Swimming with dolphins

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This is the final day of Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Perspective.’ See more responses here.

I was planning on posting images relating to the final days of people who were human sacrifices on the island, a long time ago in case you’re wondering. But I changed my mind after an encounter with a pod of spinner dolphins a couple of days ago. I’ll post more photos tomorrow, but here are a couple to start with.

The top photo shows one of the dolphins coming over to check me out. In the bottom one, a group of dolphins cruises by below me. From my perspective, there are few finer things in life than such an encounter.

What color is this octopus?

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The answer to the headline is that it depends on the moment and the background. I surprised this day octopus when I came around a corner and it instantly changed color. Then it moved and changed color again. I edged away and it moved and changed color again. It changed about five times over the course of a few minutes and each change was like hitting a light switch – one moment this, next moment that.

Their default color is a gray-brown, but I didn’t see that on this occasion. The red of the center photo is a reaction to being surprised and the two mottled patterns are camouflage attempts.

Posted in response to Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Perspective.’ See more responses here.

Kilauea Military Camp

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This is a view across Chain of Craters Road, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, toward the flagpole and entrance of Kilauea Military Camp. The camp was founded in 1916, the same year as the park, as a rest and relaxation facility for military personnel. Today, it continues to fill that same function though the facilities are somewhat nicer than they were back then. There’s an array of cottages, a store, theater, sports facilities, gas station, laundromat, even a bowling alley.

While it’s been an R&R post for most of its existence, during WWII it was used as a prisoner of war camp and as a Japanese internment camp.

For more information about Kilauea Military Camp, go to https://www.kilaueamilitarycamp.com/. For more information about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, go to nps.gov/havo/.

Posted in response to Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Perspective.’ See more responses here.

Gecko on a stovetop

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I spotted this baby mourning gecko one evening, just sitting on the stovetop. This is what I call ‘making an unwise decision.’ Fortunately for the gecko, the day’s cooking was done, otherwise it risked getting fried or flattened by a pan.

Baby geckos have a fairly high mortality rate from accidents and predation by larger geckos, but at the same time, there seems to be no shortage of them. I guess some kind of balance has been achieved.

Posted in response to Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Perspective.’ See more responses here.

A plane and the moon

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Becky’s July Squares challenge theme is ‘Perspective.’ See more responses here.

This photo is a perfect example of the ‘perspective’ theme. See how much bigger the plane looks than the moon. That’s because it’s a lot closer. But if the plane was up there, close to the moon, it would look a lot smaller than the moon, because the moon is actually way bigger than the plane. Also, the pilot would be in a world of trouble, or in out-of-this-world trouble, depending on your perspective.

Yellow tang

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  • Yellow tang feeding
  • Yellow tang feeding on coral
  • Yellow tang
  • Yellow tango
  • Yellow tango
  • Yellow tango

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Yellow.’ See more offering’s here.

I thought I’d try the WordPress gallery feature for this post, which features yellow tangs, the first fish everyone notices in Hawaii. These bright yellow fish putter about in fairly shallow water, sometimes singly or in pairs, but often in large groups. They feed on algae, and occasionally can be seen cleaning turtles for this purpose. Unlike some fish, juveniles look the same as mature yellow tangs so shoals often contain a variety of sizes. The lower three photos show a pair of yellow tangs engaged in what I think is some kind of mating ritual.

Yellow tang are long-lived fish. They can live to be 20 or 30 years old. They’re also fish that are very popular in the aquarium trade but, since they don’t breed in captivity, all aquarium fish are collected from the wild. Currently, there’s a moratorium on the aquarium fish collection trade here, because of concerns about fish stocks and the sustainability of the practice.

Also posted in response to Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Perspective.’ See more responses here.

Yellow tang in Hawaii

Shadow selfie

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

I almost never take selfies. I know what I look like, and why ruin a perfectly good photo by shoving my face in the foreground. Here, though, I made an exception. And yes, my legs are that long.

Also posted in response to Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Perspective.’ See more responses here.

Signs: No people

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Three of these signs appeared at Upolu Airport recently. I think we can all agree that in these troubling times it’s important for people to stay safe by following such protocols.

The plane in the photo is owned by the skydiving company that used to fly out of the airport back in pre-pandemic days. It’s fairly safe to say that they’ll be one of the last businesses allowed to reopen. It’s hard to maintain social distancing on a plane that size, especially when most clients are going to be strapped to someone who knows how to operate a parachute.

In the meantime, in the last four months, the number of times I’ve seen more than one person inside the fence is exactly equal to the number of times I’ve seen that one person wearing a mask. I won’t say how many times that is, but it’s a very round number.

Posted in response to Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Perspective.’ See more responses here.