A new puffer, the bat ray was back and 3 octopuses!!!

You couldn't know this, but today I'm writing while listening to Gregory Isaacs! Night Nurse. HA. "Tell her it's a case of emergency..." :) Gotta love it.
So today there were 3 octopuses. And a bat ray. And a flounder. Plenty of juvenile and therefore small fishes.  And a new puffer: the Guineafowl puffer!

These fish get pretty big...no toby size for them. They also have a mean set of teeth (or in this case, I think, big plates of teeth) so they can put some serious hurt on ya. 

 This is the juvenile of the Yellow Tail Coris.  I don't usually catch them from above, so I'm including the photo, so you can see their cool white dots.

 Octopus #1.  The other two weren't as able to be photographed...if you have trouble seeing it, look down and to the left of the two white rocks. My pals Perry and Barbara claim that they don't think octopuses are pretty.....I in a way have to agree, but no other "fish" in the sea is as interesting.  Just sayin'!

Red Pencils.  These are the ones that are mashed between two coral/rocky bits.

 Juvenile Rock Mover. There's another one in a minute...of a different color.

More pencils

 This is the amazing double yoked egg fish. Nah.  I bought a dozen Jumbo eggs and apparently they are more likely to have double yolks.  Two so far..

Tree at our apartment complex, with pretty sky.

 I call it Lava Clouds. This morning on our walk, we had a fab sky..

 And fab flowers too!

The happening thing in plants: the Breadfruit! I love many things about these plants, but mostly, they are being sent all over the world to help stave off hunger. (If you want to know more, look at ntbg.org)

 Box fish.  So cute.

Too bad the bat ray was so far away.  I don't know much about these animals, so I don't swim close. They are pretty impressive with those big wings.

 Box fish...they are all over! and they always flee. 

Leaf Fish #1.  I like the patterns on their tails.  And keep watching..there's another one later.  They put their fins on the surrounding rocks to stay in place.

 See the Flounder? Camouflage almost as good as the octopuses...

 Flounder eyes:

 Speaking of eyes, the Brighteye Chromis.  LOVE these fish. So quick and also pretty.

 I didn't realize this shell was even there until I got the pix home.  This one is partially open.  I do not know how they get their food....

Christmas Wrasse. By the way, only 4 months until Christmas. Sorry! Some folks resist thinking about it this early...

Poor Snowflake Moray was trying to get away from the Saddle Wrasse. Not sure why the wrasse was so interested.  Perhaps hoping for some portion of any food it found. 

This is the king of shells to me, because it is the shell which produces the operculum. I have been thinking that when I find an operculum, it means the shell has been eaten.  But today it occurred to me to wonder if the operculum can grow while still in the shell.  Or maybe the shell grows a new bigger opercul um when the shell itself grows?  I'm being hopeful here.  I hate to think each operculum means a shell was sacrificed.

 Picasso trigger.  MAYBE 2 inches long, tip to tail. So adorable.

Here's Leaf Fish #2.  Click on the photo to see the textures and also the eyes. Pretty cool: very Scorpion Fish-like...same family.

 You can see the legs that it uses to rest on the surrounding rocks.

 Here's the other Juvenile Rock Mover Wrasse.  Different color! I'm not at all sure why one would be a different color.  Maybe it can change depending on its surrounding seaweed?

This small Bluefin Trevally was following too close to the goat fish.  Again, I think hoping for some of its food, should any escape the goat fish jaws.

 Surprise of the day: A red tailed Tropic Bird!!! Woohoo!

 And at the other end of the speed scale, the sleeping Monk Seal. The most they do is scratch and wiggle up the beach. Or talk to a pal, of which there were none today.

Sorry Perry and Barbara, but there were more octopus! :)

The Saddle Wrasse was interested again. Really no clue why in this case. Probably, like me, it saw movement and came over...

A very enjoyable swim. After a week of fruitful week.  I'm thankful!

A friend met me at the beach!

A friend met me at Poipu today and I was able to show her both of the octopuses which had graced me with their presence. Winner!

Here's the little one that mostly hid...peeking at me. So you see just the eyes.

See? I told you that Rock Mover Wrasses are often found in conjunction with octopuses.  This one hardly seems to know the octopus is there, in its hole....

Same octopus, no fish...

Pinktail Durgon...same fish, slightly different colors. I associate the grayish with being younger.  Seems as if they don't get their real black skin until they are older. I could be totally making that up!

There was a group of ringtail surgeon fish and convict tangs.  I have often seen them hang out together in a pack..The Pinktail was just leaving (to the right.)
Quite surprised to spot a Fantail Filefish! I don't know that I've ever seen these in Poipu:

Quite a pretty fish. This photo doesn't do it justice, but you can see the small mouth.  The tail, when fanned out, is a really nice orange color. 







Sometimes when I pop up, I get palms and clouds:

It was quite cloudy today, but I'm not complaining! Just glad Fernanda didn't land on us! Thank you, God!
Peacock Grouper just darting under a rock:

 Nice little eel was trying to hide.

Zebra Moray and a blue Chromis:

Here is the eel my pal Tanya found:

The one above swam past me...note the different skin pattern...

A small Scorpion Fish, hiding under a rock. And man! At first I thought it was a rock...

Tail, sort of whitish to the right. It was hard to get real close...and you wouldn't have wanted to either! I find them fascinating, but not pretty.
A shell with the Electric Blue hermit crab hanging...literally.

I think it's a shrimp...

They dig an incredibly round hole! Boggles my mind..

Brighteye Chromis...awwww, so cute.

Ambon Puffer...the white stuff was in the water...the blue stuff are dots on its skin. 

Horn Shell. And it is still sitting there, I'd think.  I don't pick up ones that seem to be still in use by the animal or a crab...I'm betting on the former, as a crab would have been moving it around.
Since I do work at the National Tropical Botanical Garden here on Kauai (if you visit, the Visitor's Center is across the road from Spouting Horn on the south shore! Don't believe your phone that sends you to Kalaheo), I often like to include local flower pix:

 Above and below, a rose that the neighbors grew:

 A nice rainbow..

Closeup of a pink Plumeria

God's Rays:

 A white flower that def has a name, but I am not knowing...

 As do these pink pretties:

 This is definitely a Breadfruit. Feed the world!

More of God's rays showing through the clouds:

Caught this when hubby and I took our morning stroll.  Totally worth it! Ripping current today, but a good swim.