What a Wonderful Day

When I saw a pair of swallows upon arriving at the dam, I went up as quick as possible, and sneaked up on them inch by inch.

But my eyes told me the wrong picture. They were not oblivious of my presence, but tried to seduce me to get closer, and closer, and closer, and then flew away when I thought I could have some decent up close shots.

My experience rescued me from being totally wrong. I managed to capture its evil move.

Was I right again? No.

The swallows must have done magic in front of my foolish pair of eyes. I saw two swallows perching at the rail after one of the two swallows flying away when I went closer again.

Can you please help me to count? Do you see two?

I was teased by a Kingfisher at this same place. And not again. The little swallow showed it was much more superior than me, though it never laughed like the Kingfisher.

"Hurray!! I have a man being fooled! What a wonderful day!"

New discovery of an old object

This is the murmuring of a little old man, and it is a little complicated. He is hoping you can bear with him.

"I cannot conclude that it was not there just because it was not seen before. It is seen now never means it existed just a while ago. A long existed object is always new and is a surprise if I have never discovered earlier, though it may have already been too ordinary to others. This is the reason why some of us are too weird in their eyes occasionally. We can therefore manage to enjoy and feel happy with what we consider wonder of the day, and we continue to have wonder day after day."

Is it too complicated?

"I have the feeling that this tree was a dog in its previous life; or a dog had reincarnated in the body of a tree. "

You can understand him more if look at the tree in another angle.

"Have you ever noticed the burst out of a chrysalis? Do you think there is a similarity between both of them?"

"I wonder how Indiana Jones will response if he happens to encounter this, and this must form an interesting and mysterious part of his diary, and people will come back, with the map that they have found in the diary........"

One dragonfly. Two dragonflies

I had been aiming at the dragonfly for an hour for some flying actions. My clicking speed just failed at the moment it appeared in the viewfinder suddenly. In addition, it would not get near due to my stinky body smell.

This was the best from the one-hour exercise. A dragonfly which looked like a mosquito, and its shadow.

I decided to stop since it never stopped for me. I re-studied its flying patterns hoping for a better vantage point and,

I got this. It was then another half an hour passed. As long as time was not a concern, I always enjoyed the game. So I continued.

Wow!! I finally got some decent few, not because I had improved my skill or speed. Another dragonfly had joined in the action, and both of them slowed down.

One lonely dragonfly kept flying back and forth. Two dragonflies spent times chit-chatting.

They were like human, on certain aspect.

A Simple Bee Story

I used to find this blue bee circling only around Porter weeds. It was only fond of those Porter weeds at a fixed corner which happened to be my vantage point at Cerok Tokun. It was not easy to be discovered; I always closed my eyes that would not help much, and tuned my ears to its position.

I closed my eyes as usual this morning; I was then thrilled by a surprised newcomer: an orange species. Does this orange color mean a different gender? I failed to find out more though it might have told me through the buzzing sound.

I know what you are thinking right now. I may be stung while closing my eyes, isn't it? This is the thought of a normal person. If somehow it does happen, I shall show you how high the bump is.

The blue bee took turn to appear on stage, with the familiar humming sound as the background music. I had thus seen a couple today, at this small corner, where I did not require to move around very much. But if you think these pictures came easily, then you are definitely very wrong. They were just quick at “touch-and-go”, here and there, without paying any toll, now and then.

They have highways everywhere, and we too have ours. Yes, we have ours. If you think again you can close your eyes like me, sorry to say, you may be stung by the toll rise before opening up your eyes. Will you never go asleep anymore by then?

Happy journey.

How do you think?

The chrysalis is simply too heavy. How do you think?

And the vine has to hunch its back to such a degree. A little additional weight may then break it off.

There are continuous surprises in the eyes of an opportunistic wanderer hunter like me. I always read all of them very optimistically. I maybe right at this time, I may not be right as well.

I only read in my own way.

You cannot tell until you see the colour on the other side of a piece of paper.

Is the chrysalis too heavy? Is it loaded with excessive hope for tomorrow, or the unnecessary sadness for the unknown future? Can slight extra of either one break the vine off?

How do you think?

An Egret and An Alien

My wife asked whether I wanted to go hiking this morning. This was a tricky question. I must be an "alien" if go hiking at this time while my family is still preoccupied by new year mood. So I'll talk nothing more than what was discovered when we were having some cool moments under a mango tree. It is scorching hot this few days.

An egret was found perching on this mango tree with the same purpose as well. The bare paddy fields in Kangar were simply not the right places to go right now.

The egret might have not seen me, while trying to have a little bit of funny moments.

"I can be as big as a dinosaur!"


"I am a bird, I can fly."


But it never flew at the end because it was not an egret nor a bird.

And I managed to know who were an alien finally. You are certainly not.

Be wiser, healthier and wealthier in the Year of Tiger

Have been very busy last few days, and will continue to be in the next few days, but I do enjoy very much, though missing the time to read and comment in your blog. I'll be back soon.

The new year celebration started off with the reunion dinner with my family members at my brother's house in the new year eve; yes, this was the same day just before Valentine's day as well. Of course, there are many wishes to be made in the new year, and these messages have to be sent to all the Gods. The process were long and I managed to sleep only at four 0'clock in the next morning.

