Hawaiian Petrels Atop Haleakala

BirdNote^®   

Hawaiian Petrels Atop Haleakala

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

[waves on the beach]

As the sun sets off Maui, washing the ocean in crimson, a pair of Hawaiian Petrels calls. [“oo-ah-oo” calls of Hawaiian Petrel] Crow-sized seabirds with long, slender wings, the petrels sit at the mouth of their nest burrow, dug high in the rim of Haleakala volcano. 

[“oo-ah-oo” calls of Hawaiian Petrel]

One petrel flies out, winging rapidly toward the ocean. [wings] At the coast, it passes over a blowhole, where the sea explodes through a gap in the rocks.  

[“spouting horn”]

The petrel glides low over the dark ocean, snatching squid from the surface. This foraging flight may take two days, even a week. Then the petrel flies back to the nest at night, crossing above the surf line, [surf line] ascending to the mountaintop nest burrow.   

[“oo-ah-oo” calls of Hawaiian Petrel]

Here it feeds a single chick. [again, adult with chick] Hatched in July, the chick grows rapidly and in December will be ready to join the adult petrels for a life at sea. 

[wings followed by “spouting horn”]

“The soundscape[s] featured in today’s show were recorded by Gordon Hempton and provided courtesy of QuietPlanet.com”.  

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Wave on beach [Nature SFX 23]; bird in flight [wings 3 2012.12.01]; surf line [1999.08]; and spouting horn 3 recorded by Gordon Hempton of QuietPlanet.com.

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. “Oo-ah-oo” calls of Hawaiian Petrel [5899] recorded by L. King.

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org    August 2017   Narrator: Mary McCann

ID#   HAPE-01-2013-08-27HAPE-01 

https://youtu.be/oOvqbzLZ7gI