The first stop was seawatching at the Makapu'u Lookout on the southeastern tip of the island. Among the numbers of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and Red-footed Boobies, we found Brown Booby, Brown Noddy, Sooty Tern, and my first Red-tailed Tropicbird, which more than lived up to its expectations.
The next stop was Keaiwa Heiau State Park in search of Mariana Swiftlet. A mile or so out the Aiea Loop Trail, we hiked a short distance out the Aiea Ridge Trail to where the ridgetop dropped off very steeply down both sides and watched for the bird from there. All of a sudden, a Swiftlet zipped past within 10 feet of us! We stayed a little longer to see if any others might fly by, but none did. Along the trail, we found Japanese White-eye, White-rumped Shama, Red-billed Leiothrix, O'ahu 'Elepaio, and O'ahu 'Amakihi.
From Aiea Heights, I got some long-distance looks at Pearl Harbor and Aloha Stadium, which is where the Pro Bowl is played.
We grabbed something to eat before heading for the Honolulu Airport where we boarded our late afternoon Hawaiian Airlines flight to Kaua'i.
Day 2 (continued) ---- Birding on Kaua'i
We landed in Lihue, Kaua'i and picked up our Hyandai SUV. Since we were running out of daylight, we drove over to nearby Nawiliwili Harbor. There, we spotted Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Red-footed Booby, Cattle Egret, Pacific Golden-Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Zebra Dove, and Rose-ringed Parakeet. We spent the night in Lihue.
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