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One of the highlights of the 2022 Manu o Ku Festival was the unveiling of the Hui Manu o Ku’s new logo. We are very grateful to JoAnne Maney for working with us to come up with a design that captures some of what makes this bird so special. JoAnna is an award-winning Honolulu-based artist with a special interest in native birds. She has been painting and selling Hawaiian wildlife artwork locally since 2018. A lifelong artist and bird lover, she won her very first art contest with a bird illustration at the age of six. Most recently JoAnna was named as one of two winners of the 2022-2023 Hawai‘i Wildlife Conservation and Game Bird Stamp Art Contest by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DLNR DOFAW). Her Conservation Stamp artwork features the ‘i’iwi, the forest bird that prompted her passion with native Hawaiian species. We are very grateful for JoAnna’s willingness to so generously share with the Manu o Ku Ohana this expression of her creative talents and passion for Hawaii’s native birds. You can visit JoAnna’s website at www.wanderingfinch.com or follow her on Instagram @wandering_finch to see more of her work. She generously donates 10% of sale profits to local bird conservation efforts.  Heads up to all White Tern watchers! There recently was a rare sighting of a banded tern at UH which very fortunately Melody Bentz documented in this photograph. We have banded dozens of chicks over the past 6 years as part of our study of White Tern breeding behavior on Oahu and this is the first one that we have seen as an adult. Most of the terns we have banded have a red plastic band on one leg and a silver metal one on the other. We banded this tern as a chick in October 2019 in the tree where it hatched in the courtyard of the Biomedical Building on the UH campus. Melody saw and photographed it as an adult near the SOEST building. When photographed it was near a chick but it’s not clear at this point if it’s a parent of the chick. Adult terns that are approaching breeding age sometimes show an interest in chicks that aren’t their’s which would be consistent with a White Tern this age (approximately 3 years). If you see this tern with a red band with the number 82 please call or text the Manu o Ku Hotline at 808-379-7555. Actually, please call the hotline if you see any banded tern; there are over 100 of them that we know about and we are very interested in sightings of any of them.  Mark your calendars! The 7th annual Manu o Ku Festival will be held on the grounds of the Iolani Palace on Saturday, May 7. Activities kick off at 10:00 AM with displays and activities for the family running till 2:00 PM. This year during the runup to the festival there will also be activities every day May 1-6 at the Internaitonal Market Place. Check out the festival webpage for the complete program. Hope to see you there!
https://www.conservehawaii.org/manuokufestival2022/ We have two walks scheduled for February, both beginning at the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki. We will meet at 9AM under the large banyan tree near the stage located on the makai side of Kalakaua Avenue across from the intersection with Seaside Avenue. Parking is available in the parking garage attached to the International Market Place, across Kalakaua and accessed from Kuhio Avenue. The dates for the walks are:
- Saturday, February 19, 2022 - Sunday, February 27, 2022 RSVP by text to 808-379-7555 and please bring a mask. After a long COVID-induced pause we are resuming the popular White Tern Walks. We have three walks scheduled for December and January, all beginning at the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki. We will meet at 10AM under the large banyan tree near the stage located on the makai side of Kalakaua Avenue across from the intersection with Seaside Avenue. Parking is available in the parking garage attached to the International Market Place, across Kalakaua and accessed from Kuhio Avenue. The dates for the walks are: - Sunday, December 19, 2021 - Sunday, January 16, 2022 - Sunday January 23, 2022 Please note that we will be limiting the number of participants for each of these walks to 15. Text 808-379-7555 to reserve your place. Also, masking will be REQUIRED since we wonʻt be able to observe social distancing during the walks and speaking so as to be heard above the background noise involves the risk of aggressive expelling of respiratory droplets.  Check out last Thursday's Manu Minute episode where Susan Scott talks with HPR's Savannah Harriman-Pote about the White Terns breeding in the big banyan at the International Market Place.
A big thanks to Savannah Harriman-Pote and Hawaiʻi Public Radio for the spot on our White Tern Citizen Science project during the episode of The Conversation aired yesterday. Thanks also to volunteer Matthew Saunter for meeting up with Savannah to explain how we survey using our online tools. And thanks to Gloria Tumulak Amit Rabanal and Raiden for letting us know recently about the new nesting tree in the parking lot at Don Quixote’s that was featured in the story. I’m sure our Manu o Ku appreciate the efforts of so many on their behalf!
You can listen to yesterday’s The Conversation at https://n.pr/3y0ZSFo . The story on our citizen science project starts at 19:15 in the episode. White terns and the Hui Manu-o-Kū were featured in Hakai Magazine's Birdopolis, a three-part series that explores the lives of birds that are, by accident or design, spending more time in urban environments. Mahalo author Joe Spring for taking an interest and spreading the word about white terns! Click the link below to read the article.
www.hakaimagazine.com/features/honolulu-a-seabirds-surprising-five-star-destination/ How would you like to be part of the team that puts up the blue ribbons on trees around town where our Manu O Ku are nesting? We have immediate openings for volunteers who can help us put ribbons up when we receive reports of nesting activity and then to monitor the nesting spots so the ribbons can be removed when the chicks are able to fly. We’ll supply you with the tools you’ll need to find the trees, some of our special blue nesting tern ribbon and instruction on how to put up the ribbon and to monitor the nesting spots. We will ask that you commit to monitoring and eventually removing each ribbon you put up. That’s necessary to help us keep our commitment to DLNR that ribbons will only stay on trees as long as necessary to protect nesting terns. We’re offering a series of orientation Zoom sessions to describe the program to interested volunteers and to provide the training you’ll need to get started. In return you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping to protect our Manu O Ku while they breed in the trees around us! The first Zoom sessions are being offered this weekend, Saturday (6/5) at 4PM and Sunday (6/6) at 9AM. Register by sending an email to huimanuoku@gmail.com and indicate which session you’ll be attending. If you’re interested in joining the team but are unable to attend the training this weekend drop us an email at the above address and we’ll put you on the list for a future session.   |