I peered down into a spider lily one day and this is what I saw looking up at me, a gecko with wings. The wings, of course, were those of an unlucky moth, which the gold dust day gecko had snagged from behind. The moth struggled a good deal, but there was only ever going to be one winner in this contest.
Balloon plant (Asclepias physocarpa) is an invasive weed, introduced to Hawaii as a fiber crop. A member of the milkweed family, it is considered to have medicinal properties, but parts of the plant are also poisonous.
I saw several of these plants in a pasture occupied by livestock and, like the cow in the photo, they were avoiding the plants. Consequently, the pasture consisted of close-cropped grass and a generous sprinkling of these scrubby plants, 2- to 3-feet high, though they can grow to 6-feet tall.
The ‘balloons’ are actually the fruits of the plants. When ripe, they’ll burst and release a multitude of white silky-haired seeds.
A green anole blends in on the bold-patterned leaves of Ctenanthe burle-marxii.
What can I say? I just liked the vampire quality of this photo with its strategically placed bits of grass. I probably should have saved this for Halloween.
I thought, for a brief exciting moment, that these two mongooses might come to blows. The look given by the farther mongoose suggested as much. I was ready with my camera for the encounter, but it didn’t happen. Instead the two of them seemed quite content in each other’s company and spent their time scavenging in the grass for scraps of food.
A bee, already heavily laden with pollen, flies in to examine a rose jatropha flower.
I liked how this goat blended in to the scrubby bushes as it kept a watchful eye on me.
This is Papa, looking rather regal in the dappled light beneath a slatted bench.
Graham's Island 