Birding With My Friend

It was quite a while (almost three years actually), i did not really went for birding. Last weekend my friend asks me to join her doing some field work at Lawas, Sarawak. I was so excited but i am already feel exhausted because that Saturday i was working half day too. However, she success in convincing me to join her for that field work.

We stayed at Murut village, Kg. Munchu, Ulu Merapok. On Sunday, we walk through the village road until we reach the last village named Kg. Jelatung, Ulu Merapok. This village is located only five minutes walk to reach Sipitang - Tenom main road. We have a short conversation with three villagers (one man, two women) in the village. We ask them where we can find Magpie Robin and White-Rumped Shama. These two birds is the bird species that we hunt for. My friend is doing her PhD on this two birds species. So, we need to find information from the villagers (hey! they are more expert than us in term of cathing this birds you know!)...

Along the walk, we did some observation but not so many species. Maybe because most of the area is rubber and palm oil plantation own by the people of these two villages.

Here is my observation list (birds, small mammal and frog):

1. Merops viridis (Blue Throated Bee Eater)
2. Arachnothere longirostra (Little Sipder Hunter)
3. Pycnonotus goiavier (Yellow Vented Bulbul)
4. Copsychus saularis (Marpie Robin)
5. Callosciurus notatus (Plantain Squirrel)
6. Kalophrynus pleurostigma (Rufous-sided Sticky Frog)

That is all i can lists here. Till then!

World Environment Day 2011

I forgot to write about this event and it has been a while i am away from this blog. I am really sorry for that guys. Anyway, this year WED theme was "FORESTS: NATURE AT YOUR SERVICE". India is the host country for this year event. There quite an interesting programme arrange in India to celebrate this event. To know more about it, visit here: India Host Country.

Since the theme is mentionong about forests and service so the logo is really reprents it. Not agree with me? See this logo:

What did we do to celebrate this event here at my work place? There are two things that i involved in. We are working together with our employee's family at the housing area to do Green Earth Campaign, together with Agriculture Department. In-conjunction with that too, i was working with our Youth Group with our mini project Takakura Home Method Composting. We started it in March and this coming Saturday they will do a demo to our housing residence. Visit this group blog at PROJEK MINI BELIA - BAJA KOMPOS (but it is in Malay langauge).

The other one is, we will be involved as a host for ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION RACE 8 or better known as EERace 8 for teachers, end of this month. This programme is organized by Environmental Protection Department, Kota Kinabalu. This programme is a yearly programme and first initiate by Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC), Sandakan.

So, that is a brief share of activities that i will involved in conjunction with WED 2011. How about you? What did you do at your work place or home? Together make our living greener.. Till then!

#1 -- Go Green ^-^ My Green Friends

I want to GO GREEN so where do i start? Hmmm... I was thinking planting some indoor plants or flowers. I already have three small pots for creepers on my table in the office. At home, i have none because of my hairy friend, Joy keep on disturbing my plants. She always drink all the water in the glass vase and also took out the flower from the vase. She really great of doing that.

So, last Saturday, my friend and i visit one of the shop selling flowers and plants for gardening. I saw a tiny little cactus, so i was attracted to it. Hoping that i can take care of this plants well so i ask the owner of that shop to teach me on planting cactus. She did gave me some advice and it sure will help me. I need a cactus soil which i can bought from the shop itself. Need to water it once in three days. Okay, sounds not that difficult. I hope this cactus will survive well with me.

Besides those cactus, i already have two types of creeper plants that i took from one of the site visit last month. It looks like growing well in those small glass jar/bottle. I recycle it.

Have a look of my green friends in the house. (^___^)

All four on the fridge....

Creeper plants on my dining table....

Another small creepers on my working table in my room....

Till then!!! ....

#5 - Walking Through Nature/ Villages

My walk continues to another village called Meligan. This village is about two hours drive from Sipitang. It is almost in the middle of Sipitang and Long Pasia. These village populated by about 1000 people. Quite a big numbers but yes it is. This village have their own primary school, health clinic, pre-school, public hall and also SIB church. The main ethnic in this village is Murut Tagal. I impress with this village because it is very clean. As we walk through the village, there were no rubbish along the road. It was totally clean. Thumbs up to the leader of the community in this village. That is why we plan to have this village as a host for the up coming ****, okay i almost reveal it here but i need to keep it secret though. I will share after the event happen.

