Nature's Friends

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Last night my wife and I took our grandchildren to see the movie My Penguin Friend. Set in Brazil, it is based on the true story of an old man who saved a South American Magellanic penguin that he found washed up on a beach, almost dead and covered in oil. The man cleaned the penguin and nursed him back to health, the penguin only leaving 11 months later when a fresh plumage had grown.

From then on, for the next 8 years, the penguin, named Dindim, would return to spend 6 to 8 months with the old man. DinDim’s swim up the eastern coast of South America to see his old friend was 5,000 miles.

While not the same close friendship, I couldn’t have been happier this morning when I stepped outside.

Each year the Pacific Golden Plovers (kōlea in Hawai’ian) migrate from Alaska to Hawaii, arriving towards the end of August. Their journey is quite incredible considering their tiny size, that they cannot swim (most of the journey is over water), cannot glide (so those wings are flapping all of the way), the distance that they have to travel (2000+ miles), and the navigation prowess that they use (with all the above considerations, one simple error or adverse weather conditions can mean the end for this little bird).

I always look out for the return of these migratory birds each August.

Well this morning, with grey clouds building and rain falling as Tropical Storm Hone approaches the Hawai’ian islands, especially The Big Island of Hawai’i today, there was a Pacific Golden Plover on our driveway. I don’t know if it the same one that we see on our property each winter, or just a random one taking a well earned breather from its long journey? Either way, I was more than happy to see this little creature back on Hawai’ian shores.

As we move through the coming days and weeks, I’m sure that I’ll see more of the birds as they arrive here. I hope that they are not blown off course and are able to navigate around the Tropical Storm Hone and Hurricane Gilma as those two storms cross the Pacific.

And the coincidence of the Golden Plover’s arrival on the back of seeing the movie last night was not lost on me.