Christmas in Kailua and a Lionfish Update

The palm tree green,  the banyan green,
The prettiest sight that you've ever seen.
Its Christmas in Kailua, the best you've ever known.
Its Christmas in Kailua, With all of the fish at home.

   Yes, indeed, this Christmas time has been very special here in the land of mele kalikimaka.  The weather has been cool and clear almost every day.  With the exception of two days of well needed rain last week, it has been delightful.

Saddleback Butterfly Kahaluu 12/17

    The ocean water has remained fairly calm and still not as cold as it will get later in the winter.  With a bit o' neoprene it's pretty comfortable.  Although there have been no exciting fish sightings, at least on my part, there are a few fish around to enjoy and photograph.  A week ago at Kahalu'u I nabbed this picture of a saddleback butterfly.   Sadly, on that day there was little else to brag about at K Bay.




       We have been snorkeling at the pier a few times recently.  Two weeks ago I saw this Scribbled Filefish.  He was right where you would expect him, about fifteen yards past the last swim buoy, just where the coral curves towards the sea.  As I was enjoying  Sandra's favorite fish, a recreational swimmer happened along wearing a snorkel mask replete with a bright pink snorkel.  I stalled her,

Scribbled Filefish at the pier rolls on his side to say Merry Christmas

introduced her to Mr. Scribble and she seemed pleased to make his acquaintance.  This is one of our fish that used to be a resident at Kahalu'u, which we now only see in deeper spots.  Twenty years ago the scribbled filefish used to swim right up and look you right in the eye.  Now its highly unusual to see one above fifteen feet.

    A few days ago I saw a small gurnard near the first swim buoy.  I had to take a few pictures, but he was hardly the most beautiful gurnard.  As I was watching him, a goatfish swam slowly above him and for about three seconds he extended his fins and flashed the blue owl eye pattern.  As quick as wink, his fins were refolded and brownish gray.   Envying the goatfish, I tried diving close and snapping a picture from a foot above the gurnard.  None of my efforts could get him to flash his owl eyes, but I did succeed in scaring him a few feet away where he resumed whisking the sand for tiny tidbits.

   Just yesterday I got dropped off at the pier for a quick dip.  Reclining on the seawall was one of Santa's elves playing his ukulele.  Such has been the fish watching that this may constitute the best picture taken with the water camera since our return from Bali.   You can tell that this is one happy elf.  The weather is way better than at the North Pole and he's got a Starbuck's coffee to make the season bright.

    Although the water was clear as a bell, the only moderately good thing I saw swimming yesterday was a cushion starfish, close to where we saw Mr. Scribble a fortnight past.



     Yesterday I received a note from our co-conspirator, Peter Kroppje up in Hawi.  The outcome of our subsequent exchange is that we are driving to Mahukona early tomorrow morning to look for the Christmas wrasse on Christmas Day with our friends.  Peter says that our target fish will be present in

Flying gurnard, Kailua Kona Pier december 2017

large numbers at Mahukona.  This is a darn good thing, as the Kalikimaka Wrasse has been quite a bit less than prevalent at both the pier and good old K Bay; the latter should be a lock for this festive fish, but not this year.  Stay tuned for news of this years quest.

    The chief reason Peter wrote, besides wanting to say hello, was to talk about his blogs and fish list from Bali.  I have to tell you that Peter is a much better fish photographer than I am.  If you would like to look at some gorgeous pictures of the fish he saw in Bali, check out his blog one breath kohala:

https://onebreathkohala.wordpress.com/

   As we have mentioned before, fishwatching, like birding can breed some friendly competition.  Peter and I both saw 11 species of angelfish in Bali.  He saw two species that we have seen previously, but not on this trip: the  blue girdled angelfish and the yellow masked angelfish. These are BBA (big beautiful angelfish).  I have mediocre pictures of those two species taken in previous years, but at snorkeling depth, which is unusual for those species.  In that environment, those big angels were skittish.  The fish may have been more cooperative forty feet below the waves.  Regardless, Peter's pictures are to die for and you really should take a look. Peter also saw the Black Striped Angel, a smaller angel that we probably will never see.

