Last week, we visited Caly and the monitoring system do some repairs and maintenance. As usual, the scenery eclipsed time on the climb up the mountain to where Caly lives.
Photo credit: Elyse Butler
When we arrived, we got to work at the base station, where precision instruments measure environmental conditions and growth of native plants, allowing us to better understand how this ecosystem functions.
Photo credit: Elyse Butler
While working we were treated to a pleasant visit by a curious ‘elepaio, a native bird that is now a rare sighting on Oahu, found only on some of the high mountain peaks.
Photo credit: Alan Schmierer
We are relieved to have finally repaired Caly’s dendrometer so that we can continue to be able to observe growth of this very endangered haha. While we regret the instrument malfunction and our lack of ability to fix it right away, Caly has regained her spot as one of the the most well-monitored wild plants in the world!
We also did some maintenance on our camera housings to keep the images clean for everybody. You can always see the latest views at the click of a button!
Photo credit: Ryan Mudd
And while Caly's extravagant annual flowering event is still several months out, the plantcam team is already getting excited for this summer when most Cyanea species develop their flowers. With this in mind, we repositioned the infrared sensor trigger connected to our camera, as we hope to capture our amakihi fried coming down to sip some nectar again.
Photo credit: Plantcam
A hui hou
Plantcam admin