Category: Photography

Animal Kingdom, Lifestyle, Nature, Photography, Travel

Manoa Falls Trail , Oahu, Hawaii

by natjtan3 Comments on Manoa Falls Trail , Oahu, Hawaii

One of the best things about Manoa Falls are the parking security guards. Semi wild chickens who have the run of the car park! 

Nestled in the Manoa Valley mountains, the Na Ala Hele (trail for walking) Manoa Falls Trail is a 2.6km/1.6mi hike up into the mountains. Starting at the car park the trail takes you into the rainforest. I think admission was about $5 if arriving by car otherwise it’s free. Trees start out tall with canopies reaching fanning out to the sky. Looking up they gently give each other breathing space while almost matching each others outline just like looking at world maps seeing where continents once connected, like a jigsaw puzzle or tropical coral fanning out. As you get higher up the path becomes narrower, steeper. Plants you don’t notice unless you use a branch to help you up. Tree trunks become skinner, the leaves become bigger as they compete for light, the forest becomes more dense, the path narrower and rockier. When we went it had been raining earlier so the path was muddy. Muddy! If you do this hike, wear something more than sandals as several people met the mud in style. Also do the hike earlier in the day if you want to avoid people. The hike takes around 1-2 hours there and back. No photos I’m sure it can be done in just over an hour. I think the trial during the initial covid-19 lockdowns was closed for maintenance to widen the path and make it more user friendly. It’s since reopened however I’m so grateful I got to visit before the covid-19 pandemic took hold. I’d love one day to go back to explore more trails that connect to it and those from the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum located near the start of the trail. This girl can visit in her dreams!

The security guards. Don’t mess with them

The path ends at Manoa Falls, a beautiful waterfall that I swear has ledges cut out each side for shampoo. Only joking, the ledges are filled with plants, but maybe just maybe shampoo. I wanted to get closer but the good positions were taken up with selfies. Take 100, delete all, take another 100 selfies. Another reason to get there early. I felt for the people that hiked up with 2 people with loudspeakers. Why? The epic soundtrack. In a city I get it, but in nature, please leave the music behind if anything to let others who for many it’s once in a lifetime experience to enjoy it. Man, I sound so old! Looking back I didn’t hear many birds. Maybe they avoid the area due to people. There were moments on the path to myself which was cool against the day’s heat.

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Lifestyle, Nature, Photography

October’s Blue Harvest and Hunter Moons

by natjtan1 Comment on October’s Blue Harvest and Hunter Moons

October 2020 full moons were a little extra special as one was a blue moon!

Halloween Eve almost full Hunters Moon

Blue moons are when a full moon occurs twice in one month. Maybe it was All Souls Day magic or Samhain magic in pre Christian Celtic celebrations marking the end of the harvest and start of winter that gave October 2 blue moons or the autumn fall equinox working it’s magic. Or just how the Earth’s orbit did it’s thing.     

Waning Harvest Moon
Dawn waning Harvest Moon

October’s first full moon, Harvest Moon was on the 1st. It’s 2nd, the 31st a Halloween Blue Hunters Moon which was also 2020’s smallest moon. Some name origins are the Harvest moon clears the fields for hunters to see prey in the now clearer fields under Hunters moon which can be in November. Other names for Hunters moon are Sanguine or Blood moon which can again be associated with hunting or leaves turning colour. For me it’s one of the sadder moons as the days are getting shorter and colder weather’s coming. 

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Animal Kingdom, Nature, Photography, Recycle Less

Bumble Bees

by natjtanLeave a Comment on Bumble Bees

No surprise my Easter weekend was spent taking advantage of being able to go to the zoo a few times. I could have caught the train or gone someplace else, but no where is as green tropical green, filled with wild birds that are more used to humans to pose and is free. Free for me being a member*.

