An early morning reflection in the pool behind Pelkane Beach in Kawaihae.
Sunrise reflection
Walk this way
At work, we have six cats which get fed twice a day. After the cats have eaten, and sometimes while they’re eating, birds swoop in. The cats’ numbers are stable, but the number of birds at the feast keeps increasing. Some days it’s like a scene out of Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds.’
The Gray Francolins, including this one, are particularly bold. When I saw it on the rail one day, I wondered if it would come seeking a handout. I wasn’t disappointed. It was a little uncertain, but couldn’t resist the prospect of an extra snack. I just stood and waited and got these photos on my phone.
I hoped it would come right up to the lens so I’d end with a photo of a beak and maybe an eyeball! It did get pretty close, but with no food appearing to lure it on, it finally stopped and then flew off.
A river runs high
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.
Storm’s a comin’
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!
Coming up for air
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.
View of Hualalai
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.
There’s something bugging me
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.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas …
… Christmas Wrasse, that is, this one swimming past a ledge occupied by blue-black urchins.
