Tag Archives: Kilauea lighthouse

Kīlauea Point Lighthouse Centennial

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May 1st was the 100th Anniversary of the Kīlauea Point Lighthouse – an auspicious date, not least because it’s also my brother’s birthday (though he’s a tad younger!) 😉

With the lighthouse fully restored to its former glory after over two years of intensive restoration from top to toe, this year’s Centennial celebrations were particularly special.

It was a packed week of activities from Wednesday May 1, when the lighthouse was re-opened for back-to-back guided tours, through Sunday May 5, when the town of Kīlauea hosted their community parade and huge open-air party, to celebrate the town’s 150th Anniversary.

Louise BarnfieldI was one of the lighthouse guides who thoroughly enjoyed sharing its history and the incredible restoration work with our visitors.

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Until about four years ago, when it was closed for safety reasons, the lighthouse was open for tours just once a year, on Lighthouse Day, the first Saturday of May. Now we’re waiting to hear whether we will be able to offer tours on a more frequent schedule. It would certainly be sad if the inside couldn’t be enjoyed by more visitors, as it has a fascinating story to tell.

On Saturday May 4 the lighthouse was re-dedicated and re-named in honor of the late Senator Daniel Inouye who played a huge part in gaining sufficient federal funding for the restoration. The initial effort had come some years ago from just a few local enthusiasts who started a fundraising campaign and generously pitched in with the first donations. When Senator Inouye heard of the venture, he took a personal interest in supporting their efforts.

IMG_6128The full day of celebrations started with traditional songs and hula dancing, building up to the early evening dedication ceremony with the hauntingly beautiful opening and closing chants that sandwiched a number of emotional speeches.

At dusk the light was lit (just a stationary light, the lighthouse is no longer operational and the lens doesn’t rotate). The crowd watched as darkness fell and the beam strengthened.

At the same time, the wedge-tailed shearwaters were returning to roost after a long day at sea. They buzzed over our heads as they swooped down into their burrows deep in the naupaka that surrounds Kīlauea Point, and the air was filled with their cries (captured at the end of the video below). Apart from this one day a year the refuge closes at 4pm, deliberately to leave it to the birds, so this was a special experience.

Striptease at Kīlauea Point

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It been an exciting week at Kīlauea Point!

After almost 4 months of extensive ‘undercover’ renovations, the lighthouse has been disrobed.

It was tough having to mollify numerous visitors, many of whom had traveled thousands of miles hoping to view the lighthouse only to find it shrouded from railing to grass.

Of course, we have had our various seabirds to distract them, and in particular the wedge-tailed shearwater chicks that have featured in more than one recent post; but, for just a few of the most curmudgeonly, even those weren’t sufficient diversion.

This week, however, all that’s changed!

The lighthouse has been stripped naked, and it’s looking glorious!

As we watched the scaffolding being removed on Wednesday afternoon, bit by laborious bit, I was surprised how elated I felt.

When I returned the following afternoon, all the scaffolding was down and being cleared from the site. There is still some work left inside before the week-long centennial celebrations that start on May 1, 2013, but the renovations are currently comfortably ahead of schedule.

The added bonus this week is the return of the albatross.

The first arrived on Sunday, and we currently have four birds on Albatross Hill, to the west of Kīlauea Point.

They’re not easy to see, even with binoculars, from the Point, but I was treated to a brief hike over the hill with one of the staff on Thursday, before I went ‘on duty’.

KP184 was the most accessible of the four, though we were careful to keep our distance, so I was grateful for my zoom lens. Interesting how she it settled down in a semi-seated position. Still, it’s perhaps not surprising if she it was a tad weary after her long journey from Alaska.

Why ‘she’ and ‘her’? Because she’s banded on the left leg. Females are banded on the left, males on the right (except when the rangers very occasionally get it wrong!) 🙂  (see correction below)

Stop Press: Knowing that several albatross had arrived at the refuge, I’d been excitedly anticipating the return of our Princeville ‘residents’; today we had news of the first arrival. My neighbor and fellow Refuge volunteer, Cathy Granholm, has studied our local albatross for many years; she regularly checks the nests in yards and golf courses throughout Princeville, keeping detailed notes, and her blog is full of wit and wisdom. She takes a rest from blogging while the albatross are away, from August to November, so I was delighted to read her first post of the season today, and am looking forward to many more informative and entertaining posts over the next few months.

