In My Face!

Got so busy yesterday that I didn't have time to write about my swim!  Forgive me, but here's the quick look from Friday's swim.

It was a rather stressful swim, in that the turtles (4!!) were being pestered by people...well, they were getting too close! (And don't hurt your eyes looking for 4 turtles on the beach...this shot has only 2.  They weren't all together at any one time...)

 I mellowed a bit after talking with the lifeguard later....you tell a group of 4 to back up and then 10 more come over!  The lifeguard said that he asked the state people what to do: they said: Is someone putting the turtle in their truck?!  THAT needs to be remedied.  But otherwise....

I fall on the side of being too protective.  But you can really spend your whole day telling folks to get away.  Tends to irritate everyone, probably even the turtle.

However, after I had just given a lecture while I was still swimming near the shore, I turned around and there was a big turtle about 10 inches from my face!

I backed away so fast that my hand accidentally touched the turtle briefly.
Here it is swimming away....you can see the visibility was bad:

If you look really closely, you can see it, with its fins down....and bubbles from my fast turnaround. 

I'm just sorry I didn't get a photo of my face when I first saw the turtle.  I'll bet it was quite an expression of surprise...

There was also a lizard fish that had just buried itself in the sand:

I know it's hard to see, but is in the center of the shot.  If you click on the photo, look for the 2 eyes protruding... Quite good camou!










And my fave puffer, the Ambon. Again, you can see the water quality wasn't the best:

See all the sand in the water?  I was pretty close to shore then, I think, so the waves were roiling up.












And for my sweetie:

and of course palms:

And last, but not least, the operculum, still in use:

The back of this shell was also partly missing, but I left it there, thinking someone would probably be able to use it....perhaps an Electric Orange Hermit Crab?

Two octopuses, two seals and an idiot

I considered being nice and naming this post two octopuses, two seals and a potential deaf person, but declined.

The lifeguard at the kid pond in Poipu had twice come on the loudspeaker to let people know there was a Monk Seal in the kid pond and they should stay away.

Most of the people were compliant.  But as the poor seal swam around trying to find a safe, sandy place to land for a nap, this one idiot woman swam right up close-ish to the seal, so she could take a picture.  THE NERVE!

I later thought maybe she was deaf....but surely she would see others walk away, toward the shore, right? No one was bitten, fortunately, but the seal didn't find a place to nap either.  That's a shame.

 
Here is the little darling, surfacing to take a breath.  And may I just say once again: this is the REAL ocean! It contains some scary animals, some that will surprise and possibly harm you. It's where THEY live.....We don't get to take a pass and say: Oh it won't mind if I get in its face.... It just might!

So the unthinking or uncaring lady wasn't injured by her bad manners. But not for lack of trying....

And to update you on the crab/operculum post from last time, it's an Electric Orange hermit crab.  It is popular for aquarists apparently because it eats detritus, uneaten food and many kinds of algae, including something called "red slime algae"...which def sounded as if someone should eat it and get rid of it! The scientific name of the crab is Calcinus cf elegans....oh my, maybe I should have gone to school for marine biology...

Some enterprising person has planted a very pretty rose bush near where we live.  And I finally got my camera in hand once again when I was out of the water...it does happen.

I call this Impressionist Rose because that style of painting helped you see something in a different way... In this case, pretty colors, just slightly out of focus!

And these in focus.  Am I crazy or are these colors just the best?!?!?!?
I love the fact, too, that some parts of the same petal are yellow and some pink and some white.  Really cool. Um, I mean lovely. Magnifique!

A flower that's a bit older, but still has its pretty.  I hope that people think that of me, too...

And the thing you can't tell about all these pix is that I had to wait for the trade winds to abate.   Super-micro is different when the winds are blowing the flowers all around....Not that I mind.  If the choice is taking longer to catch a photo or no trade winds, I'll def vote for the winds.  Keeps us cool.

Palms and clouds for my sweetheart.

And octopus #1 for me. Just to the top of the white rock.  I am still not sure if this octopus ever saw me, because in this part of the pond, the water was not very clear.  That's why I was doubly thankful to see even one octopus.  Two was a gift for sure.

Same octopus, different moment.  Look for the white circle on the left...that's where it breathes.  I haven't made a thorough study, yet, but I don't think they change the color of the siphon when they change the color of their other skin...I'll let you know.

And for comparison, look at the quality of the water above, versus below:

This was, surprisingly, in the more wave-y region, but for some reason it was also clearer.  Ah, these mysteries!










