PUEO-Hawaiian Owl On Maui

Oh my...it was a marathon day which started with my sweet husband waking me up at 2am, making sure I wasn't oversleeping for our trip up to the Haleakala crater for sunrise! OMG, did I forget to share with him that I'd decided instead to do a sunset and Milky Way trip instead? Oops! Suffice to say it was difficult to get back to sleep!

We had some morning pool time and lunch at the Monkey Pod, and then headed for Haleakala! It is a 2 hour beautiful drive up to the 10,000+ foot elevation and usually it is COLD and the winds can be ferocious! But we were lucky to have been 58F with very light winds!

On the way up we saw the Hawaiian Owls. One flew so close I had to zoom OUT..he was looking right at us!! My photos were sorely either out of focus or over/under exposed. I did the best I could to resurrect them as I really wanted you all to see this beautiful bird!

We spotted 5 of them on our way up to the summit.

We also stopped to check out all of the various visitor's centers and parking lots, scoping out the best spot for our sunset and later Milky Way photos!

Finally 5:45 came and we saw the sun sink down through a layer of low level clouds below us, and then the strangest thing happened. Most everyone walked back to their car fIguring the show was over, but not the photographers! We all knew there was more..then suddenly it became brighter, and the sky turned even more red. It was really beautiful to behold.

Then came the wait....that time between light pollution and darkness. My husband, who is not the most patient man, kept wanting to know WHEN I was going to start taking photos...and I was trying to gauge my chances of holding out longer...a very fine line! I finally went outside, and started taking shots...a long process of figuring out the placement, the focus (manually focused lens done before it gets dark), figuring out the optimum ISO and time (20-25 seconds) and then propping the camera on a towel in the pitch black, while the temperature has dropped and the wind has picked up...and oh, did I mention a not so patient husband?? I would seriously have stayed another hour...I was cold, but I was loving every minute of what is seen at 10,000 feet above sea level on a dark night with no moon. I had been planning on this for a long time.

And now I am sure you are wondering why I didn't post a Milky Way shot...first and foremost to really bring out the colors you need lots of processing...which I will do once back at home. And second, I really wanted you to see the Hawaiian Owl which is endemic to the islands and now endangered on some of the islands! To read more information about them visit this site.

To see all the photos from today, visit my Flickr page.