Tag Archives: Sunday Stills

Eyeball on the edge

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Edge.’ (See more offerings here.) My first thought was this image, but I hadn’t actually ever taken such a photo. So I took my camera outside and wandered around. It wasn’t long before I found an obliging gecko keeping a beady eye on my movements.

The reason I was confident of getting this photo is because this is a typical pose for geckos. They’re constantly peeking over the edge of roofs, around corners, and around the edge of the leaves they occupy. They’re constantly on the lookout for prey – and predators.

In this case, the gecko was on my side of the leaf when I approached, but zipped to the other side, before checking out what I was up to.

Halema’uma’u Crater

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Danger.’ (See more offerings here.) It seemed a suitable opportunity to post some photos reviewing on Kilauea Volcano’s last eruption, which began in May of last year.

The bottom photo, taken from the Jaggar Museum overlook, shows the scene on the morning of April 25, 2018. Lava in the active vent in Halema’uma’u Crater, at Kilauea’s summit, was just below the crater floor and had been overflowing into the crater in previous days. The overflow is the large dark area to the right of the glowing lava.

By early May, the lava level in the vent had dropped around 1,000 feet. This drop occurred at the same time that lava disappeared from Pu’u O’o vent. Not long afterwards, cracks opened in the ground at Leilani Estates, a housing subdivision in the southeastern part of the island. By the end of May, 24 fissures had opened in the area. The most prolific lava flow emanated from Fissure 8, which flowed to the ocean and created more than 800 acres of new land. However, more than 700 homes were destroyed by this eruption.

Meanwhile, back at the summit, the absence of lava in the vent in Halema’uma’u Crater resulted in a series of collapses of the crater floor. Each collapse triggered earthquakes and shot clouds of ash and toxic gas thousands of feet into the air.

The top photo shows Halema’uma’u Crater as it looks today. The crater is twice the size it was the year before and the floor, which was mostly flat, is now a huge cascading pit. In the upper left of the photo, the Jaggar Museum, where I stood to take the bottom photo, can just be seen. It was heavily damaged by the earthquakes, as were the parking lot and access road. It’s also much closer to the crater edge than it was. (Technically the crater edge is closer to it, since the museum hasn’t moved!)

The museum, along with the rest of the park, closed in May 2018, because of the eruption. While much of the rest of the park reopened in September, Jaggar Museum did not. There’s a good possibility it never will and that its fate will be the same as the portion of Crater Rim Drive in the middle photo. A significant length of that road, which used to encircle the whole summit caldera, was destroyed, including the section in the photo which slid, intact, into the crater.

Things have settled down since September 2018 and there has been no volcanic activity anywhere on the island since then. But Kilauea remains an active volcano and will undoubtedly erupt again. It’s just that no one knows exactly when or where that will happen.

Signs: Christa’s swing

I don’t know who Christa is or was, but there were a couple of things that struck me about this image.

The sign and the swing’s rope and seat were in excellent condition in stark contrast to the tree, which was dying and deliberately so. The channel around the trunk, below the sign, is intended to kill the tree, probably a silk oak, which can take over and crowd out native trees.

And then there’s the location, not far from the old quarry near the foot of Pu’u Wa’a Wa’a. It’s more than a mile down the hill to the nearest habitation, a ranch that runs livestock in this area. So, an isolated spot for Christa’s playground, but a wonderful location too, with views to the Pacific and surrounded by birds and animals, both domestic and wild.

Posted in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘Playground.’ See more responses here.

Mahai’ula Beach

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Warmth.’ (See more offerings here.) Picture yourself stretched out on this beach. Imagine the sun warming the sand, warming you. Perhaps it’s time for a dip in the clear, turquoise waters. After you emerge, the sun quickly dries you. Time to retreat to the shade of the trees lining the beach, a cool beverage at your side, a book in hand (put that phone away). Repeat as necessary.

This is Mahai’ula Beach, one of the beaches at Kekaha Kai Park. The old house, in the top photo, was built in 1880 by John Kaelemakule, a successful fisherman and businessman. After he died in 1936, the property was sold to the Magoon family who owned the land until 1993. It’s now owned by the state of Hawaii.

Pyrosoma

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fifth.’ (See more offerings here.) I was stumped as to what to post until I thought about looking back to see what photos I’d taken on the fifth of a given month. As it happened, these somewhat strange photos were taken just one month ago, on April 5th, and I was now ready to run them.

I was out snorkeling and was drawn to some black triggerfish, which were gathered in a very tight group. I took some photos and as I maneuvered around the group I became aware of something very close by.

The thing was at least two feet long and six inches or so in diameter. It was translucent, but with short lines of purple dots, and a milky central line through the tube. It was floating just below the water, changing shape, though not appearing to propel itself, but more being moved by the water. I thought it was some kind of egg sac, but really had no idea what it might be.

