Tag Archives: Mauna Kea

The Numbers Game #133

Cattle on Kohala mountain
Cattle graze under the watchful gaze of the NEXRAD weather radar.

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

The Numbers Game #132

A view of the North Kohala coast from the air in Hawaii
A view of the North Kohala coast from the air.

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

A walk for the birds

An I'iwi on the Pu'u O'o Trail on the Big Island, Hawaii
A native I’iwi.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Wild Animal or Bird of the Month.’ See more responses here.

Pu’u O’o Trail is a few miles east of the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, on the south side of the main cross-island highway. It’s all above 5,000 feet and can be cold, wet, and windy, but I’ve had good luck picking warm, sunny days. These photos are from a couple of recent hikes I took up there. Captions on the photos.

The trail crosses old lava flows from Mauna Loa, but there are kīpukas, areas of old-growth forest missed by the lava, which are home to several kinds of native birds.

On my last visit, I was lucky enough to see an ‘Akiapola’au, an endangered native species, which is only found on this island these days. This one was high up in the trees with the sun behind it. While my photos weren’t great, I was still able to see this industrious bird foraging for a meal. The shorter lower mandible is used to drill into branches and then the curved upper mandible digs out the grubs hiding within.

An 'Akiapola'au on the Pu'u O'o Trail on the Big Island, Hawaii
An ‘Akiapola’au.

These native birds make this trail popular with birders, but it’s a good hike for anyone. A 9-mile loop is possible, but I usually do an out-and-back hike through the first two or three kipukas, which totals about five miles.

Also posted for Jo’s Monday Walk. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #121

The firehose of lava, in 2017, from Pu'u O'o vent at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
The firehose of lava from Pu’u O’o vent during an eruption in 2017.

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

The top photo and the first gallery are photos that haven’t run on the blog before. I don’t know why I never ran the top one, though I had a lot of good photos to choose from that day.

Early one morning

Sunrise in Hawaii
Sunrise over the saddle between Kohala Mountain and Mauna Kea.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme, guest hosted by Susanne at Cats and Trails and Garden Tales, is ‘Early.’ See more responses here. I’ve gone with early mornings. Captions on the photos.

The Numbers Game #116

Telescopes seen from the trail to Mauna Kea summit in Hawaii
Telescopes on Mauna Kea seen from the trail to the summit.

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

The Numbers Game #113

Telescopes in the Smithsonian Submillimeter Array on Mauna Kea and what they’re thinking.

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