Valentine's Day 2014

    Last Thursday we went to Keahole Intl. and retrieved James and Tara.  The plane landed about 12:30 and  we were down to the pier and in the water by 2:30.   Is this a fish-crazy family or what?  Early on, Sandra saw a scribbled filefish, which headed out to sea before the rest of us

Lei Triggerfish, Kailua Kona February 2014

could get to her. Shortly thereafter, Tara found a really nice flounder.   Out in front of the palace, we scored this nice picture of a Lei Triggerfish sporting a yellow lei.  This fish can change the color of the lei from brown to dark brown, which is more common.

   Soon thereafter, Tara and Sandra, pleading cold water retired to the sunny beach. 

    I hadn't been snorkeling with James in a couple years, so we immediately made the most of the opportunity by spotting a pair of Scribbled Filefish.  They were reclining just above the bottom out by the last swim buoy, exhibiting that insouciance classic to the species.  I was quite excited, as I had not seen an actual pair of scribbles in a very long time, perhaps as long as ten years.  Sandra is hoping that her favorite fish is making a comeback.  How appropriate to see a pair of this delightful

A Pair of Scribbled Filefish, Kailua Kona  2014

species on the run up to Valentine's Day.   Its almost enough to send me into a chorus of that Jackson Brown classic, "Scribbled Filefish in Love."  In the name of good taste (of which I have none) I will spare you the lyrics to that fishy ballad.

     On the way in, we spotted a nice pair of longirostris (the Very Longnose Butterflyfish) sharing a cauliflower coral.  The image is almost as cloying as Lady and the Tramp sharing that last piece of spaghetti out behind the Italian Restaurant.

     For the grand finale, James and I, being the bad boys from Polk County, crossed the floating line and swam over by the pier, where, for some reason,  the water is almost always more clear.  We were rewarded with a fine look at a Whitemouth Moray.  As you may recall form a previous blog, I needed this ordinarily easy eel for the 2014 list, adding a bit of excitement to this otherwise expectable sighting.

    As we made the final turn for home we saw a school of what I deemed to be the smallest immatures of

Immature Polynsian Halfbeaks, Kailua Kona Pier, February 2014

needlefish in my experience.  Sandra had seen them on the way in and compared them to those tiny pencils that are provided at mini-golf courses and public libraries.   (Where do they get those little pencils, anyway?)  It was only when we got home and put the SD card into this very computer that we realized that what we had seen was a school of immature Polynesian Halfbeaks.  Over the last month a school of halfbeaks has been hanging around the pier.  They had become a fixture on our reef.  Well, now we know what they were up to.   A year ago, my editor accused me of photo shopping the red tips on a picture of halfbeaks.  The sad truth is, I am not half that clever.  As you can see, these Mini Coopers have itsy bitsy red noses.  And I ask you, "How cool is that?"

     For pre-Valentine's Day dinner, we had fish.  The pupu was two kinds of poke from Costco.  If you are

Longirosris in love.  

a fancier of raw fish, the poke counter at our Kona Costco is something you should be aware of.  They offer eight to ten varieties of seasoned seafood, mostly raw, and are happy to give you a sample. This is local fresh fish, prepared by experts and offered at a price you can hardly believe. I had chosen ahi shoyu in a sweet soy based marinade with caramelized onions and blue marlin kajiki, which was flavored with a delightful combination of Asian spices and little bits of this and that.  For the entree, Sandra cooked up some pasta topped with al Fredo sauce and smoked ahi.  Our guests are fish lovers and they were not disappointed.

     Valentine's Day was cloudy, but we were not deterred.  The four of us headed south and we made Ho'okena by 9:30.  As we stood on the beach, we watched a group of swimmers come in from the

 area where we might expect dolphins.  We watched for about ten minutes and did not see any fins.

    Soon we were in the water which was very clear.  I struggle for a less harsh way to say cold, but just like everywhere else in the last week, cold is what it was.  Mr. Google claims the water is 77 degrees F.  This is hard for me to believe.  I suggest that if Mr. Google is so damn sure of himself, why doesn't he put on his speedo and hop in our frigid ocean! 

   At any rate, we swam for less than five minutes in the cold clear water when right below us I spotted a pair of Flame Angelfish!  They were about 25 feet down.  We watched them for about five minutes, until Sandra insisted that we swim on in the vain hope that activity would warm her up.  Before we swam away, we saw at least three flames and a pair of Potter's Angelfish associated with this coral head.  I got a few pictures, the best of which you see here.   In my defense I've got to remind you that I can only dive about 12 feet, which was only halfway down to these small, active fish.  But what could be more appropriate for Valentine's Day than these gorgeous valentine-red fish.  (We have seen Flame Angelfish at Ho'okena before, but none in over a year.  Isn't it nice to know that they are still there?)

