Tete a Tete

I'm not going to say I'm lazy, but I don't easily have the French circumflex in my symbols, so imagine you see that over the first e of the tete a tete above! 

And it literally means head to head, as you probably already know.  (Some French stuff is English too...big surprise.)

Aww the 2 turtles were having a chat.  And thankfully, most people stayed out of their way.  No lectures were given, so it's all good.

When I arrived in Poipu this morning, signs were up:

NOT a good sign!  No lifeguards were yet present, so since the signs appeared to refer to the bigger pond, and there were no signs at the smaller pond, I opted to swim in the smaller.  I gave a wide berth to the turtles and got cautiously in.  Shallower water and I swam for nearly a whole hour until I finally decided the waves had moved me around enough and I would start heading in.  That's when I found 3 octopuses!  But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Doesn't it look kinda like a pink cotton ball on top of the tree?  I thought it was pretty, as was this:

Light does amazing things to clouds...and trees and the water...and it helps you see the Box fish butt:

We decided that it was a pretty rare occurrence to see the trunk fish from this angle...It had just leaned down to dart to the bottom for something to eat.  So I got the tail and hind end.  Cute, eh?! (This is a male, because of the blue coloring.)

Two eels were also doing something unusual: sharing their hole:

I've seen videos from others where eels from the same species share their holes, but not a couple of different types.  It may not be exactly a rare occurrence, but it is the first time I've seen it.  Maybe it makes a difference that they were both young.  Maybe the size of a thick pencil.







And there were a few crabs:
the first was in a tunnel:

And then there were two, seemingly fighting each other:

They are unfortunately practically the same color as the rocky, seaweed-y area, but there are two of them.  About mid-photo. Click on it and you'll see them.

And flying around just like seaweed was this very young Rock Mover Wrasse:

I think this was the smallest and youngest one I've ever seen...it was totally blown about by the current and looked just like seaweed, until you looked closely.  Love those prongs on its head!

Yes, we should call this one an Eagle Eye Challenge!  It's the Rock Mover Wrasse again in the middle just to the left of the center of the photo.  Click on it if you doubt!  It is bent in half, so it takes up even less space than normal.

And this fish was owning the beach:

 They, too, are hard to see in this type of water...it's a barracuda.  Black triangles on its tail.  It didn't like me being there and truth to tell, I didn't like being near it either.  They have never particularly bothered or challenged me, but that is an experience I'm willing to do without.

And speaking of well hidden, I would probably never have see the Scorpion Fish, had it not moved:

This one showed much more yellow and orange than they normally do.  Would you have spotted it, had you looked upon the following scene?

Not exactly in the middle, but to the left of that rock in the middle.  Look for the white on the top of its body...its head is pointed toward the bottom of the frame.  Ugly, right?!  Gee, quite an ugly fish, but one that blended really well with the bottom and surrounding rocks.

And now on to the 3 octopuses!  You KNOW that's what I wait for.. And there were 3, two really young and one older one.  

It is a cropped photo, I wasn't that close.  Well, I was on the surface and it was in the rocks, so probably 3 feet separated us. But it did know I was there, because it bopped down a bit when we saw each other.  The two circular areas are the eyes.


Tako #2:

Yes, that is my gloved left hand, counting 2! I like to verify.  The octopus as you can probably see is in the bottom of the two holes to the right.  Sometimes I get these home and wonder if there might have been another one in the hole above.  Not sure that would be normal, but with octopus, one never knows!







And #3:

Don't feel badly if you don't see it right away...neither did I. It's again in the middle, tucked well into that hole with a bit of sand outside. I think this one, being older, might have been doing some housekeeping, blowing sand outside to make more room inside.

You can just barely see the white siphon of the little guy (in the hole on the right).

Pretty chummy Cowry shells...two close together hiding underneath a bit of rocky overhang.  Obviously still alive, so they are still there...


Almost out..I thought the white sun shining on the water was pretty:

There was just one turtle still napping on the beach.

And a palm tree in a different way: shadowed on the water:

I'm always looking for a way to make them look different for my sweetheart!


And I almost forgot: there was a small Spotted Eagle Ray today too.  Unfortunately, the water wasn't very clear, so you'll have to look carefully for the white triangle...that's it's "wing"..

On the right, near the edge of the frame.  Hey! I'm not a professional photog!  Plus, these animals rarely stay still for my camera.   

Glad I got in today..

A little freaked out..

I must admit to being a bit freaked out this morning when I got into the water.

First of all, I was happy, because I found an octopus after only 4 minutes of swimming.  (Yes, we do measure these things...and hey!  If I have to admit to taking an hour and a half to find the first one on some days, I can be thankful to find one quickly, as well.)

