Category Archives: Places

A fisherman and his catch

This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Surprise.’ See more responses here.

I see a lot of fishermen when I’m out walking and they undoubtedly catch fish, but I never see them doing so. I’m as good at getting photos of that moment as I am at catching fish myself.

When I first saw this fisherman he was reeling in an empty line, as per usual. I kept walking, but moments later I heard a cry, turned to look, and saw him winding away on his line. I nipped back to take photos, fully expecting it to be a false alarm – his line was snagged in the rocks or he’d hooked some debris. So I was surprised when he hauled this fish from the water. I don’t know what kind it was, but it was a decent size and probably destined to be that evening’s supper.

Ring-necked ducks and lesser scaup

I saw a little group of ducks on a small reservoir near Hapuna. Most are ring-necked ducks, the bird on the right in the top photo being a male, and the two birds on the left below, being females. The odd one out is the bird on the left in the top photo and on the right below. That’s a female lesser scaup.

According to my bird book, a small number of lesser scaups migrate to Hawaii every year, but ring-necked ducks are considered uncommon visitors.

Thanks to birdforum.net for help with the identification of the female lesser scaup.

Abstracts: Dong Fang

There’s a skydiving business that operates out of Upolu Airport and they have a blue shipping container inside the airport fence where they store gear. One day when I went down there, I saw a second container had been installed next to the first, creating an L-shaped setup.

I liked the logo on the container and took a photo, which was just as well since the next day the container had been repainted to match the other one.

Monk seal resting

When I first saw this monk seal on the North Kohala coast a couple of days ago, I thought it was IO5. He’s the seal I see most often in this part of the island. But as I got closer, I saw this one was a female. I took photos, including some of the red ID tag. I wasn’t sure if, at that distance, I’d be able to read it, but luckily I could make out ‘A2’ in a couple of photos. There was space after the ‘2’ as if a number had rubbed off, so I wondered if this was RA20, the monk seal who raised pups on a Kona beach in 2018 (here and here) and 2019 (here and here).

I sent the photos to the Big Island Hawaiian monk seal response network, which tracks the movements and welfare of the monk seals. They confirmed this was RA20 and was the first sighting of her since she was released from Ke Kai Ola Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital after suffering from a bacterial infection. The hospital’s veterinarians think RA20 recently lost a pregnancy and that the infection may have caused, or resulted from, the loss.

The good news is that she certainly appeared healthy and in good shape when I saw her.

For more information about Hawaiian monk seals and Ke Kai Ola Hawaiian Monk Seal Hospital, go to www.marinemammalcenter.org/hawaii.