The Flame Angelfish retreats into the coral

 We swam for another twenty minutes, turning up some usual suspects.  On the outer reef we were overtaken by a pair of angling kayakers.  Listening to their conversation, it became clear that in the early morning there had been a pod a dolphins in the bay.  The dolphins departed just before we arrived.  In my experience this constituted very bad luck.  I mean, don't the dolphins usually stick around until 11 AM?  Oh well, I'll trade those beautiful Flame Angelfish for dolphins any day.  Suffice it to say, Tara and James were hoping for both. 

     Well, so it goes.  We had a nice lunch.  Sandra read her book and Tara went sun bathing.  James and I walked along the lava rock beach in front of the Ho'okena sign where we saw a cute five inch Yellow Margin Moray hunting in the shallows.

    On the way home, we planned a stop for a coffee sampling.  James and Tara are quite the coffee connoisseurs and hoped to buy something delicious.  Tara consulted The Big Island Revealed and chose

Does it get any tastier than this?

 Greenwell Farms in Kealakekua.  Greenwell's turned out to be quite the little tourist attraction.  The tasting was held on the verandah of a quaint old house amid the coffee plantation.  Not only wree three coffe trees, but the site offered a killer view of the coast a couple thousand feet below.    In addition to people whose only job was to sell you coffee for $35 a pound, there were tour guides to show you the coffee trees and explain the production.  Being coopereative customers, we all sampled the multiple brews available for purchase (And I have to admit that the offerings were delicious, even to your humble correspondent, who regards Yuban Dark Roast as the highlight of the morning.)  As I was sipping from my tiny paper cup,  my eye was attracted to a plastic model of a Jackson's Chameleon perched in a basket where it served as a paperweight for some brochures.   I wondered aloud, "Wouldn't it be sweet if there was a chameleon here?"

Jackson's Chameleon at Greenwell Farms

   Just behind me one of the ladylike coffee selling docents said,  "There's one right over here ."   In the words of Country Joe and the Fish, "My nose went up like an infield fly!"  And While Joe McDonald might have been "Fixin' to Die", I was suddenly fixin' to die and go to heaven.  I have searched high and low for a chameleon for thirty years in Kona.  I have searched around my home and garden.  I have stalked around arboretums, cemeteries and tropical gardens at a variety of altitudes.  I have scoured the church yard up in Holualoa. On several occasions I have received reports of sightings from my neighbors.  And most brutal of all, just last year a good friend at Alii Villas emailed me a picture of a Jackson's Chameleon crawling in a bush right outside his porch at Alii Villas.  Oh, the cruelty!

    Well the nice lady, looking very GQ in her navy blue Greenwell Farms T shirt, walked Sandra and I about fifteen feet from the verandah to an orange tree (I could tell, because it was laden with lovely ripe

Should we make Carl the official mascot for the Quetzales?

oranges).  Pointing up to a spot just out of my reach in the branches of the orange tree, she said, "There he is."  Initially he was difficult for me to spot because (now follow the logic here) he was a chameleon.  Green like the leaves of the tree, he had bright yellow eyes and three magnificent horns.  This was an absolutely gorgeous animal!  Commensurate with the beauty of the chameleon and the importance of the moment,  I proceeded to make a complete nuisance of myself taking pictures from this angle and that.  All the while, those independently moving peepers were keeping an eye on the goings on.  As if she had not done enough, our charming docent  (who I swear bears angel wings and a halo) took us to another tree so we could admire and document an immature chameleon.  And then (can you even imagine that this could get any better?) she summoned one of her buddies who coaxed Mr. Green onto his hand and transferred him to me.  Another flurry of photos ensued!

Immature Jackson's Chameleon at Greenwell Farms

     While all this was going on, my son and his lovely wife completed the tasting and purchased their coffee.  Then with consummate stealth, they trapped me in one of those dork-size butterfly nets you can rent at the Kona Home for the Bewildered.  Somehow, they got me into the car, thus ending the chameleonathon.  Home we went for a delicious Valentine's Day dinner.  You can be assured that once in dreamland, Flame Angelfishes and Jackson's Chameleons danced in my head. 

    We have another couple of guests coming in a few weeks, and if you think they are going to make it out of Kona without a visit to Greenwell's Farms, well, that's just silly.

jeff

Does this guy look happy or what?