And a nice surprise was this rainbow:

When I looked at the photos at home, it appeared almost like a multi-colored space meteor, streaking toward the earth. And also another kind of mystery, because it didn't seem to be raining anywhere.

Another for my sweetheart, who noticed there was no boxfish in the last post....I told him sometimes they don't do anything, just run away.  So here's one of the fish running away.

And below is the Ambon Puffer.  I don't know yet what size I'll make this for publishing, but it's in the upper 3rd of the photo. Just love the colors and patterns.

And below is the Drupe shell.  I enjoyed the photo because it shows a lot of the other things that go on when there's a rock...algae, shells, plants, seaweed, etc.

Can you spot the Moon? (Sorry it IS tiny...compared to the clouds..)

And on our walk, nice waves...who could complain about walking for exercise when you have this nice scenery?!

And also, this nice scenery.  Now, think about it: wouldn't it be nice to be an animal that is supposed to be fat?!  This one was roped off for its protection and was having quite a wonderful nap, I think.  I doubt I would be able to sleep with sand stuck to my face.  But this seal's mileage may vary..

Sun, clouds, palms...

And this flower picture is thanks to my Poipu friend who spotted it, down below other smaller groups of flowers.

Look at this beauty, too:

It makes me want to go study Botany.  What purpose do the small red balls at the end have?  And I guess the yellow parts have pollen....









And a first since returning to Kauai:

This is the first ring I found underwater since returning to Kauai.  Since there was no inscription, I am tending toward the "Finders keepers" mindset.  Let me know your thoughts!  And enjoy God's wonderful creations.  Keep them clean and safe...

On the way to Ni'ihau....

When I got out of the car today, I immediately checked out the cloud situation and found this (please forgive the telephone lines...):

Yes, the moon was hanging on, just so I could snap the photo...and get the obligatory palm tree too.

The waves were being very domineering, and since it was high tide too, there was somewhat of a rip current in the big pond....i only stayed about 10 minutes!  (And that is VERY rare for me.)  But having learned from my previous rookie mistake, I decided not to mess with the powerful waves and got out, rested a bit, then went into the kiddie pond.  My friend later said had the current taken me, I would probably have ended up on Ni'ihau!  That's a long way.  And they don't relish strangers. But I did snap a few pix of the seal and the turtle, both of which had already been protected/roped off by a hardy volunteer, before I got into the smaller pond:

If this photo looks a bit different, it's because I had to crop it...the lady who was standing in front of me had a very revealing thong on...with her hoodie, one would almost think she was bottomless.  Ladies, I plead with you: please check your look in the mirror before venturing on the beach!!!  But the seal slept on, apparently immune to others' bad taste....

As did the turtle:

I can almost see how someone would miss the turtle, as they do stay still and can look like rocks.  But the lady who walked between this turtle and the water should have been more careful.....
There was a Scorpion Fish, probably about 7 inches long, including the tail, so a young one..

Got it?!  Does this photo help?

Same photo, the 2nd one is a cropped version of the first one.  If you find the light lavender rock, it's to the left of it. They are ambush predators, so they stay very still and await their prey.  (And if you haven't seen the effects of the ambush predators, go to youtube.com and find my Frogfish eats puffer video..)

This Scorpion Fish moved and showed its yellow and orange before I was quick enough to snag a photo.  Then, of course, once I was ready, it stayed still, showing only the raggy, sandy colors.  

The real treat of this somewhat bad visibility dive was the operculum that was still being used by its Turban shell.  I had so many interesting shots that it's hard to pick which ones to show you!

The Hermit Crabs were there, too, and at first I thought one was living inside the Turban Shell, but I think the shell and its original owner were still both intact.  Hence the "little lid" closed up tight, to protect the animal inside. Look for the crab with orange and black legs, with blue eye stalks:

So there were anywhere between 3 and 4 crabs at least....all in various stages of investigating a new shell...or trying to boost the original owner out!

In the final photo, you can see 4 crabs...one is tricky, though, as it is light colored with greenish legs..and much smaller.  This busy scene kept me occupied for probably 15 minutes at least.  Mostly because I was fighting the waves and trying to duck under to get the shots....

There were some nice wispy clouds...and the sign you see on the left protruding from the water is the Don't Go Beyond Here! sign...and I do heed that.  Just beyond that is where the waves blast in, unabated.  And they had some serious power today.

And finally, Praise God, there was a small octopus:

 

You probably correctly assumed the brown-ness was the octopus.  If you click on it, you can probably see the eye a bit better.  But as most of them do, this one was hunkered down in its den, and had no intention of venturing outside with the Big Eye lady waiting....





