The Art of Ocean Ogling

It occurs to me that I've been in Hawai'i for 3 months now....

And I haven't posted very many photos of the beaches/ocean at all!

What's with that?!

A really serious blonde moment?

Well whatever the reason, despite our lack of time away from the hotel, we do get away weekly and it usually does involve a beach...where else to try to just chill for awhile...?!

Recently, we headed back towards Hilo,

And stopped to see Black Sands Beach,

a.k.a. Punalu'u Beach...

Where visitors are greeted cheerfully...

...And yes, the sand is black...lava rock turned into countless tiny grains...

...Or not!  A lovely tide pool created on 3 sides by lava...

And very black sand in the foreground...

This type of lava (below) is called pillow lava,

for the way it flows into a pillowy shape...

...Last week we chilled at Pauoa Bay...

Where there isn't much sand... 

but plenty of white coral and black lava rocks....

A sunset just a couple miles from the hotel,

From the shore at the Outrigger Hotel...

The small beach where we saw the sea turtles...

We've been here twice now...

...But not matter how many beaches we visit,

We'll never master the art of ocean ogling

Quite like this lone 'ulili

a.k.a. wandering tattler...

Gotta love either name.

The pensive tattler was photographed on the sea wall at the hotel.
They arrive by August and leave for Alaska breeding grounds
In late April or early May.

Kolea, Waxbill, Francolin

The kolea, aka the Pacific golden-plover...the adults have arrived in Hawai'i from their Arctic nesting grounds...an August visitor...the immatures arrive in late Sept.  We just saw a few of these on Thurs. at Holoholokai Beach.

This neat little bird is a common waxbill, a native of Africa...they showed up a week or so ago, feeding on the grass seeds just outside our front door...I haven't seen them for a few days, was their visit that fleeting?!  Before seeing these guys, I saw a small flock of lavender waxbills just outside the front office area in a flowered bush...no camera available and haven't seen them since...they have pale gray bodies (prob look lavender in sunlight) with dark red tails and a black band across the eyes...

The gray francolin...introduced from India in 1958.  Saw this in a parking lot near a beach...the black francolin is more striking, maybe I'll get to see one of those too...no offense, gray!

Royal Poinciana...these tall flaming red-orange blossomed trees are sprinkled everywhere in Kailua on the Big Island.  I'm just throwing this in cause the trees are amazing and deserve mentioning.

Hualalai

Looking at the local map, Hualalai appears to be the name of the small beach surrounded by the Four Seasons Resort...open to the public, however.  We went there recently on the advice of hotel guests Tom and Perla, didn't stay long but had the beach to ourselves...

This lone black-necked stilt was wading in a small pond near the beach...

I've seen one in Florida but this is my 1st photo...it was too far to get a better shot...

Finally, sea turtles!  We came to this beach hoping to find sea turtles, and found about 5-6 resting on lava rocks near the shore...this one turtle was on the sand.  Isn't it the sweetest thing?!  Maybe it's Nemo's pal Crush! Or a distant cousin...

A Japanese white-eye!  It wasn't easy to get a shot of, moving around as it did.  The head is yellow.

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens

Ruben and I had some time off yesterday, so we headed N and NE to see the HTB Gardens a guest at the hotel had told us about.  It's almost bedtime so I'm not able to finish attempting to label the few flowers I've posted here tonight...this garden is beyond incredible!!  The flora and fauna were just amazing and way too many to get photos of all.  This is a major "must see" on the big island...

ORCHID Var.

MUSICAL NOTES CLERODENDRUM

NIGERIA

CANNONBALL TREE

MADAGASCAR, PHILIPPINES, POLYNESIA

TORCH GINGER

AMAZON LILY

CRIMSON MEDINILLA, 

PHILIPPINES

ROSE GRAPE

PHILIPPINES

BAT PLANT

MALAYSIA

BEEHIVE GINGER

"TEN DAY"

PERU, EQUADOR

CLERODENDRUM PANICULATUM

INDIA, SRI LANKA, MALAYSIA

ORCHID Var.

Kilauea and Kahili Ginger

Aloha again! We've reached the half-way mark of our 14 week adventure in W. Hawaii...is it all downhill from here on out?!  I hope so!  It seems for every positive there's a negative for us here, it's frustrating and a bit disappointing despite the positives here and there.  I could post so many photos but just don't have the time...I'm free from waiting on the phones at 7 PM and we are in bed at 9 PM.  So, will post the important bird pics and etc. for now...

I'm getting some photos of the yellow-billed cardinal...isn't he pretty?!  They're orig. from South America...

The past few days I've been hearing the squeaking chirp of the fledglings of this YB cardinal parent...there's 2 of them actually...they're outside our room, parent feeding the children ea morning...

Once in awhile this large spotted dove appears among the many smaller zebra doves, below the bird feeders at the hotel.

Wed. we visited Kilauea Volcano...pretty awesome!

We visited this big lava tube a couple weeks ago, by the roadside not far N of the Kona Airport.

