An octopus and a scorpion fish trifecta!

If you don't immediately see it, look for the suckers on its leg....then up from there is its head. When I swooped down to try to get a better shot, its head darkened immediately.  

You can just see a bit of the siphon (white round thing) to the left of the lavender coral...
And 3 Scorpion Fish!  Well, I'm including a leaf fish as they are in the same family:

Yeah, not the prettiest of fishes....

A different bigger one...hey! Maybe I saw 4!!!

The one above was a Devil Scorpion Fish...and this was in the area where a kid had just been walking on the bottom......this one did NOT move at all.  not even a little bit...Ambush predator to da max!







Triton Shell:

In the 2nd photo, you can see more of the operculum, which in this type of shell is not white and round, but brownish...and I'll bet it's flexible.  I never see this type of operculum on the bottom, so I may never know...It's always in the shell, which is the better way anyway!  And look at the animal.....from the center of the shot, follow that black and white line off to the right...that's part of the animal.  I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see one of these out of their shells.  Probably only at night...too bad...
For my sweetheart...a trunk fish:

AWWWW. So cute.  I saw some other much smaller ones, but they didn't let me catch a good shot.  Too fast!
I'll end with the urchin shot.  There's just something about these, when the light hits 'em just right..

Glad I found at least one octopus....it's always a treat!

two seals...no octopus...coincidence?!

I felt something hovering over my left shoulder and when I turned, there it was! Of course, I snapped the photo and then swam in the other direction.  When I got the photo home, i noted his neck...I don't think the fishing line or whatever it was was still on him, but cannot really tell. Note the former holes in his back. Not sure what causes that... He didn't seem too upset. Later, there was another one asleep on the beach:

This one had some scraps with another animal too: look at the skin just below his front flipper... They do mix it up, apparently, which I why I swam the other way when I saw the first one...they are much faster than I am in the water, and can bite, I'm told...
And for my friend currently on the mainland, here's the "pond" in the parking lot across from where I usually park:

Yeah, the rains have been messing with us!  But the house is ok...alex and i checked on it after he finished work.  Yeah, on a Saturday! But they got rained out.










Two juvenile Rock Mover wrasses:

I call them Two Brothers.  There was a 3rd, but who knows where he/she went....
Saw a couple of pretty Pencil Urchins:

Aren't they neat?! The color does fade when they are out of water...

Very nice, with the red colors and lines.

I saw 2 leaf fishes and one scorpion fish!  I guess since I couldn't find octopuses, I was given sightings of even more rare fish...

I had to look carefully at first to make sure it wasn't a real leaf, but a Leaf Fish.  Another one is coming up...

This one is a bit easier to spot.

Big back fin and legs on the rock.  It was surprising to me that both were yellow-ish today.  I've seen black, too.  Perhaps they can change color quickly like the octopus.

If you have any trouble spotting this Scorpion Fish, look for the slightly agape mouth, near the right of the photo.  The eyes to the left of that, then the back fin. The tail is scooched around the red rock.  Quite good camou, non?! This thing sat so still, if I hadn't seen it and moved around for a better shot, I would have lost it. They are good for ambush...they sit still and then pounce.

Snowflake moray:

Awwww.  Another kind of eel.  You guessed it, I'm too lazy to get up to see what kind..Let me know if you find out and aren't as lazy as I..

Mouth open, ready to bite.   These teeth would be small, but sharp!

Lizard fish for my sweetie:

Another one that sits still unless you get too close..

Can't resist putting in the recent gecko at work:

Some similarities...but i love this one's colors and feet....totally made to hold onto the rock.  

Love these Moorish Idol fish.  Very graceful and in this case, they were in a nice group...

Here's the shell, the Turban shell, where most of the operculum that I collect come from:

Here's a tiny juvenile Yellow Tail Coris: yeah, hard to believe this fish turns into the totally different fish!

These fish aren't hiding, with those colors and stripes!

Abudefduf...say it 3 times.  It's fun:

This one was darting around in the shallows, where I hang out to find operculum that have been swept in on the current..

Two Cowry shells.  

I couldn't see the 2nd one at first: it's inside the same hole, but above the obvious one shell.

