Category Archives: Birds

Black-crowned night heron and chicks

A Black-crowned night heron and her chicks in a nest on the Big Island, Hawaii

Recently, I was walking around the fishponds at Mauna Lani when I came to a small cafe that was closed. I walked to the back of it, hoping for views to the fishpond behind. What I found was a couple of people staring up into a tree where a lot of loud squawking was going on.

When the people moved on, I spotted the source of the noise. It was the nest of a Black-crowned Night Heron, high up in the tree, and occupied by an adult bird and two chicks. The two chicks, as might be expected, were the source of all the noise, demanding food and jabbing their dangerous-looking beaks at the parent. Eventually, the adult bird moved out of the nest to nearby branch. The chicks tried to follow, but weren’t agile enough to do so without risking falling from the tree.

I took a few photos, but the tangle of branches made it difficult to know if the birds were in shot, let alone in focus. So I was happy to get this photo, which captures something of the scene. When I saw it, for some reason the expression that popped into my head was, ‘a face only a mother could love!’

Goats and egret

A cattle egret and two goats in Hawaii
A cattle egret and a goat in Hawaii

This Cattle Egret appeared to have difficulty choosing which of several goats it should follow, in order to snap up bugs disturbed by their grazing. Or perhaps something else was going on. I could see its throat rippling, so it might have been calling, though I couldn’t hear any sound from where I was.

It’s light, it’s bright, it’s black and white

Clouds over Upolu, Hawaii, in black and white
Clouds off Upolu, a scene not greatly different in color.
A cow and her calf in black and white
A black and white cow with her mostly white calf.
Cows in black and white
A trio of black and white cows, the middle one looking particularly suspicious of what I was up to.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Daylight in Black and White.’ See more responses here.

I was going to post a single image for this but then got caught up with the idea of black and white images of black and white things. This is the result.

Sheep in black and white
Black and white sheep doing sheep things.
A great frigatebird in black and white
A black and white Great Frigatebird gliding into a stiff breeze off the coast of North Kohala.
Shadows on a wall in black and whiteShadows on a wall
Some shadows on a wall, not so different in black and white from the full color original.

Hawaiian Stilts on golden pond

Hawaiian Stilts in a pond at Kaloko-Honokahau Park

My final post in response to this month’s Becky’s Squares challenge theme of ‘Odd.’ See more responses here.

The stilts are odd enough in themselves, with their pink legs and long beaks, but it was the lighting in this image that got my attention. The sun was sinking and the shadows lengthening. But the distinctive lighting in this photo was due to the reflection from a cream-colored trailer parked beside the pond!