Album Wildlife

Titans said:
@Yvonne - just wonderful you got to experience that, it's very rare. Enjoy your trip, the photos are amazing. Keep posting!
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they are residents, they hang out in that area every morning. So the chance to see dolphins on the Big Island is pretty high.
I encountered them many times and still get chicken skin when they show up. They are just so beautiful.
 
Yvonne said:
they are residents, they hang out in that area every morning. So the chance to see dolphins on the Big Island is pretty high.
I encountered them many times and still get chicken skin when they show up. They are just so beautiful.
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Yes, the Dolphins are amazing! They are suppose to be very curious- did they come straight up to you to check you out? It's usually easy to see dolphins above water- like from the shore or looking at them playing at the front of the boat, but snorkeling or diving with them is normally extraordinary I thought- (out of 550+ dives, an underwater dolphin encounter only happened once to us and that's a moment I will never forget). Enjoy the trip a lot- because we are now on day 2 with max 44F and rainy weather in mid May...
 
Titans said:
Yes, the Dolphins are amazing! They are suppose to be very curious- did they come straight up to you to check you out? It's usually easy to see dolphins above water- like from the shore or looking at them playing at the front of the boat, but snorkeling or diving with them is normally extraordinary I thought- (out of 550+ dives, an underwater dolphin encounter only happened once to us and that's a moment I will never forget). Enjoy the trip a lot- because we are now on day 2 with max 44F and rainy weather in mid May...
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there are several places here on the Big Island, where several dolphin pods can be found. They sleep in certain bays and head out at night to hunt.
So the chance is really good to see them out here. I've seen them many times when I snorkeled. Sometimes I swam about a mile out with my gear and first heard them chirping before I saw them.
You sometimes see whale sharks or other sharks but I wasn't lucky this time. I had hoped to encounter any of them while I'm here.
 
1 of the 2 immature Bald Eagles surprised me in our backyard Saturday afternoon. It came swooping down towards the bird feeders, went just above them and landed on a wobbly skinny branch of a white pine. It brought a fish to eat! We are 400-500 yards uphill from the lake and there are lots of trees everywhere. This pine is hidden in between several Maples and it's not an easy tree to land in- it was clearly looking for a quiet hidden spot to eat the fish, self caught or stolen goods, who knows. It's about 100 ft away from the house, the light was very bright and the air was full of white fluff from the Poplar trees. Rick wasn't home and I never learned how to use a real camera, bummer, because it took the Bald Eagle 40 mins to eat the fish....:rolleyes:

"Did anyone follow me or can I eat start eating?"
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"Ok- let's start the feast"
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"Dang.... I almost lost my balance" (yah- I know...photo is not in focus...)
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"Ok- I got a better grip on it now and I just turned my butt towards Titans, but at least the fish is more visible"
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"Almost done, I just got to swallow the skin and the last big piece in one go"
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"So now- what do I do? I need to make a 180 on that skinny unstable branch to be able to fly out of my hidden spot".
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"Ok- I have it all under control, almost there."
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"No problem- piece of cake, here we go. Now I just need to stay above those darn bird feeders".
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We have 3 Bald Eagles at the local lake and today I saw all of them, awesome! The mature Bald Eagle sat perching high up in an Oak tree, the two immature ones were down together on a lawn fighting like siblings and the Osprey was out over the lake hunting. As usual it took less than a minute before one of the immature Bald Eagles took off towards the Osprey.
 

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When the weather starts to warm up here in Ohio the peepers start singing by the pond at night. I sought several out the other day at dusk, tiny buggers about an inch or so long.

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When they "peep" their throat balloons up -- not sure how they do not pop!

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Koa'e'kea or White-tailed tropicbird

They nest on crater walls of Kilauea Volcano and other pit craters and often soar above you while hiking in the volcano desert of Hawai'i Volcano NP.

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Tractor doc, that is cool. We ran into a similar experience a couple years ago and were seeing many migrations in the wilderness. Usually it was a mass flyover. So when we saw this we were pretty excited and quite a bit frightened. Did some research and these “beard” formations contain approximately 2000 to 6000 bees on average and they are resting for a while in mass. Normally they are not aggressive as when defending a hive. Still kind of freaks us out a bit, saw a quick flyover last Monday in the wilderness, thousands of the creatures all flying directionally in a formation.

After that first time girlfriend about freaked out when the pot of water was coming to the boil, the same sound the migrating flyover makes . These are in a mesquite tree.

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Wyatt Carson said:
Tractor doc, that is cool. We ran into a similar experience a couple years ago and were seeing many migrations in the wilderness. Usually it was a mass flyover. So when we saw this we were pretty excited and quite a bit frightened. Did some research and these “beard” formations contain approximately 2000 to 6000 bees on average and they are resting for a while in mass. Normally they are not aggressive as when defending a hive. Still kind of freaks us out a bit, saw a quick flyover last Monday in the wilderness, thousands of the creatures all flying directionally in a formation.

After that first time girlfriend about freaked out when the pot of water was coming to the boil, the same sound the migrating flyover makes . These are in a mesquite tree.

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that's awesome!!! Would love to see that.
My friend in Hawai'i is a beekeeper and I always benefit from it getting the best honey ever. I also learned a lot about bees that way
 
Yvonne said:
that's awesome!!! Would love to see that.
My friend in Hawai'i is a beekeeper and I always benefit from it getting the best honey ever. I also learned a lot about bees that way
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I love bees and have observed them since I was a kid. We came across a hive in a cleft of a rock face years ago. Some of the wax comb was sticking out of that crack.

To add, they say all of our bees in southern Arizona now have been integrated by the Africanized killer bees now so there is that to think about. Every so often we hear of someone getting stung to death.
 
Finally got a photograph of a full length coachwhip. We have photographed plenty of species of Rattlesnakes but no coachwhips until now. Usually we see them zinging away or at most a few inches of the tail end sticking out of dense brush. They have a top end of 8 mph making them among the fastest of North American snakes. They also stay out longer in the heat of the day than other species but this one was spotted at 6:41 am this morning. It did a quick disappearing act but stopped under a cactus and a few shrubs just a few feet away. I thought I saw a pattern and it remained stationary at my approach. As I hung over the cactus got a few spines in my thigh and hand but a little pair of Silver Gripper tweezers on my pack took care of those later. The important thing is the image.

Some months back there was a discussion about ditching the DSLRs and bulkier cameras, lightening the load. This May marks a full year with an iPhone 7 Plus and the third party ProCamera app, a system I’m finding perfect for ultralight photojournalism. It does good video too.

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