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A Plover's Journey
Its name, Kolea, captures the rhythm of its wistful call
© Mick Thompson
Pacific Golden-Plovers, known as Kolea, winter in grassy, open areas of the Hawaiian islands by the tens of thousands. The birds return each fall to the same patch. Kolea spend nine months in Hawaii, but by late April, they form large flocks and head north, over the Pacific Ocean to, as the poet W.S. Merwin described it: “somewhere they had loved before they knew they loved it.” They breed in the far north of Alaska and Asia.
BirdNote®
A Plover’s Journey
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Sounds of the Pacific Golden-Plover]
While living in Hawaii, the poet W.S. Merwin likely encountered the Pacific Golden-Plover. This long-distance migrant winters in the Hawaiian islands and inspired Merwin to reflect on his own life in this poem:
“... homesickness that guides the plovers
from somewhere they had loved before
they knew they loved it to somewhere
they had loved before they saw it ...”
Tens of thousands of Pacific Golden-Plovers winter in the Hawaiian Islands, in grassy open areas. The birds return each fall to the same patch. In Hawaii, the plover is known as the “kolea,” (koh LAY uh) a name that captures the rhythm of its wistful call.
[Pacific Golden-Plover call, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/516983#_ga=2.30144184.645386105.15829…, 0.50-.57]
Kolea spend nine months in Hawaii, but by late April, they form large flocks and head north, over the Pacific Ocean to, as Merwin described it:, “somewhere they had loved before they knew they loved it.”
And when the kolea reach their breeding areas in the far north of Alaska and Asia, they sing.
[Pacific Golden-Plover song: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/137524#_ga=2.168402854.645386105.1582…, 2.01-2.06 or 3.42-3.48]
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
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Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Sallie Bodie
Editor: Ashley Ahearn
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. PAGP ML 137524 recordist G. Vyn 0:05 - 0:50 and 1:20 - end.
PAGP ML 516983 recordist L. Decicco 0:50 - 1:20.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2020 BirdNote July 2020 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# PAGP-02-2020-07-23 PAGP-02
[lines are quoted from W.S. Merwin, “Variation on a Theme”: https://poets.org/poem/variation-theme?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Re…
References include: http://www.susanscott.net/ow/the-kolea-are-set-to-depart-on-their-3000-…
https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/wildlife/files/2013/09/Fact-Sheet-Pacific_Golde…
https://honoluluzoo.org/kolea-pacific-golden-plover/
Sights & Sounds
