By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

The kolea, Hawai'i's original snow birds, have gone back to Alaska. I think they left ahead of schedule — that is, if you accept April 25 as their traditional departure date.

My kolea count at Ala Wai Park shows that some of them probably took off as early as April 16. By April 19, almost half of them were gone. The last one departed April 25.

For readers who haven't yet joined the Royal Hawaiian Society of Kolea Fans (second in enthusiasm only to fans of the University of Hawai'i volleyball Wahine), the kolea are elegant birds that have been flying down from Alaska every winter for tens of thousands of years.

If one picks your lawn, consider yourself of the elite. Kolea squat on the best real estate. Myna birds waddle. Kolea strut. In March, males put on their tuxedos in preparation for courtship in Alaska.

Milly in Manoa has been tracking a particular male kolea in her yard since 1992. This year, she said, she saw him last on April 20.

Milly said he was preoccupied during the last few days and wouldn't come when she went out to feed him.

Dr. Wally Johnson, who has been coming to Hawai'i for 20 years to research kolea, said the estimated visitor count each year for kolea on O'ahu is 30,000.

He has seen what he thinks was a departure for Alaska only once — in the spring of 1980 — at the Kane'ohe Marine base.

"I watched about 25 kolea spiral into the sky until they were just specks in my 10-power binoculars," he said. "To my surprise, they joined a big flock I hadn't noticed before flying very high, maybe 2,000 feet."

It is believed that kolea fly at about 60 mph. But nobody really knows how long it takes them to fly to Alaska or what route they take.

That is why Johnson has been attaching tiny radios to the backs of kolea he can catch. Volunteers have pitched in to help. This year, about 20 school classes and organization donated money to buy transmitters. Each bird carrying a radio gets a name.

In Alaska, volunteer bush pilots put antennae on their wing struts to help track kolea.

In Hawai'i, the Hawai'i Nature Center coordinates teams with radio receivers who try to find out when kolea leave and where they go.

Graduate student Gus Bodner has talked to about 600 schoolchildren in the state and thinks about 1,000 are counting kolea.

"Hawai'i is unique in its relationship between kolea and people," said Johnson. "Europe has its storks and the U.S., the bluebird. But nowhere else do are so many people fascinated by a migrating bird. Hawaiians have legends about kolea."

They'll be back in August. So watch for the first sighting, where the kolea roost at night, how many you see and the dates. I'll list some phone numbers then for you to share that information.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073 or e-mail him at bkrauss@honoluluadvertiser.com.