Blackfin Chromis are small damselfishes that gather around coral heads in fairly shallow water. They disappear into the coral and crevices if approached. The black anal fin and black lower edge of the tail are an easy way to identify this fish.
On a recent walk, I noticed the Seven-spotted Lady Beetle in the top photo, wandering around on the ground.
Soon, a second one came into view, then turned around and headed off again.
A minute or so later, it reappeared and, without so much as a “Hi, my name’s Frank. And you?’ he climbed aboard. The two of them lurched about on the little rock, so I took my leave, and left them to it.
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.
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.
You can see more responses here.
The Hawaii Elepaio is a small, endemic bird found only on the island of Hawaii, though it has close relatives on Oahu and Kauai. It’s found mostly in the higher elevation forests on the island. This one was on the Pu’u O’o Trail off Saddle Road, a good spot for seeing these birds, at an elevation of more than 5,000 feet.
The Elepaio is a member of the flycatcher family and feeds on insects it catches on the wing or by probing tree trunks and branches.
Posted for Bird of the Week XLVIII.
Two days ago, I posted some surf photos and here are more today. These are from yesterday morning, when I stopped at Kawaihae to see how the surfers were doing. The surf was down from the day before, but there were still some good sets rolling in.
There were several surfers in the water, but this was the only person I saw who caught a wave.
Yesterday, I posted photos from the latest of a series of swells rolling in from the northwest. After the last one, and before the next, I got in the water for a swim. It wasn’t great. Visibility was poor and the swells were still a good size.
The highlight of the swim was drying off afterwards and seeing several Humpback Whales active not far offshore. There were a few good breaches, which naturally escaped my camera, but I did get photos of some vigorous tail slapping, which was fun to see.
This week’s Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge is Aquamarine. See more responses here.
It’s the season for big swells from the northwest, and these photos are from the last one. A new one is supposed to fill in today. These are good news for surfers around here, not so good for us snorkelers.
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.
Graham's Island 