Author Archives: Graham

About Graham

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

Going green

The view from Waipio Valley overlook offers many shades of green and a good deal of blue.

This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme is ‘Shades of Green.’ Captions are on the photos. See more responses here.

Found this on the shore one early morning. A fisherman’s lure perhaps.

Curious Scrawled Filefish

A scrawled filefish in the waters off Hawaii

On a recent swim, this Scrawled Filefish came right up to me to check me out. I’m willing to bet that its expression roughly translates into, ‘What a weird-looking creature!’

Sometimes, you just have to sing

A Yellow-fronted Canary belts out a song.

Tide pools on the coast

A low tide reveals pools on the North Kohala coast.

Reflections, not reflections

Reflections in the glass of a store window in Hawi in Hawaii

A view into a store in Hawi, but what’s inside the store and what’s reflecting from outside?

The Numbers Game #63

Water surges into a cavern at South Point.

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 184. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Sunset off the coast of North Kohala, Hawaii — Raccoon Butterflyfish in formation.

The miracle of birth is hard work

Driving down to Upolu for a walk, I noticed this cow behaving oddly, so I pulled over to take a look. The reason quickly became clear: a pair of hooves sticking out below the tail. She was about to give birth. I thought this would be a good photo op, so settled in to watch.

The poor cow was up, down, walking, lying down. The pair of hooves did not budge. A couple of times I thought the delivery was nigh, but they were false dawns.

A cattle egret stands by a cow trying to calve in Hawaii — Are you the midwife?

I wasn’t the only one watching the action, or lack of it. Other cows looked on from a safe distance, chickens pecked the ground around the struggling cow, and a cattle egret flew in to see if any bugs might be being stirred up by the activity. In the end, I could wait no longer. I went off for my walk. On my return, nothing much had changed so I went home.

A cattle egret flies by a cow trying to calve in Hawaii — I guess not.

I didn’t contact the dairy. Early in my time here, I tried that, but they weren’t interested and soon after, No Trespassing signs went up on the driveway! I grew up on a small farm and, for us, a new calf was an important arrival to be carefully ushered into the world. But this was a bigger operation, and I’ve learned that the cows are left to get on with it. Truth is, she was probably fine. These things take time and, as every mother out there knows, it’s never easy.