm They're the red Red which means red forehead ally oola. So this is the one that in the Hawaiian legends that the demigod Maui Squeezed lice throat so to give up the secret of fire so so Yeah, so they could wow their couple and that's that's how they've got it's red Is Maui squeezed its throat the I think this the story goes and it could be wrong is that It got read from a burnt from an ember in the fire Well, I love how the water has sort of the same quality as the feathers and these photos around it It's just exquisite. Yeah, this one was actually taken at Keava pond or wetlands out in Hawaii Kai Right at the or the awful club is and there's also a hail. Yeah, I heard they had some chicks Born there of the ally oola Two months ago. Yeah, that wouldn't be surprising that was taken maybe a couple years ago Okay, so how are they doing the ulas? Yeah, and they seem to be doing fairly well. I mean there do have their biggest threats are probably predation from Maybe feral cats or dogs because they are kind of ground nesters So they could be vulnerable on the ground while they're nesting Yeah, that's why they had to put that that fence out there at Keava in Hawaii guy, right? Because they have those nasty feral cat colonies. Okay, we won't go there All right more birds, please See oh, so this is a Maui creeper or aloha heel. This one's a female And it's I like the shot because it kind of shows how she blends in with the lichens and almost the same color And this is a houseburg Grove on Maui in Haleakala National Park And it's just a little closer version and it might be moving Some of these are our gifts, but and should be moving but we're just experimenting with the the that we're experimenting with that with the technology here as always it's a Think tech science experiment. Oh, this is what apapani. Whoo. See that's so cool. Randy How do you do that and they're up on the oh here on the top of an oh he a tree Not too many flowers at this point But they are looking around probably for insects too because they not only go after nectar But they can go after the insects too along with the amakihi And there's another apapani there just gorgeous. So how are they doing? They're doing pretty well. You know the apapani are one of the more common of the native forest birds And they seem to have some Resistance a little more resistance to the avian pox or malaria that a lot of the native birds are Threatened with and those are all diseases that are spread by mosquitoes. Ah, which we learn no native mosquitoes and so those things just like people can get disease from Tropical diseases from mosquitoes like Zika or dengue or malaria or chicken guña The birds also get avian pox and malaria spread by mosquitoes and so as Is the earth warms up from global climate change then their habitat is gets warmer and so They are more threatened because the mosquitoes can go up higher to higher elevations On the in the forest where the birds are and so then they're more exposed to that to those disease vectors As time goes on so then their populations are more and more endangered Okay, who's this? This is another alohi. Oh a Maui creeper. This is a male They are a little more colorful than than the females. They've got that yellow kind of chest or breast So this one you can if you look closely you can see in his beak He's got a little bug a larvae that he picked off the branch of that of that bush right there I was wondering whether that was beak design or dinner. Yeah, that's his breakfast actually This was taken kind of early in the morning What if we had and this is an amakihi Hawaii amakihi Again on just a pine branch, but with the lichens in the background This one is probably a male also because of he's a little more brightly colored than the female females get Oh Love this shot Yeah, this one just this amakihi as well the Hawaii amakihi Just taking off from the Eliahi, which is a sandalwood, which is a holly. This is a haleakala soundalwood They're on the left so it just took off the branch and I was just Lucky to kind of get it So the the native forest up there where these are taken on Maui. Is it pretty pristine as far as I mean You've got Eliahi. You've got these birds. How how how was the forest? Yeah, where I where I was taking a lot of these Maui forest birds are we're at as a haasburg Grove and Haleakala National Park is just past the park entrance So it's just a little bit above 7,000 feet and it's just at the upper edge of the native forest and right below The park boundary there is The nature conservancies Waikamoe preserve and you get some really nice wet native forest down there But in the haasburg Grove, you're just right at the top end of it And so the birds come up out of the forest and they kind of forage around there So it's the probably one of the most accessible places in in all the islands to see more of the common native birds to see the really rare endangered birds like the Kivikiu the Maui parrotbill or the a kohe kohe the crusted honeycreeper Which are so endangered. I mean, I don't even have those yet and those are still on my bucket list to get But those you have to go down into the really really nice wetter