An Injured Common House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

My wife and I found this Common House Sparrow ( Scientific name, Passer Domesticus) at a parking lot. I guessed it was injured and could not fly away. One of its' eyes was shut and it was breathing heavily. We were afraid that it might be ran over by moving cars. My wife picked it up using some newspapers while I ran to a nearby mini market to ask for a box. Then we put the bird in the box and took it home. We tried to feed it with bird seed and water but it could not take any food. It was still alive the next morning but didn't make it till the evening. RIP little bird!

Manjalara Monkeys - They Survived!

These 2 photos are taken from my previous post The last of the Manjalara Macaque Monkeys - Macaca fascicularis dated 8th September 2008. During that time, there were still lots of trees around this area and the construction of Tesco Hypermarket (Kepong Village) was at its' initial stage.

Recently, while I was walking towards Top Kitchen, I saw this very same family of monkeys are still around. I was very happy to see them surviving well after my last sighting 2 years ago. I hope they will not chop down more trees and let these monkeys continue living in this area.

Mmmmm, maybe with hypermarkets and MBO cinema in this area, they have turned into urban monkeys!

Kuala Gandah Deerland, Pahang

After visiting Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary we dropped by at Deerland. After paying the entrance fee, we moved on to see the various animals and birds at this park. Visitors are allowed to go into the deer enclosure to have a closer look and also feed them. It was really interesting to see the deer chasing after the visitors who have food in their hand. Most of the kids were a little shocked when the see a whole pack of deers rushing after them to eat the food. Here are some photos I took....... The entrance view from the side road....

Many deers around and you get to go into the enclosure to feed them! Deers and cute Malaysian Black Honey Bear (Sun Bear, Helarctos malayanus)......

There are also various types of birds, iguana, cats, civet cats, snakes, rabbits and etc on display!

Map to Deerland, Kuala Gandah, Pahang.

Kuala Gandah, Temerloh Pahang Elephant Sanctuary

The new complex in front of the entrance and the elephant viewing area. I think they should expand the elephant shed and viewing area instead of a new building. There was no one selling food for the elephants. .....can get extra $$$$$ for the conservation program! A newly wed couple choose to have their wedding day photo with the elephants here. This is one friendly elephant! The Kuala Gandah elephant sanctuary is nestled in the middle of the Pahang jungle. This is the only centre in Malaysia for elephant conservation program and it was started by the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Park in 1989. Although, this sanctuary do not have that many elephants or as large scale operation as our neighbour, Thailand’s Elephant Camp, it is a good effort by the authority to protect this wonderful but endangered animals. Since it was a school holiday, we took the kid for an outdoor outing to this sanctuary. My little toddler kept on wanting to go near the elephants. Some of the elephants are tame but some are just caught from the wild. So, you better ask the caretaker before going near any one on them. Apart from getting a close look at the elephants, there are also other activities to do such as jungle walking and swimming. Entrance to this elephant camp is free. You will not find Kuala Gandah Elephant Camp in Google map. To go there, just follow the East Coast highway after Genting Sempah towards Kuantan. Turn out at the Lanchang exit. At the T junction turn right and drive towards the end of the road. The Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary is located here. We drop by in Deerland which is located before the Elephant sanctuary on our way back. Post to follow.

Map to Kuala Gandah Temerloh, Pahang Elephant Sanctuary

Red Turtle Dove (Terkukur, Streptopelia tranquebarica) in a Basket!

I woke up this morning and found a red turtle dove (Burung terkukur, scientific name Streptopelia tranquebarica) in a basket. Yay, yay, I have a pet bird. Actually the juvenile Burung Terkukur (red turtle dove) flew into our kitchen and was in daze. It was put into a basket so that it can rest and recover.

Looks like it is the offspring of a pair of red turtle dove that papa has been feeding outside the house everyday. They are very tame and used to our presence now. Many types of birds flocked to our house everyday!

Papa says we must let it go when it recover! Oh, so sad! There it goes....up up and away! Fly, birdie fly!

Ahhhh, now it is back with its' family! The four of them now made the custard apple tree at the back of our house as their home. Every morning I would be greeted by their melodious chirping and every night all of them would cuddle together to sleep! Good night birdie!

