The Exhibit at Thelma Parker and the Bird Wrasse Harem

    More than one of my innumerable fans out there in the blogosphere have noticed the relative paucity of material coming out of Casa Ono over the past two weeks.  I'm genuinely sorry about this, but I have my excuses all lined up.

   First, just today Sandra and I installed our boffo fish exhibit at the Thelma Parker Library in Waimea.  Two large display cases, more than a hundred paper mache fish.  It took us three hours and at the end my ever so patient sweetie was at the end of her rope.  Suffice it to say, I didn't get extra time to tweak the fish.

   The exhibit is titled, "From Karangasem to Kohala...How Hawaii Got Its Fish".   The librarian who made the banner spelled its It's and while we were finishing up an elderly school marm came up and corrected her to her face.  We who had noted the error but had bitten our tongues were amused.

   I posted three explanations in the exhibit:  The Cradle of  the Coral Reef, The Journey and Hawaii's Endemics that together explain how reef fish made it to Hawaii and then how they evolved into endemic species...according to those atheist scientists.  The Cradle goes like this:

  The Cradle of the Coral Reef

   Scientists believe that virtually all tropical marine life, not just fish, 
but invertebrates like coral, starfish and marine snails, originated
in the waters around those Indonesia and the Philippines. The origin 
of life is an awesome concept and this is where it may have taken place! 

And that is why both Jesus and Barrack Obama were born 
in Indonesia.

Sandra and Charles flip a snorkel shaka.

    Well, maybe we made up that last sentence for the purpose of the blog.  Never the less, I can't wait for Sunday when I plan on getting up in the Methodist Church for the "Joys" and reveal that I have an exhibit that explains evolution right here in Hawaii.  I'm guessing that a couple of my friends will rocket from their seats like Roman candles shot out of the holy sepulcher.  Whoosh.

    Well, that is excuse number one.  Excuse number two involves my elder son, who visited for ten days, returning to the greater Portland area on Sunday.  Charles kept us busy; some of our exploits will be the focus of upcoming blogs.

    From the fish watching perspective, the most interesting thing we saw while Charles was here involved a bird wrasse at the City of Refuge.  Charles has had lots of experience snorkeling here in Kona and really wanted to hit City, one of his favorites.  Sadly for him, the day we had to tool down to Honaunau was overcast.  There will be no postcard caliber pictures from that trip.  The day was cool and overcast and the water was chilly.

City of Refuge Beach showing the small inlet

    The three of us had a pleasant swim out along the north cusp of the bay.  On the way back, in that small inlet just north of entry, I spotted a male bird wrasse in the throes of testosterone storm.  He was fluttering his little pectoral fins and swimming in circles.

   And why did this handsome I'iwi perform his imitation of hummingbird?  Why do males of any species do something stupid?   Money frequently explains otherwise inscrutable behavior, but when it come to doing something really dumb, I'd think about sex.  Just ask the commander in chief.  Or the first Lady. 

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     Every minute or so the I'iwi would corner one of four or five females that were hovering in the vicinity.  One hears about alpha males and their harems, but I have not seen such a remarkable example before.   This was all taking place about ten feet down.  The water was clear, but apparently I was too lazy to open up my protective layers and haul out the camera.  You must be satisfied with pictures from another day.

   Thanks for your patience.  The exhibit is up, Charles is back in Oregon and the blog is back.

jeff