forest down in Waikamoe preserve And those you need permission from the nature conservancy to do that Isn't that part of your job though? You could Used to be used to be when I was managing the East Maui Watership Partnership program The nature conservancy was part of that partnership and so was the national park Yeah, so for um ornithology fans here um we can ornithologists um the Going to Hawaii uh Maui up to this haasburg Grove sounds like a good spot to hang out Yeah, if you're really into birds and bird watching or we just want to see more That's that's really a really good spot on Maui. It's probably the best place to get to On the big island you'd want to go to either probably to volcano national park and bird park there They've got some really good places there just all around the volcano center area. You'll see native birds Or else also up on the saddle road They just opened up a monarchy on monarchy a palila kind of viewing trail I was just hoping that up a month or so ago and I haven't been there yet, but I hope to go soon Let's see some more. Oh, there we go. There's another. Yeah, this is a apapani again on the uh sandalwood or the iliyahi Do they exist on a while? Yeah, there's apapani still um and uh amakihi and eev on a while who not so much yet um, you can see apapani I was just uh up on koala uh mount koala a couple months ago. Um helping with some snail work and um We saw apapani flying around in the daytime, but you can see them in the koalas as well But you kind of have to hike a little farther. Um, maybe on the ia loop trail It would be a kind of fairly accessible place for most people to go to you can even probably see ellipio there The oahu ellipio Which are endangered. I I have seen um, there's the ellipio in aina. Oh, what do we have here? This is the alkuu. Yeah our black crown night heron This is um, this is a native species, but it's not endemic. We're Native just to hawaii. It's a pan tropical species. So it's throughout the tropics all around the world. Um, they have They don't call them alkuu, but they're black black crown night herons But we have our own. Um, yeah, they're not a Endemic subspecies So night heron they they you caught them in the daytime, but they they do they're fishing at night they um They can they do a lot of I just catch them in the daytime. I don't know why they're called night herons Okay, I've always taken pictures during the daytime So and here you are, um Where are you? This uh, was a couple jobs ago. Um, when I was managing, you know, the uh, Pukui watershed preserve at Maui Land and Pineapple Company on West Maui So on the Pukui West Maui, and this is up on the boardwalk up in the up in the bogs About a mile high Very wet and this is some uh, this is a lobilia gloria montus um, the glory of the mountain Um on kawaii they call lobilias pu'e. That's the only hawaiian word that that I know of That survives for the name of those flowers Well, um, we're gonna take a little break and then come back and look at some more of your gorgeous photos and talk about birds Okay, great Aloha, my name is Justina Spiritu and I'm the co-host of hawaii farmer series This is my co-host Matthew Johnson And you can catch us every thursday at 4 p.m at thinktech hawaii dot com What do we talk about matt? So on hawaii farmer series, we're going to be bringing on the farmers and also supporter of farmers Including restaurants cuters as well as government supporters and nonprofits to hear their background stories And understanding our local ag community just a little bit better Yeah, essentially there's a lot more that goes into Farming and the local food community beyond just producing the food And we want to feature and get the background story on all these folks and see how we all work together as a community So join us every thursday Aloha Welcome back to hawaii is my mainland on thinktech hawaii every friday at 3 p.m This week. I have randall t Bartlett who is not only um a phenomenal Photographer of the native birds, but he is um the interagency Coordinator for the invasive species council of hawaii. Did I get that right hawaii invasive species council? All right. Okay. Well next time I'll get it right So let's look at some more birds What do we have? Oh, we're going to talk about the eevs a little bit and where where do you find them usually? Um eevs are still pretty common on most of the islands um big island maui, especially kawaii also um They're also on moloka e and they're also on oahu though They're kind of the population is going down They seem to be kind of susceptible to to avian pox in malaria that are spread these diseases that are spread by mosquitoes as we mentioned earlier um So Yeah, you perfect. It'd be kind of rare to see one on oahu But if you went to kawaii and went up to the alakai or even kokei you'd probably see them um on Maui if you went up to haleak la national park around hawsmer grove you'd probably see them these are all taken um in hawsmer grove Either on the trail or sometimes right there in the parking lot um, so yeah, this was right in the parking lot and um in the parking lot This is a great shot because you can see why they have those curved