MJ? Puppies for Sale at Kepong Baru Wet Market

You can find ‘almost’ anything you need in the Kepong Baru wet market. This open air makeshift wet market sells anything from fish, vegetables, spices, dried goods, meat, fruits, noodles, rice, various processed food, shoes, lady accessories, clothes, cook wares, electrical items, hand phone accessories, goods from China, confectioneries and many more! I came a across someone selling a litter of puppies next to a vegetable stall last weekend. They are probably around 3 weeks old and are priced at RM5 (USD 1.50) each. There were some Chinese characters written on the Styrofoam box cover and one of it was ‘Jacky Chan’. The owner also scribbled ‘MJ’ on the sign. I am not sure what the owner means by writing these words. Maybe ‘MJ’ stands for black and white which are the colours of these puppies. These black and white mongrel puppies are active and playful. Many people stopped by to see these cute puppies and I couldn’t resist taking their photos. I hope some good hearted dog lovers would take them home!

This is how a Mantis Prawn (Mantis Shrimp, Squilla Mantis) looks like – How to clean and remove shell (carapace) for cooking.

I posted a Deep Fried Mantis Prawn dish earlier and some of my readers have not seen a live mantis prawn before, so I am publishing the picture here. There are around 400 species of mantis shrimps in the world and the most common ones you see is Squilla Mantis or in Cantonese ‘Lai Lui Har’(Hokkien, Heh Kor). Actually mantis shrimps do not belong to the Shrimps family. It got its’ name from the mantis like look. At a glance, it sure resembles an extra terrestrial creature with hard armored like carapace. Mantis prawns live in rock cavities or burrowing themselves in the seabed. During low tides you can actually see their burrows and an easy way to spot them is by looking for a lump of mud on top of it. As mentioned in my post, Deep Fried Mantis Prawn, I used to dig for mantis prawns at the seaside when I was a kid. It was fun catching and cooking this nice tasty shrimps. Some mantis prawns can grow to around 1 foot in length and they are aggressive creature. They will chase their prey and literally tear them apart with their powerful claws before eating it! I have got a nasty bite from a mantis prawn while catching it and the claw made a hole through the flesh between my thumb and index fingers. It managed to escape and left the claw still attached to my hand! I have to get my friend to prise open the claw from my hand! LOL! The side of the carapace has sharp thorns, so you must be careful when removing the shell. If you are cooking the whole shrimps, it is advisable to cut away these sharp thorns. To separate the thorns from the flesh, cut along the side carapace of the shrimps around the whole shrimp. Then start from the head, peel out the carapace. Then remove the flesh slowly so that you will not break it. Mantis shrimps taste good if they are steamed whole with ginger and wine, fried kung po style or just deep fried in flour.

Copyright Material of Peteformation Foodie Adventure

No more Papaya, No More Cuckoo Bird

If your remember from my previous post Papaya Birds about The Asian Koel (Eudynamys Scolopacea), Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis), Black Naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis) and even squirrels feasting on my papayas. I know Cleffairy would remember because it was one of her favourite post! ha ha ha Well, the tree is getting old and have grown way too tall. I am afraid that it might come crashing down on my roof during thunderstorms so I decided to chop it down last week. Anyway, the papayas it produce nowadays are quite small and full of warts as shown below.

I have to chop the tree down sections by sections to avoid it from crashing down on my roof. Luckily, I have a tall ladder to reach the top of the tree! I left a stump around 8 feet in height because there are new shoots coming out from it. I wanted to see if it can produce any fruits or not.

All the papaya tree trunks that was chopped off!

So, for now there will be no more birds feasting on papayas in my garden! A good weekend exercise, I was sweeting all over, what a hot day! LOL! Copyright Material of Peteformation Foodie Adventure

Cute Little Stray Puppy – Mmmmm, maybe I will name it Cupcake! LOL!

After meeting my friends for lunch, I saw 2 guys and a lady trying to help this poor little lost puppy. They were worried that it might drop inside the drain or maybe get run over by a car because the traffic is rather busy here. However, they were not sure of what to do with it. It is a female puppy, most probably an offspring of some strays around the area. I guess by looking at the size and colour, the puppy might have some mixed pedigree blood with either an Alsatian or Rottweiler. Then, I picked it up and was very tempted to bring it home. My kids would be delighted to have this cute little puppy but then I might not have the time and capacity to take good care of it. At last I thought of my mechanic whose workshop is nearby and his workers there love dog very much. Cuddling the little puppy, I walked up to my mechanic workshop. The workers there stop whatever they were doing immediately and pat it lovingly! I have seen them taking good care of a stray puppy before this and it is now a fully grown dog. I hope I have found a good place for this cute little puppy to stay! I pray that when fully grown, it won’t chase me when I cycle pass this area! Ha ha ha! Have a nice weekend!

