Tag Archives: On The Coast

I will swing for this

A swing at Hawaii Island Retreat on the North Kohala coast

Hawaii Island Retreat sits on a steep cliff on the windswept North Kohala coast. There are a couple of public access trails leading down to the coast there. One passes in front of the main building and this is where this swing can be found.

I think I could be happy rocking back and forth there for an hour or two or three, and disembark a more balanced and contented individual!

For more information about Hawaii Island Retreat, go to hawaiiislandretreat.com.

The Numbers Game #11

A distant view of Pu'u O'o vent from the Napau Trail at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
A view of Pu’u O’o vent, when it was erupting, from the Napau Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

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 132.

You can see more responses here.

A parachuting clown hangs from a tree.
A flying clown. That’s all the world needs!
A grasshopper on a curved stem
A grasshopper keeping watch.
Banana stalk flies mating on the spadix of an Anthurium schlechtendalii
Two Banana Stalk Flies doing, well, you know what.
A rock sits balanced on the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii
A well balanced rock on the North Kohala coast.
Post office boxes in Hawaii
Couldn’t resist taking this one at my local post office. I can run this several times!

The Numbers Game #10

Green darner dragonflies mating at Kiholo on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Green darner dragonflies mating.
Coconut palms line the beach north of the park at Kiholo on the Big Island.
Palm trees line the beach.

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 131.

You can see more responses here.

A Brown Booby skims the ocean.
two Hawaiian sea turtles look like an impressionist painting as they swim underwater
Green turtles in Kiholo lagoon.
The entrance to Emesine Lava Tube on the Powerline Trail off Saddle Road.
The entrance to the Emesine lava tube.
A gold dust day gecko with a forked tail.
Snake the gecko!
One of the ocean-side campsites at Kiholo Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii
A campsite at Kiholo campground.

Another brush fire

A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii
A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii

I was driving home yesterday when I noticed some haze blowing out to sea. I thought it was rain at first, but quickly realized that this was smoke, likely another brush fire, and my heart sank. I was halfway home. Up ahead was Lapakahi and beyond that, Mahukona, two places I spend a lot of time at.

As I got closer I saw that the fire was burning at Lapakahi. Traffic was still passing on the highway though the land beside it was black and smoking. But strong trade winds had blown the fire, which apparently started near the park entrance, down towards the ocean.

A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii

My guess is the fire had been going less than an hour when I got there, though a considerable area had already burned. Fires were burning along the north edge of the area, not far from the road, but the most smoke and bigger flames could be seen closer to the ocean. It looked like the small visitor center had escaped, surrounded as it is by the looping access road. But other structures might not have been so lucky, and the native plants, birds and insects probably did not fare well.

A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii
A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii
A brush fire at Lapakahi on the North Kohala coast, Hawaii

Ring-billed Gull

A Ring-billed gull in Hawaii

I was walking the beach at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay (often known as A Bay, for obvious reasons) when I noticed this bird walking in the same direction as me. I was idly wondering what kind of gull it was, when I suddenly realized, ‘it’s a gull.’

Unlike most places, a gull sighting in Hawaii is a rarity. I know people who’ve never seen one here. Gulls prefer shallow tidal areas and tropical islands don’t have those, so they’re not gull-friendly. But a few get blown in every year and some arrive as stowaways on ships

A Ring-billed gull in Hawaii

This one is a Ring-billed Gull, and it’s the second I’ve seen in my time here. The first, I saw catching a fish (here). I rather liked how this one was strutting its stuff on the beach.

A Ring-billed gull in Hawaii

Also posted for Bird of the Week LII. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #9

A Black-Crowned Night Heron juvenile in Hawaii
A juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron on alert.

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 130. You can see more responses here.

A passion vine butterfly lays an egg.
A Passion Vine Butterfly lays an egg.
Webs on the ground catch the early morning sunlight.
Early morning webs.
Late afternoon light streams through lowered blinds to create this pattern on the lace curtains inside.
Light through the blinds.
A man harvests opihi off the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.
Not a castaway, but an opihi picker.
A V22 Osprey aircraft at Upolu Airport, HawaiiA V22 Osprey aircraft at Upolu Airport, Hawaii showing how it is operated
A V22 Osprey aircraft…and how it works!

Hawaiʻi on Fire

Daybreak reveals the onlookers gathered at the Jaggar Museum viewing point.
Daybreak reveals onlookers gathered at the Jaggar Museum viewing point in April 2016 (Original post here).

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Iconic Places and Spaces.’ See more responses here.

I wasn’t sure what to post for this, but Kilauea is about as iconic as anything on the island, so I thought I’d post some photos from volcanic activity that I’ve seen since I moved here. Captions on the photos with a link to the original post.

Kilauea lava pours into ocean as people watch from the cliff
Lava from the Pu’u O’o vent reaches the ocean in July 2016 (Original Post here).
A lava breakout from the Kilauea lava flow.
A hike to the July 2016 flow revealed surreal scenes like this one (Original post here).
Lava from Kilauea Volcano’s Pu’u O’o vent enters the ocean as if from a firehose.
This fire hose of lava was a short-lived feature of the 2016 flow (original post here).
In April 2018, lava in Halema’uma’u Crater spilled onto the crater floor. (Original post here).