July Newsletter 2024

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Volunteer Edition

Tom releasing a koa'e kea / White-tailed Tropicbird.

With a small year-round team, SOS relies on the helping hands of our volunteers to help keep things running smoothly. We want to give a special thank you to one of our most dedicated volunteers, Tom Bovee, as he has retired from SOS to enjoy more time with his husband! He and his husband, Andy, started volunteering with SOS in 2017 after moving to Kaua’i in their retirement. Tom has done everything from cleaning to class visits and repairs on our aid stations; he has helped in every corner of SOS’s work. In just the past three years he has donated over 485 hours of volunteering - that's the equivalent of over 20 days of nonstop work!

Mahalo nui loa, Tom! Everyone here is going to miss our weekly chats with you. You brought such appreciation for not only us as individuals, but for the work SOS does as a whole. We appreciate all of your help over the years and you will always be a part of our SOS ʻohana.

Patient Spotlight

ANP245 flying around our conditioning pool prior to release. Her leg healed beautifully, and she was released on 7/26/24.

Volunteering at SOS isn’t all cleaning and laundry. Our patient highlight from last month’s newsletter, the adult koa‘e kea / White-tailed Tropicbird, was an SOS and volunteer team effort. Our Senior Program Manager saw the bird on her way home from work, heading into her weekend. She was able to hand off the bird to our volunteer, Carol, who lives just down the street! Carol was kind enough to keep the bird in a safe, quiet spot at her house until our Rehabilitation Manager could pick up the bird and provide overnight care. There are a lot of moving parts at SOS, and we often seek assistance from our volunteers for transporting birds so we can remain on-site for bird care. In July, almost a quarter of our birds were brought to SOS by our volunteers! They are the best and we can never thank them enough!

Want to help transport birds during Fallout Season (September 15-December 15)? You can sign up to be bird chauffeur for the 2024 season! These volunteers are responsible for checking aid stations for birds along their assigned routes. There are two main route options: from Hanalei to SOS or from Kekaha/Waimea (day of week depending) to SOS. For more details on what this volunteer role involves, visit our Instagram post, or check out last month's newsletter!

Behind the Scenes

Sprucing up one of our outdoor pens with native plants was one of the many things crossed off of our to-do list.

Here at SOS we feel like our volunteers are family- and sometimes they actually are! This month our Senior Program Manager’s mother, Georgette, helped with several of our projects while she visited island. She helped transport birds, crossed errands off our list, planted new native plants in our outdoor housing (shout out to KISC for the donated plants!), and so much more! Along with the help of another of our other volunteers, Jackie, our crate washing area also got a small renovation.

If you are interested in volunteering, some of our remaining projects include repairs to our pool deck and getting on top of weeding and lawn care. You can always count on crates to clean and birds to transport as well! Head over to our website to enquire about volunteer opportunities!

Conservation Corner

Volunteer Opportunities

Check out these other Kaua‘i organizations accepting volunteers!
Waipa Foundation
National Tropical Botanical Gardens
Koke‘e Resource Conservation Project

SOS is an Unincorporated Nonprofit Association and fiscally sponsored by the Hawai'i Wildlife Center, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt, non-profit organization.

As the only Federal and State permitted wildlife facility on Kaua‘i, Save Our Shearwaters provides life-saving care to Hawai'i’s native birds in need. When you donate, you help us continue to rescue, rehabilitate, and release native wildlife. Mahalo nui loa from all of us at SOS (our feathered friends included)!

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July Newsletter 2024

Volunteer Edition

Patient Spotlight

Behind the Scenes

Conservation Corner

7370 Kuamoʻo Rd

Kapaʻa, HI 96746

(808) 635-5117

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