Once in awhile we show a hotel guest how to feed the eels in the rocks on the ocean side of the sea wall in front of the hotel...I've seen 3 types of eels so far.  I think this is a moray eel...

The sunsets are still going strong here, daily....

A large driftwood tree at Kiholo Bay (I think it was), N of Kailua Kona.  A real nice little beach.

Kahili Ginger...the flower is about 10" tall...this is near a lava tube at Volcanoes National Park, where Kilauea Volcano is...

Ohia Lehua ... This flower grows at the Kilauea Volcano...a kind of ugly plant w/ a pretty red flower, which has a legend behind it...Pele, the Goddess of Volcano, liked an handsome guy called Ohia. But, Ohia was already in love with another beautiful maiden called Lehua. So, he rejected Pele's offer. Angry Pele cursed him to be an ugly tree. Now, Lehua begged Pele to take back the curse and make him a human again. Pele didn't agree. But, other Gods felt pity on Lehua, did whatever they could. They made Lehua a beautiful flower on the ugly tree. 

Well on that interesting note, I'll sign off....

Bits from the Big Island

I'm sharing photos in no particular order here, from the past 2-3 weeks.....

Zebra doves are common here...dozens eat the bird seed on the ground below the hotel's feeders...

There are daily beautiful sunsets seen from the pool area of the hotel....many are a deep red due to the haze from the volcanos further east...but this one was a golden delight....

John and Cathe, Hawaii and ukelele enthusiasts, were guests for a couple weeks...

Me and a small flowering tree...these get quite large and can be a much deeper yellow...

These small ones are outside the local Walmart!

Ruben does the nightly tiki torch lighting ritual...he blows a conch horn while a guest lights the tiki torches around the front of the hotel...this guest, Rebecca, was from Australia....

The plumeria grows abundantly here, in white, pale pink, deep fuchsia pink, yellow...these are the flowers used for leis....

The hibiscus here in Hawaii are extremely abundant, in pink, orange, yellow, and white.

Not an overly flattering shot but hey it's proof that we made it, by kayak, to the Capt. Cook Monument, Despite being dumped into the crashing ocean waves -- twice -- before even getting away from the sea wall where we were setting off from.....

Our landing spot, on lava rock....and a peek of Kealakekua Bay...

Orange-spotted day geckos are very common here, and so darn cute...they hang around the "open-air" front office of the hotel. They look iridescent in bright green, a bit of blue, and the orange spots on their rump.

Island Birds

Aloha! I wanted to post sooner but I couldn't figure out how to upload photos from iPhotos with my new Mac notebook...anyway we've been in Hawaii almost a month now and it's impossible to go into all the details about our intense 6-day training on how to run a 16-room hotel, and the following 3 weeks...Ruben's doing a ton of the physical work, I'm mostly doing the mental work and we are up at 5AM, the office hours are 7 AM to 7 PM, so we have 14 hr days and only get a whopping 10 hrs a week off!  We haven't seen a lot of Hawaii yet (big island) but we went snorkeling nearby recently at Kahalu'u Beach, my first time snorkeling, and it was so awesome!  I am no swimmer but the desire to see the tropical fish was so great that I learned real fast, which is typical for many people. We saw over a dozen different fish and will be going back again one of these weeks.  We also went kayaking from Kealakekua Bay to the Captain Cook monument, got dumped out twice at the sea wall where we were trying to set off from, that was so NOT fun, esp w/ my fear of drowning and we were being slammed by ocean waves coming in....we got out of there on the 3rd try, and on the way back in we saw a small pod of spinner dolphins about 30 yards away passing us, way cool!

I need to go to bed soon but will share what few bird species I've seen so far and have pics of, all are common....there's one pretty bird I see a couple of some days, very scarce but I'll share it once I do get a photo...I know what it is but will leave it for a surprise....

The java sparrow is really common...we have 8 coconut shell feeders hanging in the trees in front of the hotel and we get dozens of the javas every morning chowing down...I put the seed out every AM around 6:30 and they're up high in the branches waiting....

There's a few saffron finches that come to feed each day...it used to be one pair (males have orange on the head) but now I see either a couple extra females or immatures...I see them around town too...

The myna birds are a Hawaiian version of a crow really...

We also have a lot of zebra doves on the ground eating fallen seeds, I still need to get a decent photo of one...they bop around, don't stay still so I can get a good shot.

I have a lot of flower photos to share, the flowers here are beyond amazing!  There's one that is a flaming orange color in a tree, need to get a shot of that yet and ID it but it's gorgeous.  The plumerias used in leis are everywhere, white, pale yellow, and hot pink....

We've made good friends w/ one couple that was staying at the hotel recently, from Portland, OR, and were able to go out to lunch w/ them one day at the local marina....we have guests from all over the world, right now we have a couple from Italy and one from Australia...

As hard and tiring as the job is, we're making memories to last a lifetime.....

More to come..... Mahalo for visiting....