Marty and John Hirth, fellow tweetsters,

Thanks to Marty and John for a very interesting report on their Hawaii
visit. I love reading reports like this of places I would like to visit. A
copy goes in my files for future reference.

More immediate, one part was of particular interest to me:

>At Aimakapa Pond and the Kona sewer ponds (snip) one Pied->billed Grebe
among other waterfowl. It was a bit sad to see the >Grebe, the last
survivor of what was once a sizable colony at the >site.

Pied-billed Grebes first showed up as vagrants on Hawaii in 1974. Two showed
up in 1983 and again in 1984 and established the colony Marty and John refer
to. A good example of:

a) the capability of what is generally considered a poor flyer to migrate
long distance over water;

b)colonization of islands by a "new" species (I put the new in parenthesis
because who knows how many times in the past a few Pied-bills made it there
and nested for a number of years).

The information that there is only one remaining Pied-bill at Aimakapa Pond
is particularly timely, since the first draft of the Birds of North America
Pied-billed Grebe account is still in the editing phase.

By any chance, do any of your capable Hawaiian guides have emial so I can
contact them for additional information? I would be much obliged.

Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com