Author Archives: Graham

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About Graham

I take photos when I'm out and about, recording life on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Pallid ghost crab

A Pallid Ghost Crab blends in with the sand.A Pallid Ghost Crab waits by the entrance ot its burrow.

This week’s WordPress photo challenge seeks distractions and for me, one thing that gets my attention is movement. I see something out of the corner of my eye and I wonder what it was, then try to find out.

In this instance, I was crossing a beach when I noticed bits of it get up and scurry away. Closer inspection revealed several of these pallid ghost crabs. They’re beautifully camouflaged, but if that cover is blown, they zip away, and I do mean zip. They take off like Usain Bolt, then stop and disappear again.

If that doesn’t work, say because some annoying individual with a camera stays hot on the trail, the crab will head for its burrow, perch on the edge, and at the slightest unwelcome movement, disappear from view.

 

 

Green anole on ti leaf

A green anole surveys the scene from a ti leaf.

A green anole surveys the scene from a ti leaf. Ti leaves start out a bold green, then gradually turn yellow and brown before dropping off. If the ti plant is pruned back, two new shoots will sprout from the cut.

Fire from the volcano

Lava from Kilauea’s Pu’u O’o vent pours into the ocean.Lava from Kilauea’s Pu’u O’o vent pours into the ocean.Lava from Kilauea’s Pu’u O’o vent pours into the ocean.

Since the theme of this week’s WordPress photo challenge is elemental, I thought I’d pull out a few more photos from my visit, earlier this year, to the lava flow from Kilauea’s Pu’u O’o vent.

This is the closest we get to seeing fire from the earth’s core, a roaring torrent of molten lava. Since I took these photos there have been cliff collapses that have ended this firehose effect. But the lava continues to flow and has formed a good-sized delta at the foot of the cliff. This delta is crossed by several large cracks, which run parallel to the coast. This means the whole delta is likely to collapse into the ocean in the near future, probably in explosive fashion.

Could be time for another visit!

Lava from Kilauea’s Pu’u O’o vent pours into the ocean.Lava from Kilauea’s Pu’u O’o vent pours into the ocean.