Wildlife of Kauai

 

OK, he doesn't look wild but the island is covered with wild chickens. It seems during Hurricane Iniki in 1992, all the chicken coops were destroyed and SET THE CHICKENS FREE!!!! and they have been roaming the island ever since. These roosters talk. They start talking about 3 a.m. and have conversations with their neighbors that go on till the sun sets. I won't mind not hearing a rooster crow for a very long time.

 

This fellow on the other hand is very quiet. He is an endangered monk seal and they come up on the land during the day to rest/ sleep and get themselves back into the water in the evening. We saw four during our first week but none the second week. There are volunteers who put signs and ropes around them so mindless tourists don't trip over them. We called it the "seal parking lot". This guy was working his way back into the water. You can see his trail

I just found some more info on them. They dive as deep as 400 feet to feed and are considered the most primitive seals in the world (would that be like Grandma Moses?) with ancient antisocial behaviors. Unlike other seals they don't come ashore in large numbers.

 

This guy really looked a lot more like ET than in this picture. Actually it almost looks a bit obscene. Now quite sure what it is but it was interesting.

Then we have this beautiful creature. He was out for a walk with his owner who made a stop at the fish market and parked his parrot on the customer parking sign. He was very well behaved and liked the photo shoot.

 

The real wildlife is the ocean. All these signs were on the path to my favorite beach Kahalahala Beach (more pictures of that another day). I love the images especially the shore break fellow. It was the most intimate beach but the waves definitely let you know who was boss - and this is in the mild season - they get REALLY big in the winter. I still love it the best. Unfortunately we didn't discover it till the second to the last day. We must return to enjoy it more.