Yellow Mask Angelfish Japanese Wreck 2009

    You need to go to Peter's blog to see his pictures.  I'm including a picture taken in 2009 at Japanese Wreck.  That picture was taken with a cheap point and shoot camera in a cheap housing.  Since I never throw anything away I still have that camera and it looks like a toy you might give to a three year old.  Come to think of it, I'm not sure you can buy a toy for a three year old for less than fifty dollars.

   While I was taking a look at his 11 angelfish, I perused the rest of his blog and discovered that he had a very good picture of a lionfish, the zebra lionfish, that we had not claimed.  I would note that one of my greatest thrills in nature observation occurred on the Masai Mara with James.  Standing up in and poking through a land rover, I photographed a pride of lions reclining after dining on a zebra, with the odd striped hoof and tail scattered throughout the pride.

A female lion contemplates the remains of a zebra  Masai Mara 1993

    While that reminiscence may tie zebra and lion together, it is only marginally salient to the discussion of the zebra lionfish.  Peter notes that he saw this fish in the shallows in Pemuteran, where Sandra and I spent a great deal of time snorkeling.  In fact, just before we saw the baby striped sweetlips, I rousted a pair of small lionfish from under a rock.

   A few years ago I was quite wary of the poisonous spines borne so decoratively by lionfish.  Well, familiarity breeds contempt and, as you can tell, I'm not nearly so cautious as I once was.   And, at least in this case, it probably did not work out best for the lionfish.  At the minimum, their nap was interrupted.

Zebra Lionfish Courtesy of Kona Imports SA

   Well, I looked at Peter's picture and noted that this new lionfish does not look all that different from the spotfin lionfish, which I assumed that it was.  For those of you who are bird watchers, let me make a comparison.  Say you are up in the Cascades and you saw what you took to be a purple finch.  If you were unaware that you had entered the range of the Cassin's finch, you might not realize that you were looking at a different species.  A book like North American Birds, with a distribution map next to each bird, makes this oversight less likely.  I have yet to see a fish field guide with maps next to each species.  What would be really cool is if there were a hologram so you could see distribution and the depth.  Regardless, I had no idea that I might see a new species of lionfish and were it not for Peter's OBK blog, I would be one lionfish poorer.

   Luckily, I had taken six pictures of those two small lionfish,  Not as good as Peter's, mind you, but a couple of my pictures, taken at odd angles, are in good focus. At least one shows the caudal peduncle really well.  And that last stripe on the caudal peduncle with its two white spots is a quick, straight

Zebra Lionfish Jemeluk 2014

forward field mark for separating the two species.  Lucky for us, a great many fish, when you try to take their picture, turn away, thus giving you a cracker jack shot at the caudal peduncle.

   I called Sandra over (she, too had seen these little lionfish and got bored watching my flailing efforts to get a good picture).  I now made Sandra look at Peter's picture, my pictures and the pictures in the field guide.  She agreed that it was a zebra lionfish.  She did not, however, break into her happy dance.  In fact, I think I saw her stifle a yawn.  Again, I leave it to you to look at the lionfish in the

Spotfin Lionfish displaying eponymous spots.  Jemeluk 2017

one breath kohala blog.

    The story might end at this point,  but in searching for pictures to illustrate my point I reviewed my pictures of lionfish taken on previous trips to Bali.  Immediately I realized that we had mis-identified some of the lionfish at Jemeluk in 2014.  Above you see a pretty nice photo from that trip showing a zebra lionfish hiding among the coral in front of Villa Coral.  Luckily , on the trip just taken I took a picture showing the spots on (you guessed it)  the spotfin lionfish that is dramatically better from the standpoint of those spots, than anything in Google images or the field guide. 

The adorable Karen at Pondok Shindu

   Suffice it to say, this expedition was unlike the birding trips I used to take with Mike and Ken.  There was no skull session at the end of each day, where we labored over the field guides and hammered down each species on the list, toasting each addition with a sip of Highland Nectar.  If we
had, this blog would have been, in large part, unnecessary.  And I wouldn't have had to go to Pemuteran.  But if that were the case, I never would have met Karen, who was our hostess at the Pondok Shindu Guesthouse.  And she was adorable.  So I guess it all worked out for the best. 

   That's all for today.  We will keep you appraised of the hunt for the Christmas Wrasse on Christmas Day.  May your stockings be full of lots of goodies and heatfelt Mele Kalikimaka to one and all..

Faster than Santa's Sleigh, its the Christmas wrasse.