our netball team in the 80s

The Department's netball team in the early 80s. Recognize anyone in the picture?

Bird survey on the Layang-layang atoll

I had the opportunity to conduct a bird survey on Terumbu layang-layang off the coast of Labuan in the early 1990s. As a matter of fact, I went there on two occasions. The first time to survey birds while the second time was to do a documentary on migratory birds with RTM. I enjoyed both trips. It's like heaven for migratory birds, just like being on Galapagos Island. Imagine being surrounded by colonies of brown boobies, noodies, crested terns etc. You can practically sit among the colonies watching the chicks on the ground while the adult birds flying above your head, sometimes bombarding you with fish...what a feeling. Guys, we should plan to visit this place sometimes.
My first trip to Terumbu layang-layang was with Dr.Tajuddin Abdullah (UNIMAS) and Mat Isa Marzuki who is retired now. We were there to study the impact of constructing an airstrip on the bird population and the potential danger to the airplane should the project proceeds. The only way to get to the atoll at that time was either take a Nuri helicopter ( 2 hr+) or Royal Navy Ship ( 18 hr+ depending on the weather and sea condition). We opted for the first choice but had to standby at the TUDM base everyday until the weather permits us to fly. So there we were, waiting at the base every day until 1:00pm before the army personnel would come to us and said " sorry guys, no flight today. Weather doesn't permit flying. Come back tomorrow". So off we went, to our hotel. Labuan was still developing during that time. The best hotel in town belongs to one of the senior politicians in the state. Nothing much to do except window shopping for duty free items. A can of beer costs the same as coke....We were on standby for three days before the weather permitted us to fly to Layang-layang atoll. After safety briefing, we walked to our waiting nuri with our field equipments. The army also sent the week supplies for the personnel on the atoll as the ship that was supposed to carry the supplies had to turn back due to engine problems. At last we took off from the TUDM base in a Nuri, flying above Labuan town before flying above the ocean. We flew above the ocean for more than one hour. You only see the blue ocean everywhere. It's quite frightening to imagine what would happened if the Nuri was to make an emergency landing in the ocean......Alhamdullilah, we reached Layang-layang safely. As we approached the atoll, we saw a small patch of sand surrounded by deep blue ocean. Everyone was excited and looking forward to the new experience. We landed safely and the personnel crowded the Nuri to unload the supplies that we brought along with us, especially the cigarettes. After lunch in the fully air-conditioned mess, we went out to the bird area. You can hear the sound of birds as you approached the area. And suddenly, before your eyes.... thousand of terns, boobies, nodies etc flying just above your head. We set our transect lines amidst the cries of the birds, as if telling us to leave them alone. while setting our transect lines, we came across eggs, chicks and dead chicks. After surveying the transects, we decided to just sit down and enjoyed the scenery with birds flying just above our heads. As usual I took the opportunity to photograph the birds using my faithful Nikon SLR. (I hope I can still find the slides of the birds). We left the atoll after completing our task. Spend a couple of days in Labuan (for duty free shopping) before departing to KL. It was truly an unforgettable experience for me to be surrounded by birds just like what you normally see on the telly. My second trip to Layang-layang was more relax as the air strip was completed and we took a small plane instead of the Nuri. Personally, I enjoyed Nuri compared to the light plane as you can see more with the door opened on the Nuri..I'll write about my second trip next time. In the meantime, all the best to our representatives to the sports meet. Remember, good sportsmanship is more important than winning. Go out and enjoy yourselves and please do not show your faces at the office on Monday if you fail to win anything...hahhaha

More photos from Kapar trip

More photos from Kapar trip as requested by Nosrat. However, they're not as good as my sifu's, Sugawara. Sorry for the arrangements as I am not sure how to resolve the layout problem yet. Nevertheless, enjoy the photos
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Waders photography at Kapar Power station

A group of us went to Kapar power station to do waders photography. The trip was organized by Rahmah of KBD (thanks for the arrangements Rahmah) and the group consisted of myself, Sugawara, Miss Lim, Sam, Nosrat, Suzi, Shidah, Mariani, Dr. Abraham and Lilia, and of course Rahmah. We left KL in the afternoon around 2 pm and would assemble outside the Kapar power station around 4:00 pm. After getting our visitor pass from the security, we were met by Mr. Nagaraju(if I am not mistaken) from the PR section who later took us to the briefing room where the temporary pass valid for a year were prepared and given to us. With the pass, we should be able to visit the ash pond in the power station without much hassle in the future. This was my first waders trip to the ash pond as my previous trips covered other areas in Port Klang, Pulau Ketam, Pulau Angsa etc. We finally arrived at the ash pond around 5:30 pm. Luckily it was sunny and we saw groups of waders resting near the water edge. We quickly set up our equipments and soon were engrossed in waders watching. Abraham and Lilia decided to go near the water edge as his camera lens didn't permit him to take close-up shots of the birds. Sugawara brought his 800mm nikon lens and have no problem. Nevertheless, the temptation of photographing waders up close took him and Miss Lim into the ash pond behind Abraham and Lilia. By the time I realized it, everyone was inside the pond except me. So I set up my 400mm lens and decided to photograph the waders from the pond perimeter. The sight of waders taking off was too awsome for me to describe. I could hear the wings flapping as the flocks flew above me. Waterfowl watching has always been my passion eversince I was in the states during the late 80s. We travelled all the way to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland to survey waterfowl in winter. It was an unforgetable experience for me and the love for waterfowl grew in me. But alas, we don't have waterfowl in the country and waders provide the same opportunity to me. I also enjoyed watching belibis on several occasions in Paya Indah, Sungai Dusun and Kampar. Ta Le Noi in Southern Thailand is another superb location for watching waterbirds. Went there on several occasions in the 90s and the waterbirds population in the lake is much higher compared here. And the lake is also temporary home to commorants. You should try to visit Ta Le Noi if you have the opportunity. Best time to be there is December when migration is at its peak. Perhaps Rahmah can arrange the trip to Ta Le Noi end of this year?