*CORRECTION*

I’m indebted to Cathy, not only because she bothered to read my post ;), but also because she quickly set me right about the banding. It seems that they can’t band albatross females and males differently, because the only definitive way to confirm the sex is by taking a feather and doing a DNA test. Apparently, all their ‘personal bits’ are very well hidden, on both genders!

It is true that the nēnē (Hawaiian geese) are banded left-leg for females, right-leg for males, and I had been reliably (I thought) informed the same method was used for the albatross. However, in the interests of retaining good relations, I will refrain from disclosing my source; suffice to say that, at the time, I was confident the information was accurate. Now I’m beginning to understand how the Beeb and Newsnight got themselves into such deep doodoo! 😦

Saturday’s free-for-all at the Refuge

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Free admission to the Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, that is!

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KPNWR entranceIn case it escaped your notice(!), last Saturday was National Public Lands Day (NPLD), as so eloquently proclaimed by our President. In recognition of the occasion, the Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge offered a fee-free day.

While kids age 15 or under have free admission every day, our fee-free days are a big deal for all the bigger kids, no age limit.

Nene - Hawaiian State BirdNPLD also coincided with our Nēnē Awareness Day. So, this was an opportunity to showcase our State Bird, the nēnē (Hawaiian Goose) , and educate and entertain our visitors with relevant information and activities.

The rangers did a great job of preparing for the event.

Nene walkOne of my favorite features was the Nēnē Walk. (OK, it doesn’t look quite so great in my photo, what with the fencing and poop, and the fact you can’t read the cards…perhaps you had to be there!)

As visitors wandered from the entrance along the pathway to the lighthouse, the rangers had laid a number of nēnē cards, each with a snippet of information. For example, I was shocked to discover that in 1949 the nēnē population was down to a mere 30! Today? Somewhere around 2,500! They are still endangered, but it’s a remarkable success story so far. [For those friends in California, the nēnē is not the same as the pesky canada goose. The nēnē is protected and revered, as opposed to being regarded as a noisy, messy pest!]

Matt, Forestry and WildilfeMatt, from the State Division of Forestry and Wildlife was on-site to provide nēnē banding information. Kids were ‘banded’ in the same way…well, not quite…they were given a temporary paper band around their wrist, rather than a permanent plastic band around their ankle; still, like the nēnē, girls were banded on the left wrist, and boys on the right.

The ‘tattoo’ station was also very popular, and not just with the children. Many adults proudly displayed their temporary tattoos to me as they left.

Save our ShearwatersVolunteers also manned an exhibit highlighting the Save our Shearwaters campaign. On Kauai, there is particular concern at this time of year for the Newell’s shearwater fledglings who are often disorientated by lights, particularly bright lights pointing upwards. The wedge-tailed shearwaters fledge a little later, in November. With increased awareness of the plight of these endangered seabirds, and to avoid violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), night-time roadworks and other floodlight activities cease each year between September 15 and December 15.

Another reason for celebration on Saturday, was the $25,000 check that Kīlauea Point Natural History Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received from Hampton Hotels, as part of their Save-A-Landmark program. The donation will be used for the ongoing Kīlauea Lighthouse Restoration.

The Kīlauea Lighthouse is the 60th site to be acknowledged by the company since Save-A-Landmark was launched in 2000, and was selected in 2011 for the award through a national voting campaign in which Hawai‘i residents and lighthouse supporters from around the world cast more than 25,000 votes on its behalf. A pretty impressive feat by such a tiny state!

Kilauea LighthouseThe lighthouse is in full renovation mode at the moment, with its body covered for lead-based paint removal and installation of new windows (the original openings having been bricked up in the 1930’s). The plan is to have it completed, and returned to its original splendor, prior to its centennial celebration on May 1, 2013 (which coincidentally is my brother’s birthday…think about it, bro, that could be quite a birthday party for you!)

* Thanks to US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for the nēnē photo, and Kīlauea Point Natural History Association (KPNHA) for many of the details above. ‘Like’ them on Facebook to keep track of future activities.