This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme is ‘Orange or Peach.’ See more responses here.
Also, seven squares posted for Becky’s Squares: Seven. See more responses here.
Finally, a trio from the Hilo Orchid Show.
Nothing rhymes with orange
Tag Archives: Spencer Beach Park
Autograph Tree fruit
The fruit and leaves of the Autograph Tree (Clusia rosea) are toxic to humans and animals. When the fruit is ripe, it opens to reveal red seeds, which are dispersed by birds, animals and the weather. This is a spent fruit after that process is finished.
Posted for Becky’s Squares: Seven. See more responses here.
It’s here somewhere
I saw this Northern Cardinal at Spencer Beach Park as it worked its way along a low wall and onto a picnic table. It looked like it had lost something important, but I suppose it was just checking out its territory to make sure no one else was trying to muscle in.
Park yourself here
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘State and local parks.’ See more responses here.
Sifting through a ton of park photos, it was the island’s beach parks that came out on top. It’s possible to get in the water at all of these, though some require more caution than others.
There goes my morning walk
When I have time on my way to work, I like to stop in Kawaihae and go for an early morning walk. A favorite is to drive to Pelekane Beach and walk to Spencer Beach Park. Those days are gone! The flash floods from a few weeks back took care of that.
For starters, the road is still closed. I can see piles of dirt and debris through the locked access gates. But even if I could access the road, half of Pelekane Beach is gone too. The floods whooshed through the lagoon behind the beach and took a huge amount of sand with it. So now there’s no lagoon, half a beach, and a lot of trees in the bay.
It may be that the powers that be will bring in some sand to restore the former beach. That’s what’s happened at nearby Hapuna Beach, which also lost a section of its sand. In the meantime I will have to explore some new options.
The eyes have it
The small Indian mongoose is the poster child for bad ideas in Hawaii. Introduced back in the days of the sugar plantations, the idea was for them to get rid of the rats running rampant in the cane fields. Alas, rats are nocturnal, mongooses diurnal, so their paths only crossed on the shift change. Instead, the mongooses appreciated the absence of predators in Hawaii and the abundance of ground-nesting birds and were major reasons for the extinction of many native bird species.
They are most frequently seen running across roads, like big sausages with little legs. Closer up, there’s an intensity about them, as seen in this photo. I’ve had a couple of close encounters and have no wish to get into an altercation with one. I’d probably win, but would likely bear the scars of victory!
Autograph collectors
I was at Spencer Beach Park when I heard bees. Looking up, I saw them all over an open flower on one of the trees. I’ve never seen so many bees on the same flower at the same time. As they left, others would be moving forward to join the party.
The tree was an Autograph Tree (Clusia rosea), which is native to the Caribbean and is something of an invasive species here. It gets its name from its thick leaves with a thin green covering. Kids scratch their names into the leaves and watch as they grow with the leaves!
Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.
They walk the line
Recently, I went down to Spencer Beach Park for a morning walk. The area south of the park was torched by a wildfire back in August of 2023, which I wrote about here. Since then the power lines have been restored and a good deal of clearing has been going on.
In that previous post, many burned trees are visible, but these have now been removed, as has most everything else. It looks like the area is getting a new start, but what that start is, I don’t know.
On this day, what captured my attention was this group of workers on the project. I first saw them heading south along the coast, then picked them up again on their return journey. Much of that time, they moved forward steadily, and evenly spaced. It was a Monday, so maybe they were walking through the areas they’d be working on, and discussing what they’d be doing.
Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.
