Category Archives: Animals

This bud’s for you

A Praying Mantis on a Plumeria with flowers and buds in Hawaii — A Praying Mantis on a Plumeria with flowers and buds.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Celebrate Spring or Autumn.’ See more responses here.

Since we’re a little shy on seasonal changes here, I’m going with some nominal signs of Spring, namely flowers budding out and blooming.

A Bee on haole koa flowers and buds in Hawaii — A bee on Haole Koa with buds and spent flowers.

A Peregrina flower and buds in Hawaii — A bee on Haole Koa with buds and spent flowers.

The Numbers Game #64

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

Polydesma boarmoides moth

I saw this moth on a pair of pants hanging on a line. At first I thought it was the smallest Black Witch Moth I’d ever seen, but further investigation suggests that this is a Polydesma boarmoides moth. I can’t find out much about it though there is a similar moth, Polydesma umbricola, that is a problem on Monkeypod trees here.

After I took the photo, I shooed the moth away and brought my pants indoors before they became moth-eaten.

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.

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.