Here's an Eagle Eye challenge for you:

It's a Cowry Shell.  Hidden away in a bit of coral/rock.  No, I'm not lying.

Here's a cute little fish I almost forgot:

I call it a fish with a Mohawk.  Doesn't it look as if it has neatly cut hair on its head?!  It's a small Orange Spine Unicorn Fish.  I don't see 'em this small very often.  But very cute, as it darted about down there.

And this is my "accidental" photo, taken as I was on my way in:

See all the sand in the water?!  And it was quite frothy there....your takeaway from this should be that one should be also careful getting out.....I actually had my fin, which was in my hand at the time, ripped out of my hand for a minute.  I got it back, quickly, but still....I get too accustomed to an easy entry that when it isn't, it takes me by surprise!

And by the way, Operculum is from the Latin, meaning little lid.  And the singular is Opercula... A fabulous day, even with rough water and currents.  Amazing..

A rookie mistake....

So this morning, since the waves were kinda jamming, I started off in the big pool in Poipu, thinking that I'd have the most energy to combat any current.  Good thing I did, because the waves colliding over the spit created a kind of rip current that kept trying to make me head out to the deeper part.
But that's not the mistake.

The mistake was in the kiddie pool!  I had been cruising along, searching for octopuses and operculum and when I got near the spit, that same current came from the Kiddie Pool over the sandy almost non-existent spit and dragged me over the rocks.  Like I said, Rookie Mistake!

I was able to swim down and get out of the current that tried to drag me further and get back into the shallower water.  Don't do what I did.  It's always best, duh, to watch from both below and above to see where the water is taking you.  Props to God for helping me get over that literal hump!

And to further show you my occasional stupidity, as I was trying to get out of the grip of the current, I was still looking for operculum.  Oy vey.

But speaking of God, He gave me some great scenery this morning!



And even a turtle, taking a nap.  Luckily, someone else was on the scene and put up the signs.  I'm told she's from OHIO and loves to do this.  Props to her, also.







I saw just one octopus, but one is all I really need.

If you look closely, you can see the octopus crammed into that crack in the rocks.  Look for the suckers attached to the inside of the wall on the right hand part of the rock.....Baby didn't want me to see it..I always pray that I won't bother the wildlife when I photograph it, and I'm hoping that this one just slipped down into that crack to hide until I left...I can be a fun person, but perhaps they don't know that about me. (If I could communicate, I would tell them that I would NEVER eat an octopus...) What they probably do know is that some people, like my friend Royden, actually eat these poor animals. The nerve..

Stripes:

And 2 pinktail durgon! Click click to see them.  They swam away quickly, so I couldn't get a close shot. As usual.













The red eye of the Leaf Fish.  I believe it's a member of the Scorpion Fish family:

Yellow fish, red eye...It was leaning against the bottom, but still rocking in the current, trying to convince me it really was a leaf.  Fooled I was not!










I saw little humu fish again:

So small you can hardly see it, just left of center..

It is about to dart into that little hole.  So adorable.  I'll bet that works, too, because when they go in there, you can't even see that they are there.









A drupe shell and an urchin

The drupe is the black spotted shell, tucked inside that gap in the rock.  The Boring Urchin apparently bores into rocks, creating its own hidey-hole.  Which explains why the holes always seem to be just their size.  Grant you, I have only heard they do this and never seen any evidence, personally, that they really do. 

And here was the big fish of the day: the Barracuda:

The first one is cropped so you can hopefully see it better.  The one just above these words is the whole photo.  See how they hang out in kinda cloudy water?  For stealth purposes.  And now here's the mystery:

IF and it's a big IF, the barracuda attacked these fish, why didn't it eat them all? Saw several different pieces of dead fish. I guess maybe it's mostly bones left, but it was pretty weird to see the remains on these fish.  I'm thinking they had been in the water a while, too, because they had very little coloration remaining.  At one point, I thought one was a humu, but it was hard to tell with just pieces left...

And so I don't end this blog with a sad note, here's a hidden cowry shell:

Again, in the middle of the shot....So shiny and pretty and no, I didn't take it home. When they are hiding like that, it's a good bet there's still an animal inside, calling it home.


I got out soon after spotting the barracuda and warned one dad who had his small son in that area: You might want to watch out!  I told him that the barracudas had never bothered me, but the boy was maybe a smaller target.  I'm sure it all turned out ok.

After all, it is the REAL ocean and one never knows who's lurking...