I saw these two saffron finches at Pu’u Wa’awa’a. The one seemed to be checking out a nicely-appointed knot hole in a tree while the other bird sat on a branch offering a different opinion.
I don’t know whether they were looking for a nesting site, or the one bird was exploring and the other wasn’t pleased, or something else entirely. I walked on past never to know what the interaction was all about. But sometimes it’s more fun to speculate.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Photo-editor.’ See more responses here.
A few weeks ago I posted a composite photo of a rainbow here, which would have been a good choice for this challenge. But I also had more recent photos, of a waterfall in the Kohala Mountains, that I wanted to combine.
I couldn’t capture the full drop of this waterfall, probably somewhere between 500 and 1,000 feet, in one image, so I took two photos. This presented a couple of challenges. First was to combine the image of the top of the falls with the one of the bottom of the falls. The second challenge involved dealing with the horizontal offset of these two photos. Since I was in a helicopter at the time, we’d moved forward between shooting the images.
I’m pretty happy with the final image, especially the capture of the mini rainbow at the base of the falls. Anyway, feel free to see if you can spot where the two photos are connected.
Thanks to Sunshine Helicopters for the tour.
NEXRAD is the Next Generation Weather Radar operated by the National Weather Service, Air Force Weather Agency, and Federal Aviation Administration. There are 160 sites, most of which are spread across the United States. Four of the sites are in Hawaii, two of which are on the Big Island. This site is on Kohala Mountain, northwest of the summit. It’s known to local pilots as the golfball, for obvious reasons.
This weather radar network is a staple of online news and weather sites and shows the location and movement of rain and clouds. The Kohala radar features a pie-slice area of permanently clear weather to the northeast, which I assume is caused by the nearby topography.
I use the weather radar quite a bit and find it fairly helpful, though the weather here is quick to change. Weather forecasts, on the other hand, I find are more of a 50-50 proposition – they’re either fairly right (not too hard to figure out when the trades are blowing) or wildly wrong (all other situations). However, since it’s almost always warm here, I can’t complain too much.
For more information about NEXRAD radar, go to https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/radar-data/nexrad.
Saturday saw the running of the 40th edition of the Ironman World Championships in Kailua Kona. This is the event featuring a swim of 2.4 miles, a bike ride of 112 miles, and a run of 26.2 miles. As in previous years, I participated in this event by walking out to the main road and taking photos, whenever possible from a nice shady spot.
Actually, this year’s race was run in prime conditions for the athletes. It was overcast with occasional light rain and only a gentle breeze from time to time. Consequently many records were set, including new course records for both men and women.
The top photo shows men’s winner and defending champion, Patrick Lange of Germany, zipping by on his way back towards Kona. Second photo, Great Britain’s Susie Cheetham heads out of Hawi. Third photo, Dan Plews of NewZealand (1685) leads Robin Schneider of Germany (2310), and Neil Eddy of Great Britain (2070). These three finished the bike leg in fairly close proximity, but after the marathon run, Plews finished 21 minutes ahead of Eddy and 45 minutes ahead of Schneider. Fourth photo, Jodie Robertson of the U.S.A demonstrates the importance of color coordination while cycling. Bottom, a large group of riders roll into Hawi, the turnaround point of the bike leg.
For more information about Ironman, go to Ironman.com.
This rich, green moss, growing on large bamboo canes, oozes softness.
Posted in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘Texture.’ See more responses here.
I always look for new calves when I go past the dairy farm at Upolu, and most days I’m rewarded by seeing at least one.
This calf is black and white, like its mom, but where mom looks distinctly off-white, the calf is still whiter than white. Whenever I see this, I can’t help but think of ads for laundry soap.
Here are a couple of colorful benches that can be found at Pana‘ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens in Hilo. Designed more for appearance than comfort, there are several similar benches at the zoo (here). If you do visit and choose to sit on the alligator bench, make sure it is a bench and not one of the real alligators.
For more information about Pana‘ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens, go to hilozoo.org.
A view of the Kau coastline, not far from the southern tip of the island, where the road snakes down from Naalehu toward Whittington Beach County Park, where the pilings jut into the ocean.
Graham's Island 