Another brush fire

A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii
A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii

I was driving home yesterday when I noticed some haze blowing out to sea. I thought it was rain at first, but quickly realized that this was smoke, likely another brush fire, and my heart sank. I was halfway home. Up ahead was Lapakahi and beyond that, Mahukona, two places I spend a lot of time at.

As I got closer I saw that the fire was burning at Lapakahi. Traffic was still passing on the highway though the land beside it was black and smoking. But strong trade winds had blown the fire, which apparently started near the park entrance, down towards the ocean.

A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii

My guess is the fire had been going less than an hour when I got there, though a considerable area had already burned. Fires were burning along the north edge of the area, not far from the road, but the most smoke and bigger flames could be seen closer to the ocean. It looked like the small visitor center had escaped, surrounded as it is by the looping access road. But other structures might not have been so lucky, and the native plants, birds and insects probably did not fare well.

A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii
A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii
A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii

KO Pizza

The KO PIzza Food truck in Hawaii during the day

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fun with Photo Editing.’ See more responses here.

I don’t tend to monkey around with photos much, outside the usual cropping, and adjusting color and the like. Still, I had several ideas for this challenge, none of which I liked when push came to shove.

Instead, I settled for these photos, a day and night view of the excellent KO Pizza food truck. The truck operates two days a week in Hawi, but they’re in the process of opening a permanent location in town. Menu planning is about to get much easier!

The KO PIzza Food truck in Hawaii at night

Ring-billed Gull

A Ring-billed gull in Hawaii

I was walking the beach at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay (often known as A Bay, for obvious reasons) when I noticed this bird walking in the same direction as me. I was idly wondering what kind of gull it was, when I suddenly realized, ‘it’s a gull.’

Unlike most places, a gull sighting in Hawaii is a rarity. I know people who’ve never seen one here. Gulls prefer shallow tidal areas and tropical islands don’t have those, so they’re not gull-friendly. But a few get blown in every year and some arrive as stowaways on ships

A Ring-billed gull in Hawaii

This one is a Ring-billed Gull, and it’s the second I’ve seen in my time here. The first, I saw catching a fish (here). I rather liked how this one was strutting its stuff on the beach.

A Ring-billed gull in Hawaii

Also posted for Bird of the Week LII. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #9

A Black-Crowned Night Heron juvenile in Hawaii
A juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron on alert.

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 130. You can see more responses here.

A passion vine butterfly lays an egg.
A Passion Vine Butterfly lays an egg.
Webs on the ground catch the early morning sunlight.
Early morning webs.
Late afternoon light streams through lowered blinds to create this pattern on the lace curtains inside.
Light through the blinds.
A man harvests opihi off the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.
Not a castaway, but an opihi picker.
A V22 Osprey aircraft at Upolu Airport, HawaiiA V22 Osprey aircraft at Upolu Airport, Hawaii showing how it is operated
A V22 Osprey aircraft…and how it works!

It’s a miracle

The flowers of a miracle fruit plant in Hawaii.
The flowers of a miracle fruit plant in Hawaii.

Every time I visit Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve and Garden, I see something new. On my last visit, one of new things I saw was this Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum). The plant hails from tropical Africa. It gets its name from its berry. Without getting into too much chemistry, if this berry is eaten, sour foods eaten after it will taste sweet!

There were no berries on this plant, but perhaps I’ll see them next time I visit. Perhaps I’ll nick one and see how this works!