Beautiful Creatures Around My House

srizals@gmail.com

Went outside for a stroll in the midnight rain just now. The roads are gone for tonight. They have been replaced with endless water. We're having an unusual wet season nowadays in the lands of the Malay. Maybe it has to do with the recent supermoon activity. While I was walking, looking for the golden frogs or Rana glandulosa that live side by side with me, I stumbled upon two 'chickens' not more than 10 feet away from me. I thought they were Gallus gallus, but their big glowing eyes gave them away. They are the night top flying predator around my neighbourhood, the owl. They were feasting on a frog. After a while staring at each other in the rain, they flew off, one at a time, with one of them carrying the frog between its claws. I’m not sure whether they were the Malay Eagle Owl or not since it was quite dark and raining. Hope they are. They have light coloured breasts which might indicate their identity. Will try to catch them with my canon after this. They are disappearing from the night sky of the lands of the Malay, since they are no longer the feared predator or ghost here. A few inconsiderate people are eating them up, erasing them from their beloved native surrounding.

I have to think of a way to make them stay. Maybe I should build an owl nest or something. They have been hunting around my house for more than a week now since I started to notice them. Before, there were gentle Large-tailed Nightjars hovering in the night, catching flying insects, entertaining me with their unique call to remind me they are hunting in front of my house. With the owls’ presence, the gentle, slow flying birds are nowhere to be seen. Hope the owls have not devoured them. The Malays called them 'tukang kayu' or carpenter for their weird and unique jarring calls that resembles a carpenter at work.

I also found out that the dead rotting trees around my house were not only eaten by termites but also by weird looking cockroaches. They dwell inside the rotting tree and consumed the decaying wood substance from the inside. Hope they would breed for my Malaysian giant scorpions' sake.

Haven't seen any Boiga around my house anymore. Hopefully these cat eyed snakes are still around to keep the frogs' population in check.

Several confused box tortoise found themselves trapped in my house compound to my children's amusement. Hope there won't be a flood though. Hope the abundant water will wash away all the filth that had accumulated the lands with time and man. How beautiful nature is. How beautiful and wise its Creator that has created such unmatched self-sustaining beauty.

I’ll try to post their pictures tomorrow. Need some sleep. The frogs are singing a beautiful lullaby for me.

http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/plantguides/guide_pdfs/053%20Malaysia%20v1.0.pdf

http://www.naturemalaysia.com/frogs.htm

http://conservationreport.com/2008/12/03/bushmeat-900-oven-ready-owls-seized-in-peninsular-malaysia/