Looking outside the perimeter fence around the ash pond, I saw debris washed up behind the row of mangroves. Truly a sad scenario. Wonder what it takes before all the dumping will finally stop.....Time really flies whenever you enjoy doing something that you like. Before long, it was already 7:30 pm and too dark for photography. So we finally packed up our equipments and left the ash pond. Nosrat and the gang went to Subang Jaya to try out the ayam pepek while Sugawara, Miss Lim and went back to KL. We hope to go to Tasik Bera on our next trip next month. It was a day well spent for me.

otter survey from Pantai Remis to Penang

I did an otter survey along the west coast, from Pantai Remis to the islands around Penang way back in the early 90s. An amateur otter breeder from England, Elizabeth Joy, requested my help in locating the hairy-nosed otter. In those days, the hairy-nosed otter was thought to be extinct as it was never seen for more than 20 years in the region. So based on the old records by Medway, we decided to look for the species along the west coast. Elizabeth hired a live-on diving boat from Penang for 10 days to enable us to survey along the coastline. The boat has three crew members, a pilot, co-pilot and a helper. The boat will be our home for the next 10 days. I met Elizabeth when the boat stopped for supplies and freshwater at Port Weld. " Elizabeth Joy I presumed?" That was my introduction upon seeing a middle-aged English lady standing on the jetty. " You must be Bond. Boy, am I glad to see you. Welcome aboard." I found out that two of her friends, a husband and wife, followed Elizabeth on the trip. Life on the boat is a luxury, lots of fresh seafood and cigarettes. Elizabeth likes smoking and she normally bought Benson and Hedges by the carton. " They are mighty cheap here compared to London" was her remarks everytime she bought a carton of Benson and Hedges. The boat was very spacious for us. It has a lower and upper deck. I stayed on the lower deck with the crew while Elizabeth and her friends stayed on the upper deck. Our pilot turned out to be an excellent cook and this made our trip an enjoyable one. From Port Weld we moved to the mangroves in Matang Forest. We took a fibreglass boat and search for otters in the small rivers among the mangroves. We only saw smooth-coated otters and small-clawed otters but no hairy-nosed otter. Actually I am not sure how the hairy-nosed otter looked like as I have never seen them before. For all I know, the rhinarium is shaped like a shield and is fully covered by hairs. (Only after I caught the hairy-nosed otter in southern Thailand did I understood what it meant by the rhinarium being covered by hairs). Later, we went further down to Teluk Intan. We stopped at Telok Intan to buy udang galah from several boys who were fishing at the jetty before going up the Perak River. Initially we planned to go up the river but had to turn back as the river was too shallow for the big boat to navigate. We spent the night in the river before going back to the sea the next day. We stopped at Pantai Remis to make a phone call to Hifni of USM. He was supposed to join us but could not do so due to other commitments. Elizabeth took the opportunity to restock her B&H supplies. On our way out to the sea, we decided to check out several sites along the mudflats. When we went out to the shore in the fibreglass boat, the tide was still high. I supposed we got carried away looking for otter signs and scats that by the time we realized it, the tide was out and the fibreglass boat was a couple hundred meters from the shore. Either we wait for the tide to come in (6 hours) or wade across the mud flats. Finally we decided to take the second option. So there I was, with two English ladies trying to cross the mudflats to our boat. Both are heavy and kept on sinking into the mud. We barely moved as we spent most of the time trying to free ourselves from the soft mud. The two ladies kept dragging me down with them every time they tried to move. Finally, I asked the two ladies to lie on their back and do a backstroke on the soft mud. So there we were, the three of us doing backstroke on the mud, moving slowly towards the awaiting boat. And the sun was not in a cooperative mood, shining its rays directly on the three of us. I managed to see several fishermen on their fishing boats grinning when they saw us swimming on the mud, facing the sun and inching our way towards the boat. "What kind of idiots would do such thing under the hot sun!" that's what they said I thought. I told the two ladies that the mud would be excellent for their skins and they didn't have to go to a health center for the treatment. My words made them cheerful I think as none of them grumbled. Personally, I like the smell of mud especially the unpolluted ones. They have a conspicuous smell that reminds me of my early childhood days. I think I can easily differentiate a clean mud from a polluted mud just by smelling them. By the way, you can also distinguished the otter species from the smell of their faeces. Therefore, it is not surprising to see otter researchers picking up otter fresh faeces and smelling them. It happened during my workshop in Korea. One of the participants found fresh otter scats and the whole group scrambled to get a piece of the fresh scat to smell it. If you are planning to study otters, then you should familiarize yourself with the smell of otter faeces. It's not that bad.

Anyway, by the time we get to the boat we were covered in dry mud. So we spent the afternoon peeling off the dried mud from our skin. Nevertheless, it was a good experience for the two English ladies. Elizabeth Joy, by the way, operates a small travel agency in London. She normally brings a small group of tourist in her van to Europe. She breeds small-clawed otter in her free time. After ten days, there were no signs of the hairy-nosed otters. However, I found that the smooth-coated otters in Pantai Remis are used to the fishermen schedule. They knew when the fishing boats would be back everyday and would wait by the river bank for fishes thrown out by the fishermen. Otters are intelligent animals apart from being opportunistic. We ended our trip at the harbour in Penang. I went back to KL the next day while Elizabeth and her friends continued their vacation in Penang. She visited Pantai Kerchut but could not find any signs of the elusive hairy-nosed otter. Wonder what Elizabeth Joy is doing right now......