Under a very green sea

Pulau Jarak (N3°59', E100°06') lies 38 nautical miles from the coast of Lumut, Perak. Topside is pretty much as it looks; uninhabited (by humans that is) with the radio communications tower as the only man-made structure there.

However, a different world awaits those who venture beneath the surface of the surrounding sea.




A Honeycomb Moray Eel aka Tesselate Moray (Gymnothorax favagineus). A handsome fella and used to be abundant around the island of Jarak, now off limits for divers due to reasons we can only speculate.




Another moray eel but of the specie Strophidon sathete. Commonly known as Slender Giant Moray. This is still a juvenile but already photogenic.




A triggerfish but one that is quite harmless unlike that of the very aggressive and infamous Titan Triggerfish. This is (I think) a Halfmoon Triggerfish. Tried googling and got all sorts of 'halfmoon triggerfish'. Most were more like half-baked *snigger*.




This is the very pretty Dendronepthya soft coral. Some divesites have a whole wall covered with it. One of the wonders of the underwater realm that no image can fully capture.

Flower of the Cannonball Tree

Cannon-ball Tree (Couroupita guianensis) as it is commonly know due the woody fruits it bears that look like cannonballs. It is an evergreen tree allied to the Brazil Nut (Bertholletia excelsa). The Indians call it the Nagalingam Tree. It grows to 30-35m tall, with leaves in whorls on the ends of the shoots. The flowers, which are borne only on special stems on the main trunk, are orange, scarlet or pink forming racemes up to 3m long. They mature into large spherical woody fruit 15-24 cm diameter, containing numerous (200-300) seeds. The pulp of the fruits oxidizes bluish, and has an unpleasant smell.

The flower is what attacts one's attention. The flowers are heavily scented and appear in a riot of colour — red, yellow, pink, cream, and white. The six, thick petals are concave and within them lies a circle of barren stamens without pollen and fertile stamens with pollen. This odd arrangement ensures self-pollination if insect pollination fails.

Raptor Watch 2007

After missing out on the past few years, finally managed to witness this spectacular raptor migration. I don't have good lenses (yet) to capture the finer details of the raptors but I hope you enjoy this sequence of these majestic birds of prey riding on air currents to gain height.










They came in small and great numbers. I have yet to witness the sky just filled with these beautiful creatures but for now, this will suffice.



Good closer-up shots of the raptors are found here:

Milo's and Moggie's

Good Widow (Janda Baik) - Flora

My favourite shot from this whole series... a water lily.




Tiny orchid




Ginger plant flower?




Ladies Shoe Orchid

Good Widow (Janda Baik) - Buggies

The eyes are what we want to see... close but not quite the quality desired.




They do seem like they are waiting for a rider... Eragon perhaps?




Moth... unable to provide any other info about it... sorry.

Black-shouldered Kite

This fellas were the most common seen today at Carey Island.



Have to be pretty nimble to land one something vertical.



Gee... doesn't this remind you of the stance from The Karate Kid?



I like this pose :)



Such cute features..

Xin Nien Kuai Le

Happy Chinese New Year to all near and far!
Wishing all Prosperity and Good Luck ("Fook").

Mummy Bird & Eggs

I am back at my mum's place and look what has taken up residence amongst her orchids:




And in that nest were these two precious eggs.



Good luck and fare thee well mummy & daddy bird.

Wishing Countrygirl Speedy Recovery

Hi Countrygirl! Sorry to hear that you are not feeling well. Here's something that I hope will cheer you up - and sending you lots of Get-Well-Hugs.

Big is Good

This is a Porcupine Puffer. Harmless and usually goes about its merry own way. They don't like interaction especially with divers cuz when they do...




... they usually end up like this:

Bring up the fire!!

The hotter the fire, the better the food will taste. Of course it depends on what you are cooking. In this case, Hokkien Fried Noodles are best if you have fires that will make a rocket booster proud!




Gas stoves fires just will not do. The best use charcoal with a touch of modernization i.e. a electric blower to stoke the fires. While your food is being cooked, you will be treated to this fantastic 'fireworks' display.

Sendat Part 2 - Bug Life

Tiny spider having a web makeover.



Damselfly giving the bug-eye?.



What striking colors.



Beautiful tailed butterfly. Will revert with its name after I have managed to ID it.

Sendat Part 1 - H2O Flow

The beautiful Sendat Waterfalls.
More pictures at Dreamer's Cove.













The turmoil in a freezed frame.

Just a fun shot post

"Have faith and you can walk on water"

Blast from the past - Compulsory Studio Pic

Left this out the last round so here's my studio pic.

Blast from the past

Here's something different. Instead of posting pictures I have taken, this is one taken of yours truly.





Well, since it is suppose to be my cake .. hehe




Trying to pick up girls with my dad's car.

Mogwai

Amidst the lush green trees and chirping birds, Mogwai's final resting place.
N3 07 23.1 E101 41 26.7

Link to Moggie has walked on ahead

Happy Birthday Countrygirl!

Wishing Sandra (Countrygirl) a very Happy Birthday!

Lunar Beauty

Note: Thanks for the 'Taggings'. The list will be coming up next. In the meantime, I would like to share some pictures taken yesterday while running around helping out in a Treasure Hunt Event.

The moon was still high in the sky yesterday Sunday morning. Took my tele-zoom to the max (300mm) and with slight touch-up and cropping, below is the result.

Believed to have decended from dinosours.. Raptors

A situation of being in the right place, right time. These were spotted in the suburb residential area we stopped by for breakfast on a Sunday morning. Pictures were not very clear due to the long distance between the lens and subject and high cropping done to bring you the closeups.

Spotted one, then two and there were three!

12/Dec'06 - Positive identification! These are Crested Goshawks of the Accipiter (Ak-sip-i-ter) family. Scientific name Accipiter Trivirgatus. Normally a forest bird, but has been seen to be doing fairly well in the urban areas where numerous sightings have been made. All they need is a bit of wooded area and have adapted to feed on the rodents and other birds of the urban area.
Sincere thanks to Seng and Carol of Nature Owlet, The MNS Shop for providing the identification & information.