Before and after...

Whilst sorting out photo files Xanthe found this video she took not long after we had landed in Darwin, the accent is amazing.....

https://youtu.be/9rQ5_4iUvVs

Compared to what she sounds like now....

https://youtu.be/VjQzYSgC9bU

Frogmouth in the garden

Last night whilst checking the moth trap found this Papuan Frogmouth witting close by watching the visitors.....

It has been exceedingly dry and the moth trap has been quiet recently.

This was the highlight last night, a new species of Hawkmoth for me

Angonyx papuana

Pool time

Starting to get the hang of the underwater camera...not that I used it under water...

Mount Lewis

Last night took the oldie (Grandma..) and the youngster (Cameron) out lamping up to the clearing at Mount Lewis. Not really after anything particular but given the amount of rain we had it was damp so ideal conditions other than the full moon. There was much more activity than the last time I went up although a lot of it was vocal rather than visual - frogs were calling absolutely everywhere but were ridiculously hard to find, we had hoped to find Chameleon Gecko but no luck.
None the less it was a very enjoyable and productive trip with two new grasshopper spp for me.
Here are a few of the photos....
Jungguy Frog

A big tree frog spent most of its time on the forest floor.

Coggers Frog

A huge native species.

Spiny Rainforest Katydid

A species I have been looking for for a while. Very impressive with exceedingly long antennae.

White-kneed King Cricket

A common resident of the forest floor - a large cricket in the same family as the New Zealand Weta.

Boyd's Forest Dragon

Always great to see!

It has rained very heavily today and I think I might go and have a look for frogs at the local creek after the children have gone to bed

Christmas Bling and other things

Well you know it's Christmas when there is a tree outside the house waiting to come inside and get all blinged up and today was that day in the Casa de Funnell

Before

After

And our nativity scene with the added essential of the benevolent dragon...

I think the children went slightly too far with this new and disturbing addition to the decorations...pole dancing Rudolph - but hey as long as he keeps his fur on....

The big news though is that we finally have had some rain - not a huge amount but the creek on the back route into Mossman is now flowing over 1/3 of the causeway and the rain topped up the bird bath!

Graduation Part II

A selection of random photos from Hamish's Graduation taken by various other people....

Hamish receiving his Citizenship Award

Hooray for Hollywood

Last night we went to Bodies in Motions end of year concert Hooray for Hollywood. This was the second performance and both nights the 600 seat theatre has been sold out!

We were not allowed to take photos within the theatre so we will have to wait for the official piccies and the video before we can post any here...

We took a couple of group photos before we left...

and then this morning I took Cameron in his costumes...

For his ballet routine they danced to the music from Titanic

and his Jazz routine was to the music from Footloose

It was a really enjoyable and well choreographed event