I wasn’t even sure I could get a photo of it, since I thought my camera might not ‘see’ it and instead focus on the fish beyond. I was also leery of getting too close. Perhaps it was some form of jellyfish or some other creature loaded with toxins.

When I got home, I was thrilled to find that some of the photos had turned out and registered what I’d seen, but I had no idea what it was. It didn’t really look like an egg sac, but what were the alternatives?

I had a browse in John Hoover’s Guide to Hawaii’s Marine Invertebrates and the closest thing I found was a prickly pyrosoma (pyrosoma atlanticum), but while the general shape was similar, the surface looked much less smooth than the thing I saw. So I shared the photos with some local snorkelers and divers and asked if they had any idea what it was. A couple of ideas were floated but nothing definitive. No one had seen anything like this before.

I looked online and found a few images that bore some resemblance. One of those links was to John Hoover’s website so I thought, ‘Why not ask someone knows about these things?’ and sent him an email with the photos. He quickly responded that it looked like a pyrosoma, a type of tunicate, and referred me to the listing in his book.

As we exchanged emails about a definitive identification, he noted, ‘Often microscopic examination is required to definitely identify tunicates, so unless you can get a piece of one, preserve it properly, and send it to a specialist we’ll probably never know exactly what it is.’

So what is this pyrosoma in the photos? Well, the name means ‘fire body’ and it can light up at night. It’s a colonial tunicate that can be 30 feet or longer (search online for pyrosoma and diver to see examples). Tunicates are filter-feeding creatures that either attach to hard surfaces or float free in the oceans. The colony is made up of zooids, individuals animals that are embedded in a gelatinous tube, which is open at one end and, apparently, is quite hard to the touch. One end of each zooid opens to the outside of the tube, the other end to the inside. Each zooid filters tiny cells from the water outside and expels filtered water to the inside of the tube.

Now, every time I get in the water, I’m looking around for another one. I probably won’t see one, but if I do get lucky, I just want to poke it, gently of course, to see what it feels like.

The photos show the shape and general composition of the pyrosoma. Some people have said it must have been huge because it dwarfs the fish in the photos, but the pyrosoma was only a couple of feet away. The fish were 20 or more feet beyond.

Sugar cane

North Kohala was a significant center for Hawaii’s sugar industry through the boom years in the 1800s until its decline in the first half of the 20th century. Now, sugar cane is being put to a new use in the area – rum production.

The photos show sugar cane being grown in the fields below Hawi wind farm. This isn’t just any kind of sugar cane. These are heirloom varieties, derived from canoe plants – plants brought to Hawaii by the original Polynesian settlers. Now they’re being used in the production of rum agricole.

Rum agricole hails from the Caribbean, particularly the island of Martinique. Regular rum is made from molasses, but rum agricole uses fresh sugarcane juice. The people behind Kuleana Rum have begun producing the Caribbean-style rum here on the Big Island. They have a distillery in Kawaihae, about 17 miles down the coast, and have opened Kuleana Rum Shack, a bar and restaurant in Waikoloa.

For more information about Kuleana Rum, go to kuleanarum.com. Posted in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘Spirit.’ See more offerings here.

Cattle egrets on a gate

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Gate.’ (See more offerings here.) I remembered these two cattle egrets, on a gate separating two cattle pastures. I like how the birds seem to be engaged, like a couple of neighbors talking over the garden fence, or in this case, on the fence.

Also, I like the feet of the bird perched on the gate. Makes me feel like my feet are positively dainty!

North Kohala libraries

The new public library in North Kohala, Hawaii

Today’s post is in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘For the Love of Reading & Books.’ See more offerings here.

The top photo shows North Kohala’s relatively new public library, which opened in 2010. The library features wind and photovoltaic energy systems as well as a rainwater catchment system. These features helped it gain LEED Gold Certification, the first state building in Hawaii to do so.

The photo below shows the Bond Memorial Library, which served the area from 1929 until the new library’s opening. This building was much smaller – 1,610 sq.-ft. as opposed to 6,000 sq.-ft. for the new building.

When the library moved from the old building to the new, more than 1,000 volunteers lined the road to move the books by hand over the mile plus distance. This echoed the story of King Kamehameha the Great who organized a human chain 20 miles long to carry rocks from Pololu Valley to build Pu’ukohola Heiau near Kawaihae, though I don’t think King Kamehameha’s rock carriers were volunteers.

Back in 2014, there were plans to convert the old Bond Memorial Library to a cultural/historical museum for the area, but nothing has happened yet and the old building still sits there, unused as far as I can tell.

The old Bond Memorial Library in Kapaau, Hawaii.