Chapter 24: Saralinda

"Dang-"

"What's wrong?" Moira asked me.

"Oh, nothing. Gary and Mark have gone up ahead again, and I wanted to know if this cute little red bird is a, um, Apapane or an Iiwi, that's all,"

"Apapane – look at the bill color – Apapane have black bills; Iiwi's bills are orange and are even longer than the Apapane's."

My head whipped around to look at her. "I thought you said you weren't a birdwatcher..." I said, accusingly.

" ... so that makes me blind and stupid?" she retorted, challengingly.

We glared at each other for a second, before we simultaneously burst out laughing and I pulled her into a hug.

"Oh, Moira, I'm sorry," I told her.

"It's okay – you probably got it from Gary. He told you nobody's interested in birds, didn't he. Well I'll admit that I'm not all gung-ho like Gary about birds, and I have no desire to keep a "life list", and most seabirds look alike to me. I just can't get excited about a Wilson's Storm-Petrel being subtly different than a Leach's Storm-Petrel – geez – I can't even tell they're storm-petrels. But when Gary goes birding on land, I'll tag along for the hike and to see the plants and the lizards and the bugs and stuff. And I'll definitely look at birds, especially ones as cool as these bright-red gems here. I've been on Hawaii a couple of times with Gary, and I've learned these ones. I just wish I could remember the name of this vine, though – the one with the purple flowers..."

After that, Moira and I walked along behind Gary and our guide, Mark. She showed me some of the plants and lizards and bugs, and we both looked at birds.

That morning I'd needed Moira's help to get ready, as almost everything I was wearing was brand new. Even the idea of hiking was new. I really didn't know how to get ready for this walk or hike, or whatever. New hiking shoes, new socks, new long pants, new vest, new hat ... About the only thing I'd known to do was put on panties in the morning after our shower.

Gary had been all business, getting us ready. Room service delivered us breakfast and also three lunches ready to go, plus bottled waters. We each had a daypack. Moira hadn't been able to find the sunscreen and was scurrying around after it. I found my binoculars and the little Hawaiian bird guide and a notebook that Gary had gotten me, and a pen. It was so early, I couldn't stop yawning, but we made it out the door on time. Gary drove, and I fell back asleep. We'd started early!

Mark had met us at the visitor's center, and he and Gary had immediately started talking birds. Moira and I were, like, completely forgotten. I guess this was pretty typical, as Moira rolled her eyes at me as if to say that it was just the way Gary was. Gary had apparently asked to have their top birdwatcher lead us, and Mark seemed to have answers for almost all of Gary's questions.

I guess you could call it a jungle in there, I don't know. It sure was beautiful, and unlike anything I ever remember seeing, except maybe in National Geographic. There were waterfalls, and the trees were funny because some of them were sort of wide and flat on top. Moira was really good at pointing things out. To me, everything seemed kind of evenly unfamiliar. It was like I couldn't see it. Then Moira would point to a tree and announce that we hadn't seen one of those before, and I'd look around and sure enough, it was different than what we'd been walking past before. Trees, flowers, bugs – Moira was seeing them all, and to me it was just a jungle, until she saw things for me.

It made me feel young, like I was ten or something. I remembered my mom taking me to the beach at Golden Gardens Park at low tide and showing me the starfish, and the kelp, and the little fishes trapped in puddles until the tide rose...

I was pretty good at seeing birds, though, and between my little Hawaiian bird book and Moira, I'd managed to add five birds to my little notebook: Japanese White-eye, Northern Cardinal, Apapane, Iiwi, and Amakihi. Such funny names, but such pretty little birds.

After we'd walked for a couple of hours, Mark had us stop and eat a snack. It was still only about nine in the morning, but we'd left the hotel at six. Breakfast was so long ago, it felt like lunchtime. In fact, I wanted my sandwich, but Moira told me I needed to save it for later. I pouted a bit and ate my granola bar and an apple instead. When we were done, Mark led us on a smaller path. He told us to stay together and to be as silent as possible. We went through a locked gate, and then walked and walked and walked up this tiny trail up a steep hillside. I definitely got all hot and sweaty. The forest got really lush and darker. Gary quietly pointed out a Maui Alauahio, which looked to me a lot like the Amakihi. I wanted to ask how to tell them apart, and how to spell Alauahio, but I knew we were supposed to be quiet.

Suddenly, Mark froze and we all froze behind him. "Kikekoa", he whispered. "The Maui Parrotbill". Listen – there! You hear that?"

I wasn't sure what noise I was supposed to be listening for, but Gary nodded, looking half-excited but tense. Mark and Gary scanned the trees above us, They were slowly moving their heads, and cocking them at different angles. Then I heard a noise, and I could tell it was the right one, because both the men's heads turned towards that sound and they started staring into the trees above us to the right.

Then Moira, who was looking much lower down in the trees, and a bit off to the left, said quietly, "There it is. I'm looking right at it. Fat and greenish with a yellow eyebrow, and look at that bill. It's right there, maybe twenty feet away, facing left, just a bit below eye level, on a little branch. Quite out in the open. See it?"

"Yesss!" hissed an obviously excited Gary.

"Nice find," whispered Mark. "I think there must be two here, since that's not where the calls were coming from.

I was looking through my binoculars, trying to aim where Moira was pointing, but all I saw was leaves.

"See it, Saralinda?" asked Gary.

"Um, no," I confessed.

"Okay, put your binoculars down and look with your eyes. See that tree, about twenty feet out, the one that angles a bit to the left – the trunk is maybe a foot in diameter?" I nodded. "Okay, the bird is on the first branch on the left side, about three feet out from the trunk. It's sitting very still, facing left."