
What I like about this photo is the movement and the sense of fluidity in the colors.

What I like about this photo is the movement and the sense of fluidity in the colors.

This month’s Sunday Stills Color Challenge theme is ‘Yellow.’ See more responses here. Once again, I’ve gone for a melange of photos, which sounds edible, but probably isn’t. Captions on the photos.








I came across this scene at work, where someone had dropped a spot of jam, or something similar, on the floor of the lanai. As per usual, the ants were onto it in a heartbeat. I like how they arrange themselves, as though they’re at the counter of a diner. Of course, there’s always someone who can’t wait and will clamber over everything to get theirs.



The mock orange by the house is in full bloom again and the bees have been having a field days with the flowers. It’s a case of getting it while they can because, while the blooms are prolific, they’re short-lived. In the meantime, the flowers’ fragrance fills the air.


The beautiful red flowers of native Ohia trees are popular with bees, even in remote areas like the Kau Desert Trail, where these photos were taken.


This praying mantis was on the ground at work and likely to get stepped on, so I moved it to a safer spot. In the process, it opened its wings exposing the lovely markings on them.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Let’s Get Small.’ See more responses here.
Sorry to start off (above) with spiders, for those with aversions to them, but this one is very small. It’s a tiny female Hawaiian Garden Spider, probably no more than a quarter-inch across, though if it survives, it will grow to be as big as the other one in the photo.
In the gallery below, a Seven-spotted Ladybug putters about in some very green leaves. Another spider, this time a jumping spider no bigger than the little one at the top, has jumped a moth bigger than itself. Finally, what I think is a hover fly pretending to be a wasp with its black and yellow markings.



Finally, a Camponotus variegatus ant or carpenter ant. Next, a bee collecting pollen on an agave attenuata. Note the tiny aphids sharing the flower. And finally ants and aphids on the leaf of a Hawaiian Crown Flower. In this symbiotic relationship, the aphids produce sweet goodies for the ants to eat and the ants provide protection against the aphids’ predators.




These photos were taken at Lapakahi State Historical Park. This year, North Kohala was awash with Painted Lady Butterflies and the park was no exception. The butterflies were all over the Ma’o flowers and pretty much anything else that came into bloom.



