Water For All

I have been heading North to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve for the past few week ends and decided to go eastward this morning instead.

I don't have a specific destination in mind of where to explore this morning so I stop at a monsoon canal that I came across. It was between some factory and fish farms! A very interesting border that keep two different industry apart. I saw a very big sign saying "Water for All, Conserve, Value, Enjoy". I can't help but take a photo of it since the carpenter bee willing to pose for me.

In fact water is one of the very important resources, it is also the responsibility of everybody to help to protect it. The easiest thing that we can do to protect this important resources is to prevent our rubbish getting to all canal, waterway, river, etc. Next to the sign in the monsoon canal, lots of fishes are dump or brought by the water from the side drain into the canal. The fishes are from the same species and the size are almost the same, this show that this fish was raised/breed and not wild. How could they end up in the canal?
They are everywhere along the canal. What have happened?As I follow the canal, the dead fishes are all the way up to the river nearby.There are lots of water birds nearby and they seem don't have interest on these free food. The little egret (Egretta garzetta) just ignore the dead fish that floating and flowing in the river. There are also few grey heron & little heron.All rather hunt for food themselves such as the little egret above. I'm puzzled of where the fish might came from? Could it came from the farms nearby? Most likely the farms are using the water from the canal and there is a change of chemical balance that kill so many fishes in a short time? How the dead fishes can get into the canal?...

Godzilla!

We were at SBWR on Saturday morning supposedly meant to be a migratory bird watching trip. However, realise that all the pond are flooded! So, we take our own sweet time to slowly walk and enjoy the tranquility ( not really though as it is quite crowded, must be due to the long week end) ...

Before we end our walk, we went to the Main Hide to do a last check. I saw something moving & struggling at a distance. Looks quite big but I'm not sure what it is until I use my camera as my scope to check what is happening.
Is a huge monitor lizard! The lizard caught a prey and is still struggling with it. But, I can't tell what is it. I'm so curious to know what it is... could it be a bird?

The lizard try to swallow it without success several time... so, the lizard throw it out and advance few steps.
Another attempt, I still can't figure out what the lizard has caught! I do know the prey is now red .... cover in blood? Mammals? Birds?Can't remember this is 9 or 10th attempts.Now the lizard is even further...
Looks like the lizard almost swallow it ... yet still fail!
Finally the mystery solved! Is a huge FISH! Look at the size of the fish! Is even bigger than the lizard's head! No wonder the lizard have to struggle to get the fish out of water...

Early Morning Trip to Sungai Buluh Wetland Reserve

I was at SBWR again yesterday (3 Oct 09) morning. In order not to be late for my next appointment at town area by 11am, I only have about 1.5 to 2 hours to spare in the morning. So I go SBWR slightly early, when I arrived at 7.15am, the gate is still close as the door only open at 7.30am from Mon-Sat. The staff must have heard that there are visitors arrive early and proceed to open the gate even before the official opening timing. So I actually only waited for less than a minute. Thank you very much! Automatically, I became the first visitor of the day.

When I arrived the main bridge, I saw a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) perch at the main bridge. I approach the Grey Heron slowly and this is the nearest I ever approach a Grey heron in the wild.I continue to walk and the Grey heron only flew off when I was about 5m away from the bird.
There are lots of Common Flameback (Dinopium javanense) at the end of the Main Bridge. I managed to take this female bird. This is the male Common Flameback differentiated by the red crown.Since is early even the water monitor lizard is also rest on the trail.

Close up of the lizard.

The blue colour tongue of the lizard. Monitor lizard use their tongue to taste the air for food.

Another 2 shots of the lizard before I leave SBWR for my next appointment.