Hawaiian plants, animals and landscapes: a mission statement.

So who likes to read posts about Hawaiian plants and animals? (e.g., the I'o, the garden orb weaver spider, and the gold dust day gecko)

I'm hoping to learn about the common and interesting plants and animals here in my yard in kona, and eventually, beyond to the higher and wetter forests. It's a good exercise to synthesize and catalog some of what I learn here on the blog-- so here I go!

I hope you like it. We'll see how long I last.  Hopefully, I can get it to be pretty user friendly.  It'll be a work in progress.  let me know what you think, here or via email.

I'm getting there on the job front, by the way.  I'm taking a break from application stuff today, after getting a sweet one in for a job I'd really like.  They're not officially hiring though... so I won't say any more now.  Except that Terra Firma was officially trying not to hire when I came on... and that this job would be a distinct departure from carpentry.

Gold Dust Day Gecko

Beth and I are going to a white elephant gift exchange tomorrow with her coworkers.   Oh man, you better hope you get my present.  I could barely keep myself from taking it out of the box and playing with it last night. 

As promised:
The gecko I pictured back in "Back in business!" was misidentified.  It is actually a gold dust day gecko.  What a looker!  These guys are really cool looking, and all over the place, too.

As I'm not so hot with the ol picture machine, I'm going to continue to blatantly steal images from elsewhere on the web. I'll work on my citations. promise. this is from here.

These buggers are diurnal, or active during the day.  We see them sunning themselves on our stair railings and plant leaves all the time.  We're glad to have found them, becuase apparently, geckos mean good luck to some Hawaiians.  For us, the fact that they eat bugs is lucky enough.


They don't really like to be looked at, though.  When they catch you staring for too long or from too close, they use their amazing little gecko toes to scamper around to the underside of whatever they are laying on.  Geckos are able to walk on the underside of leaves, up walls, and on windows thanks to these amazing little gecko toes, which have around a million hairs on each toe pad.  I guess the tiny amount of friction, compounded over millions of hairs, is enough to hold the buggers up! Check out this website for more on geckos. They do a more comprehensive page on these guys.

The gold dust day gecko is a species introduced from Madagascar, but apparently only common in the "suburban" areas of Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu.  So maybe it's not as damaging to Hawaiian ecology as many of the other introduced species.
Do any bit of reading about plants and animals in Hawaii, and you will see what a comprehensive impact introduced species have had on the endemic species that evolved on these tranquil little islands. More on that later.

Back in business!

Hiya hiya!
We got the internet up and running at our new house!  I'll be posting frequently again-- if staring at the computer doing resumes and job applications doesn't drive me nuts.

Happy thanksgiving, and goodbye to November.
Beth and I are pretty well moved in here now.  I think Beth is going to do something with some photos she took of our place...  I'm trying to figure out what to do with the comment that the blog is "very domestic."  I think I'll embrace it, but stop short of posting home pics right off the bat.
Here is our address, in case you were wondering to send all that stuff you've been getting for us:

75-192 Alakai St. Rear Apt.
Kailua-Kona, HI, 96740

Best parts of the last week or two we've been floating anchorless without the net:

College buddy Laura came to visit with her man Nick for thanksgiving!  We bumped and rattled their little Hyundai over the 1801 lava field near the airport, then hoofed it over the last section into the remote beach of Makalwena.  It was a holiday weekend, so it was pretty busy for how remote it was.  Still, though, "a little slice of paradise," as Laura said. 

Thanksgiving, of course.  We had two: one with Beth's coworkers, one just the two of us.  I have to report, sadly, that the (in)famous Bevis Green Jello Salad didn't go over well with the locals.  It does, happily, keep well.  It's pretty good with coffee.  Must be the pint of heavy whipping cream.  Now how could anyone not like something with that in the ingredients?

Note: 1) the awesome mugs Beth found us! 2) one of the 4 green coconuts Beth harvested from our front yard.  Them things are hard to get into.  Here she is showing appropriate strain:

Here she is working on other kitchen goodies:

Another highlight: my first taste of the legendary Hawaiian culinary creation Spam Musubi.  Basically, about a cup of white rice and a quarter-inch thick slab of spam wrapped in nori.  It's that simple.  But the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts, right?

This is Spam Musubi in its native environment.  And that, dashboard, cellophane and all, is exactly how it looked when I ate it.  Us bike commuters got to keep our calories up!

I hope to kick off a new aspect to the blog later today or tomorrow:  more posts about plants and animals I see here in Hawaii.  Something to supplement the raw shock value of the spiders.   I hope it interests you as much as it does me. There is some pretty cool stuff here, and I want to document it as much for myself as I want to show you.  Perhaps I will start off with the ubiquitous and cute house gecko, as most people seem to think these are pretty cool!  Stay tuned!

comments

I've gotten some complaints about not being able to post comments!  I don't know what the problem is.  I'll try to fix it!


In the meantime, here are some of my responses to yer comments:

Thanks for the comments!  Glad you're out there checking this out.

The frisbee pickup was fun.  A good group of people out there, playing hard.  Wide range of skill levels. A good family game to get in on.  We are excited to go again this Sunday. We are also planning to attend a hat tournament next weekend north on the Kohala coast with some of the players.  Exciting!

Carl the cane spider left us.  I've yet to see any a 'is kin. I have see a lot of these buggers called orb spiders.  They are much smaller, but more scary looking.  Have a peek.   Also huge crabs?  Easy blog to waste time on.  Kind of like mine?

Here's a new (and accurate) picture of a garden orb weaver spider, on the milkweed bush in our yard. It caught a honeybee, so you can see how big it is.  What a feast!  These things are everywhere.  No problems yet. This milkweed bush is really buzzing with activity. I'll for sure put some more stuff up on it.

this is Argiope appensa, commonly called the Garden Spider or orb weaver spider.  Scientists eh?  Can't even be moved enough by that nasty bugger to give it a unique name!  I bet I can find a Hawaiian name.  In theory, I like spiders.  But the ones around here are giving me the creeps.  Fortunately, I haven't found a dangerous one yet.

Here's a good info page on weaver spiders. It sounds like there will be some interesting spider discoveries in my future here.

trouble in paradise

While I was laying on the floor doing some back exercises, I glanced up and spotted this guy:

uhgg.  I had to know they were out there, being as we're in the jungle, but...
4" of spider hanging out on the wall over my head.  Yikes.  Maybe the reason I haven't seen any of these yet is the condo association's guy wearing a VOC vapor mask and spraying all the plants around here... yes, my fellow association members, living in a photograph of suburban american paradise plopped into the tropics takes upkeep!

Here is as close as I could venture for some scale.  I was half amazed I didn't have a spider in my face for doing this.  

The furry fellow appears to be a cane spider.  Look how their eyes reflect the flash!! Creepy!  Apparently, it is friendly and going to eat the roaches for me.  I'll call him Carl the Cane Spider.

Well, time for something else.  I won't tell you that I'm going to go for a swim and read a book poolside.  That would make me and all other homemakers look bad.  It's just that I've already got dinner taken care of.

 If you like these posts, you better pray I don't make any friends down here!