Category Archives: In The Water

The Numbers Game #89

An A’ama Crab molt.
Grasshopper on a windscreen.

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

The Kohala Welcome Center under a full moon.
Zebra Doves grooming.
A Flowery Flounder swimming.
Whitemouth Moray Eel.
Horses by the sea.

Frothy Monk Seal

A monk seal swimming off the North Kohala coast in Hawaii

This is BOO, a female Hawaiian Monk Seal, who I haven’t seen is quite some time. She had been resting in a pool at Upolu, but the tide was coming in. Eventually, she lumped her way out into the water, pausing in the frothy water by the rocks, before heading out to deeper water for a night of hunting no doubt.

Yellow Acorn Worm

The casts of Yellow Acorn Worms in the waters off Hawaii

I took this photo when I saw what looked to me like a couple of brains resting on this sandy bottom. In fact they’re the castings of a Yellow Acorn Worm. These worms live under the sand and filter it to extract organic matter. The mounds are what’s left after this process.

I’m not likely to ever see, let alone photograph, an acorn worm. If they are dug up, the mass of sand inside them often causes their thin-walled bodies to burst!

The Numbers Game #88

A green turtle swims in the waters of the Big Island of Hawaii.
A Green Turtle swimming by, taken from shore while waiting for a tour boat.

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

Citrus Swallowtail Butterfly.
A Java Sparrow giving me the look.
A warning sign even though there are no wild donkeys here anymore.
Surf breaks at Mahukona in North Kohala.
High surf at Mahukona.
A crescent moon and palms in black and white
Crescent moon and palms.
Unloading a barge at Kawaihae harbor.

The Numbers Game #87

A Nutmeg Mannikin snacking on cane grass seeds.

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

A very small flowery flounder
A very young Flowery Flounder, just a couple of inches long.
A pueo or Hawaiian short-eared owl sits on a post
A wide-eyed Pueo.
Yellow boat on blue water.
A green anole on a ti plant
A Green Anole looking down.
A red ginger curving up.
A showy yellow hibiscus.

An itty-bitty Whitemouth Moray Eel

A Whitemouth Moray eel juvenile and red pencil urchin in the waters off Hawaii

This is the smallest Whitemouth Moray Eel I’ve seen here. It was in a hole in the rock high up in the water so I could get quite close. I’ve taken a lot of eel photos over the years and I thought, even as I took these photos, it would be ironic if this little eel shot out and was the first one to bite me. Happily, it remained where it was, next to a Red Pencil Urchin, which gives a sense of scale.

A Whitemouth Moray eel juvenile and red pencil urchin in the waters off Hawaii