Tree Heliotropes are blooming along the coast. They’re not showy flowers but there are lots of them and the bees are all over them.
Bee on a Tree Heliotrope
Category Archives: Trees
Bee in cannonball tree flower
In a follow up to yesterday’s post, a few close up photos of the flowers, which were very popular with the bees.
Cannonball tree flowers
The last time I visited Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden, the Cannonball Trees (Couroupita guianensis) were flowering more abundantly than I’d ever seen them before. The flowers appear on the tree trunk, but these went all the way to the top and seemed to be blooming on some of the high branches. It was an impressive sight, especially in one instance where a heavily blooming tree was backed by a second tree loaded with cannonball fruits.
After the bloom is over, the petals litter the ground, a final splash of color in the dappled light.
For more information about Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden, go to htbg.com.
Bottlebrush flower and House Sparrow
I was surprised to see this House Sparrow feeding on this bottlebrush flower. I usually see them snapping up fallen food at outdoor restaurants or squabbling over bird seed thrown out by sympathizers.
Rosy-faced Lovebirds
I was on an early morning walk at Kawaihae when my camera started flashing red indicating that my battery was about done. On the way back to my car, I noticed these two Rosy-faced Lovebirds in a Royal Poinciana tree, trying to get the better of one of the long seed pods. These birds are also known as Peach-faced Lovebirds and have considerable color variations.
I liked how they took it in turns to try and get to grips with the pod and have a nibble, and I was glad my battery lasted long enough to capture the encounter.
Mangoes in the rain
After a recent downpour, the mangoes on the tree in the front yard were left wet and glistening and dripping with raindrops.
Painted Lady Butterfly
A Painted Lady Butterfly feeds on a Kiawe flower.
Solstice photos
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Again the Solstice.’ See more responses here. I didn’t have any good ideas for illustrating the solstice so, instead, plumped for photos taken on the solstice.
The top photo, I’ve run before in 2019, but who doesn’t love a grumpy cat? The second photo, from 2021, is of a royal palm amongst other tropical foliage. These palms can grow to 70 feet tall and look very stately when planted in a row. This one was quite a bit smaller.
The bottom two photos show a Fiery Skipper butterfly on a Mesembryathemum flower in 2020, and a Pacific Day Octopus hunting in the company of a goatfish back in 2018.
