PO'IPU, Kaua'i — Students from two Kaua'i schools gave 11 Newell's shearwater birds a second chance at life as they were released one-by-one on a windy south side shoreline.

The endangered birds released Tuesday in the second annual "Blessing of the Shearwater Birds" (E Ho'opomaika'i ia na Manu 'A'o) wobbled a bit on adolescent legs, as students carefully placed them atop a wooden release box, facing an incoming sea breeze.

Fourth-graders from Island School whispered encouragements such as, "Come on, come on," or "I know he's ready." High school students from Ke Kula Ni'ihau o Kekaha took video and still photos and in their more restrained, teenage style watched for the liftoff.

The students and the wildlife officials erupted with "Yeah!" and gentle applause as each bird flew out to sea. Teams of three students each had hand-carried the birds from carriers in the back of a pickup truck to the release box.

30-year-old program

Kaua'i residents had brought the birds to "Save Our Shearwaters" boxes at Kaua'i fire stations and other locations. The program is 30 years old this year.

Usually the birds have been disoriented by electric lights, or have run into buildings and are found, dazed and confused, on the ground.

The 'a'o, or Newell's shearwater, is a sea bird, which spends most of its life on the open ocean, explained Nick Holmes, coordinator of the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife's Kaua'i Endangered Seabird Program. It comes ashore only to mate and lay eggs.

Birds picked up in the SOS program are generally fledglings, young birds that have just lost their baby down and are preparing to fly to sea for the first time, Holmes told the students.

Newell's shearwater "season" on Kaua'i is mid-September to mid-December, the time when the young birds head out to sea from their nests in ohi'a and uluhe forests on the mountains.

After their health is checked by a veterinarian and the birds fed and watered a few days, the program releases them again to the wild at a location where they can fly directly to the ocean without man-made obstructions.

"We're here to celebrate this really awesome bird," Holmes told the students at Tuesday's release. "This bird is a part of you as you are a part of this island."

Before the birds were freed, the Ke Kula Ni'ihau o Kekaha students chanted in Hawaiian to honor them. Many of the students, whose families are from the island of Ni'ihau, speak Hawaiian as a first language.

Sabra Kauka, a Hawaiian studies teacher at Island School, gave a short pule, or prayer, for the birds in Hawaiian. "I prayed for long life and good health and perpetuation for the birds, for the children, for the island and the sea," Kauka summed up after.

32,000 released

The Kaua'i Humane Society and Kaua'i Island Utility Co-operative co-operate in the Save Our Shearwaters program, with state Department of Land and Natural Resources oversight.

"This is one of the most successful conservation programs that we've got," said Holmes. "Thirty-two thousand birds have been released since 1979," he said.

Despite the program's success, however, the numbers of Newell's shearwaters have been declining over the past 15 years. Wildlife officials aren't sure why, but believe that damage to their upland nesting homes, and predators on land and possibly at sea, are a part of the picture, Holmes said.

Newell's shearwaters are endangered. They are a different species from the better-known wedge-tailed shearwater, which nests along coastlines and is not endangered.

Because the birds are long-lived and return to the place they were born to mate and raise their own young, a program like Save Our Shearwaters makes a difference, said Holmes.

"It was fun," said Julia Randolph-Flagg from Island School. She promised that if she sees a downed bird she'll tell her family how to take it to a drop box.

"It was kinda hard because of the claws," said Cambria Ort, also of Island School. "But I felt like I had to hang on."

Joseph A. Kanahele Jr., of Ke Kula Ni'ihau o Kekaha, proclaimed the event, "epic. It was pretty cool."