After wrapping up our Aquarium visit we decided to do a little exploring, Sandy had heard of a place with wild animals, like a sanctuary. I tried a google search on my phone but the only thing I could find was the Kealia Pond Wildlife Refuge. Off we went to check it out.
Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge is one of the few natural wetlands remaining in the Hawaiian Islands. Located along the south central coast of Maui, it is 691 acres of wetland which provides a home to the endangered Hawaiian coot.
Upon arrival it looked pretty quiet but there was a nice boardwalk so we decided to just take a walk. I wasn’t expecting anything special. Boy was I surprised.
The first bird we spotted was a “stilt”. These are striking black-and-white birds with very long, thin red legs, the Black-necked Stilt is found along the edges of shallow water in open country.
Once we spotted one, we began to see them all over. They were funny little birds with those long skinny legs and we had a lot of fun watching them as they hunted tiny minnows in the shallow water.
Sandy spooked one stilt and when it took off it spooked another bird. This time it was a heron of some type. I thought it was a green heron but some folks came a long with a bird book and said it was a Black Crested Night Heron.
What ever it was, it was a willing subject for a photo shoot once he roosted again. He stayed put while I snapped away.
There were a number of white egrets. According to history these are cattle egrets.
They are an invasive species brought to the island by man to control such pests as fleas, ticks, flies and other cattle parasites.
Last but not least we came upon a pair of the endangered Coots. They are really cute little birds. They reminded me of the common mud hen in Florida but they don’t have the red coloring.
It would have been nice to walk further along the board walk but truth be told, both of us were getting tired and it was a very hot, sunny day. Time to wrap it up and head back to the car.
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