Tag Archives: Eels

Looking back at 2024 – Part 1

A Feather-legged fly on a Tree Heliotrope in Hawaii
January: A Feather-legged Fly (Trichopoda pennipes) on a Tree Heliotrope (link).

Sunday Stills challenge theme this week and next week is ‘Your 2024 Year-in-Review.’ See more responses here. As usual, I’m going with a favorite photo from each month of 2024, with a caption and link to the post the photo first appeared in. This week’s post is for January through June. See the rest of the year next week.

A Ring-billed gull in Hawaii
February: A Ring-billed Gull struts at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay (link).
A woman walks on the beach at Kohanaiki Park in Hawaii
March: A woman walks the beach at Kohanaiki Beach Park (link).
Tiki torches burn against a backdrop of palm trees in Hawaii
April: Tiki torches at Mauna Kea Resort (link).
A Dwarf Moray Eel in the waters off Hawaii
May: A Dwarf Moray Eel (link).
Long-spined Urchins in Hawaii
June: A pair of Long-spined Urchins in Kawaihae Harbor (link).

Whitemouth Moray Eel spotted

A Whitemouth Moray Eel in the waters off Hawaii

I saw this small Whitemouth Moray Eel sticking out from a gap in the rocks. With its mouth open, it’s easy to identify.

So why is this posted for Becky’s Squares: Seven (see more responses here)? Well, this eel sports 2,408 visible white spots, which is seven to the power of four plus seven. OK, you counters out there – over to you!

Perplexed Peppered Moray

A Peppered Moray Eel in the waters off Hawaii

On a recent swim, I saw this Peppered Moray Eel zipping towards me in fairly shallow water. My response was to start taking photos. The eel’s response was to stop dead, raise its head up, and give me a decidedly unimpressed look.

We held our positions for a short while and then I edged off to one side and the eel did the same, before deciding enough was enough and scooting to sanctuary under a large rock.

A Peppered Moray Eel in the waters off Hawaii

The Numbers Game #22

A Bristle-thighed Curlew snags a snack at Kiholo Hawaii
A Bristle-thighed Curlew moves forward to grab a breakfast snack.

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 143. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #21

Sunken roads at South Point Hawaii
Sometimes, the way to move forward is unclear, as when navigating these roads at South Point.

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 142. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

Acute Halfbeaks swim in the waters off Hawaii
Acute Halfbeaks swim just below the surface in the waters off the Kohala coast.

Motoring moray

A Dwarf Moray Eel swims in the waters off Hawaii

I saw this Dwarf Moray Eel moving forward at a good clip. Then it spotted me, gave me a look, turned around, and headed right back where it came from. Just its head peeked out as it waited for me to move along and leave it to go its own way.

A Dwarf Moray Eel in the waters off Hawaii

Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

Peppered Moray Eel

A Peppered Moray Eel swims in the waters off Hawaii
A Peppered Moray Eel swims in the waters off Hawaii

Peppered Moray Eels live in shallow waters, including tide pools and ponds. My fish book describes them as bold and active, and notes that they will even launch themselves out of the water, onto the rocks, trying to catch crabs, their primary prey.

So it’s somewhat surprising that, while I have probably seen glimpses of this eel, these are the first photos I’ve taken of one. This one was swimming along and, obligingly, continued to do so for a while, without disappearing into a crack or hole.

A Peppered Moray Eel swims in the waters off Hawaii