Tag Archives: Macro

A bevy of bridges

A bridge over an inlet on the coast in Hawaii

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Bridges.’ See more responses here.

The top image is an elegant bridge on the coast, in the Hilton Resort at Waikoloa. It spans an inlet from the ocean into a lagoon. This bridge is part of the coast path, which is open for anyone to walk.

A bridge over a gulch in North Kohala, Hawaii

The Big Island’s main use of bridges is to span the numerous gullies that run from the mountains down to the ocean. On the east side, some of these bridges are quite long and high, with vertigo-inducing views over the edge. These three bridges cross gullies in North Kohala on the winding road from Kapaau to Pololu. The third has several houses nearby, so a walkway has been added. This is surely safer than walking on the road, though not by much judging from its appearance!

Finally, bridges of a different kind. Anoles and geckos use lines, attached to the house, to get around. Sometimes these one-lane bridges lead to encounters with fellow travelers. In this case the smaller anole leapt off into the cane grass, but that was its intended destination anyway. In the second photo, this anole was using the washing line to bridge the space from the house to a hedge.

Abstracts: Aglow

I’d like to say this is an image that featured prominently in NASA’s recent foray into UFO investigations. (Apparently, they’re not called UFOs anymore. They’re UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena) which I find far less engaging.) However, this image is not of a UFO or even a UAP.

Recently, I got a new printer and it has this circular light that tells me it’s on. This light pulses continuously. It’s also very bright. When I got up in the middle of the night, it was like the house interior was illuminated by one of those rotating searchlights used in prison camps.

It’s a frightening thought that some designer thought this was a good idea. This consumer thought it a very bad idea. However, there was no way to turn the light off unless the machine was turned off. Plan B was to cover the light so it wasn’t so bright. Sounds simple, but it took several tries before finding a dense enough tape combination to dim the light to acceptable levels.

What’s going on here?

The house where I live is ready for Halloween thanks to the generous numbers of spiders living around it. By the front steps, there’s a small Hawaiian Garden Spider and several crab spiders.

One day, I came home and saw a wasp flying close to the various webs. I thought it was dicing with danger, but soon saw that wasn’t the case. Instead, it would approach a web and bob its head toward the spider. It didn’t seem to be a terribly threatening act, though perhaps it was from the spiders perspective. The wasp didn’t push home an attack, but would instead fly away, settle for a bit, and preen itself.

The garden spider didn’t seemed to be bothered by the attention, but the crab spiders would drop suddenly on a strand of silk, before returning to their web as soon as the wasp moved on. I watched these maneuvers for five or ten minutes before heading inside. No webs were damaged, no spiders hurt, and I still don’t know what was really going on!

Sneaking up from below

A bee lands on a Maiapilo flower in Hawaii

A bee lands on an endemic Maiapilo flower before working its way up to collect pollen.

The lady beetle wears the crown

A Hawaiian crown flower with variable lady beetle inside

I found this Hawaiian Crown Flower (Calotropis gigantea) occupied by a Variable Lady Beetle, which gives a good idea of how small the flower is.

Hello, yellow

A full moon rises over Hawaii — A buttery yellow full moon rises over North Kohala.

This month’s Sunday Stills Color Challenge theme is ‘Yellow.’ See more responses here. Once again, I’ve gone for a melange of photos, which sounds edible, but probably isn’t. Captions on the photos.

A rider representing Oahu at the King Kamehameha day parade in Kapaau, Hawaii — *Yellow is the official color for Oahu and the island’s Pa’u rider …*

A Bee on a wedelia flower in Hawaii — A bee forages on a wedelia flower

A yellow hibiscus in Hawaii — A bee forages on a wedelia flower

A wasp heads for water in Hawaii — Finally a photo from a couple of days ago. A boldly-marked wasp zooms in to collect water.

Feeding time

I came across this scene at work, where someone had dropped a spot of jam, or something similar, on the floor of the lanai. As per usual, the ants were onto it in a heartbeat. I like how they arrange themselves, as though they’re at the counter of a diner. Of course, there’s always someone who can’t wait and will clamber over everything to get theirs.

There’s something bugging me

A tiny female Hawaiian Garden Spider with a much bigger one in the background

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Let’s Get Small.’ See more responses here.

Sorry to start off (above) with spiders, for those with aversions to them, but this one is very small. It’s a tiny female Hawaiian Garden Spider, probably no more than a quarter-inch across, though if it survives, it will grow to be as big as the other one in the photo.

In the gallery below, a Seven-spotted Ladybug putters about in some very green leaves. Another spider, this time a jumping spider no bigger than the little one at the top, has jumped a moth bigger than itself. Finally, what I think is a hover fly pretending to be a wasp with its black and yellow markings.

A jumping spider captures a moth in Hawaii

Finally, a Camponotus variegatus ant or carpenter ant. Next, a bee collecting pollen on an agave attenuata. Note the tiny aphids sharing the flower. And finally ants and aphids on the leaf of a Hawaiian Crown Flower. In this symbiotic relationship, the aphids produce sweet goodies for the ants to eat and the ants provide protection against the aphids’ predators.

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii