Here we go again. No big deals here.. some critters and a little information. I hope you enjoy this brief distraction.
Pastel Dawn over the Waianae Coast
I will get the boobies out of the way, just in case someone was looking for something other than sea birds.... this is an immature Red-Footed Booby.
Red-Footed Booby Sula sula Immature
Wedge-Tailed Shearwater Puffinus pacificus
Red-Footed Booby going into a dive. They crash into the surface and dive deep after fish.
Brown Booby Sula leucogaster
The older Brown Booby is displacing an immature bird from the prime spot on the corner of the barge with much squawking.
Spinner Dolphin Stenella longirostris
These little acrobats were moving slowly, probably sleeping, when suddenly they took off and went flying by the tourist boat on 40 foot arcing leaps. The Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins spend their days in shallow water along the coast and head to deeper water to feed at night.
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin Stenella attenuata
The Spotted Dolphin is the species most commonly associated with schools of Yellowfin Tuna. They do not perform corkscrewing spins like the smaller Spinner Dolphins but they are very acrobatic, sometimes making astoundingly high leaps.
Spotted Dolphin Leap
This is a pretty good one but they get much higher.
Rough-Toothed Dolphin Steno bredanensis
Another species of dolphin found in Hawaiian waters named for the ridges on their teeth. On this day we observed them having sex (sorry I didn't capture any dolphin porn) and playing pass the plastic bag. They pick up rubbish on their fins and drag it around intentionally, passing it back and forth between them. This one had a bag on its dorsal fin as it surfaced.
I think these two just got done kanoodling. I could be wrong. They are dark above with white or pinkish bellys, sometimes with interesting spotty patterns like this one.
Another Rough-Toothed Dolphin. One distinct feature is the beak that slopes into the head without a distinct crease. You can see the scarring from cookie cutter sharks, a small shark that takes ice cream scoop sized chunks of flesh from the dolphins.
After watching the Rough-Tooths for a while we spotted another dolphin species....
Short-finned Pilot Whale Globicephala macrorhynchus Male
The males get up to 20 feet long and, as in this shot, have blunt heads and large dorsal fins.
Short-finned Pilot Whale Globicephala macrorhynchus Female
This is a Male Pilot Whale "spyhopping", checking out the primates in the boat passing by.
We will finish with a quick trip under the surface.
Green Sea Turtle or Honu Chelonia mydas
This one is leaving its sleeping cave to go get a breath.
These turtles feed primarily on algae
This was the first time I used the fisheye lens underwater. The lens distorts the line of the mast of this wreck.
Thanks for visiting. Feel free to post your photos and please be good humans.
Obligatory Hawaiian Sunset