Eyes Of Hawaii Photography Club: James Campbell Wildlife Refuge Trip.
Heres a recap of my Saturday afternoon adventure out in Kahuku. I was down here at the James Campbell Wildlife Refuge Park with the our photography club, Eyes Of Hawaii. A handful of whoever was able to make it that day showed up here to get some photos of the birds and wildlife here. We were lead by volunteer Park Ranger, Dick Mays, who gave us a tour around the area. This was the second tour because the first one was difficult with bad weather and it was nearly impossible to get photos of anything. At least this day was near perfect and all the birds were out for us to get photos of them.
We started our tour around 2:30 and finished at 4:30, enough time for us to explore and see most of the park. There were many types of bird species here as Dick told us about, both non-native and native. Mostly a lot of ducks and water birds, for example Hawaiian Ducks, Stilts, and even the Nene Goose. This was a different scene of photos for me since I'm used to the landscapes, ocean, and portraits. I found it difficult to capture the birds since the only telephoto lens I had was my 75-300mm as compared to some of the members who have lenses that can zoom over 600mm at the most.
The park area here is very big and they share it with the various Shrimp Farms that occupy parts of this land. Back then it used to be all sugar cane fields and then converted into ponds to grow shrimp and other foods. Today, parts of the land thats owned by lease will most likely stay as aquaculture or continue to grow shrimp once that lease expires. As for the Wildlife Refuge, it will continue to remain a protected park since there are still many native and endagred birds here.
Overall this was a fun trip, especially since it was my first photography club event outside of our normal monthly meetings. This was also a time to try out something new from my normal subjects I like to shoot, even give me some ideas on documenting Hawaii's wildlife. I'll also be looking into saving up money for a bigger telephoto lens hopefully sometime soon and not only use it for birds but also the surf too.
Dick Mays briefing the group as we were about to start the tour. He was very knowledgeable with the history of the park and the types of birds that inhabit here. He brought is spotting scope to help us identify the birds and spot anything we could get photos of.
Ducks are very common here, about a few species reside here, mostly the common Hawaiian Ducks and another species.
One of our members with his beast telephoto lens. I can only imagine how fun it is to walk around with that lens, at least the photos come out like National Geographic.
Walking out towards the Gazebo in the park. We did quite a lot of walking, we went in a circle around the area.
This is what part of the park looks like, mostly wetlands and marshes covered in plants like these. Not only was there birds but also fish, bull frogs, snails and craw fish living amongst the water. This entire place is a diverse and vast ecosystem, important to the island.
Ae'o (Hawaiian Stilt) a protected species of birds native to Hawaii.
Curlew
A' lae 'Ula (Common Moorhen) Is one of the native birds to Hawaii and known from the Hawaiian Mythology stories about Maui. You can spot them easily with there Red colored heads.
Modern world meets mother nature.
Nightherons are also common here, pretty big birds when they fly past you. They like to hunt for food along the water and anything else they can fit in their mouth.
The Gazebo out in the park. Much needed shade from the heat after walking around.
Almost similar to the Hawaiian Nene, these are Cackling and Canadian geese. These two species are almost the same but only one of them has a white ring around their neck. They fly here from mainland and like most of the other birds that fly from the mainland, they're coming here to escape winter.
A special afternoon out in Kahuku, I wish I could've gotten a shrimp plate or sweet corn, would've completed the day. Here's to the end of another Saturday and with this view, it seems like there is still hope for me to have good luck this year.