Curved beaks right just to get right in after that momani nectar Uh, you know in the momani flower Just teasing it out of there This is a uh a great show that about um, you know your photographs often have them Where their food is naturally and to see why it is so important to take care of of the ohia And the momani and all those the native trees because they're the food for the birds Yeah, I'm affected for like the palila on the big island on monachea You know, that's they're almost their exclusive food sources are the seed pods of momani And so they really need those this is a juvenile eevee or eevee polena or eevee um Let's see Popole, I think as um sam ohugan has told me From the nature conservancy, but yeah, this is when they're still young They're they're kind of uh, they don't get their red feathers yet until they're adults And so just yellow black and white and sometimes they get a little green Uh and red so they kind of almost look rastafarian This one so it was a little more yellow their teenage rebel years Yeah, and you can see he's got a little bit of pollen on his beak on the tip of his beak So as as they're going from flower to flower they're moving pollen around and pollinating pollinating the flowers and Yeah, I need some of those they're apart for my My my fruit i'm needing pollinators. Maybe I can get some of those Beaked birds to fly over to my house. Yeah, we have to get rid of the mosquitoes first Unfortunately the mosquitoes. Okay, so here's this is this dapple. This is amazing shot With the sky behind but there those feathers are this is an even younger one and he's still got that's why he's still got his gray Downy feathers on his breast that you can see there and even on his thigh So he's really young. He's probably this could be the could have been the first time out of the nest Um because he was coming down and looking at me and both his parents were up above in the branch above You know above him like squawking at him madly and probably telling him stay away from that thing down there Which is me So are you are you generally that close like you're down on the ground Right by the tree and and the birds are okay with you being that close If you're lucky enough. Yeah, if you're lucky enough and you and you're patient enough now this one I hadn't seen before um your photos the kiawaya Um, yeah, this is the bristle thigh curlew and they're not year-round residents To hua ii. So you just see them seasonally Now summertime they're they've they're flown here from the mainland or alaska wherever it is they're coming from Um, kind of like the coleas, you know, which is why away. Where do these ones live? Um, well again the summertime they're here in the rest of the year. I mean they're Up. I'm not exactly sure on the bio. Where would I find one in hua ii on oahu? Um, this was taken that one was taken at james camville national wildlife refuge out in kahuku I see so and then during this season and that was taken Um, that was actually taken at the end of the season there That was in december end of the year end of last year And so it was like they opened it up on the weekends When it's not nesting season so it's closed now So the but you can go on the weekends when it's when it's open from like october to the end of the year and You can go on a little tour You had some some pictures of that on your um your instagram feed. So I haven't been there I want to check that out. So the um, so this bird comes um, see the name again The uh, kiauea kiauea. Okay. I looked at that and there were no Uh glottals or uh anything and I just couldn't figure out how that was going to come up kiauea Okay, so what did they eat? Um, you know, they're going after like little sand crabs or little mussels or or things. Yeah, and this is another seabird. Yeah, this is the um kua eula the red tailed tropic bird Um, these are actually you more commonly you see the white tailed tropic birds flying up High, but these are the red tails and they're a little they're a little more endangered. Um, at least on a wahoo their main population is out near um Between coco head and coco crater and sandy beach out there near halona blowhole along the coast Yeah, and they just um, they're just kind of finishing up their breeding season now. Um, so then Probably the rest of the year they might be out to sea and you won't see them much Okay, so if one goes out to vava malo now You could see there might still be a few um with chicks that haven't fully fledged yet But yeah, and do they nest are they ground nesters also? Yeah, so they're also The um that a lot of our most of our seabirds are and so um that makes them really susceptible to things like rats or cats or dogs You know feral cats or even you know people go like what happened out at a point where people Walked out there with their dogs and they just Right decimated 15 or more or laser and albatross because They're defenseless against those kind of things Um, up next we have the um the The ducks. Yes, our uh Koloa maoli our hawaiian duck are endangered Um, most of the ducks on on all the islands except kawaii Um, are kind of are you are mostly hybrid hybridized with uh introduced mallard ducks