Category Archives: Trees

The Numbers Game #7

A gray francolin ventures into the territory of some cats in Hawaii — A Gray Francolin ventures into the territory of some cats.

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 128. You can see more responses here.

Two painted lady butterflies in a kiawe tree in Hawaii — Two Painted Lady Butterflies in a Kiawe tree.

An Undulated Moray Eel in the waters off Hawaii — An Undulated Moray Eel looking grouchy, as per usual.

Koi swim in Lily Lake at Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve and Gardens — Koi swim in Lily Lake at Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve and Garden.

Feed me

A baby bird calling for food in Hawaii — A baby African Silverbill cries for food.

A Nutmeg Mannikin feeds on cane grass seeds in Hawaii — A Nutmeg Mannikin stuffing itself with cane grass seeds

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Feed the Birds.’ See more responses here.

I don’t feed the birds here, but they seem to have no trouble feeding themselves, with the notable exception of the one in the top photo. Here’s a selection.

A Hawaiian Stilt snags a meal in Hawaii — An Hawaiian Stilt prepares to eat a tasty morsel fished form the water.

A Hawaiian Amakihi feeds at a mamane flower in Hawaii — An Hawaiian Amakihi feeds at a Mamane flower.

A cattle egret catches an anole in Hawaii — An Hawaiian Amakihi feeds at a Mamane flower.

Feather-legged Fly

I was photographing bees on a tree heliotrope in Kawaihae when I saw this fly. It’s a new one for me, so I was happy to get decent photos and to be able to identify it afterwards.

This is a Feather-legged Fly (Trichopoda pennipes). It’s one of those flies which lays its eggs on host bugs, such as leaf-footed bugs and stink bugs. On hatching, the larvae make for the bug’s interior and develop safely within. The end product is a new fly and a dead bug. Because some of the bugs it uses as hosts are crop pests, it’s considered a beneficial insect.

The bottom photo shows why it got its name!

The Numbers Game #5

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into your computer’s search bar and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. I typed in a few numbers and up popped photos I’d forgotten about, so I thought this would be a fun way to feature some photos that ran a while ago, but warranted another airing.

A Hawaiian monk seal rests on the coast of Hawaii — Hawaiian Monk Seal resting.

A Lesser grass-blue butterfly in Hawaii — Hawaiian Monk Seal resting.

This week’s number is 126. Ironically, for this first response, it turned out that three of these photos haven’t run before, but have been languishing in my archives.

A Green Turtle dives in the waters off Hawaii — Green turtle diving.

You can see more responses here.

Wasp and Milo flower

I saw several wasps flitting around a Milo tree at Lapakahi recently. What I found interesting was that none of them paid attention to the flowers, but they were more interested in the buds about to bloom. Not sure what that was about.

After the rain

After recent rain, the sun came out and illuminated the water drops on coffee berries in the yard.

Lurking

A Praying Mantis lurks on a Plumeria flower in Hawaii

I had to go back a few days for my photo for Bushboy’s Last on the Card photo challenge (see more responses here). It proved to be this praying mantis lurking on a plumeria flower stem.

Sailing by

A black and white silhouette of a sailboat and palm tree

A sailboat glides over the water off the North Kohala coast, an image that doesn’t look much different in color.

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii