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 203. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Simply Red. See more responses here.
Ambon Toby.Venus in the early morning sky.A catamaran cruising off the coast of North Kohala.An Io flies by.A Triton’s Trumpet eating a Cushion Star.Ominous weather over the Hawi WInd Farm.
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 187. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
A Citrus Swallowtail butterfly.An Allograpta Obliqua Hoverfly on a Mamane flower.A Leafcutter Bee on Aptenia Cordifolia flowers.A view of the base of the petioles of a Traveler’s Palm (Ravenala madagascariensis).A Gold Dust Day Gecko on a red bamboo stem.A cow extricating itself from a jam!
Driving down to Upolu for a walk, I noticed this cow behaving oddly, so I pulled over to take a look. The reason quickly became clear: a pair of hooves sticking out below the tail. She was about to give birth. I thought this would be a good photo op, so settled in to watch.
The poor cow was up, down, walking, lying down. The pair of hooves did not budge. A couple of times I thought the delivery was nigh, but they were false dawns.
Are you the midwife?
I wasn’t the only one watching the action, or lack of it. Other cows looked on from a safe distance, chickens pecked the ground around the struggling cow, and a cattle egret flew in to see if any bugs might be being stirred up by the activity. In the end, I could wait no longer. I went off for my walk. On my return, nothing much had changed so I went home.
I guess not.
I didn’t contact the dairy. Early in my time here, I tried that, but they weren’t interested and soon after, No Trespassing signs went up on the driveway! I grew up on a small farm and, for us, a new calf was an important arrival to be carefully ushered into the world. But this was a bigger operation, and I’ve learned that the cows are left to get on with it. Truth is, she was probably fine. These things take time and, as every mother out there knows, it’s never easy.
Hawaiian Monk Seals will often crawl up on shore to rest. I’ve been lucky enough to see quite a few over the years. This one is RM36/37, a female born in Kauai in 2020. I first saw her at Upolu just over a year ago, and last saw her there in December of last year. I don’t get down there as often as I used to, so it’s possible she’s been around without me seeing her.
I like to see her because she’s the daughter of BOO, a monk seal I saw several times back in 2016. I asked the response coordinator at the Marine Mammal Center if RM36/37 has a name, and she responded that she doesn’t and that she’s pretty mysterious all together!
A gecko checks out the scene from the coin return slot of a Pepsi machine.
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 182. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
V22 Ospreys landing at Upolu AIrport.The 1820 Mission building in Honolulu.Papakōlea Beach, near South Point, is better known as Green Sand Beach.A Praying Mantis peers down.A Wild Turkey struts his stuff.A Dendrobium secundum orchid.
A pair of Hawaiian Monk Seals at Upolu. One of my favorite monk seal photos.
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 181. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
A juvenile Threadfin Jack.A Gargantuan Blenny.An adult Black-crowned Night Heron.A Bristle-thighed Curlew.A Flowery Flounder heading for cover.The shadow of Mauna Kea projected on the cloud cover. Another favorite!
As this month hurtles towards its conclusion, I realized I’d failed to post any crane photos for Becky’s Squares: Geometric. (See more responses here.)
They’ve finally got around to replacing the turbine blades at Hawi Wind Farm, after months of the blades just lying next to the turbines. The operation requires a crane to lift the blade assembly into place. These photos were taken while they were still preparing for that operation. The last photo shows the security for the operation!