Our Honolulu
Have you seen your kolea yet?
By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist
My phone is ringing off the hook with reports that the kolea, Pacific golden plover, are back from Alaska.
So many people greet this annual event with enthusiasm that the Hawai'i Tourism Authority should list the return of the kolea every year on the special events calendar along with Aloha Week and the bon dance season.
Whenever anybody sees his or her first kolea of the year, it becomes a historic occasion, bragging rights to kama'ainaship.
There's no reason you can't join this exclusive club; no dues, no officers, no meetings. However, you will be required to get out of your car and breathe fresh air. No self-respecting kolea would get within sighting distance of an SUV.
Also, you must be able to distinguish between a kolea and a myna bird, nearly the same size. Myna birds waddle and hop, bobbing their heads. Kolea twinkle on toothpick legs, slender necks elegantly erect. Like mynas, they hang out on lawns.
One reason so many see the "first" kolea of the year is that the golden plover don't come back all at once like Hawai'i students from Mainland colleges on summer vacation.
As I remember, the first call this year came on Aug. 8 from Salt Lake. The next day I spotted my first kolea of the year at Ala Moana Park.
By this time, kolea have occupied all the most expensive real estate in town — the 'Iolani Palace and the State Capitol lawn and the Kawaiaha'o churchyard. It's a known fact that they prefer upscale golf courses.
Researchers in 1992 counted 124 kolea at O'ahu Country Club and 106 at Wai'alae, home of the Hawai'i Open, but only three at Bay View Golf Links and two at Honolulu Country Club. Dr. Wally Johnson says this is reasonable because it takes a while to colonize new habitats.
That's the scientific view. Mine is that kolea prefer luxury like everybody else.
What makes the return of kolea from Alaska like old home week is that they return to the same place every year. To have a kolea choose your lawn as a winter resort is an honor you can't buy.
Royal Fruehling in Manoa e-mailed last week: "I briefly spotted my first kolea of the season yesterday afternoon. I am assuming this is our very own kolea. This will be her third year here."
If you don't have a lawn, you can go out and adopt a kolea. Mine hangs out where Manoa Stream flows into the Ala Wai across from Ala Golf Course. I was afraid something had happened to him this year until he turned up last weekend. He's the only one who lets me get within 10 feet.
Mary Ono at the Punawai Clinic in Waipahu called to say her kolea near the triangle park on Diamond Head Road isn't back yet. But she spotted one Friday by the clinic parking lot at Waipahu where there'd never been one before.
Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.