One of my favourite insects were out too, bumble bees. I like bumble bees. They happily ignore everything around them apart from flowers. By design unlike honey bees, they shouldn’t be able to fly, yet they do. Happily flying flower to flower collecting nectar and pollen, pollinating plants. Growing up I used to see loads of bumbles bees, now living in a city seeing them makes me feel warm inside. Unlike honey bees, they live in a smaller colonies. Sadly like honey bees, their populations are in decline due to pesticides, habitat loss and climate change. No bees, no human food. Bees do about 80% of pollination work on cultivated crops. No human or machine can replace their work! It’s estimated without bees humans would be able to survive just 4 years. 

Reading up this could have been a queen. In the autumn fall most of the bumbles bees die leaving only the queen hibernating until the spring. 

There are ways you can help these gentle giants by planting wild flowers, native flowers or bee friendly flowers in gardens or on balconies. It might not be much, bumble bees might not even come, but other pollinators will. Choosing food if possible with less pesticides so the demand for reduced pesticide food goes up and prices to the consumer down, using less or even better no pesticides gardening. Buy organic food if you can (and help the price of organic food go down!) as they usually use less pesticides. Being mindful of what type of honey you buy. Some honey the bees aren’t kept in good conditions. Support local beekeepers, build homes for native bees, put out a bee bath, plant trees in gardens for bees to rest in! More ideas here! 

* My views on zoo’s here.

Animal Kingdom, Animals, Lifestyle, Nature, Photography

Winter City Birds

by natjtanLeave a Comment on Winter City Birds

Happy Spring! 

Jackdaws

Catalunya’s finally easing up some covid-19 restrictions! We can now travel freely throughout all of Catalunya however only visiting other regions in Spain for work or exceptional conditions. Malls have reopened, chiringuitos beach bars, life guards are back for the summer season. Fingers crossed they don’t roll them back in a few weeks. Each Spanish region has been given powers to control the pandemic bar total home confinement, with the central government setting a curfew that’s been in place since October last year. It’s due to end the end of May but with numbers rising again, it’ll probably be in place until the end of the summer. 

Starling

Birds being as free as they are, are the lucky ones. They can come and go as they please. Only worrying about food and predators. Sometimes I wonder if people are mean to birds, killing them as they can come and go as they please as humans they can’t. They’re free to fly away from danger, they’re not subject to complex human cultures. Well the lucky ones are. Many kept for food, for sport in conditions no one would want to live in, seen as nothing more than money or a commodity (says she who would like another cat and in doing so to rescue one animal, many more will have to be killed to feed it) or persecuted for only trying to feed themselves by eating crops and plants. 

Birds, fill the skies with song, colour, pollinate plants, spread seeds, are landscapers, the clean up crews, kept wetlands in check, help play vital roles in natures delicate balance as all over their habits are shrinking due to deforestation and climate change. Did you know that veeries can predict if the Atlantic hurricane season is going to be bad just from the time they leave to migrate to Brazil (something I learnt from Netflix’s Connected)? A tiny bird can sense the weather months in advance. That’s some crazy mind blowing, amazing predictions that could be lost to climate change.

Anyway, some wild zoo birds this winter back in January and February. There’s no way I’d see them in the parks. I think they know they’re safe at the zoo (well not the pigeons the seagulls hunt). 

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Lifestyle, Nature, Photography, Travel

September 2020 Corn Moon

by natjtanLeave a Comment on September 2020 Corn Moon

September’s always bitter sweet. Sweet as it’s warm, the water’s warm. Bitter as it’s the last summer month, days are getting shorter, beach trips are lucky if you can make them as carefree summer days are whispering see you later.

September’s full moon is the Corn Moon although it depends when the autumn Equinox is. If September’s full moon falls around the autumn Equinox it’s a Harvest Moon. If September’s full moon is in early September it’s the Corn Moon with October’s moon being the Harvest Moon. Last October’s was moon cycle was extra magical with 2 full moons in one month! September’s other moon names include Autumn Moon, Falling Leaves Moon, Leaves Turning Moon. 

Few days old Full Corn Moon
Moonrise moon
04.30 can’t sleep moon
Dawn Moon rise

Dawn moon rises are always magical. Only around for a short time before they vanish as the sunrises. Sometimes I get to see the moon set in the mornings if I’m up and out as it follows the night light pattern as the sun does in the day.

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