My friend and i continues with our interviews from door to door. As long as there is people and the house is open, we tried to have conversation with them. It is really not an easy task to be done because both of us were new to the people in this village. We just approach them and if we have luck then maybe they will agree to be interviewed. We did not get many people but enough with the data. But then, we were attracted by the movements of the blue bird flying in the air and then perch on the fruit tree nearby one of the house. The bird keep on doing it for at least twice. As we get closer to it, it was a flycatcher but not sure what is the species. As we get closer, i can get about five shots and this is two of it. 

Just stand still for about a minute while my friend and i captured his/her
photos. I am not sure if this is male or female. I don't have my birds field
guide book. Yai! I wish i have one. I only have the pocket guide book. 

When he/she notice of our movements, the he/she flew away but still
i can capture him/her. After this he/she flew away till we can not him/her
anymore. Anyway, it was great to captured his/her photos that day. 

Here is an info about this species that i get from Global Species website:

The Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassina) is an Old World flycatcher found in the Indian subcontinent, especially in the Lower Himalaya. It is named after its distinctive shade of copper-sulphate blue and has a dark patch between the eyes and above the bill base. The adult males are intense blue on all areas of the body, except for the black eye-patch and grey vent. Adult females and sub-adults are lighter blue. In Sundaland, it can be found in Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. 

So, that is about our little friend that we discover that day. Quite an interesting discoveries even though that is not the main purpose of our visit. But still, the love of the NATURE will always keep us alert and aware of anything related to our MOTHER NATURE. So, before i end this post, let's share two of my favorite view in this village. Of course the hanging bridge and the peaceful river. Till then!

Every time i visit this village, i will always wanted to let
my feet step on this hanging bridge.  

The river is so nice to see. The view is outstanding. It was so clean okay.
I hope the villagers will keep it clean since they will launch a Tagal System
for this river somewhere in June. 

#4 - Walking Through Nature/ Villages

Hey guys! Quite a while i did not share my adventure with my dear mother nature right? Actually last week i have a trip to one of the rural area called Ulu Padas area within Sipitang District. Can i consider walking in those villages also close to nature? I may say, yes because these villages is adjacent to a very amazing and beautiful forested areas. So called Mother Nature.

Location of Long Pasia. Credit to Google Maps.

The first village we visited was Long Pasia. It is situated in Sabah, Malaysia, its geographical coordinates are 4° 23' 0" North, 115° 44' 0" East. This village is beautiful. If you not agreed with me, see this photo below. 

Village view from entrance of the village. 

What do we do at this beautiful village? Actually we are doing survey on herbal usage and hunting practices. It is quite interesting findings and it will be useful for our next programme. I will not elaborate further on that. What i want to share here is some of our findings on the herbal and animals that these people hunt. 

Not all of them use herbs as their traditional cures anymore after religion and clinic is built in the village. There are only two or three elderly people still practicing it. They are not really interested and aware of this practice/ traditional knowledge will disappear when these elderly people leaving them behind. 

One of the herbs that traditionally use to cure sickness. 

When comes to the hunting activities, people in this area really need protein from wild meat such as bearded pig, Sambar dear and barking deer. There is also human-animal conflict occurs such as this little fella. 

Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)

This fella was killed because he disturbed villages chicken coop. He killed the chicks but then not eating them. This makes the owner of the chickens mad and killed him. Pity little fella. Actually i am not sure if it is the true story because, adjacent to this village is a vast, huge forested areas. Is there human activities that makes this fella enter their village? That is still a questions in my mind. Not only this wild cat but another things that happen in this village is they love to have young animals as their pets. Such as this bearded pig.

Sub-adult bearded pig (Sus barbatus)

So, that is my sharing or my walking to this village last week. Quite an interesting experienced and information right? I was happy because i have this chances but then, i am a little bit sad because these people not practicing sustainable hunting. There are excessive hunting activities in this village. I do hope our awareness programme will help them to start sustainable hunting practice. Till then guys!

Earth Day 2011

Do you ever heard of Earth Day? Earth Hour was celebrated on 26th March and i did wrote a post about it even do some campaign about it too. So, for today i want to do some campaign about the Earth Day 2011. It will be fall on 22 April 2011. But, on the same day will be a Good Friday for Christian all over the world too.

Earth Day Movement History as adapted from Earth Day Network:

The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land.

As a result, on the 22nd of April, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. "It was a gamble," Gaylord recalled, "but it worked."

So, it is always, when something happen, then action will take place to make things better. Better world to live in. If you want to read more about the history of this movements or any other info about Earth Day, just visit the website Earth Day Network. Who knows you will be able to do something when you visit this site.

Oh ya... coincidently i found GLEE also promoting Earth Day 2011 for FOX. They shares their thought on Earth Day too.

So  how about us? What can we do to support this movement. To stop climate change and global warming.

It is all up to our actions. Till then!