Took a week-long trip to Maui. We had a lot of time to kill before getting into our condo was ready for the week so we drove out to Lahaina and back.
The Nov. 14 photos are from when Mike had to answer a work call so when he stpulled off at the edge of the road, I jumped out to snap a few shots by the ponds where the road goes west from Kihei toward Lahaina. This area is the home to the stilt which remained too far away to get a good photograph. It is a bird that only lives in this area, so I'm sorry I missed snapping one. I saw them even closer up in Kahului, before I found out that they were rare, so I missed that opportunity.
On our last evening we stopped across the road at the area where they are restoring native plants along another pond and the beach. The water was up across the road. I'm adding those photos to this group since it was the same area.
Pulled over after driving out to Lahaina and then retreating. Mostly stalked the beach crabs hoping to get close enough to get a decent photo with my phone. They built interesting little piles of sand next to the holes they excavated. They made small balls of sand with their pincers, which I think must be some sort of feeding behavior? The patterns around their holes has attracted my attention on many beaches.
Took some photos of the plants that were in a narrow band between the sand and the road. The nut could have floated in from anywhere and I wondered if it was one of the many ocean current traveling seeds?
No idea why I didn't take a photo of the pair, but Mike did a video that I could crop for a little photo. It would be grand if I could post that video to include the sounds they made. There was a volunteer keeping people away so it was impossible to do much with a phone. (Kicked myself more than once for taking too many clothes and not bringing my telephoto lens!)
The pair were ensconced on a shallow shelf out of the main surf and not on a beach. It was like a small kiddie pool for the pup. It would snuggle up to mom for a meal and then wander off exploring. When it got to the further edge, the mom would rouse herself to call the pup back to safety. The pup had a higher pitched bark that made me think it was saying, Mom, Mom, Mom, looking for her attention.
We walked around the little bay and explored out on the lava beyond that. The crab was just a shell perched up on a rock, which I discovered only after working very hard to quietly sneak up on it.
The yellow Sleepy Orange butterflies were all over. They seemed to like the lava and weren't looking for flowers. I wonder if they liked the heat or the salt?
I found a Monarch Butterfly on the ground after the rain. It was still fluttering, but looked half dead. I carefully scooped it onto my phone and carried it back to where I had seen another Monarch feeding on yellow flowers. It took several tries to get it situated on the flower, but when I left it was feeding. Only after putting it up here, did I discover it really was a Monarch--and I wonder if they are all over on the island because of some misguided teacher's school project to raise butterflies or if they got to the island hidden in some tropical milkweed?
When we first arrived at the Wailea Elua condos, there were a couple trees with large purple flowers near the parking area and I could see orange butterflies and large black bees visiting them. They were too high to get decent photos.
Luckily, I had some time to wander the gardens and discovered this bee that was very intent on collecting nectar from just one flower head on this plant right at my level so I was able to get decent photos. I was able to take many photos and managed to get a few of her slitting the tube to rob its nectar. Also got a decent video of it.
John Ascher did the ID and it seems to be a native Hawaiian bee, which made me very happy.
Got a late start because we had to snorkle first. We drove the Hana Highway in reverse, so we met more people than we had to follow. Ended up on the north side driving in the rain and the dark--wouldn't recommend that.
Stopped at the Pools of 'Ohe'o National Park for a break and to eat a picnic lunch. Walked the trail to the edge of the pools which were closed. There wasn't any likely picnicking spot so we ended up on the lawn. Took some photos there of
Continued around through Hana to the wetter side of the island. There are next to no places to pull over to look at anything so we have only a couple of waterfall photos. It was getting dark so we never went out on any other trails to explore closer, and my photos are all next to the road.
After a "quick" snorkel, we drove up to the top of the island on a perfect day beginning with early blue sky. At the top there wasn't a lot of wind though it was noticeably cooler. Clouds began to form and crept up and over the edge of the crater to fill it in some. The top is mostly cinders and rock, without a lot growing there. There is a band of clouds lower down that provides mist and moisture to plants in that area. This made it interesting to see things like ferns growing in the grass and pockets of moisture loving things between the rocks where they are more protected, then wide open drier areas without a lot of cover, depending upon the location.
Because were diving we had to wait several days to be able to go up here. As I get altitude sickness, I skipped hiking the rim trail. It looked like a lot of different colored cinders and very few plants to photograph anyway. So, all my photos are pretty close to the road or the little trails at the viewpoints. I took a group of photos at the top where the Silverswords grew, along with some plantain and Lady Beetles--interesting to see them at 10,000' elevation.
We stopped for lunch at the Silversword and crater viewpoint, but there really weren't many Silverswords. That was were the ferns and small plants were tucked into the rock.
The other viewpoint was Kalahaku, which is a larger stopping spot, with more parking space. That is where the Chukar was pecking the ground beneath the cars.
Found a good description of the road and landscape of the park: https://www.dartmouth.edu/~volcano/texts/DekHaleakala.html#Haleakala
