Coming and Going

Don't you hate it when you have a great post title while in the water and then by the time you get out, you've totally forgotten your brilliant idea? Has this happened to you?!

So this is coming and going:

Upper pic is two pinktails; lower is blue-spined unicorn fish. It would be so cool to be able to swim 24/7...well, unless someone is trying to catch and eat you.

I saw 2 octopuses. The first was hiding in its den (the same one I've seen before a few times) and the 2nd one was also hiding, just not as deeply:

 You see? That's what they do: put rocks around their dens.

And on #2, you can see the siphon and a bit of the eye. Water was full of movement and sand....

And 2 seals:

 Neither seal woke up while I was there. Thankful for that. I hate to wake them. The seal in the lower photo was near the plants, so, high up on the beach. The longer one has pretty smooth skin, so I'm thinking it had molted fairly recently.

I also saw a turtle reach up to breathe while I was looking before getting in. But that breath is quick, so I didn't get a photo. I figure it's better not to get bowled over by waves, even if that means no photo. As it was, a wave did get me a bit and made me sit down on the sand. Always a new and fun experience with the ocean!

 You can see the nice early morning clouds and light.

Big cornet fish and its mouth.

Crazy clouds

 Humu about to dive into a hole.

Lots of needlefish

 Pinktail. This was in the deeper side and so not so nice water.

This rain offshore came in and started thunder and lightning. I got out!

A little rain felt good

After the heat of the past few days, a little rain felt good this morning. And since it was early, I was able to get in and snoop around. Well, not in the deeper side, because not only were the waves pretty big, it was also high tide. That's why it's nice to have two swim spots to choose from. So I went into the Keiki side. And found 4 octopuses!

As I'm typing this, I still can't  believe I was able to spot the first one. I actually thought it was a pile of seaweed:

 See what I mean? Can you spot the octopus between those 2 rocks? It's exactly the same color as the surrounding rocks.

 In this one, you can see part of the siphon.

 It didn't move. It didn't change color. I could barely see it breathing!

 And this is from the other side. It's on top of a rock, now.

 Really, what great camouflage!

I saw 3 more octopuses. Following is #2. Just below the red rock. You can see the white lines that radiate out from its eye.

And #3: The eye is visible. This one had turned brown. And slinked down into its den.

They are wily!
#4

I was happy to see #4, as it is a "regular", so I know where to look for it. Glad the spearfisherman didn't find any of these octopuses! I wasn't able to spot the frogfish, though. Perhaps it got blown about by the recent big waves. I will keep looking, of course.

 Interesting clouds and moon

 And a bit of rainclouds

 And then a surprise rainbow.

I'm always struck by the juvenile Yellow Tail Coris. So different from the adult.

And people were being respectful of the snoozing seals. The one on the left felt the need to scoot its nose in the sand. It later sneezed the sand out. Wish I had caught that on video!

 Spotfin Scorpion Fish hiding amongst the rocks.

A good swim, even if I was originally concerned there wouldn't be enough light for good photos. 

Two octopuses! And the fish that got away

Today, the no-octo-zone rule was smashed by the sighting of 2 octopuses! YAY! I have to be truthful and admit that I teared up a little when I saw the first one. And of course, I was immensely grateful to God, so I thanked Him profoundly. I'm sure the swimmers around me thought I'd lost my mind...

He'e 1 just to the left of the white rock.

 You can see its siphon, too.

 And in this photo, it is showing its suckers for some reason.

I rarely get to see the rest of the animal, but I am extremely thankful for the parts I do get to see! I was beyond grateful.
Yay, God!!!

 Apparently they had something to say to each other. And following, one is showing its tummy to the other.

I call it canoodling.

 Both were male, so not hanky panky.

And this is two seals (look closely) out snoozing on the rocks.

And we call this two people waaaay too close to the seals. After all, there's a law and they are wild animals!










And I am glad I had my camera. I do think it deterred them at least a little bit from getting even closer.

 A Cornet fish shopped off at a cleaning station. 

 Peacock grouper flew through

Blue spined unicorn

 Christmas Wrasse

The cleaner wrasse having a few more cleaning attempts on the Cornet

 Coming to clean the Humu

And the Saddle Wrasse

 And back to the Cornet. It reminded me of the inch worm...

And I found this cone shell. Didn't see the snout of the homeowner until I got this home. Cones are venomous. Beware.

 Cowry and urchin. Couldn't decide which shot I liked better. So I threw them all on the post.

 A group of convict tangs and ringtail surgeons, looking for breakfast. And now that I think about it, I'll bet they don't call it breakfast, because they can eat all day long.

 The Humu throwing sand out through its gills.

Must be Lizard fish breeding time. I saw 3 of these small ones.

And somebody had lobster meal again.

 Male Trunk or Box fish

Moorish Idol

 Clouds and palms for Alex

More pencils

 note the brighteye damsel near the pencils below.

Pinktail Durgon for me!

 I caught a raindrop with my Olympus TG 4 micro lens.

 Ringtail surgeon fish

 Very cute seal faces

And I was behind the line. My camera can make it appear that I'm close.

This Snowflake Moray was trying to tie itself in a knot.

 Another Lizard small kind.

 There's another lizard fish in the photo below...it's really small and in the middle. Wanted to give a bit of perspective.

 A loaded Urchin

 This seal bellowed a bit.

 Yellow tail Coris. I do think they are amazingly pretty fish. I have noted them picking up rocks, too, as the Rock Mover Wrasse does. To find food underneath.

I almost forgot because I didn't get a photo: a big Giant Trevally flew through the scene in the Kiddie pond! I was so surprised, it was gone before it even occurred to me to take a photo. So that one got away. It's too bad too, because they are very pretty silvery fish. And they can really go!