Category Archives: Animals

Kamehameha Day in the pink

Yesterday was the birthday of King Kamehameha I, the first king to unite all the Hawaiian islands under one leader. He was born in North Kohala, and every year the community celebrates his birthday with ceremonies at his statue in Kapaau and with a parade.

The parade features Pa’u riders representing all the main Hawaiian islands. Each island has an official color and flower. Maui’s flower is the Lokelani rose and its color is pink.

Hawaiian men and women started riding horses, soon after their introduction to the islands in the early 1800s. Sidesaddle riding was common for women in those days, but it was never introduced here. Women learned to ride the same way as men. They wore a Pa’u skirt, 12 yards of colored cloth wrapped in such a way as to preserve their modesty and dignity while riding astride their horse.

Lei about to be draped at King Kamehameha statue

Lei being draped at King Kamehameha statue

The ceremonies include draping leis over the arms of the statue. These leis are made as a mark of respect, by groups and organizations. It can be a tricky business getting the leis into place, especially when there’s a good breeze blowing as there was yesterday.

Posted for this week’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme of ‘Pink.’ See more responses here.

Gecko on a banana flower

This week’s Sunday Stills Color Challenge theme is ‘Pink.’ See more responses here.

Here’s a Gold Dust Day Gecko exploring a banana flower, looking for water or something sweeter. Weather permitting, I hope to have another pink post tomorrow!

Gecko with eggs

A house gecko on a window with eggs visible

I saw this house gecko on the outside of the bathroom window one night and took a couple of photos. Nothing remarkable about that. True, the gecko is securely attached to a slick vertical surface with those magic feet it has. And yes, the window could use a clean!

But look at the belly of the beast and there are pale, round shapes. Those are gecko eggs. They usually lay one or two eggs at a time and they can be anywhere. I’ve found them in light fixtures, window frames, cupboards. The list is endless. Any place that appears dark and quiet is a likely depository.

Many get broken or eaten or otherwise destroyed, but the supply of geckos is not running out. The hatching time for the eggs depends on the species of gecko, generally running from one to three months. Baby geckos are tiny, looking like there’s no room for internal organs.

In this house, they scamper around for no apparent purpose and I rarely see them catch anything to eat. One thing they learn very quickly if they’re to survive, is that they had better watch out for larger geckos because big geckos will eat little geckos like snack crackers!

Black Witch Moth on a red door

This moth appeared on the back door of the house a few days ago. It remained there through the afternoon and evening, posing a bit of a problem when going in and out. We didn’t want it to fly into the house, but it appeared unconcerned at our coming and goings. Next morning, it was gone.

Mongoose by the water

Mongoose are everywhere including at the beach. This one was scurrying across the sand at Pelekane Beach, Kawaihae.

One of these is not a sparrow

Three House sparrows and a praying mantis on a rail

The praying mantis had been on the rail for some time when the sparrows arrived. I feared for its chances, but it remained very still and the sparrows never seemed to notice it, even though they hung around for a while.

A plethora of purple

This week’s Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge is ‘Purple.’ See more responses here.

I’d like to say I have some kind of theme going here, but I don’t, outside the color.

First up is a bee approaching a very purple bougainvillea.

In the gallery, we have a Fiery Skipper butterfly feeding on a Blue Heliotrope (Heliotropium amplexicaule) flower, a purple and white spider lily, and some dark purple Helmet Urchins clinging tenaciously to a rock.

A Fiery skipper butterfly feeds on a Blue Heliotrope flower in Hawaii

A Purple Ice Cream sign at Kapaau, Hawaii

Then there’s a sign advertising purple ice cream. Not sure what flavor that is, but I’m a bit wary.

And finally, a lush purple orchid.

Hawaiian Garden Spiders

I noticed that in the front border of the house, the ferns and Mother-in-Law’s Tongue or Snake Plant (Sansevieria Trifasciata) needed weeding and cutting back as there was foliage up against the house, a handy highway for ants and centipedes and who knows what else. The only problem is that, at this time of year, this little garden is guarded by a wall of spiders.

These three Hawaiian Garden Spiders are just a few of that kind there, and they’re accompanied by the usual mass of crab spiders and one or two others I’m not familiar with. I wouldn’t mind moving the crab spiders, whose main activity seems to be to build webs in places that mean they’ll end up wrapped around my head. But the garden spiders, I have a soft spot for. The females are quite beautiful and the males, while drab and tiny, are very watchable as they try to mate with the mighty females.

I guess the weeds can wait for another week or two.

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii