Rainbow Bee-eater male (Merops ornatus) busy helping missus dig a nesting hole on the ground before flying back to his perch. Sometime mid-October, we received a series of urgent text messages from our Wednesday gardener/landscaper Kelvin: "the rainbow bee-eaters are digging a nesting hole in the sand 5 meters away from your parked [...]
03 April 09 (22:09) At the eve of our departure, the neighbor's music blares and we think to ourselves, good riddance. This is the last night we will sleep in this house and we're so happy. Can't wait to get out of here and we are off tomorrow! This expedition could not have come at [...]
25 March 09 (02:21 am) Ugly job of packing a whole house into storage The house is empty. Well, almost. The removalists efficiently packed our furniture into their truck, and in two hours flat, had everything in storage. It pays to hire the experts and not have to do the heavy lifting ourselves, [...]
3 March 09 (00:15 am) This is the second night in a row I could not fall asleep. The clock is ticking and the days are rushing and before I know it, it’s time to leave. We are preparing to pack our entire household and put everything in storage for a year. Our WWF Coral [...]
Chambered nautilus (Nautilus pompilius) Now how did these beautiful deep-sea living fossils become so vulnerable? Our untiring quest to get them protected is unwavering. We must learn more about them before we can fight for their preservation. Guests help out Undersea Explorer marine biologist Qamar to engrave, photograph and measure caught nautilus for research [...]
Minke whale passing Lighthouse Bommie Mike Ball Dive Expedition in Pixie's Pinnacle - split level Mike Ball's luxurious liveaboard Spoil Sport brought us to the Great Barrier Reef's famous Ribbon Reefs to interact with the playful minke whales. Moored in Lighthouse Bommie, minkes passed under us criss-crossing the [...]
Lars and Carolin jetlagged and walking 2km Nandroya Falls Lars and Carolin walking Mossman Gorge's hanging bridge Somehow friends and family often make it to visit us during Aussie winters. This year was no different with Lars & Carolin Abromeit visiting first. Jet-lagged and straight off the plane, [...]
Undersea Explorer crew collect tissue samples of a grey reef shark (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) at Osprey Reef North Horn on the UE back deck. Karl measuring a nautilus as part of the marine research done onboard the Undersea Explorer And yet another exciting trip on the Undersea Explorer for more science [...]
Yogi's Daintree EcoLodge slideshow flyer We were invited to give a public slideshow in a wonderful place called the Daintree EcoLodge & Spa. With our brochure nicely done and announcements in the Port Douglas Gazette, the turnout was pretty good and it was an altogether fantastic 2 hour affair at the heart of Far [...]
One of the best-known bioluminescent fungi in Australia possibly Pleurotus nidiformis. This large, irregular-shaped fungus with a small stem often grows in dense clusters at the base of living or dead eucalypts. Bioluminescent mushroom light is created by a chemical reaction with a substance called luciferin which reacts with an enzyme, luciferase, causing the [...]
