This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Green Macro or Close-Up.’ See more offerings here.
Here’s a green anole (Anolis carolinensis) perched on a green ti leaf so that I could take its photo (possibly). Light greens in the sun, dark greens in the shadow. With all this, I can forgive the anole its powder blue eye-shadow.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Country or State Flower.’ See more offerings here.
The country flower for the USA is the rose and I don’t have photos of those. The state flower for Hawaii is the hibiscus and, while I have lots of those, they’re all of Chinese hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis). The state flower is the native yellow hibiscus (Hibiscus brackenridgei) and I have none of those. The native hibiscus is not often seen in the wild and is currently considered an endangered species, but it is used as an ornamental in domestic gardens.
Having struck out on the two proper responses to this challenge, I’ve chosen to post photos of the official flower of the Big Island, the red ʻōhiʻa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha). A member of the myrtle family, ʻōhiʻa lehua is endemic to Hawaii. It’s one of the first trees to colonize lava flows. It’s able to survive in such a tough environment because its roots grow down into lava tubes and other voids in the lava and tap into the moisture there.
Recently, ʻōhiʻa trees have been attacked by a fungus which can cause the trees to die within a very short time. This disease, known as Rapid ‘Ohi’a Death, is caused by two new types of Ceratocystis fungus.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Near and Far.’ See more offerings here.
The photo above shows a distant view of some of the telescopes atop Mauna Kea, silhouetted against an early morning sky. Below is a closer look at the Gemini Northern Telescope, which sits a little way north of the summit of Mauna Kea.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Early.’ See more offerings here.
So here’s a sunrise over Kohala Mountain. Enough said.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘For the Birds.’ See more offerings here.
Bird baths and bird feeders are a couple of subjects for this theme and these photos are of what is, in effect, a bird feeder. It’s a fish pond at Hualalai Resort and where there’s a fish pond, there will likely be herons. I saw half a dozen perched around one of the ponds there, but this adult black-crowned night heron was the only one I saw catch anything.
It lunged its beak into the water and pulled this good-sized fish out onto the bank. After a few minutes of tossing the fish around to get it lined up properly, the bird swallowed it whole. The photo at right shows the fish on its way down.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Sweet.’ See more offerings here.
In my part of the Big Island, plumerias are starting to bloom in their curious way where the flowers appear on the tree before the leaves. In warmer parts of the island, plumeria trees are already thick with flowers and leaves. But in all cases, the flowers are redolent with a sweet perfume.
I like this photo because the blooms in this cluster are at different stages, from the tightly-curled buds at bottom right to the fully-open bloom at top left. But my attention was drawn to the flower unfurling in the center, all shadows and light and dappled with raindrops.
Also posted in response to Bushboys Last Photo for January 2020 challenge. See more responses here.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Shadows.’ See more offerings here.
The top photo is a row of colorful playground swings at Kamehameha Park in Kapaau. Below are three cyclists in line, heading out of Hawi during an Ironman World Championship race.
Also posted as a second offering for this week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme of ‘All in a Row.’ (See more responses here.) My first post for this theme is here.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Gray.’ See more offerings here.
This photo shows a pueo, the native Hawaiian short-eared owl, gliding over a gray road beneath a gray sky. This is a stretch of Old Saddle Road, which is one of the best places to see pueos as they hunt in the pastures on either side of the road or rest on fence posts alongside the road.
Graham's Island 