Baja Fairy Duster (Calliandra californica)

Baja Fairy Duster (Calliandra californica)

Location: Tucson, Arizona, USA

This delicate blossom is known as the Baja Fairy Duster (Calliandra californica).  The plant has its origins in Baja California, but I photographed this one in Tucson, Arizona.  Although this shrubby plant grows wild, I was told that people sometimes add it to their gardens to attract hummingbirds.

Common Barn Owl (Tyto alba)

Common Barn Owl (Tyto alba)

Location: near Tucson, Arizona, USA

The Common Barn Owl (Tyto alba) is said to be one of the most widely distributed birds in the world.   I photographed this one at the raptor free flight display at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, near Tucson, Arizona.  When I took this photo (and several others) the owl was perched on its handler's gloved hand.  As you can see, I was able to get quite close to it.

Here is another portrait of a Barn Owl, and a photo of a Barn Owl in flight.

Buster on his Perch

Buster the cat, on duty

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

It's been awhile since I posted a photo of our twelve-year-old cat, Buster.  Here he is on his favorite perch in the garden.  The perch actually is a large flat rock atop the end of a stone wall that my husband built alongside one of the garden paths.  A creature of habit, Buster sits in repose on that perch, surveying the scene, nearly every day from late afternoon until just after sunset.

Late Afternoon Rainbow on Kohala Mountain

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

In the late afternoon, as a result of daytime convection, clouds tend to build up near the tops of the ridges on Hawaii's mountains.  Often it sprinkles a bit, too - a phenomenon known locally as "afternoon up-slope showers."   For those of us who live closer to sea level, a welcome by-product of those afternoon up-slope showers is the high likelihood of seeing a rainbow when we look toward the higher elevations with the sun behind us.   I snapped this smudgy rainbow with my point-and-shoot camera while standing in my driveway.

Meet the Cane Toad (Bufo marinus)

Cane Toad (Bufo marinus)

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

I have posted a number of photos of various birds that frequent our garden during the day.  Now, meet the Cane Toad (Bufo marinus), one of the critters who work the night shift in our garden.  He won't win a beauty contest, although he does make an interesting photo subject nonetheless.

These amphibians come out after dark in search of food and water.  Normally they eat things like insects, snails and slugs -- but we have witnessed several Cane Toads gobbling cat food from a bowl that happened to be left out on the porch overnight.

Cane Toads seek out damp areas of the garden, and they seem to know when our garden gets watered.  We have seen them position themselves directly under the emitters of our irrigation system, waiting for a shower.   There is a large terra cotta saucer near our ground level bird feeder.  Placed there as a water source for birds, the water in it is refreshed automatically twice a day via our garden irrigation system.  Birds frequent it all day long to drink and bathe.  The Cane Toads use it in the evening.  We have seen up to five Cane Toads at once, lolling together in that ground level bird bath as if it were their personal spa.  So, they're not pretty -- but believe me, they are not as dumb as they look!

Red-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus scopulinus)

Red-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus scopulinus)

Location:  Otago Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand

The weekly Ruby Tuesday photo meme features photos of red things.   But last week the meme's founder and host, Mary, suggested that this week the participants all post photos that have just a little red in them.

My choice for this week's "little bit of red" Ruby Tuesday is this Red-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus scopulinus).   Although its common name is the Red-billed Gull, please note that he has red feet, too!

The Red-billed Gull is native to New Zealand, where it is called 'Tarapunga' in the Māori language.   I photographed this one last December while I was traveling in New Zealand.  The photo was taken at Macandrew Bay, on the Otago Peninsula, which is located outside Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island.  The gull had stationed itself on a picnic table, apparently hoping for a handout.

New Growth on a Neem Tree

Neem (Azadirachta indica)

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

One morning while I was walking around in my garden taking photos of flowers, I noticed some new growth on one of our Neem trees.  I thought the branchlet, with its tender young translucent leaves, was as worthy a photo subject as the flowers.

Female Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola)

Female Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola)

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

Here is a photo of a female Saffron Finch.  She is less brilliantly colored than the male, but is still a very pretty little bird, I think.

UPDATE: Click here to see a photo of a male Saffron Finch.

Sailboat on the Pacific Ocean at Twilight

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

I live on a hill above the ocean, and we often sit outside to watch the sunset.   During the last hour before the sun goes down, we usually see a number of pleasure boats and fishing vessels heading for the port of Kawaihae, which is a few miles down the coast from where we live.  One evening last week, we spotted this particular sailboat heading toward the harbor much later than the others.  It looked a little lonely out on the big ocean all by itself as the sky began to darken.

Bottlebrush Tree Flower

Bottlebrush Tree (Callistemon sp.)

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

The Bottlebrush Tree (Callistemon sp.) in our garden is blooming.  The common name comes from the flower's resemblance to a bottlebrush.   The genus name, Callistemon, means "beautiful stamens."   The clumps of  'bristles' on the bottlebrush flower actually are the stamens of individual blossoms -- so, each flower on this tree really is a cluster of small blossoms.  Each of the 'bottlebrushes' is about two inches (5 cm) long.  This is a macro image, so it appears somewhat magnified.

