Driving towards Kawaihae, I noticed the inter-island barge a mile or two short of the harbor entrance. But instead of heading in, it was stooging around, going in circles or possibly figure eights. Clearly the harbor wasn’t ready to receive it. Still, there are many worse things that can happen than being obliged to make gentle loops off the coast of the Big Island on a beautiful sunny morning.
I was very pleased with this photo for several reasons. First is that I was lucky to notice the Japanese white-eye flitting through the foliage at all. Second is that I saw where it landed. Third is that I was able to focus in through a tangle of leaves and flowers. And fourth is that this is the only shot I got before it took off again.
The Asian swallowtail butterfly (Papilio xuthus) is also known as the Chinese yellow swallowtail, and in my butterfly book, the citrus swallowtail. Whatever the name, this is the only swallowtail butterfly found in Hawaii, first sighted in 1971.
I see them mostly when I’m standing at the kitchen window, either preparing food or washing dishes. They seem to sense when I’m otherwise engaged and flutter by scenically. If I grab my camera and rush out, they’re always gone. For whatever reason, I hardly ever see them settle on a plant; they’re always flying.
This one was slightly less flighty than most and obliged by returning to the same plant several times.
Clerodendrum paniculatum is known as the pagoda plant. When I last visited Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden in mid July it seemed like there were fewer plants in bloom than when I’ve visited at other times of the year. But the pagoda plants were rampant and putting on quite a show.
For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Objects over 100 years old.’ (See more responses here.)
I can’t say for certain that this anchor and chain is more than 100 years old, but it almost certainly is. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, North Kohala was the center of the sugar industry with many plantations and several mills. This anchor likely dates from that time. It’s located in the bay where sugar used to be loaded onto ships.
I suspect the anchor isn’t lost from a ship, since it’s located in shallow water close to shore, with the chain leading out to deeper water – the opposite arrangement of how a ship would normally anchor. Instead, I think the anchor and chain were part of an offshore anchoring system used at the harbor. A ship would drop its anchor from the bow in deep water and attach to the anchoring system from the stern. This would keep the ship fairly stable and make the transfer of cargo, from small boats, easier.
After the sugar industry shut down, a lot of buildings and equipment were abandoned, and in the water, the anchoring system was left to rust.
I was watching some fish in fairly shallow water when, below them, I noticed this eel tucked away in a groove in the rock. It looked different to anything I’d seen before, but often the young of a species can look very different to the adults. However, a browse through my fish book showed it’s a dwarf moray eel, which doesn’t grow to more than 12 inches long. The clinching feature, which can be seen in this photo, is the dark bar through its eye.
Dwarf morays are fairly common in Hawaii, but because of their size and their reclusive nature they’re not often seen. This was as far as this eel emerged from of its hiding place so I was happy to get this shot.
I think the pinkish pincushion next to it is a rock-boring urchin, which gets its name from the fact that it can bore into solid rock by scraping with its spines and teeth. A second of these urchins can be seen in the little recess below the main one.
Just a straightforward ‘Spot the katydid’ photo. I was sorting some older photos and I had to look at this one more than once to figure out what was going on.
This is where they get the milk to make chocolate ripple ice cream. Fact.
Graham's Island 