Counting Down

Moving to Oahu soon. Thinking of changing the name of my blog, since I won't routinely be swimming on the lovely Garden Isle! Any ideas?

I was able to spot two octopuses. The one I've been seeing a bit of lately that lives near where I get in sank into its den, so there were no great photos. In a way, that is good, because if I were a hunter, that would mean the octopus will live longer.

After all, they don't live long anyway, so any extra minutes are beneficial.

So here's #2:

 This is a cool photo because the siphon is directly below its eye, so you can see the warts on the skin against the white siphon.

 Deeply hiding in its den.

The following photo is what I first saw; once it saw me, it sank into its den.

There were a whole mess of turtles snoozing on the beach...but the chicken didn't care!

I only had to give one "Please step away from the turtle!" talks.

 Looking very much at peace.

Male trunk fish from above....

 Brighteye damsel stayed still for long enough to snap a photo...rare thing!

 Christmas Wrasse

 The clouds are always awesome, especially with a bit of rain coming down from them.

 Cornet fish awaiting prey.

You can see the double rainbow and the surfer...seems small doesn't he?!

 That lined wrasse. I've only ever seen one that I remember...and it sticks around out near the wave break.

 Peacock Grouper looked like it had designs on this mystery fish. I'm thinking maybe some kind of durgon or filefish?

 Pencils

Quarter Moon...look for meteors tonight!

Rainbow with a wave coming up.

 Part of a Snowflake Moray Eel for my sis-in-law, Sue's, birthday!

 He'e 2 again

Cute little Humu.  There were 5 or 6 all around this little guy, which was the smallest.

Maybe 2 more snorkels before we depart. It will be interesting to see what's in the water over there on Oahu! Hoping for more octopuses.

A very adorable octopus

Of course, all octopuses are adorable in one way or another, but #2 was really a good find because it was a. young b. small and c. not that afraid of humans yet!
So a win-win-win!

 This is #2 next to the slim red rock.

 And letting itself have some white in addition to brown...

Here you can see more parts of this octopus: eye, brown and white skin, and part of the suckers. 

Eye and siphon 

And a little bit of rainbow purple on its eye!

 And the following is what I saw at first...just a brown blob. It's the rocks they put outside their dens that sometimes give them away.

I did see another octopus, but it was hiding so well in its den that the photos didn't turn out. It's the same one I have often seen.

 I've been told these are some kind of eggs...two together looked funny, though, like goggles.

3 opercula on a penny! 

 This 3 spot damsel was guarding a coral head. Unfortunately, the other side of the coral head had fishing line wrapped onto it. I was able to get some of it cut off with my trusty scissors, but not all. 

 Cone shell. I didn't pick it up....thinking it was still occupied by the original animal. Venom is not our friend.

A pair of pencils

 A young filefish. Not sure what kind.

Honu swam through

 Humu about to hide in the hole to the right.

And more or less successful hiding. 

 A parade of Kihikihi

Lizard for my sweetheart!

And a box fish with sun on its skin, showing the colors and textures too.

 Moon and palms

Needlefish 

 Part of today's trash. Also picked up fishing lead.

 Nice flower nearby

Seal on the beach. I was a ways away.

 Some fool swimmer lost goggles. I did pick them up and throw them away. About 12 feet down.

 Trevally irritating a snowflake moray.

 Whitemouth moray.

 And a nice treat: Zebra Moray!

Note that some stripes don't go all the way around.

And that's the scoop. Nice swim. Enjoying the start of winter water with fewer rough waves...