December 31 2010 - Day 2 in Paradise

A truly amazing day!  I could barely sleep last night - too jazzed from the excitement of the first day really.  So when I was just wide awake at 6 am I went with it, made coffee, and set up the tripod for the sunrise.  Tom and my "boys" gave me a beautiful lightweight but very strong carbon fiber tripod and head for this trip.  It is incredible.  So light, easy to set up and knock down and fits easily in a backpack or suitcase and can handle up to 8 pounds of camera and lens.   The condo faces mostly north but we get hints of of both sunset and sunrise.  The balcony covers two exterior walls and both face the ocean.  The sunrise did not disappoint.

Tom got up for the second pot of coffee and we were drinking it on the balcony when we suddenly realized that there was some great whale action taking place not too far off the coast.  Now when we see whales off of Monterey, they are on their way somewhere else.  They blow, they dive, they move on - for the most part.  These whales are hanging out here (great idea!) and they are playful.  The morning whale activity was just a stunning show with all sorts of fin splashing, tails up dives, tail splashing, and blow.

I posted this same shot on Flickr, but posting again here because I am so thrilled with the "catch":

I was actually shooting a different pod of whales and then just happened to catch the breach in the frame.  Surprised that it is as well focused as it is considering that it was well off center frame.

The weather today was really great.  It did not rain all day, which for north shore is surprising enough.  But it was hot but not too hot, and not really too muggy.  We spent the whole rest of the daylight hours at the Limahuli National Tropical Botanical Gardens.  Outstanding place, with so much flora and fauna to enjoy, as well as spectacular views of the peaks of Makana (also known as "Bali Hai" for the "South Pacific" film usage of these same peaks).  There is a one mile loop that climbs to a very nice view as it meanders through beautifully sculptured and terraced property.  They are working to preserve a number of Hawaiian native plants here.  For example, this white hibiscus was thought to be gone, but has been found and preserved:

The birds we observed here included japanese white eyes, java sparrows, northern cardinals, red crested cardinals, plovers, moa, white rumped shama, and the ever present common myna.  I chased the japanese white eyes everywhere and finally got some decent shots in a nectar garden area where they were so interested in what they were doing that they ignored me.

At the highest overlook point we noticed that again there was a lot of whale activity in the ocean.  I witnessed a pair of whales that repeatedly flipped their tails well up simultaneously and slapped them down simultaneously, many times a minute.  Wild!  No idea what that is about, but cool.

We ended our travels today back in the taro fields near Hanalei.  I wanted to find the Hwamei thrush that we saw yesterday.  Still did not get a wonderful shot, but much better light than yesterday.  This thrush has a really fantastic song and there were several of them singing there.  Also got many really fine shots of a pair of red crested cardinals from the car, maybe 10 feet away.  They are typically in pairs.  Superb birds.

More pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawkperson/sets/72157625718182254/

Mahalo for stopping by, and Happy New Year!!!