Um, these were taken at um again at kawainui here on oahu and kailua kawainui marsh Um, so they're probably hybridized to some degree kawaii again has the most number of native ducks that are still Pure or mostly pure and how how are we controlling that? um The the only way to control it really is to um is to well Yeah, because there's been ducks that have been introduced Uh mallards and other species. It's it's kind of tough. They're already out there in the wild Um, so can they fly in rylan can mallards fly from oahu to kawaii for instance? Um, they probably can yeah, and they probably have um, but Um, but most of those um were the ones we have were probably introduced for Either pet trader or whatever we we had we raised them as a kid. I had no idea Yeah, so don't bring mallards in bring the white ones in because they don't mix or probably not But they they might they might just just the mallards somehow they're close enough to the mallards Well, the other species might be able to i'm not sure on the biology after that's a real expert So how how much time do you get to spend out in the out in the wild with these beautiful things? Um, not as much as i'd like probably not as much as i used to on maui But uh, because that was more part of my day job But i do um try to go out on the weekends in fact And these are the these are ones that are close to your day job. These are manuoku. Yeah, these are manuoku chick or white fairy turns This is a indigenous seabird native Again, it's all over the tropics, but um Here in honolulu. We're actually kind of lucky on oahu. We have the only Major colony on on the main islands hawaii islands the rest of them are all out on the northwest hawaii islands on places like midway or or leisanne But yeah, these are actually right in the state capital grounds or eolani palace grounds Um, they're capi eolani park uh manua the population is kind of growing has been growing since the early 60s And so, um, it's actually a growing population. So we'll see more of them I have uh Two two pairs in where I live at pia This year what is so extraordinary and I never I couldn't tell because I can't see up close like you can Um that that that that little branch that I mean somehow the the egg balanced on that branch and It hatched and this little chicklet is able to hand stay on that narrow little branch Yeah, they're they're that's the same bird that was in this previous shot It's the same chick and it's just a little younger here But they don't build nests these birds don't build build nests and they just lay the egg Right on a flat spot or a depression on the branch or on a building or on a rock or On the ground even on on the northwest hawaii islands But here they they tend to do it up in the trees where they're a little safer And yeah, the the chick will hatch right there at that spot where the egg was laid and stay there Pretty much until it's fledged Once it gets a little older, it'll start to move around up and down the branch a little bit, but It pretty much just hangs out right there and Until it gets fed and it gets its flight feathers Look at that. It's practicing already so adorable. It's just ridiculously cute So they are such a great um Mystery to me that they that that little chick can hang out on that narrow branch for For would she say six to eight weeks? Yep, about there a month and a half or so or a little bit more Wow um And they again are ones that are So the the big Pressures on on these birds seem seem to be cats and rats Cats and rats primarily and and mosquitoes and right and also yeah diseases for the for the forest birds Especially it's um avian diseases bird diseases spread by mosquitoes So we're going to wrap up with the Pueo Which has made the evening news last night. How's that? That's pretty neat. Yeah, I guess so where were these um these again? We're also um at haleakala national park uh, hawsburg grove This is the the headwaters of wikemoi gulch. They're right near the end of there the little nature loop trail they have Um, and it was just a pair of them us just flying around in circles around each other for a little while And I was managed to get a few shots That's that's pretty good. I mean I've seen Pueo from time to time on on different islands, but I've never seen A few of them at once Yeah, usually they're singly, but sometimes, you know, you'll have the pairs flying around each other Uh big island you can you can probably see a lot of them a lot of shots from the big island photographers Pueo and um, how's their habitat doing? They're doing a little better. I think they're they're raptors. Um, but they also the the main problem is their ground nesters also So they're not building a nest in a tree. They're on the ground. And so then they're also, uh, susceptible to predation from cats or dogs Thank you so much randy for coming and showing your gorgeous photos again your instagram fade is rtb 808 pics pix And um, you're um, you've started a a new venture which is the The Hawaii endangered Hawaii photography, right? That's what I'm kind of um, that's going to be a little bit of a side side job for me Thanks, randy. See you again soon. Thank you. Aloha. Aloha