Hello again! Introducing Biogeoplanet.com

Hello ... it has been a long time!  Don't these Hatchetfish have exactly the right expression during this Covid pandemic!!?  Haha!  Hope you are keeping safe!

As you would expect, we have not taken any cruises in 2020! Seems like a safer option during these Covid times. I do have several upcoming cruises scheduled for 2021-22 - you can see them listed here.  My wife and I have been busy preparing articles for our new website biogeoplanet.com

You might be interested in some of these articles -- I've learned a lot in researching them, even after 13 years of providing science lectures to thousands of people.

OK - did you know that octopuses can get an erection?  In fact they are the only non-mammalian species able to do so (that we know about).  Pays to have erectile tissue in the hectocotylus!  The same article describes how the Argonaut octopus has a detachable penis!!  

I believe you might find that my article on Irukandji jellyfish is one of the best sources of  up-to-date information available on this tiny yet life-threatening species.  I also delve into the fascinating subject of what it takes to succeed without a brain. 

Read about Leaf-cutter ants, some of our favorite insects.  They are so cheery and colorful as they go about their work with their parasol leaves held up high.  I was fascinated to learn that their jaws can vibrate up 1,000 times a second as they cut through leaves.  It is not a fair society!  The workers that toil away in the dump are ostracized and attacked if they try to come too close to the nest.

Check out my 360 degree video on taking the cable car to the top of Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town, South Africa.  This is one of the most scenic spots we've ever explored in all our years of travelling the world.

I have tons more fascinating articles up on Biogeoplanet.com - please take a minute to check them out.

Wishing you all the best,

George 

PS: My article on the most dangerous bird in the world is a hoot!!  Or squawk?

OK, I can't forget my encounter with a bullet ant - world's most painful stinging insect!

  

Brown Bears Fishing for Salmon - Katmai NP

Brown Bears hunting for Sockeye Salmon, Brooks Falls

I'm busy researching material for my upcoming lecture series on board the Westerdam - Vancouver to Yokoham, beginning September 30th.  One of my favourite websites is Explore.org, particularly when I'm preparing for Alaska.

Explore.org features live wildlife cameras all around the world.  One of the locations with excellent coverage is Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska.  This time of year (July/August/September) you can watch live footage of the Brown bears capturing and feeding on sockeye salmon.  There are some amazing scenes of giant bears standing at the top of the falls grabbing salmon as they come sailing through the air, scaling the falls on their way up river to the spawning grounds.  The photo above is my screen capture of a live video and it provides some idea of the number of bears that can be found feeding at this highly productive location.

Click on this link to see the Brown Bears hunting salmon.  I find it amazing and wonderful that we can be sitting in our living rooms at home while watching the bears in action - just as if we were standing on the Brooks Falls bear viewing platform!

Explore.org also features amazing videos of African wildlife and I will be monitoring those cameras as we come closer to one of our upcoming cruise adventures next April/May.  I will be presenting a series of lectures on board the Viking Sun as one of the featured guest speakers for the Viking 2018 World Cruise.  My segment will take me from Durban, South Africa to London, England.

Happy wildlife viewing!!

Screenshot from African Animal camera by Explore.org

Seabourn Odyssey Caribbean Treasures

Thank you to the many guests who attended my lectures and also viewed them on the entertainment channel.   It was wonderful to meet you; Jan and I had a truly enjoyable adventure cruising with you through the Caribbean islands!  Please do keep in touch - you can sign up for my posts in the sidebar.

Here are a couple of 360' panoramas taken while we were in port in Basse-Terre, Guadalupe.  I love these 360's!! You can use your mouse to move the image all around as if you were standing there!  Please feel free to share them with friends and family.  You can direct people to this post on my blog or you can share them via Google Maps.  I will post some more in the next day or so.

All the best and happy travels!  Cheers, George

Wings in Slow Motion

Broad billed Hummingbird, Madera Canyon, Arizona

I'm fascinated with birds in flight and have been fortunate to capture a few photos worth sharing.  Lately, I've been messing around with high speed videos at 120 and 240 frames per second (fps).  The result is slow motion; often revealing some of the added beauty of flight that we don't normally appreciate as birds whizz by!!

Here's a short compilation of some of my latest video clips from the past few months, including birds from Costa Rica and Mexico, as well as here at home in Victoria, BC.

By the way, if you find yourself in North America in February, Madera Canyon, just outside of Tuscon Arizona, is a fantastic place for escaping the Canadian winter and enjoying early spring birds.  See the Friends of Madera Canyon for more info.

Photospheres Across the Pacific

Photosphere showing Statendam in Hilo, Hawaii - view in
Google Maps at https://goo.gl/maps/VHbZGSRETNA2

Photospheres are a new and exciting way of capturing some of your most scenic locations on a voyage.  I've posted a few of my latest photospheres from the final voyage of the Statendam on Google Maps.  The photo above looks strange until you go to the google maps version and open it as a photosphere.  It feels like you're standing inside a bubble.  This one shows the Statendam docked in Hilo on its final voyage across the Pacific.  We joined the ship in Hilo and I presented a series of lectures across to Singapore.

The easiest way to create a photosphere is with an Android cell phone after downloading the Google camera app.  You can also use a regular camera but it takes more work stitching all the photos together into a panorama and processing the results through another app.  There's an excellent tutorial online at geojournalism.org

Taken at the entrance to Lihue harbour in Kaui, Hawaii -
see https://goo.gl/maps/LbGzYr5a28R2

This was taken at Managaha beach, Islet Managaha, Saipan... it may
not be accepted to Google Maps because of the missing piece of sky

Once you've taken a photosphere, you can upload it to Google Maps and it will be available for everyone to see.  One of the neatest things is that you can see how many views your photosphere receives - or any photo uploaded to G Maps for that matter.  One of my photospheres has had over 6,000 views in a matter of three months.

Directions for uploading photospheres are available on the Street view site.  One thing I've noticed with Google -- often unfortunately! -- is that they change things frequently... by the time you read this they may have a whole new approach to all of this... at which point you might have to search for the most recent information.

You can see fantastic photospheres that people have taken all across the planet by visiting the Street view site.