Then, I went from Bukit Mertajam to Perai, Mak Mandin and Kulim, wishing all my relatives Happy New Year in the first day: to the elder, be healthier and wealthier; to the little one, be good and wiser. And red packets with some moneys inside were given and received, and this process has helped to reinforce all the wishes.

Today is the second day. I managed to find a little time to wish you all the same: healthier, wealthier and wiser before I travel to Kangar, a small town in the north part of the peninsular, and it is the hometown of my wife.

I do not have time for Cerok Tokun, and sorry to say that I have forgotten to pass my new year gifts, the red packets, to the wagtail tail. Somehow when you meet him during his journey back to his hometown, there are my best wishes to you all, my good friend that I have not met before.

I'll be back to read your blog soon.

Happy New year.

I Saw the Yellow Wagtail Again

I have been asked a few times whether I am working in a forest. The sole reason, I think, must be because of Cerok Tokun. If the authority is willing, I shall say, I may opt to the offer. Somehow I am not, currently. Same as the Wagtail, I come to Cerok Tokun as when I want, and leave after I am done.

And it happened that we met again at the same place that we first saw each other a few months back. Both of us enjoy this place very much. I come for the unexpected surprises; it is fond of frequenting flooded meadows and the wet wall.

We were closer to each other this time, and I was able to observe its tail wagging clearly. You see, it is such a delight to have waited for a long time but managed still to clear my doubt.

Checking through its list of food: beetles- yes, flies- yes, moths- yes, millipedes- yes, and slugs- yes. It never mentioned, but then Cerok Tokun must be a heaven.

Will this Wagtail go home when Spring returns? I would like to check it out when the time is right.

If it will, do you like to have a New Year gift from me? As I do not know where it will land finally, you have to try your luck by then.

(By the way, we are going to celebrate Chinese New Year this coming Sunday).

Besides speaking a thousand words

A picture speaks a thousand words, but can it tell time?

I usually start my hiking in the morning at about seven o’clock when the trail looks dim. This is when I normally stress myself to the maximum and seldom stop for any photograph.

We are now looking at the picture of a butterfly. Can we tell time from this picture? We can see the sunlight is glaring and the shadow is obvious. It definitely hints us on something about the time, and how crazy a man likes me to spend his time so long at Cerok Tokun, to chase after and bend his body for those critters, under the hot sun.

So does a picture tell time? The answer is definitely yes.

In addition, besides telling the intended story, a post may reveal a hidden story too.

I am running short of time recently. In fact, the length of this post is directly proportional to my time available to blog around.

Cutie in the Wild

I am going to show you a little cutie that I have no knowledge about its identity. It had been looking at me all the times while I was busy with the wet caterpillar.

It tried to greet me in a funny way when we first met face to face. Once caught my attention, it started to be playful.

And the piece of leaf was its playground.

I could be as playful as well. It moved to the reverse side of its playground, I bent my body and kept my camera staying in focus. I whispered to him for its name, it whispered back but was too soft and gone away with the wind. It never had the intention to flap its wings furiously and flew away like the one on the right. Can you see it?

It somehow never stopped moving, and seemed to be following the rhythm of my clicking sound.

It too never seemed to be annoyed, I did instead wonder what it was looking for.

Pictures can talk the story, but will never tell the time I had been with this cutie. When I made the move, it stared at me like my pet dog does when I leave home for work.

Fishing Spider

And my observation on the thick undergrowth continued. This place was in fact like a city in our terminology. This city was very busy.

After leaving the busy bees behind, I found myself chasing after a Fishing Spider that was carrying its egg sac in its jaws, and this was another creatures in this busy city. It moved fast enough to confuse me, an opportunistic wanderer hunter, about its whereabouts in its jungle.

A Fishing spider can run across the surface of water (yes, run across the surface of water that I wish I am able to) to subdue its prey using its foremost legs, which are tipped with small claws; it then injects venom (which I do not want to) with the hollow jaws in order to kill and digest the prey.

I know most of you find a spider very ugly and disgusting like I do, but we just cannot choose and avoid anything we dislike in our life. So to approach this arthropod, to take its pictures and to tell you its story is my way to solve this trivial problem. Anyway, this spider will not make my hard disk its prey or to spin webs inside.

Inside the undergrowth

This is a small corner nearby the abandoned dam at Cerok Tokun. I like to spend some slow and quiet moments over here after my hiking. I can expect a series of unexpected wonder day after day.

I was sitting on the carpet of grasses when a question came across my mind. It was of course a trivial but funny question again. What could I find in this thick undergrowth?

There is a question, there must be an answer!! And so I started my exploration and made some notes with my camera.

I saw an ant, pretended to be a busy bee, moving around a flower.

And a real bee wasted no time to collect nectar.

And another bee was seen busy at the same routine.

So were the other species.

They kept flying around, moving in and out, looking for food, at this small corner at Cerok Tokun. As I started to observe more closely, there were more bees out there hunting for food. Would there be enough supply of food? Would the demand be more than supply?

It should be not a problem. I got the answer when my camera started to zoom out. It is not a problem as long as we will never spoil their heaven.

This last question bothered me because of the recent tragedy at Haiti.