Three goats crossing a golf course fairway while a pair of nene head the other way. What I like about this image is that they all look very purposeful in their progress, as if they had an important appointment to keep. Only the saffron finch in the foreground looks like it couldn’t give a damn.
Here’s a view of part of the golf course at the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort on the Kohala coast. Besides the usual trees and bunkers to challenge golfers, there’s a generous sprinkling of goats. I liked the pastoral feel of this photo, but if I were a golfer and my ball came to rest within a club’s length of some of these goats, I’d be inclined to drop a new ball a safe distance away.
Young goats on the 1871 Trail heading south from Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, looking youthfully perky and mischievous.
Hiking on the 1871 trail, heading south from Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, I came on this scene. A herd of goats blocked the trail. They watched me from the shadows. Two of them raised themselves onto their hind legs and repeatedly butted heads.
In the deep shade of the trees they carried the look of a gang of brigands, ready to relieve hikers of their valuables or, more likely, since they’re goats, something to eat. That could be just about anything from a carrot to the hiker’s shoes.
As I got closer, the goats filtered into the trees and scrub, disappearing from view. Perhaps next time I won’t be so lucky.
For more information about the 1871 Trail, and other hikes on the Big Island, go to bigislandhikes.com.
For more information about Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, visit https://www.nps.gov/puho/index.htm.
Posted in response to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, ‘I’d rather be…,’ because I’d rather be hiking.
The theme of this week’s WordPress photo challenge is ‘Glow,’ so I thought I’d use that as my cue for the week’s posts.
First up is a goat clinging to the precipitous side of Pu’u Wa’awa’a. I particularly like how the goat is looking at me, but casts a crisp, more profiled shadow in the early morning light.
On the downside, there must have been a dozen or so goats in the area and, between their avid grazing and scampering about on the exposed slopes, they contribute greatly to erosion. My time watching them was accompanied by the constant sound of small rocks tumbling down gullies and puffs of dust and dirt churned up by their hooves.
A goat scrambles over the lava alongside the Pu’u O’o trail. Here, it’s probably transiting between kipukas, where there’s a good deal of forage growing, but goats seem to do fine in even the most inhospitable places on the island.
Following up on yesterday’s against-the-odds photo of a bright-eye damselfish, here’s one of a goat standing on a rock. What are the chances of seeing that?
Walking down a local road one day, I noticed this goat eyeing me through a stand of trees.
Graham's Island 