A good deal of rain was falling onto several pigs running through the yard recently. This one found a little sunshine in the shape of a fallen tangerine, which it carried to the shelter of the cane grass to devour.
Portea Petropolitana is a bromeliad that’s native to Brazil. These were growing in a local garden and were very popular with the geckos.
No, it’s not the circus in town, it’s another church tented to gas those pesky termites that could otherwise chew their way through the building. This one is St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church at Kapaau. I’ve pondered before on the theological implications of this practice, but I suppose it falls under casting out demons, rather than mistreating God’s creatures!
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 135. Captions are on the photos.
You can see more responses here.
Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) is an introduced species here. It’s become popular in part because milkweeds are food for butterflies, including Monarch Butterflies, whose numbers have been falling for some time. However, there are questions about whether planting Tropical Milkweed is a good or bad thing.
One concern is that Tropical Milkweed’s perennial habit might be disrupting the Monarch’s epic migrations. Another concern is that the plant hosts Oe (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha), a parasite that adversely infects butterflies, and that is passed down to subsequent generations. This parasite is more prevalent in non-migratory butterflies such as those in Hawaii, but it’s not clear whether Hawaii’s population is suffering in the same way as some of those on the mainland. Hawaii’s Monarchs primarily use Crown Flowers to lay their eggs.
I spotted this Gold Dust Day Gecko deep in a clump of heliconias at Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden.
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 133. Captions are on the photos.
You can see more responses here.
On a recent walk, I noticed a lot of bees about. When I poked my head through a hedge I saw this hive, which was where they were heading to, or coming from. I think this might be the first hive I’ve seen here, though I know there are a lot on the island. They’re just not in places where people tend to walk by, which is probably a good thing!
Graham's Island 