Copyright Material of Peteformation Foodie Adventure

XxxL Eggs – Wah So big!

My brother in law gave me a tray of eggs. At first glanced they look like normal eggs but when you put it next to normal eggs, the size is longer and bigger. These are double yolk eggs. I have eaten many of these types of eggs from my uncle’s farm when I was a kid. After visiting my late maternal grandma who stayed with my uncles, we would bring back trays of double yolk eggs! A tray of xxxl eggs, double yolk. The double yolk compared to normal eggs! Young hens that have just reach maturity will normally produce double yolk eggs. These young hens’ productive cycles have not yet being synchronised which resulted in rapid ovulation and two yolks joint together when the eggs are formed. But after a few batches of double yolk eggs, the young hen would start to lay normal eggs. Double yolk eggs, if fertilised would not produce any chicks because there would not be enough nutrients in the eggs for two chicks in it to grow. Mmmmm, it would be nice to see ‘twins’ small little chicks! Anyway, I guess it would be nice to use these eggs to make cakes because they have extra yolks! I love to eat egg yolks and immediately I fried two of them, sunny side up (hor pau tan, mata kerbau, mata sapi)! LOL! The best thing is, I don’t have to buy eggs from the market for the next few weeks. Ha ha ha!

Attacked by a German Shepherd

A German Shepherd dog rushed out from a house and attacked me when the owner who just came back left the gate open. I fell off my bike and have to ward off the attack by swinging my bare hands at the dog. The owner did not even come out to help me and this lasted for about 1 minutes. I managed to escape with bruises and cuts on my knee. There are abrasions on my chest when I knocked on my bike handle. I sprained my elbow and my knee as well. When it sensed that I was not an easy victim, the dog ran back in to the house. Then, when I was about to push my bike away it came out again. This time I was ready to face the vicious dog but it went back in when it saw my angry face! The owner quickly closed the gate and go inside the house. Did not even appologise! Damm bloody nitwit! What type of mentality is this? An attack dog can permanently maim a person or damage the victim internal organs. If you are such a negligent person, don’t ever think of owing a dog! I cannot imagine what will happen if the victim just now is not me but some kids from my neighborhood. Don’t ever be overconfident that your dog would never attack someone. If they do attack someone due to your negligence, you could be sued or jailed. I love dogs and I had 5 dogs when I was a kid. I always make sure that they don’t leave the house and put them on leash whenever there were visitors in my house. Now, my whole body ache and I hope that there are no other undetected injuries or else Peteformation would become Doggoneformation tomorrow! Anyway, I leave the case to the police for now.

The Owl – Owl, Owl, Owl, Michael Jackson Favorite Word in his Singing?

An owl photo taken in Power Centre during the exhibition by KL Bird Park

Every time I see a university professor wearing a mortar board and graduation gown, I would think of a wise looking owl with round rim glasses. If I am not mistaken, I think there was some stationery or school shoe white paint has such owl logo. There are two family of owls, the barn owl (Tytonidae) and typical owl (Strigidae). Below this family tree, there are around 200 species of owl. The owl has binocular vision but since its’ eyes are fixed to the socket; they have to turn their head to change views (up to an amazing angle of 135 Deg in both direction, a total of 270 Deg view). They are also long sighted, so they cannot see things that are very near to their eyes. I wonder how an owl will react if I correct its’ vision with glasses? Ha ha ha! This nocturnal stealth creature which swallow their prey whole have been associated with many myths and mythologies. Some society believes that owl as positive symbol but some associate it with negativity. Anyway, to me it is just a bird and a very useful in controlling pest in plantation. Probably the owl was the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson favourite word in his song lyrics......owl, owl, owl!

Breeding my Bettas (Siamese fighting fish, Betta Splendens, Bettah, Trey Krem, Pla Khad)

