Keanuiomano Stream has been bone dry for weeks, but yesterday’s passage of Tropical Storm Calvin transformed it into a roaring river. There was a lot of rain up in the Kohala Mountain area, which is the source of the stream. It was interesting, though, that the gullies that carry water off the leeward side of that mountain were still dry, so all that rain must have fallen mostly on the windward side and the east end of the mountain.
This photo is from a while back but it could be right now as Tropical Storm Calvin approaches the Big Island. The storm was a hurricane while in the Eastern Pacific, but it weakened as it neared Hawaii. Yesterday afternoon, the storm strengthened again with winds up to 60 mph. Who knows what will happen to it overnight, but I’m scheduling this ahead of time in case the power goes out.
Hurricanes here have been a mixed bag. Hurricane Lane, which hit the island in 2018, stalled off the west coast of the island, bringing gray skies but little wind or rain to the west coast. The eastern part of the island had a different experience. They had 54 inches of rain in three days!
When I was snorkeling a couple of days ago, I came across this green turtle coming up for air. It took a breath and then curled down into deeper waters at a leisurely pace, before disappearing under a ledge.
When the weather’s decent, Kohala Mountain Road offers some great views of the west side of the island. This one is of the South Kohala coast towards Hualalai. Kawaihae Harbor is on the right of the photo.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Let’s Get Small.’ See more responses here.
Sorry to start off (above) with spiders, for those with aversions to them, but this one is very small. It’s a tiny female Hawaiian Garden Spider, probably no more than a quarter-inch across, though if it survives, it will grow to be as big as the other one in the photo.
In the gallery below, a Seven-spotted Ladybug putters about in some very green leaves. Another spider, this time a jumping spider no bigger than the little one at the top, has jumped a moth bigger than itself. Finally, what I think is a hover fly pretending to be a wasp with its black and yellow markings.
Finally, a Camponotus variegatus ant or carpenter ant. Next, a bee collecting pollen on an agave attenuata. Note the tiny aphids sharing the flower. And finally ants and aphids on the leaf of a Hawaiian Crown Flower. In this symbiotic relationship, the aphids produce sweet goodies for the ants to eat and the ants provide protection against the aphids’ predators.
… Christmas Wrasse, that is, this one swimming past a ledge occupied by blue-black urchins.
Recently, I was taking photos at Pelekane Beach in Kawaihae. It was a quiet morning with small wavelets running up on the beach. But, while the waves were little, the turbulence produced some great bubbles. Check out the one in the center of the photo!
These photos were taken at Lapakahi State Historical Park. This year, North Kohala was awash with Painted Lady Butterflies and the park was no exception. The butterflies were all over the Ma’o flowers and pretty much anything else that came into bloom.
Graham's Island 