Posted at 11:34 a.m., Tuesday, July 2, 2002
2 stilt chicks join Marine base habitat
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
The chicks are part of the base population that lives in its protected Nu'upia Ponds Wildlife Management Area. Although the population has grown from 60 birds in 1984 to about 124 today, each new chick is a cause for celebration.
Gordon Olayvar, a biological and wildlife technician for Marine Corps Base, Hawai'i, said the small island was part of an effort to improve the habitat around the management area.
The island, which is about 10 feet in diameter, sits in a pond between the 11th and 12th fairways of Kane'ohe Klipper Golf Course. Work on the habitat was only recently finished.
"They are well out of the way of any golfing," Olayvar said. "The golf course people put up a screen barrier part way around the pond."
Olayvar said the chicks hatched on two different days, but he's not exactly sure when. The second one hatched between Saturday afternoon and Monday, he said.
The Hawaiian stilt population on the base constitutes 10 percent of the state's population and is the largest on O'ahu.
Olayvar also discovered that the pond had attracted endangered koloa ducks and he counted nine new chicks at the water's edge.
"It's a real surprise," he said. "It's pretty neat."
The Marines have won praise for their efforts to safeguard the Hawaiian stilt population. Every year, their "Mud Ops" training exercise creates nesting material for the birds when the Marines churn through the management area with 27-ton amphibious vehicles.
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
