Sunday 18 November 2012

Bukit Sarang 2nd Day


(NOTE: Click on the photo to view bigger photo in my Flickr account)

It was raining the next morning. Nothing much to do other than editing the photos from last night’s walk.
Only by 3 pm the rain stopped and I quickly head out to check was I can find to photograph.

As it is still a bit wet and I guess all the small critters and stuff were still lazy to go out, I only managed to take some shots of snails and plants around the limestone cave. But the light was not so good, so I went back and wait for the night walk again.

Just to share an old photo of the field station where we are staying during flood season few years ago


It is getting dark and we start to move out to the other side of the limestone compared to yesterday’s route. This time the walk is a bit tougher than yesterday, we have to climb some steps, passing through the limestone wall and go through some small caves. Yesterday was more on swampy bits and flat ground.

As we went out early, frogs are the first thing we saw and photographed. Here are some early shots of frogs that I took that night.


We can see forest gecko hanging on small branches and on the limestone floor waiting for food, some are on the tree root and some are on the limestone wall.

Almost half an hour later one of our friend almost step on this snake. With only flash light it is very difficult to differentiate it with a stick!



As we move on, more and more stick insects were seen at this part of the limestone hill.

Man..I have never seen so many stick insects in one night other than here! I assume there are at least five to six species with so many male and female individuals.


 

 

Another interesting observation was the presence of this Pelophryne sp., at least there are 10 to 15 individuals around as I have lost count of it since I was photographing them.


It was indeed an interesting night walk. Two snakes, Geckos with so many stick insects and frogs, what else can I ask for…a heaven for macro photographer like me.

After a long night we slowly head back to the station. Just before that, I found this interesting looking frog of which I am unsure of what species
Is this a Philautus sp?

The dark spots became more obvious due to disturbance by the photographer :P
Here are the rest of the shots that I took along the way back



Not to forget my best photo of this species
 I was very satisfied…a full memory card and interesting find of things I have never seen before, here or anywhere. 

Downloaded the photos on the laptop while having hot tea and a bowl of instant noodle with my friends. It was already 12 am. I was too excited and I can’t wait to do some editing on the photos I took.

While doing my editing and having a chat with my friends, suddenly a bat went in to our room. It came to my mind that the only thing I did not managed to photograph this time was Bats!. We quickly roll out our nets and try to catch the bat. Here is a shot of the bat.

After taking few shots of the bat I was completely worn out. Switch off the lights and head on to sleep with a big smile on my face J

Next day we pack our things. The boat came in on time, the weather was bright and sunny..I wish this was the weather yesterday…but at least I got interesting things this time from this unique place.

Until next time..I’m sure I will find more things when I visit this place again. It is still a long journey back home.