A total of 3 octopuses, by the way.  All small...we'll see if the pix are good.

But back to the freak-out:

So I'm swimming along in Poipu, minding my own business, and to the left, very near the entry point,  I see some commotion: sand being stirred up and two big animals.  Immediately my mind goes to full alert mode.

And it turned out to be two huge eagle rays!  At first, because of their size, I totally thought they might be Manta Rays!  But then I saw some spots on their backs, in a pretty pattern.  Sadly, the photos didn't turn out well, perhaps because of operator surprise, but also because they were stirring up the bottom to search for their breakfast.

What looks kind of like a rock in the middle is actually one of the rays...it has its fin flipped up. The video, which I did have the presence of mind to record, is ok in the first part, but then gets full of bad visibility, as the sand was stirred up.  Also, my camera had a bit of trouble with focus.  It couldn't really decide what to focus on and it didn't help that the animals were moving quickly.  But here you go:

So I apologize in advance for the quality of the latter half of this video.  I'm just glad I got anything!  And these puppies were huge...probably with wings outstretched, as long as I am tall.   Definitely got my attention. And then they swam off....And no, I didn't follow.  Not THAT crazy!

We did have some rain out at sea:

And here's octopus #1:

Look really carefully, after clicking on it, and you'll see the octopus' eye.  Hiding below the rocks in the middle. Yeah, they have mad skills in hiding.

Octopus #2

Remember, nothing worth doing is easy!  It's the little guy, in the hole, just to the left of the white rock.  YES, it is....really.  Would I lie?!








Octopus #3 

This octopus is hiding in its den behind two rocks.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if it moved the rocks into that protective position.  I have many times seen them moving rocks around to their liking...

I didn't want anything to interfere with the rays photos, so I switched to my backup camera. And with camera #2,I have been noticing for a while that the Moorish Idol has what looks like eyebrows.  What do you think?!

Don't those look just like eyebrows?!  Gotta say that I love the colors and patterns on these fish.

And a Snowflake Eel with a Brighteye Chromis.  Not a normal combination, but the head of the eel was hidden at this point, so I think the Chromis was pretty safe:

Should I call this an Eagle Eye challenge?  the chromis is just above the eel....










I also found 2 Bubble Shells. I think this is perhaps the first time I found this type of fragile shell.  The first one (a small one) had a hermit crab in it.  Which I didn't find out until I got home and reviewed the pix: What ho!  Who's in there?!

Can you see the little eye stalks at the top of the shell? You can perhaps understand why I didn't see this at the time...So much to see, so little time! LOL
Bubble Shell #2 was much larger; it didn't move and I was afraid to pick it up, in case it was in use.  Don't want to hurt such a thin shell.

If you've read my earlier blogs, you know I love the 3 Spot Damsel.  Well, today was an added bonus: I caught one of the 3 Spots in the same shot as a Brighteye Chromis! This is my equivalent of early Christmas present.

Aww, too cute, right?!








And speaking of presents, I saw once again a small Devil Scorpion Fish:

They are majorly efficient in hiding!  This one added insult to injury by also hiding under a ledge in the coral.  I am showing this photo just so you can see the under-wing colors...so bright that they are always a surprise, considering how wonderful the normal camouflage is. That is the rule: bright colors mean stay away!  Poison, biting, etc.... Think of the Blue Ring Octopus. Thank God we don't have those in Hawaii! (Australia...yes it has occurred to me to go since I'm all over interested in octopus, but since those octopus hang out in the shallow water, not so much interested in that bite..)




And now for the Soapbox Episode:  If you read my earlier blog when I was still with Wordpress, you'll know that I'm fairly militant at protecting the reef, ocean, its creatures, etc.  Well, today in the Kiddie Pond, I noted someone alongside me, about 6 feet away.  I was astonished to see one human leg and one of those legs you get when your leg has been amputated.  Needless to say, this was surprising to the max.  But I soon went from sympathy to dismay when I realized that both feet were walking on the bottom. He was apparently a photog, taking pictures of, can you believe, people walking with their surfboards:

That's the photog in the water on the left.  And the surfboard models just below the rainbow.  I wasn't too hacked off at first, thinking, OK, a man's gotta eat!  But then I saw the coral:

Mind you, I can't prove that he did this, but it was in the same area where he was walking and it looked like fresh breaks to me.  So sad.  And for what?  A fashion shoot?!

God provided some wonderful creations in the ocean realm.  Let's try to preserve that, people! I know it wasn't you breaking coral, but please be aware when you are in the water that there are fragile systems under those briny deeps! And thanks for caring.