One thing is for sure, there's nothing like spending a week with your children to get you out of the house. The last three days we have taken fish watching trips to Ho'okena and City and sandwiched in a hiking trip to Hawi. Here's another way to look at it; we've done as much driving around the island as we would likely do in a month. James and Tara enjoyed their hike into the Pololu Valley and Sandra got a kick out of visiting the nearby cemetery. (She belongs to a genealogy club called Gravefinders and if she is the first one to report on the tombstones at the Kohala Hongwanji Mission Cemetery they will send her a handsome silver skull for her charm bracelet.) Be that as it may, for today's blog I want to tell you what the four of us saw at two of our favorite fish watching spots.
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| Flame Angelfish, Ho'okena, December 2011 |
On December 5th we visited Ho'okena. You may recall that this beach is the object of concern about animosity between hau'olis (us wimpy white guys) vs local folks. Although I experienced a bit of that 25 years ago, I have had nothing but delightful experiences with the people I have met at Ho'okena in the last ten years. Perhaps this is because I always leave before 2 PM. Regardless, because we were mostly having a family day, we did not have any close encounters with the usual group of charming characters we find at this beach. There were no dolphins at Ho'okena. One can't expect dolphins every time, although while we were waiting for 10 o'clock to roll around, we were visited by a lady wearing jeans and a long sleeve flannel shirt. (I think I met her previously on the corner of Ashbury and Haight in 1968.) Apparently confusing me with Lord Neptune, she was unwilling to accept the notion that I could not tell her exactly when the dolphins would show up. Eventually she abandoned her interogation and we hit the water.
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| Flame angelfish, Ho'okena, February 2011 |
On the small reef to the left of our entry, Tara may have seen a yellow Dwarf Moray. Heading out into the crystal clear, deeper water we had a good look at Gilded Triggerfish. This has been a consistently good spot for this uncommon fish. A bit further on we had a fine look in 30 feet at Potter's Angelfish.
Tara gets cold a bit sooner than the boys...we pack a little more adiposity...so she and Sandra headed in. A few minutes later I spotted a Flame Angelfish. James and I were about 100 yards offshore, perhaps 50 yards from the ruins of the pier, over rich coral growth. There was a pair of Flame Angels in only 15 feet of water. This is remarkably shallow for this species rarely seen by snorkelers and I am eager to go back to try to find it again in this location. I let James attempt to photograph it and he looked like he was doing a good job.
My editor asks me to give instruction as to how to photograph the fish. Get close and hold still as you can. If your object is sufficiently shallow, hold onto a rock with your gloved hand. Focus, shoot, stabilize and repeat as many times as your breath allows. This is digital photography...the exposures are free. James took only four pictures in two dives and none of them were outstanding, mostly a result of too few shots. I'm including his photo and mine from a year ago...same bay, my fish at 30 feet. Both Potter's and Flame Angelfish are elusive, constantly ducking back into the coral, and even 15 feet is too deep for us amatures to achieve a hand hold, so a good photograph is tough.
On the way in we saw Saddleback Butterfly and a Yellow-margin Moray. A very good outing all in all with a really close look at arguably Hawaii's prettiest fish.
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| Thompson's Butterflyfish looking businesslike at City |
After a day looking at old Buddhist tombs and scrumptious nouvelle Hawaiian Cuisine at the Bamboo Restaurant in Hawi, we turned the army around (tres Napoleonic, non?) and attacked the City of Refuge. There were no dolphins so we waited until 10 o'clock, at which time we donned our gear and entered at Two Step. Over the last few years, the best fish we have found regularly at City is Thompson's Butterfly. They can be found just north of Two Step or on the far north shore of the bay, which is where I found several this day. At the same time Tara spotted a very pretty fish, showed James and (in her words) he went crazy. We had a pair of Pyramid Butterflyfish! Sandra found one in the same spot 18 months ago. In his fine gold and white raiment, the Pyramid might be the prettiest fish in Hawaii and we enjoyed it immensely.
If you think James is a slow learner, I would ask you to look at his photo of the Pyramid. Get close, hold still, focus shoot and repeat. He took lovely photo of a great fish. Good shootin' James.
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| Tara spots him and James shoots him! Pyramid at City. |
Our foursome was extremely lucky to see both the Flame Angel and the Pyramid Butterfly. Which you prefer may depend on your relationship to the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church. Specifically, what do yu like better, cardinals or popes?
Dominus Vobiscum,
jeff
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