Kekaha Kai beaches

Some of the beaches in Kekaha Kai park. The most popular is Makalawena, which requires a bit of a hike but offers several stretches of sparsely populated golden sand. The swimming is decent at many of these beaches unless there’s onshore swell. The biggest drawback to them is that the road in is very rough and directly overhead is the flight path approaching the airport.

Flying frigatebirds

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

Birds were my first thought for this theme since I spend a fair amount of time gazing skyward, either looking for birds or following their flight. While I had several options of which birds to feature, great frigatebirds seemed an obvious choice for three reasons.

First, they fly with no apparent effort, using the wind currents to glide along, even into strong winds. Second, they’re big, imposing birds, which catch the eye as they soar overhead. And third, they are forever sneaking up on me, easing up from behind so that I don’t see them until they’re alongside, and by the time my camera is out, they’re disappearing into the distance.

Great frigatebirds are pretty easy to identify thanks to their size, their distinctive wing shape and their forked tails. The wickedly hooked beak is another distinctive feature.