Gray days

A helicopter emerges from the clouds off the Big Island, Hawaii
Two nene feed on a rainy day

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Gray.’ See more responses here.

The top photo is finally getting scheduled after being lined up for a previous Sunday Stills challenge with the theme of ’emerging.’ I was walking along the coast on a damp, gray day, when I heard a noise out over the water. I couldn’t see anything, but the noise got louder. Finally, this helicopter emerged out of the clouds. It looked like a military helicopter, which would have been the most likely thing flying in those conditions, and which tend to be louder than the average helicopter.

In the second photo, a pair of nene chow down on a strip of grass beside Upolu airstrip’s gray tarmac under an equally gray sky.

12 thoughts on “Gray days”

    1. Graham Post author

      Thanks Marsha. It’s not exactly fog, just a cloud at ground level, but it’s still dense. I usually see these conditions driving over the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, when clouds have settled on the road.

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      1. Marsha

        That’s thick, Graham, and yet you don’t call that fog? I think we do. When we were in Maui, one of the garden experts said that their biggest air concern was VOG and it was causing quite a breathing problem for some.

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        1. Graham Post author

          Fog and clouds are basically the same thing, but fog only occurs near the ground. When I think fog, I think of somewhere like San Fransisco, where it rolls in, but here this is more like clouds that come down to the water level. Vog is short for volcanic smog so it’s quite different. It’s basically the clouds of emissions from the volcano and it is definitely a problem for some people, especially those with respiratory conditions. However, the latest eruption has just been declared over, or paused at least, so that will provide some relief here, though emissions from this eruption were never very bad.

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    1. Graham Post author

      Ah, I forget to explain what they are, though most of the photos I run of them make it more obvious than this one. It’s a goose, endemic to Hawaii and also the state bird, but then you probably know that by now.

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      1. kzmcb

        Actually, Graham, when I google nene it comes up with nene chicken, a Korean dish. No mention of Hawaii. And your photo certainly didn’t seem to depict a chicken. Your explanation was very welcome, thank you.

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        1. Graham Post author

          That’s one of many reasons I don’t use Google! If you search for ‘nene Hawaii’ you should get better options. Or you can search it my blog since I have a whole rat of photos of them!

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