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Kohala  -  2010  Spring

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1/24 to 2/15  (21 days - 294 total)

ALOHA -- January 2010

An unusual set of circumstances came about and we were asked to come to the Big Island to do our "house-sitting" gig during the Spring. The arrangements that the Brown's made previously fell through, and since we were available and their planned cruise was in jeopardy, we came over for our "puppy-fix". We have never been to Hawai'i in the Spring before. Normally, in the past, Rosalee's commitments to her firm during the "Income Tax Season" and my commitment to teaching from September through June always limited our availability for travel during the Winter months.

The "boys"... the dogs that make up the life of the Brown's home remembered us well. It was as if we had never left. Of course, that always makes us feel happy. No, these are not "the boys"... they are a gathering of the little English sparrows that we frequently see here at "The Ranch". They are perched on the edge of a large cauldron that serves as a water feature that contains small mosquito fish and some plants. This is a frequent watering hole for many of the 'critters' that drop by.

 

We enjoy seeing the flowers in bloom when we visit the islands. It is not that there were MORE flowers in the Spring, but there were DIFFERENT flowers that were blooming. It is hard to know what to expect when you have Spring the year around. The flower below is called a Pyramid Flower and it is growing in the plaza area of the Queen's Shopping Center.

Something else that we usually miss when we always come over in the Fall is the breeding season of the whales. There is a large number of whales that come South from Alaska to the Western side of the Big Island for feeding and breeding. The cows are inseminated and they move back to Alaska as the Alaskan waters warm up. The following season the cows return to the warm water off Hawai'i and the calf is born. It has only a few months to gain size and strength, before the trip back North. They put on over 100 pounds a day. In the Summer they head back up to Alaska, but the following winter, the little ones are not strong enough to come back down. Not just yet. They stick around for the season while mom heads to Hawai'i... or Mexico... or several other breeding grounds that are frequented by other groups of whales. When the females are old enough to be bred, and the males are sexually mature, they come with the others to the islands and begin their reproduction process.

So, that means that people in the islands are going to be seeing the whales, especially when they are performing their mating rituals in the relatively warm and shallow waters in some of Hawaii's nice bays. Multiple boats have signs posted: "Whale watching". We had never done this so we thought that it might be interesting. We thoroughly enjoyed our time out in the bay. It was a quite large catamaran and we were in the company of maybe sixty people. The boats are required by law to stay more than 100 feet from the whales. Sometimes that is tough to do when they surface directly in front of the boat.

We could see the whales poking up like this, and the guide indicated that was their way of keeping track of where the boat was. He said that they are very cognizant of what goes on around them, both on the surface of the water as well as below.

 

 

 

 

This one was just off our bow and I am glad that our hull was larger than hers was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was one female that had possibly five young males in hot pursuit. She was just swimming around and they were stumbling over each other trying to impress her. She will make a choice, but will 'play the field' for a while first. They were all over the bay, and were staying pretty much near the surface so we could see them.

We also saw a mother and calf, which was only a matter of hours old. The mother and another young female were there to help the young one to stay at the surface where he could breath. If they are not kept near the surface they will sink on their own and drown.

 

 

 

 

 

--  THE LAND OF RAINBOWS  --