I was walking on the beach the other day and I heard what sounded like a crying baby and some moaning coming from a rocky slope nearby, what made the noises ?
A. These noises are coming from Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus). They are the most common Shearwater species in Hawai’i and return to land at dusk to dig a burrow, mate and to tend to their chicks. The calls they give off can mean different things at different times of the year. The peak time when the birds are noisiest and most obvious is in March and April when the birds have just returned to the breeding grounds and they are “sorting out” who is going to live where and with whom! The species can often be seen gathering in large flocks at dusk offshore and can be seen well at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, Kaua’i.
