Today marks the start of this blog’s fifth year and to mark the occasion I’m posting a rainbow photo, as I did for the first blog post and for last year’s anniversary.
This rainbow occurred while I was snorkeling in somewhat lumpy water with clumps of clouds above.
I saw this I’iwi (Drepanis coccinea) on a trail off of Saddle Road, between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. These bright red birds are native Hawaiian honeycreepers and in the old days, the feathers of the birds were collected to make cloaks for Hawaiian royalty.
The curved bill is suited for feeding on native lobelias, but a decline in those plants has seen the I’iwi adapt to feeding on other native plants including ʻōhiʻa lehua, māmane, and ohelo.
While the numbers of I’iwi are still fairly good, particularly on the Big Island and Maui, they have suffered, like other birds, from loss of habitat. In addition, They are susceptible to avian malaria, spread by mosquitoes. Consequently, I’iwi are doing better at higher elevations, such as where this photo was taken at around 6,000 feet.
It’s always a bit strange to come across divers when I’m snorkeling. For starters, there’s the stream of bubbles. Then there’s these large creatures with splashes of color and shiny tanks.
I’m not sure these two even knew I was floating above them. I took my photos and left them to their explorations.
I was hiking in Kalopa Native Forest State Park when I came across the trail sign above. Nothing too remarkable about that, but I happened to notice the back side of the sign (middle), which showed that getting the sign right took a bit of practice.
On a subsequent visit, I noticed that the back of sign at the other end of the trail (bottom) had also seen a rejected first effort.
Just a stick that I came across, floating vertically in the water. Where does the stick begin and end and where’s the surface of the water?
Shoals of little fish look like silver bullets zipping back and forth just below the surface of the water.
This Pacific golden plover seemed unimpressed by the surfers going back and forth in the bay behind it. Instead, it focused on tidying its plumage and making sure everything was in order.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Calm.’ (See more offerings here.)
Seeing the sun going down after work, I headed down to Kawaihae harbor. After the sun dipped below the horizon, the sky turned peachy and I watched this sailboat slipping over the gently rippling water. It struck me as a very calm, relaxing scene.
Graham's Island 