Hala Tree Trunk Close-up

Hala (Pandanus tectorius)

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

Yesterday I posted a picture of a Hala tree (Pandanus tectorius).   Here is a close-up photo of the surface of its trunk.  As its leaf blades are shed, they leave behind ridges that spiral around the trunk.

Hala Tree (Pandanus tectorius)

Hala (Pandanus tectorius)

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

Here is one of two Hala trees (Pandanus tectorius) that are growing in our palm garden.  They are not really palms, but they seem to fit well amongst the 'real' palms.  We acquired this one as a tiny sprout.

We were hiking on a coastal trail in the northern part of our island.   We stopped to rest near a very large wild Hala tree, and we noticed a few newly germinated seeds on the ground beneath it.   I picked one up to look at it.  A tiny green sprout had just barely emerged from the nut-like seed.  I put it into my pocket, and when we got home, we planted it.  Here it is about five years later.  We have a second offspring of the same 'mama' Hala, which we collected while hiking on the same trail about two years after we found the first one.

This one is just starting to show the aerial prop roots characteristic of the Hala.   In the traditional Hawaiian culture, the leaf blades of this tree (called lau hala) are dried and used to make baskets and woven mats.   The leaf blades grow in a spiral pattern around the trunk.  As they fall off or are removed, they leave marks on the trunk that create an interesting textured pattern.

Update:  Here is a close-up photo of the Hala tree trunk.

Early Morning Altocumulus Clouds

Altocumulus Clouds

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

The sky over the leeward side of the Hawaii's Big Island was covered by altocumulus clouds early this morning.  I took this photo at 6:09 AM today, just after the sun rose above the mountains to the east of where I live.

Pothos Vine (Epipremnum aureum)

Pothos Vine (Epipremnum aureum)

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

This is the Pothos vine (Epipremnum aureum).  We saw this vine with its pretty ivory-marbled heart-shaped leaves climbing on a tall fence near where we parked to go to the beach one day.   I snipped a small piece with a leaf, took it home, and put the stem into a small glass jar full of water that we use for a rooter.  Within days, tiny hair-like roots appeared at end of the stem.  Several weeks later, the first new tendril began to grow.

For more than a year, we kept it in the house, where it grew more tendrils and many new leaves.  Finally we decided to plant it outdoors on the hillside section of our garden.  It has taken over a sizable area of the hillside, serving well as a ground cover there.

A Hibiscus Called 'Ecstasy'

'Ecstasy' Hibiscus

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

Most of the hibiscus varieties in out garden bloom more or less continuously, but this cultivar blooms at irregular intervals.  'Ecstasy' is the name of this hibiscus.  We have two plants of this variety.

Three Pu'u on Kohala Mountain

Location: Kohala Mountain, Big Island, Hawaii

The rural community where I live is on the western slope of Kohala Mountain, one of the five volcanoes that make up Hawaii's Big Island.  Of the five volcanoes, two are active (Kilauea and Mauna Loa), and two are dormant (Mauna Kea and Hualalai).  Only Kohala Mountain is extinct, having last erupted about 120,000 years ago.

Most landscape photos I have posted from my neighborhood look westward or southward, toward the ocean, but if you turn the opposite direction and look upslope, this is one of the sights that you would see.   Pictured here are three of the many pu'u on the slopes of the mountain.  Pu'u are the remains of old cinder/spatter cones from volcanic eruptions many thousands of years ago.  When they were first formed, they were jagged and rough - bare lava rock and cinder.  Over the centuries they have been worn down by the elements, and overgrown by plant life until they look like gentle, green-carpeted hills.

Good Morning, Moon

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

One morning last month I was outdoors taking photos of birds.  One of the birds I was trying to photograph flew up into the sky, and when I looked up to see where it was going,  I noticed the moon. It was almost directly overhead, and I decided it was as worthy a photo subject as the birds.

For the record, the photo was taken from Hawaii's Kohala Coast on Aug. 22, 2008, at 8:56 AM, Hawaii Standard Time - about 29 hours before the moon officially reached its Last Quarter phase.

There's a Lizard Lookin' At You!

Gold Dust Day Gecko (Phelsuma laticauda laticauda)

Location:  Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

I know I've posted several other photos of the Gold Dust Day Gecko (Phelsuma laticauda laticauda) on this blog, but I just love these colorful little guys.  This head-on shot was captured with my 105 mm macro lens.

This individual always hangs out around my back porch.   I see it nearly every day.

Wild Red Ginger (Alpinia purpurata)

Red Ginger (Alpinia purpurata)

Location:  Rainbow Falls State Park, Big Island, Hawaii

Here in Hawaii, Red Ginger (Alpinia purpurata) is sometimes used in people's gardens and yards as a landscaping plant, but this particular one was growing in the wild at Rainbow Falls State Park, which is just outside Hilo, on the eastern side of Hawaii's Big Island.  A trail at the park goes through a section of rain forest along the Wailuku River, and that's where I spotted this very healthy looking specimen.