Asian Koel

Description:
        General: Large birds, red eyes.
        Male: Gray wings, black over.
        Female: Brown over, tail barred with white, body speckled white.

Calls:
        Male: 'Ku-ooh!' (is often repeated, in a higher pitch than the call before)
        Female:

Raining cats and dogs


It started with having dinner in the park. It was raining, and quite comfortable. A little kitten was the focus of our attention. The younger brothers eventually got some chicken and fed it. Quite soon after the first piece touched the ground, the older felines arrived. One black, and the other...white & orange (I think, never paid much attention to colours). They appeared to be have been acquainted (++). I didn't have much interest in cats.

The two cats soon gave a wide radius after being constantly followed around by a certain pair of people with flash photography. When the rain gave to a drizzle, we took the chance to head home.

Now you wonder where the dogs come in. Well, on the path beside the local medical university, a dog limped behind a pair of students. We had glimpsed the dog running around the neighbourhood oh so often. They passed us without much incident.

Right at the gate of our condo, guess what, another dog. This time, I saw a collar of some sort around its neck. And it was tagging behind another pair of students. I could tell you that it was about knee high and had plenty of fur, but I didn't really get a good look at it. You see, I didn't want to attract its attention by looking at it.

We walked past, and the dog bounded behind me. I felt it's breath on the back of my leg (That's how I knew it was knee high). It was like the most natural thing in the world.

Of course, the guards stopped us. Our condo has a policy of no animals bigger than a guinea pig. But now I wonder what would have happened if that policy didn't exist.

Mold and the sorts (2)

Eric is proud to present: 

Pictures of Molds

Mold on spring roll pastry. It stinks.

New sketches

Mold and the sorts

Eric is proud to present: 

Pictures of Molds

Mold on a capsican (bell pepper)

Mold on a 'Nian Gao'

The 'Nian Gao' mold on a closer inspection

Mold on a ball of flour

Barnacles on a rock at Pulau Tioman.

Name:
Height: (didn't have my ruler, unfortunately)
Leaves: Spread out from a center point, flat, ends with a point
Reproduction:
Flowers: No (subject to change)
Terrain: Sandy (subject to change)
Temperate: Tropical

Mulu trip report

I've just recently completed my trip report. You must be thinking that, "What? You finished it a few months after the actual trip?! Why did it take so long?!"

The truth is that I had a writer's block right at the end, simple!

Here a link to the document if you want to read, no pictures though.
UPDATE 9/5/2011: Pictures are added now.

Name:
Height: 2 meters
Genre: Bush
Flowers: Yes

Count the parasites on this plant, how many visible types are there?
There are moss further down where the camera hits it's limit. Notice how there seem to be sections for the parasites? The other trees (same species) also have this type of formation. The positions are probably determined by multiple factors, possibly including altitude and humidity.

Spiny plant

Top picture is the general view of the plant. It looks ordinary until you look up close, then you see the little spines poking out from the stem (lower pic).
Name:
Height: c. 2m
Leaves: Somewhere around 15 cm, looks crumpled up.
Notable stuff: Spines poking out at every axil

Mimosa Pudica

This is Mimosa Pudica: the Sensitive Plant, Touch-me-not, Shy Plant, whatever you call it.
I'm sure most of you readers have seen it before, and played with it too. It closes when you touch it, and it is the only 'mimosa' that does that.
Name: Mimosa Pudica
Height: Spreads near the ground
Reproduction: Seeds
Terrain: (Weed)
Flowers: Yes
Notable facts: The leaves closes when touched

Taken at Royal Mulu Resort in Sarawak. This is one of the cases that the topic is not the plant, although it does look interesting. There's a lizard right in the middle, in case you did not notice. It stayed there for some time like a professional model for me and other people. Wouldn't have got the picture if it hadn't stayed there for long.
I got a hunch that it was a defence mechanism involving 'staying motionless until they look away', so I tried a little experiment. I looked away, and sure enough, it was zooming up the tree when I looked back.
Though, it could be that it just wanted to leave at that second, can't be sure.

Mulu

This one is a peculiar plant that I saw in Mulu.

See the way it curls up? And how all the leaves stick outwards? Notice that the leaves form a loop and the lower part of the stem where the leaves above could block out the sun simply lacked leaves? The leaves can receive the maximum amount of sunlight without blocking the other leaves, and it would have less force of gravity to deal with.

This picture is for the plant clinging onto the tree and not the tree that the plant is clinging onto.

Another roadside plant, and I still hope that I can get some help with identification, but I'm not keeping my hopes high.

I suspect that it is a fern with a non-parasitic relationship with the tree, as I remember faintly of seeing this duo some time ago.

I LUV U

If you don't look at it with too much detail, you can see the famous three words that have been used throughout the ages since modern English was invented. Brilliant work of sucker plants, or at least that's what I think it is.

another small flower

Name: (again, I don't really know)

Took a picture of this guy during the 'epic' mission to escort my 'VIP' brother to his friend's house, while machine gunning at rebels who seek to eliminate him. 

Probably by now, you would have noticed the total sarcasm that I had used in the previous sentence, please excuse me for that. This flower showed in the picture above should be a kind of wild weed because I saw many of them at the side of the road yesterday.

I didn't have the ruler with me, but the rough estimate is, like many others, 0.5 cm.

Another type of bunga kertas, taken with my phone in the park near my home.

Bougainvillea (bunga kertas)

Name: Bougainvillea
This guy is actually from America, to think that I thought that it was native to Malaysia.
The actual flowers are the three buds at the middle, while the 'petals' that surrounds it are actually 'bracts'- specialized leaves. These bracts were modified to attract pollinators, according to Wikipedia.
Size of each flower (diameter): 0.5 cm
Its can be quite tall, with the highest that I have seen measuring up to half of the height an adult human. But according to Wikipedia (surprise, surprise), it still has much more growth potential.

Spider Lily

Name: Spider Lily

Distance off the ground: 48 cm

Diameter of flower: 15 cm

Notable stuff: There is nectar right in the middle. I am 51% sure it's consumable since I tried it a few times without incident. But if there is something else inside except for the nectar, it is advisable not to test it.