The Last Day on the PAR

   Charles week in Hawaii was winding down.  We had enjoyed some pretty good adventures out of the water.  Three days prior to departure, we drove up the Old Saddle Road on the slopes of Mauna

The clowns mentioned in the narrative are more like Crusty than poor Bozo

Kea looking for pueos.  At the summit we headed into the Game Management area and climbed

another 2000 feet to the Palila Refuge. On the way up we had a nice conversation with a giant and  uniformed Hawaiian dude, packing a sidearm, no less.  He explained to us that it was inconsiderate bozos like me, driving 2 wheel drive cars, that chewed up the road.  And then he scowled and told us to have nice day.

  The road was plenty chewed up (damn those 2 wheel drives) but we made it to 6,000 feet and discovered that what had been a hunting area was now a Palila Refuge, replete with fancy gate, and shoe cleaner.  And another bozo who insulted my bird identifying abilities.  I guess we were having a little clown convention of sorts.  After I put him in his place, we enjoyed the cool mountain air and

The saddle as seen from the Game Management area.

took a few pictures of the fancy gate and, on the way back down, the spectacular scenery in the saddle.  

   The following day we went snorkeling at City of Refuge, where the reef sharks were decidedly not in residence.  Charles saw a small great barracuda (is that an oxymoron?) while I was about twenty yards away looking for sharks.  At least that's my excuse.  Otherwise, City wasn't all that interesting.  At least the ocean water was cool, which is a pleasure on these hot days.

   Then it was off to South Point.  I had never been to South Point before, which seems like a huge oversight, given its geographical significance and the fact that it is only an hour away from Kailua.  As it turns out its a twelve mile drive down a narrow but straight and paved road that descends

Charles and Sandra snap away while the SYT contemplates a jump.

gradually from about a thousand feet eventually reaching the sea at South Point.  For the last four miles there are lush, green meadows sweeping away on both sides, with a handful of beeves grazing here and there.

   At this point I recalled the Bristle-thighed Curlew, which to the best of my recollection, rendered a dab foggy at this stage of my dotage, is occasionally seen in these very grassy acres near South Point.  Two large shorebirds, the Bristle-thighed Curlew and the Bar tailed Godwit, breed in Alaska and then migrate southwest, over the ocean.  The godwit makes it all the way to Australia non-stop and, at the start of this odyssey, has the greatest fat stores of any migratory bird.  The BTC doesn't go quite so far and some make a stop in Hawaii. As we made our descent through the meadows, I asked Charles and Sandra to scan the grasslands for large brown shorebirds while I split my attention between curlew searching and the macadam dropping away in front of the

The southernmost sweeties in the entire United States.

car.  Or as the bumper sticker says: Extreme Danger!  Birdwatcher at the wheel.

    Well, we didn't see any curlews on our way down to South Point.  Once there, we parked on the shoulder before the road deteriorated.  Just north of the parking area is a cliff with a drop of 40 feet into the sea.  This spot is relatively famous for cliff diving.  In practice there is little diving, but a lot of young adults smoking, talking, in general just milling around.  While we were there we saw two young adults take a short run and enter the water feet first.  Once in the ocean, the "cliff divers" are obligated to ascend a rope ladder.

    In essentially the same area there were a few men fishing.  They had short, stout rods and their lines were far down and out to sea.  Scattered between the cliff divers and the actual point were numerous carcasses of Giant Trevally with the flanks removed.  A vulture or two would not have gone amiss.

   Finally the three of us made our trek to the actual point.  There, for a minute or so, Sandra and I were the southern most sweeties in these United States.

Green Sea Turtle on Paul Allen's Reef

   I handed the keys over to Charles and he drove us back up through the meadows.  Scanning the grass without driving duties was clearly safer for all concerned, but I still didn't come up with a curlew.  Perhaps if we had had that helpful fellow from the Palila Refuge in the car he would have spotted one.  We'll never know.  

    Which brings me to Charles penultimate day.  Concluding that in the last few days we had done enough driving, we decided to make Paul Allen's Reef here in Kona the last snorkel for Charles' vacation.  He thought the water in the Inner harbour was chilly.  I thought it was a refreshing 80°.  We swam out and across the little bay.  I was able to locate the same Pocillipora coral head from a week before.  This was made possible by the paucity of living cauliflower coral in the vicinity of the PAR.  This was the only one near the mouth of Paul's lagoon. Diving down, I spotted two coral crouchers on opposite sides of a leaf deep in the coral.  I also spotted two guard crabs.

Devil Scorpionfish with blue oral projections.

    Using a glove, Charles duplicated my diving and holding, was able to see the crabs, but could not find the coral crouchers.   This diving and holding eight feet down is sort of intermediate stuff, so I was proud of him.That's a my boy.

    Its mildly interesting that the coral crouchers were in the very same coral for over a week.. One has to wonder how much tiny scorpionfish move around.  The croucher and the speckled scorpionfish are virtually glued in place during the day, but I assume they move around at night.  In discussing this, Sandra and I named some other fish that pretty much stay in the same location for long periods.  Our personal record goes to the Phoenix Island Damsel waif that lived in the same spot on the shallow reef in front of Alii Villas for over a year and a half.  As it was the only such fish, this made the identification of the specific individual in that particular location certain.  

   We swam around the corner and caught up with two Potter's angelfish.  They were very dark, with just a hint of orange along the dorsum and around the face.  The blue tail was another clue.

  Over on the shore side, Charles spotted a young turtle breathing at the surface.  We swam to within seven feet, he noticed us and then swam towards us, giving us a friendly once over.  This is the second time recently when we have had relatively young turtles approach us.   Is the current generation of green sea turtles loosing their aversion to homo sapiens?

Devil Scorpionfish,  Kailua Kona Pier, September 2018

    We enjoyed our time with the turtle and then  headed back into the lagoon.   Fifteen yards from shore I spotted a large devil scorpionfish.  He was leaning on a rock, looking up at us.  Note from the picture that the color and texture of his skin is precisely the same as that of the rock.  The one exception is the inside of his mouth, where you might appreciate a raised blue and white projection on the mandible and two matching blue spots on the upper jaw. I have not noticed this before and I wonder if these projections are associated with fishing.  I personally had to restrain myself from putting my finger in his mouth.

    In any event, it was a wonderful fish on which for Charles to end his Hawaiian vacation.

jeff

Green Sea Turtle and blue water.  Does it get any better than that?