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 161. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Also, seven photos posted for Becky’s Squares: Seven. See more responses here.
This goat looked particularly pleased with his choice of resting space and was not troubled by the activities of the other goats all around him.
I was hiking the 1871 trail, south of Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, when I saw these goats scrambling down a rocky slope. I thought they matched the terrain well.
This month’s Sunday Stills Color Challenge is ‘Brown.’ See more responses here.
I’ve gone for a selection of animals, mostly. Captions on the photos as usual.
I was driving home yesterday and I was struck by a contrasting view. The top photo shows the Keanuiomano Stream running down towards the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway, the main road along the coast from Kailua Kona to the north.
I posted (here) about the river running high a few weeks ago, following the passage of Tropical Storm Calvin. Since then, there’s been a gradual decline in volume, but there’s still a trickle of water and the stream bed is full of pools. This area is popular with the goats, because it’s a good source of water and fodder after rainfall.
Crossing the road, the view is starkly different. The passage of Hurricane Dora triggered strong, dry trade winds. When fires broke out, they spread quickly (here). This view shows the aftermath of one of the relatively small fires, which burned about 500 acres next door to Mauna Kea Resort. The palm trees and houses on the left of the bottom image are part of the resort.
Ironically, when I took river running high photos, I checked out the other side of the highway for possible photos. I didn’t bother taking any, as I couldn’t see much because of the thick vegetation. Now it’s wide open down to the ocean.
I saw this goat grazing as it passed through a shallow gully and I liked this moment when it spotted me.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Road Trippin’.’ See more responses here. Since there aren’t any road trips, in the usual sense of the expression, here on the island, I thought I’d focus on a stretch of road that is one of my favorite drives here.
Old Saddle Road is an 11 mile stretch of the old highway that connected the west side of the island to the east side, through the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. These days, people take the new road, which is wide and smooth and allows drivers to zip along at 80 mph even though the speed limit is 60 mph. I like this highway, too, but the best part of any cross-island trip is always the old highway, which is up and down, winding, and dotted with one lane narrows where culverts pass under the highway (they’re not bridges) to channel the copious amounts of rain away from the road.
This stretch of road is bordered by ranch land, with horses, cattle, and sheep to the fore. There’s also a good variety of wildlife that can be seen in this area. And the weather can be anything from stunning to biblically awful, sometimes within the hour. So here are a few scenes that give an idea of that short, but special drive.
This Cattle Egret appeared to have difficulty choosing which of several goats it should follow, in order to snap up bugs disturbed by their grazing. Or perhaps something else was going on. I could see its throat rippling, so it might have been calling, though I couldn’t hear any sound from where I was.
Graham's Island 