Bettas are found in the wild throughout Thailand and Cambodia. I have been keeping Bettas as a hobby since I was a kid. The local fighting fish that I used to catch from the paddy fields and narrow waterways in Prai are very much smaller in size than the Bettas. There are over 50 species of bettas and they normally grow to the length of 5 to 6 cm. I like bettas because they are very colourful and hardy fish. They keep my fish pond free from mosquito’s larvae, which happens to be one of their favourite foods. Male betta’s fish are very aggressive and they can fight to death if kept together. I keep bettas as an ornamental fish, not for fights. The male fish have bright colours compared to dull coloured female fish. A pregnant female fish would have a bulge in the stomach and vertical bands when they are ripe for mating. The male would start making a bubble nest on the water surface to be used to keep the fertilised eggs. The mating ritual can be rather ferocious which sometimes ended with the female being badly bitten. The male fish would coil around the female fish body in nuptial embrace and the female fish would release her eggs which would be fertilised immediately. The male fish would then collect all the fertilised eggs from the bottom of the deposit them into the bubbles. After they finish mating the male fish will chase the female betta from the bubble nest. The male fish will take care of the eggs until they hatch which is about 2 days after fertilisation. It would be advisable to remove the female fish or else she would eat up all the eggs.

A colourful male betta.............................................and a dull coloured pregnant female betta

1) Betta eggs in the bubble under the water plants' leaves. 2) 10 days old bettas offsprings

Mr. Makario, My Daugher’s Pet Tilapia (St. Peter’s Fish, Tilapiine Cichlid)

This is my daughter’s pet fish. When I got it from the pet shop, it was about the size of a 20 cents coin. In fact it only cost me 20 sen each! I actually bought 10 red tilapias, but they fought among each other and this is the only one survive. Anglers would use small tilapia as bait fish. Since it is pinkish in colour, tilapia can attract the attention of predatory fishes like the Toman (Giant Snakehead). Tilapia (hong fei chow) is supposed to be a very hardy fish and they grow very fast. She named it ‘Makario’ (Male Greek name, for blessed). I am not sure whether the Mr. Makario is male or female. LOL! Makario would surface whenever it sees my daughter. When he is hungry he would push the bubble sinker against the wall to make some ‘tong tong’ sound. He reminds us of his feeding time! Smart fish! My little 22 months old toddler likes to put his hand in the water and play with Makario. Makario would not bite but I am worried that the sharp fins might poke his hands! Can you guess what my daughter’s response was when I said that since Makario has grown so big, it will make a good ‘Nyonya Assam Fish’ dish! He he he!

Here Birdie, Birdie. Feeding Time! Common Millet (Panicum miliaceum) and Red Turtle Neck (Streptopelia tranquebarica)

Heyyyyyy, this is not a post about how to cook common millets or simply known as bird seeds! Ever since I started feeding these wild birds, they will wait for me at my house gate every late afternoon. They seem to know the time that I will come out and feed them. I bought this packet of common millet from the pet shop at RM1.80. Common house sparrows (Scientific name, Passer domesticus) love this type of bird seeds. The number of bird that turned up during feeding time seems to increase day by day. Even the red turtle dove (Burung terkukur, scientific name Streptopelia tranquebarica) that used to nest at the pillar in my porch is coming to feed on these seeds. These are great song birds and are very much sought after especially in Indonesia. Well, I guess it is better to feed these wild birds rather that putting them in cages, so that they can still roam and fly freely. Opps, here comes Toby the cat........watch out birds!

My neighbour's cute cat!

Related post about Birds 1) http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2008/10/asian-koel-black-glossy-starling-and.html 2) http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2008/09/albino-common-myna-bird-one-in-million.html

Yellow Fin/Unicorn Leather Jacket Fish (Ikan Barat-Barat, Ayam Ayam, Scientific Name : Aluterus Monoceros )

Fish the 'leather jacket' on....................................with 'jacket' off!

Yummy plain fried Jacket Fish

The name of this fish sounds like a rock band or maybe big biker’s gang name! Anyway, the Unicorn Leather fish (scientific name, Aluterus Monoceros ) or locally known as Barat Barat is commonly seen in stalls that sell grill fish. Due to its’ large eyes and ugly looking features, this fish although commercially available, they are rather inexpensive. The Unicorn Leather jacket fish is full of flesh and does not have small bones. So it is relative easy to eat. The outer leather like skin of the fish is grey in colour and normally the fish vendor will peel this skin off before displaying it for sales. The inner skin is white in colour and is very thin. The flesh has nice natural sweetness and is very tasty. Make sure that the fish liver is removed completely, or not it will leave a strong ‘fishy’ smells on the meat. Since the inner skin is rather thin, it is real hassle to fry the fish using a normal wok. It will stick to the wok even if you use lots of hot oil. To avoid this from happening, you can use nonstick wok instead to fry this fish. I like to steam the fish, tomyam style or just fry it plain.

Related Post

http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2009/06/steamed-unicorn-jacket-fish-barat-barat.html