The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 194. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
The Numbers Game #73
You can hide, but you can’t run
I spotted this Pacific Day Octopus hunting with a pair of Blue Goatfishes. It’s quite common to see an arrangement like this in the water; there are benefits for both. But when a clumsy swimmer splashes into the picture, the situation changes. Goatfishes will swim away only if they feel threatened, but the octopus will settle somewhere and blend into the background.
However, it’s hard to disappear into the background when the fish keep nudging them to continue with the hunt. This octopus looked quite miffed about the situation until it finally gave up and shot off to hide elsewhere. The goatfishes followed, but the octopus found a crack to settle into, and the clumsy swimmer bid it a fond farewell!
No fear of flying
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Flight.’ See more responses here. I finally winnowed a raft of options down to just the birds. Captions on the photos as usual.
Calm morning
A calm early morning at the small boat harbor in Kawaihae.
Kilauea eruption: 21st time lucky
The current eruption at Kilauea has been marked by a succession of eruptive events followed by pauses. The more recent of these events have consisted of the volcano putting out some small flows, succeeded by fountaining events with the fountains reaching up to 1,000 feet. I’ve been itching to go down and see this, but the fountaining often hasn’t lasted long. My challenge has been to hear about the activity early and at a time when I can go down. This has not been going well!
Last Sunday, after lunch, I sat down to check my emails and saw the daily USGS update for Kilauea. Apparently, it was stirring again, the 21st episode of the current eruption. I went to the video webcam and saw that it was doing more than stirring. It was launching fountains of lava into the air. Scrolling back on the webcam I discovered that the fountaining had started only 20 minutes earlier.
The 20th episode had been the shortest so far, at 4.5 hours of fountaining. My drive to Kilauea is more than 100 miles, but I figured that even if this was another short one, I’d have an hour or two to see the activity, so I jumped in the car and headed over. I left at 1:30 p.m. and got to the park around 3:45 p.m., finding it under a layer of cloud. The weather had gone downhill since I left and the park was a zoo, cars everywhere, edging around or parked in improbable spots.
Miraculously, I found a parking spot on the north rim of the crater and walked out to see what I could see. The answer was, not much. The weather wasn’t helpful, but the problem, which I suspected might be the case, was that the active vent was close to the north rim and so the activity was largely obscured. The prime viewing area would be a spot on the south rim, but one that was farther away, and low clouds were scudding through the crater. Would anything be visible? There was only one way to find out.
I drove around the crater rim to the other side and found a similarly chaotic parking situation. The park isn’t designed to accommodate parking demands on the scale it was experiencing. Luckily, I found a spot, not that far from the trail I had to take. The trail is actually a road that’s been closed since the summit crater became active in 2008. It’s definitely not usable by vehicles, especially since 2018 when a section of it slid into the crater. The road is still visible on its little island, just a few hundred feet below the rest of it!
The walk in isn’t far, about a mile or so. There was a fair amount of foot traffic, both coming and going. When I got to the viewing area, even though there were quite a few people there, it didn’t feel too crowded. There was a decent view of the erupting vent, a little over a mile away, but it was sadly affected by mist blowing through the crater.
I found a spot, took photos, watched the weather. It looked like it was clearing, then looked like it was getting worse. I was keenly aware of the drive home and that I had to go to work the next day. At one point I decided I’d give it another 15 minutes and if it didn’t improve, I’d head for home. 10 minutes later the clouds had blown through, the sky brightened, and the active vent was clearly visible. The only downside was that the sun was slowly sinking behind the active vent, so the lighting wasn’t the greatest. But I wasn’t complaining.
The visual treat of seeing the activity was wonderful, but there’s also the noise of the eruption, like being next to a busy airport. The fountains of lava in the photos are probably around 400 feet high.
I left the viewing area a little after 6 p.m. and headed for home, getting there around 9 p.m., by which time the activity had already ceased at Kilauea. It ended around 8:30 p.m.. Currently, the eruption is again paused, though the USGS expects the next episode to begin within a few days.
Also posted for Jo’s Monday Walk. A short walk, but well worth doing! See more responses here.
Saddle Wrasse
A cheerful-looking Saddle Wrasse swims over a patch of coral. One side of the coral head has long since died, but the other looks quite healthy and hosts an Arc-eye Hawkfish.
Zygopabstia Dragon Kitten orchid
I saw this orchid at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden and liked its softness and colors.
The Numbers Game #72
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 193. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
The top photo is from two days ago, when I finally made it down to Kilauea Volcano to see the latest in a string of eruptions. Hopefully, I will get my photos sorted for a longer post about that in the next day or two.
Graham's Island 