2026 Maui Visit (and a brief postscript)

On one of the first mornings of my daily walk to Island Vibes Cafe for our breakfast espressos, I came across this Cattle Egret just wandering near the steps down to the shop. I had my phone with me and grabbed this shot before he decided to head somewhere else. (69mm, 1/452 sec, f/2.4, ISO 25)

I have been somewhat delayed in posting newer photos before, but I think I’ve set a new record for myself, as this Maui visit actually occurred, as it usually does, in the middle of May and I’m just now (in early September) getting around to processing the images and getting this post written. I’ve no idea what’s kept me so busy all this time (I am actively retired) but I’m sure it must have been 😁very important😁.

The first day of any of our vacations that involves significant travel is mostly about getting to where we are going, then getting settled in, and finally resting and recovering so we can get up the following day and really start to enjoy where we are. I had made sure to make a dinner reservation well in advance of our arrival, at the Sea House Restaurant (the restaurant on the property) that is always full near sundown, of both resort guests and others from around the island.

As we settled in at our table and ordered something to drink before figuring out what we were going to have for dinner, I was just looking around and realized how fortunate (and thankful) I felt to be at this marvelous place. And that’s when I noticed that I had a potential photo composition right in front of me (and my camera / phone in my pocket) that would probably help me express how I was feeling.

I should note that the weather in this slice of Maui at this time of year is normally quite nice; quite sunny with occasional rain and not as hot as it can get later in the summer. We noticed, however, that this year there seemed to be more (brief) rainy periods than is usual, particularly in the morning. We’ve never been very concerned about the rain here, since it is usually light and not even very cold. But I’m more reluctant to be shooting photos in the rain, since I must carry more protective gear to prevent water-versus-camera issues, but the very nature of this year’s weather meant I’d have to be carrying and wearing more stuff that is comfortable.

So, I watched the weather pretty carefully, looking for periods of early morning when the conditions might be more what I prefer. After several days of on and off rain, the weather forecast looked perfect, so I grabbed my gear and headed out the door. I didn’t get more than about 10 feet from our building when it suddenly started to lightly rain. I grabbed this Phalaenopsis orchid image and then headed back indoors before I had a wet camera and lens to deal with.

The unexpected upside to the rain on that same day was that anyone using the 18 hole putting green tended to leave it which encouraged many birds to come in as soon as the shower was over, looking for things to eat. The lanai that is a part of the room we were using, overlooks that putting green (as well as the ocean), so I attached my longest lens and stood on the lanai taking many pictures of them searching for food. The most common birds on the green that day were the Common Myna and the House Sparrow shown below.

We were having a very good and relaxing time and I’d pretty much given up on finding a rain-free morning. So, after a few days, I decided I’d take a drive and just look around for something interesting. I did a little research first and checked a map to at least give me a direction and noticed a lighthouse marked several miles away to the north and east of our location at Napili Bay. The lighthouse was near the Nakalele Blowhole, which I’d visited and photographed a couple of times in the past, but I’d somehow never noticed the nearby Nakalele Point Lighthouse before.

I also noticed the Acid War Zone Trail on the map above which seemed to be the way to visit the lighthouse. I never found much to explain the name of the trail although I did find a bit of history about the lighthouse. I also noticed that the two-lane highway to get there from Napili Bay, changes its name and number along the way at the point in the road that basically does a severe 180 turn (looks like a downward pointing finger), shown in the map below.

I took some photos while I was walking parts of that trail but was not very satisfied with any of them. Here’s four of them below. I began to understand that the Acid War Zone Trail name might be because the people who named it felt that the volcanic rock nature of much of it had an apocalyptic look (it did not give me that sense).

I was not surprised that I hadn’t noticed the lighthouse on previous visits to the area because I WAS surprised at what it turned out to be. The Nakalele Point Lighthouse was certainly no longer a lightHOUSE but simply an automated navigation light on a pole (also in need of some maintenance). Here’s a brief reference to the Nakalele Point area including a few words about both the lighthouse and the blowhole.

Later that same day, we walked down to the beach at Napili Bay just after dinner to view and catch an image of a lovely sunset behind the silhouette of the Island of Molokai before heading back to our room to start packing up for our return home.

And a brief (barely related) postscript

We have a swimming pool in our backyard, which was used quite a bit when we still had children living at home. Now its just another thing to maintain except that every year in the spring, we are visited by ducks. Their visits do add to the maintenance because of the tiny gifts they leave behind but we do enjoy watching them.

We’ve noticed that we get what seems to be a recurring pair of mated Mallards showing up each year, as well. We think they normally hang out at the Palo Alto Duck Pond maintained by the city and located near the Palo Alto Municipal Airport and a large wetlands section of San Francisco Bay.

This year we got something else, as well, and that was an introduction to some of the more violent aspects of nature. In one episode we witnessed the addition of a second male Mallard. His intention was pretty clear; he wanted to try to mate with the female of the mated pair. It also seemed clear to us that (a) she didn’t want any part of it and (b) the mated male definitely wasn’t having it. When the third wheel tried to take on the female, she kept moving out of the way and the mated male just came at him with his wings, beak, and feet. It didn’t take too long before the usurper took to wing, stopping briefly on the roof next door, and then continuing to fly off in the direction of the bay.

Here’s a photo of the male Mallard taken just a few days before we left for Maui (a bit tired from defending his mate) and an image of the female of the pair (taken the year before).

The only reason to even mention all this is that when we returned from our trip, we found that the male was living in our backyard. He had obviously been in a few more battles (presumably protecting his mate’s honor) and had been pretty severely injured. He never let us get close enough to examine him closely, but it appeared that he limped when he walked (his left leg was injured in some way) and his left wing was also injured. He stayed mostly in the pool during the day but then managed to hide among the backyard plants in the evening or when other humans (e.g., the pool guy) were in the yard. It was also obvious that he had even more difficulty getting out of the pool (he normally would use his wings as an aid to jump from the water to the pool edge).

We don’t know how long he had been so injured and we were unable (and unskilled) to really minister to him but we decided that the one thing we could do was try to keep his strength up by feeding him and hope that he would eventually get better on his own. Billie did some research on what sorts of things were healthy for ducks to eat; we quickly learned that the plain bread that kids throw to ducks in the ponds (and that they gobble down quickly) was not so great for them.

We saw that his mate occasionally visited him as did several other males from time to time. Billie began to feed him multiple times a day and figured out that initially she could put the food in a location close to the edge of the pool that he could reach from that ‘bridge’ of tile (that the female is standing on in the photo above) that gave him a place that he could more easily get to from the water and then stretch his neck to reach the food.

This went on for many days, becoming a couple of weeks and a bit more until one day, when Billie went out to feed him, he suddenly flew up out of the water and landed on the fence where he stopped for a few moments looking back into the yard — and then flew off toward the bay (at that moment I only had my phone in hand to capture his image on the fence).

---

Thank you for taking a look at this post. I hope you enjoyed it, the images, and my occasional attempts at humor. Once again, my apologies for being so late in getting it done (and a couple more, not yet written). If you would like to see these images somewhat larger and with greater photographic detail and color fidelity, just click on this link to my photo website and the What’s New section or use this Flickr link to my 2026 Album. There you will find all of the above images as well as the ability to just click to see them larger. If you feel so inclined, you can comment to me in the Reply section below or leave a comment on any photo while viewing them in my photo website or Flickr site.