Well covered in gunk, I almost missed this Hairy Triton shell:

And another juvenile Rock Mover Wrasse:

This one really moved quickly to get away from me.  Really, I am not scary...

When I got out, there was a storm moving in:

Oops, almost forgot the box feeeesh:

The darling, darling for my sweetheart....

Considering the dark-ish skies and waves, a great snorkel.  Only one thing could have made it better: an octo-sighting! We'll see how conditions are tomorrow.  Today it was rough in the big pond, so I stayed only in the Kiddie Pond.  Maybe all the octopus were in the big pond, sheltering in deeper water...

Three octopuses and several chickens.

Yeah, it's Kauai! So lovely vistas, great water and chickens.  Yeah, this Mom and her chicks heard me rustle the plastic bag that I saved from our time on Oahu and thought I was getting ready to feed them something.  Sorry, chicks!

They were the definition of bird brain too....they just didn't get the idea that there was no food.  Even though I told them many times!  Perhaps they need to brush up on their English skills and learn to read brush-off body signals.  They did eventually go away in search of real food. (And before you feel badly for them, I saw a man feeding the chickens later.  I really think that God gives them all they need, what with the bugs, grains and centipedes on Kauai, but I guess they are going for easy eats.)
But yeah, once I got near the water, there were rewards a plenty.  First of all, the wind had died down, so the water was calmer.  Always a good thing!
Three octopuses.  Oh yeah.  Love that!

Got it?  This one had a sort of green coloration.  And it was way too deep to see really well.  But I'm always ecstatic when I see the first one.  And thankful, too. It relaxes the remainder of the dive.  I tell God that I'm thankful and also that one is enough.  Two is better, but one is enough. LOL.

This one I spotted because it was associated with an adult Rock Mover wrasse.

I love the bumps they can make.

And #3:

 This octopus let me interact with him a bit...he kept looking up to see if I was still there.  Oh the fun we could have! If only. (Read a great book: Mark Batterson's IF...when you have time.)

I forgot to show you the rain just offshore.  Well, actually, not sure how far this rain was offshore.  

There are several places where the rain was coming down.  Thankfully, not over my head.

And for my sweetie, a small and very cute trunk fish:

I snapped this shot, then got outa his way.  (Or her..) I didn't want to further spook this cute little guy.

I got quite a few pix of the pinktail durgon.  One of my fave fish. 

You can see how lovely this fish is.  You can also see how beat-up his top fin is!  Don't know if that is normal wear and tear, but I felt bad for it.  Didn't seem to slow it down any. I'll try to remember to put the video on here too...it's currently only on youtube.
And as I was filming the juvenile rock mover wrasse, another one, even smaller!, swam by:

How cute are they?  And my hubby will be impressed...finally I'm getting over the Blue Only phase. HA More rock movers below.

I have been seeing this pair for a while. Glad to see they're still jetting around.







And I love Brighteye Chromis, so thankful to catch a few on film.

It's under the big rock in the middle.  No, I wouldn't lie..












And a flounder happened by!  Love those...

It flew, too, and I got that on video. 

 Later..

A couple of Spotfin Scorpion Fish, too.  This one was hiding in a hole in the rocks:

Good hiding place, right?

Well, I found it, but most people probably wouldn't.  The difference is that I expect to see them.  Other folks might not know about 'em.  If they did, they wouldn't walk around on the rocks.

In the middle.  Click on the photo....

I also noted a group of fish, so I swam over.  Turns out it was a cleaning station, where Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasses (the purple and yellow fish) pick stuff out of the gills of other fish:

I thought it was cute: 2 cleaners and 2 unicorn fish.  

And now, just for fun.  Recently ordered a pair of shot glasses.  They came from CHINA via Iceland...who knew?!

I do have days like this...when I wish I was an octopus with 8 arms, so I could slap several people at once...like the idiots who insisted they weren't chasing the turtle...they were just following it. 

I resisted blasting them and swam away, after delivering the news that they shouldn't "follow" the turtle.  

Oh yeah and one more of the juvenile rock mover wrasse.  Can't resist:

C'mon, isn't that a great pattern?  Note the "antlers" too.  God is the best.  Creations galore! Enjoy them.  One never knows how much time is left...

Oops almost forgot the lizard fish for Alex: