Wild Wild Life – Creatures in Hawaii

I have had many exciting wildlife sightings so far in Hawaii, so I wanted to share some. Hawaii is full of animals, birds, and crawly things, and each is worthy of our attention and appreciation as a true wonder of nature.

What will become immediately apparent, however, in the post immediately to come, are the extreme skill limitations I possess in attempting to craft a photographic record of any of them.

I am a basic point-and-shoot photographer with no knowledge of angles, or lighting, or “composition,” and will probably always be one. Nonetheless, I have tried. I have pointed, and I have shot.

Let’s start with geckoes.

That is a correct plural, incidentally. Either geckos or geckoes is correct. Through sheer coincidence, this blog has covered mangoes, volcanoes, and now geckoes.

This seems to be the most common photograph of a gecko. They are small sprinty lizards, very nimble on those sticky green feet. You see one! You shout “Geck — !”

“— oh.”

Because the speedy bugger has buggered off! They are like lightning flashes, or shooting stars, always gone by the time you get a finger in the right place to take a picture.

But we here at Where No Mangoes are nothing if not determined. Either that, or we are just not finished yet with our pricey Kona coffee and we intend to sit here on this gecko-infested but nonetheless very picturesque veranda for as long as flippin’ possible.

That, dear readers, is an entire gecko.

And here is what I have decided is The Ultimate Comedy Gecko Shot:

Those guys are so funny.

Chickens Everywhere

There are chickens everywhere in Hawaii. Chickens wander all over the place. I have no idea if anyone owns them, or collects eggs, or anything. The chickens are just here: out and about, standing around, crossing things.

My condo in Hilo overlooked a bunch of state government buildings, and each had chickens living on the lawn under some trees. I went to bed listening to the soft, musical chirping of Coqui Frogs at night and woke each morning to chickens.

And Then There Are These Birds

This is the Kalij Pheasant, which someone brought to Hawaii from India in the early 1960s, and now Kalij Pheasants roam in resolute gangs through the streets of Volcano. They can grow to be a meter long, and I watched a bunch of them walk right past a very intimidated cat. A meter is a great deal of attitudinous bird.

They just stop traffic.

They really do travel in packs. One Kalij Pheasant crosses the road, and then another Kalij Pheasant decides to, but slower than the first. A larger Kalij Pheasant is shepherding the first two. Meanwhile another nine or ten Kalij Pheasants are still lined up just off the road. And you just sit in your car for 17 minutes until they have all made up their Kalij Pheasant minds and crossed the street.

Nene

The Nene, or Hawaiian Goose, is the Official State Bird of Hawaii, and the entire species almost went extinct from hunting and predation. At one point only about 50 Nene were left in all of Hawaii, but the population has been restored, and is now a highly protected species. Their breeding grounds are protected by marked perimeters to keep them safe. Humans are instructed to stay at least 60 feet away if you come across a Nene anywhere in Hawaii.

This Nene I swear was trying to break into someone’s car in a parking lot.

Pigs

There are many wild pigs. They just cruise into people’s yards. I am pretty sure this one in Volcano was a regular.

Those are Orange Sulphur Butterflies. Scores of them were flying around the Black Sand Beach parking lot last week, bright fluttery citrus clouds swooping everywhere.

Here is the Black Sand Beach, by the way.

Yeah. I was busy chasing butterflies in the parking lot.

Moving on.

These are beach crabs in Kona.

It is not their fault that they look like something that gave some of us nightmares watching The X Files.

This is the fin of a giant sea turtle in Kona, either a Green Sea Turtle or a Leatherback Sea Turtle. Regardless, it was an enormous turtle.

And this is either the same sea turtle or a giant wet rock.

Honestly, it is really difficult trying to get a photograph of anything with giant waves crashing and then everything is all rearranged when the surf subsides.

Cats!

I am delighted to report that there are cats all over Hawaii. I am not sure that is good news if one is a Nene, or an Orange Sulphur Butterfly, but it is fine news if one happens to like seeing cats.

My current condo lobby has cats.

In Hilo, when the cat-feeding people show up to feed the cats in the Queen Lili’uokalani Gardens, cats start streaming out of the vast Banyan trees.

Which kind of makes sense, when you consider that the Giant Banyans, with their cascades of streaming-down vines which eventually reach the ground to become more roots, are actually trees with built-in cat toys.

From Vines to Bovines

I took this picture in Volcano. I spent 5 days in Volcano and I did not come across a single cow.

But then I saw this official sign posted at the Mauna Kea Visitors’ Center, so perhaps all is explained. There is a reason you can’t see any cows in Volcano…

The cows are all invisible.