I’m off to Honolulu for the day, so this seemed appropriate. I won’t be flying with UPS though. It would actually be more expensive to fly with them since they charge by weight and/or size! I’ll be on the other plane or one very much like it.
Another orchid from the Hilo Orchid Show. Posted for Terri’s Flower Hour. See more responses here.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 225. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Finescale Triggerfishes line up to have their portraits taken.
Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge is ‘Festive Colors of Red and Green.’ See more responses here.
A couple of weeks ago, I hiked a section of the Pu’u O’o Trail, off Saddle Road. It’s one of my favorites on the island. The trail mixes old lava flows from Mauna Loa eruptions with kipukas, areas of old growth trees bypassed by those flows. These kipukas are home to several native bird species.
On this day, approaching a kipuka, the bird calls got noticeably louder. Clearly a lot of birds were active. I chastised myself for, once again, not remembering to familiarize myself with the different calls so I could identify the birds I was hearing. But I needn’t have worried. They were visible too, if prone to move about a bit too rapidly for my convenience!
This bird is the I’iwi and I saw more of them on this day than any other time I’ve been up here. I’iwis feed on several kinds of native flowers, many of which are found in these kipukas. The tangle of branches and the flighty birds made for tricky photography, but I was happy to get a few good shots out of the many that I took.
I know these aren’t Christmassy photos, but I was feeling pretty festive by the end of the hike!
The current on again, off again eruption at Kilauea, combined with on again, off again trade winds has resulted in on again, off again vog. This was an on again voggy view towards Hualalai from the mountain road.
Pololu is at the end of the main highway through North Kohala. It was popular with bike tour operators who would drop their clients in Hawi for the 15 mile round trip to Pololu lookout and back. However, the stretch from Kapaau is narrow and winding and the shoulder is slim to non-existent. It also gets a lot of traffic with people keen to see the views without getting all hot and sweaty. So after some accidents and more near misses, people lobbied to have the bike tours banned. This duly happened and is, on balance, a good thing I think.
I did like this sign, about 100 yards from the road end at Pololu. It seems a bit late to warn about the ban, but perhaps it’s meant to discourage tour operators from driving their clients to the end of the road and having them cycle back!
A Black Witch Moth finds a bit of shelter under the eaves. It was a sunny day, but the trades were blowing.
Graham's Island 