7200 Miles Away From Home to My Town: The Whimbrel Amazing Journey

A group of Whimbrel (Numineus phaeopus) spotted at Bengkulu beach on October 29th, 2011

I see a group of around 20 birds flying and finding their food around my town’s beach recently.  Seem to me this kind of bird is unusual, because i never met this kind of bird before since i was a kid. Then i surfed  the internet to find out what  kind of this bird is. It amazed me to know that this bird is the whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus).  What makes me amazed is how these birds travel such a long way (7200 miles !) from their home to the place they never knew  with just that  long bended bill and long leg as their  only capital to travel.  

Sumur Melele Beach of Bengkulu - Indonesia

Sumur Melele Beach Bengkulu Indonesia

Sumur Melele beach is situated between Pantai Panjang beach and Tapak Paderi beach in city of Bengkulu Indonesia. This beach is about 1km from the city central of Bengkulu. This beach is a unique beach at Bengkulu city, because it has more coral reef than other part of Bengkulu City beach. 

Spectacular Ornamental Plant: Furcraea foetida in Bengkulu - Indonesia

Furcraea foetidas those were blooming at University of Bengkulu, 2007

This is a kind of a spectacular ornament plants.  It is because not only it takes a larger area of your garden, but also, when its bloom, it will produce a very tall flower's stalk (inflorescence). The flower' s stalk of this plant can reach 40 ft (12 meter) high !!!.

The Dam of Seluma Bengkulu - Indonesia

Dam of Seluma - Bengkulu - Indonesia

This dam is located at Seluma Regency about 60 km from the capital city of Bengkulu to the south. This dam was built in 1982 in the era when Soeharto was the president of Indonesia. The purpose of this dam is to support the rice farming irrigation system in Seluma which coverage an area of 8,000 Hectars. It is the biggest dam out of three dams built in Bengkulu Province for irrigation, the Air Majunto Dam -  in the Muko-Muko regency and The Air Nipis Seginim Dam - in southern Bengkulu Regency.

Mudskipper (Periophthalmus argentilineatus) Around Bengkulu River

Mudskipper in Bengkulu - Sumatra - Indonesia

Actually i want to give the title for this post is "God, Tell Me Who I Am". It because this poor animal is an abnormal kind of fish. It is fish, but not live in the water, it is not amphibian because its totally not resemble any of them. The most approximate resemblance to this fish is the froglet without leg. It seem that the evolution for this species had stopped before it reached its end. The best way to describe this species is "the species that got stuck in the middle of evolution". I try to find the species name of our guest here, and the most similar kind goes to Periophthalmus argentilineatus.

Hauling Beach Seines at Bengkulu Beach

Towing a beach seine at Bengkulu Beach. In local language it is called "maelo pukek"

Hauling beach seines is one of some Bengkulu's fishermen methods to catch fishes from the beach. This method has long been existed in Bengkulu, maybe before Indonesian Independence the fishermen of Bengkulu had acknowledged to this method. I still remember when i was in kindergarten we were taught to sing a local song entitled "Yo botoy botoy" that describing the hauling beach seines culture at Bengkulu beach.

The Largest Flower in the World : Rafflesia Arnoldii from Bengkulu - Indonesia

Rafflesia Arnoldii the biggest flower originated from Bengkulu-Sumatra-Indonesia

Have you ever seen the biggest flower in the world ???. Well, i'm so lucky to be able to see this october blossom of Rafflesia Arnoldi. On October 9th, 2011, i had the occasion to visit the site of Raflesia Jungle at Bukit Daun protected forest, in the regency of Kepahiang Bengkulu Province. This is my first time in life to see lively the biggest flower in the world which happen to be only in my Province, Bengkulu-The Land of Rafflesia.The site is situated about 50 kilometers from the capital city Bengkulu, or about 60 minutes drive.

Keramunting (rhodomyrtus tomentosa) - Gooseberry Around Bengkulu

Keramunting (rhodomyrtus tomentosa) around the city of Bengkulu

In USA they call it Downy Rose Myrtle, in some other countries they call it ceylon hill goose berry meanwhile In Bengkulu-Indonesia we call it Keramunting. It is some kind of berries that used to very popular among the kids in Bengkulu-Indonesia around 80s. It  because of this berry could be found easily everywhere in Bengkulu. Almost in every bush in Bengkulu has groups of kramunting shrub. But now, this fruit is so hard to find because almost every kramunting bush had been opened and transformed into residences. Now only a few places in the city of Bengkulu that has Keramunting shrub, one of them in Rawa Makmur bush, 2 km from city central. 

Here is the photographs of searching the Keramunting in Bengkulu

The Amazing Sound of DOL - Traditional Drum From Bengkulu

Dol is a traditional music instrument from Bengkulu-Indonesia. It is a typical of percussion instrument which shaped like a big drum. Dol is made of wood which is pierced in the middle and then covered with cow husk. Its diameter is about 70 - 125 cm, and its beater appliance has 5 cm in diameter and 30 cm in length. The way of using it is by lapping it.

Cast Net Throwing at Sungai Hitam River Bengkulu

Cast net throwing at Sungai Hitam (Black River) Bengkulu -Indonesia

Maybe this is the fastest method in catching the fish. A cast net (Indonesian Language called jala) is very common for Indonesian fishermen or fishing hobbyist  as a mean to catch fishes from the shallow and free of obstruction water.  A basic cast net is a circular net with weighted edges. The net is attached to a line so that it can be retrieved, and another line is attached to a drawstring which can be used to pull the net closed, trapping fish inside. It is operated by throwing it  in such manner  that it could spread out on the water, sink and trap the catch. Anything could be catched by cast net as long as the size of the catch is bigger than its mesh