Eyes on the . . . Crows

My sister called me and said she spotted some olive and red colored honey eaters. She tried to photographed them but the zoom didn't help.

I thought to myself, what a wonderful world! (She lives in Bali)

Here in Jakarta, all I see are sparrows. They perch and feed in front of my room mostly in the morning. in the evening, i often hear a laughterlike sound of nocturnal birds but their shape remains unknown to me.

last week i spotted a tiny red honey eater in the dump site about 200 m from my room. it was beautiful and dainty. the last time i saw this kind of bird was about 7 years ago in front of my room in Depok. Honey eaters are very small, hummingbirdlike, and have bright colored feathers and they move energetically. so beautiful.

and then i remember when i went to Malacca, i saw numerous crows and starlings (jalak). I wondered how this could happen. they roamed freely! (This is almost impossible in Indonesia. Go to bird markets and you will find even sparrows are sold! my!) I asked some locals and they said, they had no intentions or thoughts to kill the birds for food or pets. They added, the colonial govt urged them to sustainably live side by side with nature. I've never heard of that, but i think that's a good idea.

We should have this kind of policy in Indonesia. I want to see birds more often.

Got Milk?

in the wild, parrots are known to munch clay and mineral rocks as parts of their diet. here at the Taman Safari Bogor, they sip minerals from milk.

Drinking milk makes sociable scene apparently.

Sem

Dolphins Lullaby

This whole world may never change
The way it's always been
I know all the ways of war
Cannot change it back again

I've been searching...for the dolphins in the sea
Sometimes I wonder do you ever think of me...

I'm not the one to tell this world
How to get along
I only know that peace will come
When all the hurt is gone

I've been searching...for the dolphins in the sea
Sometimes I wonder do you ever think of me...

Sometimes I think about
Saturday's child
And all about the time
You and me were..black and white

I've been searching...for the dolphins in the sea
Sometimes I wonder do you ever think of me...


this is my current fave song, by Beth Orton and Terry Callier
it's folksy and sedative, a song to lull me to sleep

my experiences with dolphins have been pleasant.
when i was small, my parents brought us to Jakarta and their friends took us to Ancol
it's one of my cheered memories

i was kissed my a sea lion. this was how: Pi held me and the beast's bristles. The wet snout then kissed my right cheek. (i no longer regret the lost photo because Engkong loved it too)
and i watched hippos and all amusing animals, the clever dugongs, ferrets and parrots. that was years ago :)

you know, i still feel the urge to approach the pool to be kissed by the dolphins. when i was small (again), i want to be kissed by the dolphins but i retreated, got no guts because i was worried my clothes would get wet or i would stumble into the deep pool. i was afraid that my cheek would bleed because the dolphins looked like made of steel. silly thoughts.

so when i got aboard on Kambuna to Medan, i set aside time to dolphin watch for four days. i kept a small diary on what i saw: mostly jellyfish and flying fish and an unidentified floating object that resembled small shark (?). no dolphins at all. but the lines of Summer of Jubilee ("Atta boy!") were still on my head.

so i haven't seen any dolphins in the open sea.

for a long while i din see any until i went to Taman Safari Bogor. A dolphin on the mountain! really and its residence has the shape of Noah's Ark! my, that's interesting. he was about 3 m long and swam alone.

i was so excited that i put my hand into the pool to attract his attention. but he ignored me and swam around in the same manner over and over.

i was worried he was sick or depressed.

the man said that the dolphin had just arrived. "he won't be lonely," added he. " another is on the way"

i hoped so.

Sem

Spiny Delicacy

i went for an afternoon walk at sandy beach of Nusa Dua. the air was dry and it smelt like salt. i saw many a little pool in where fishes, kelps, and small crabs trapped. and i saw old ladies gathering something. I approached one of them.

next to her on the yellow sand were ball-like sea creatures cut to half. i asked her, what it was. she said a strange name i couldn't remember. she would take one, cut it into half with blunt knife, and take whitish "meat" into plastic bottle.

she threw the halved balls into a shallow pool. the halves would wriggle and move their spines for some minutes. i thought they could regenerate or grow its lost "limb". but that never happened.

what for?

dinner, she said.

(my!)

she said, she needed about 100 spiny balls (the creatures belong to Echinodermata, the same family in which bulu babi is) to fill half of 600 ml plastic bottle.

that's a lot, i said. how does it taste?

like fish. only with stronger smell.

how do you prepare it?

it tastes best when mixed with grated coconut and chilli, she said.

(curious, eh?)

Sem

The Tree I Respect

two month old seedlings awaiting to be transfered to saline environment

Mangroves (bakau) were trees I hated. They're ugly and leggy with spidery roots and dense foliage.

My encounters with them had been unpleasant, especially at Pulau Untung Jawa, where I "met" snakes, frogs and other slimy creatures, not to mention mosquitoes. If I were equipped with insect repellent or antisnake suit (if there were any), i would have had big time experience enjoying the environment because I also saw many interesting carps (mujahir, i'll talk about later), candy colored crabs, fiddle crabs, monitors, big spiders, cats (abandoned ones), hermit crabs. if only the snake did not cross my path, i would have continued my exploration at mangrove forest on the left wing of the island.

young mangroves prefer calm waters like that of Pulau Pramuka

Despite the facts, my fascination with them continues. I admire the mangroves at swamps near Soekarno Hatta Airport. They're tall, wide, and almost solitary (most mangroves live in colonies). I read that people chopped them down to make fish ponds or tambak. Sad, eh. Those tambaks are mostly illegal.

Mangroves at Pulau Rambut were also interesting because seabirds perch and nest there. but to my surprise, the conservation island only host few mangroves and the coastal area has been heavily transgressed by the seawater. the govt apparently is trying to recover it by planting mangrove seedlings on cement pots.

I guess, many people still don't know the benefit and what we owe this salt tolerant trees. They're home for hundreds kinds of birds and reptiles (bird watching around mangrove shrubs is interesting), and nesting ground of various fish and crustaceans. they play big role in stabilizing shorelines and most importantly, they break wave and storm. Since it took years for them to mature, chopping them down is a big crime.

once 2 ha Pulau Semak Daun is now shrinking, due to heavy abrasion now the govt is trying
to rescue the island by planting mangrove seedlings around the uninhabited island

I hope the govt make serious and real action to protect this valuable trees and coastal areas in this archipelago.

By the way, real mangroves come from genus Rhizophora and Avicennia. Several coastal plants in Indonesia are also called by the name especially with genus Sonneratia, except that they are of myrtle family.

Sem
(photos: Sem)

March of the Turtles

Bidding farewell to Nelly

This is rainy season and I miss Pulau Pramuka (PP). the last time i went there was sunny and warm. My friends and I had a vey good time there: swimming, boating, eating, basking, singing.

Like many other islands in the Thousand Islands (Kepulauan Seribu), PP's beach have been heavily transgressed by the sea water, leaving only about 500 m long unwalled, white sand beach on its 'back' side of the island. I think the island is about half the size of Ragunan Zoo.

And the most exciting part is the turtle farewell party. the island houses the best turtle sanctuary in Jakarta. Pak Saleh, the keeper, has been collecting turtle eggs around the islands for more than 2 decades. For his initiative and vision, he has been given various awards.

he led me to its garden that also serves as mangrove nursery. The sprouts are kept until they're 3 months old before transfered to the beach. Nearby, i saw a caged heaps of sand, the site of eggs hatching. Each mound was labeled and dated. Then i entered a building with many a blue container in which the turtles live.

my! i saw many hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) there. So amazing! they're cute! These reptiles swam here and there and they looked like angels when seen from above (their front feet would rest on the scaly back that they resembled shoulders). you should see it yourself. really.

When my friends later joined, Pak Slamet said we could release the three month old tukik (hatchlings) to the sea. he arranged them on the beach seawise. in seconds, they turned the direction instinctively and marched into the sea, to the calling of Mother Nature. so beautiful and moving.

i wanna go back there, soon as the rainy season ends.

Sem

Nessie! (Water Horse)

Angus and Crusoe

Okay, the existence of this dinosaurlike animal is still widely debated and to avoid sparking a new debate, I add a new label "Uncategorized". but you must watch this movie, The Water Horse. It is spectacular, a real eye candy. A visual feast. the computer does big magic and the music is as grand as the scenery.

I have long been fascinated by the Loch Ness monster which the movie is all about. I read about this animal in World Book Encyclopedia back in my school days and had just known that the BW photo was actually a hoax--successful for decades. But that didn't extinguish my curiosity, say (well I still hope to hear better explanation of dinosaur extinction other than Darwinian explanations or big bang theory).

Back to the movie. in the beginning, little shy Angus is doing shell collecting at the rocky beach of Loch Ness. Sea shells picking. (I read that once the lake was connected to the sea, from where the shells were) he picks a big round rugby ball sized object and brings it home.

Angus does some scratching on the heavily barnacled egg and sees a slimy covering inside. then it hatches itself . . .

Crusoe, the reptile that grows enormously fast overnight, befriends the lonely boy who was patiently counting the days for his pa's returning from WW II. At the same time, The Brit troops occupy his farm land to build a trap for German submarines.

When Crusoe outgrows the bath tub, Angus, his sister and the handyman decide to move Crusoe into the lake. And the reptile roams freely for the first time.

but then, Crusoe feels lonely too...

I wish to continue this story, but I'm afraid you might lose the excitement of watching it. I recommend you to watch it with friends and family. Believe me, this is very heartwarming.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep opens nationwide mid February 2008.

Sem