The rain that started last night were lasting till morning. It was about at dawn,when we were woke up by Mbak Ike at
around 4 am. She shouted out loud pointing at the ground to inform about the rising water from the river. Yes it was
flooding, the water was rising up to 4-5 metres from the normal level of the river and totally flooded the camp. I was still struggling to wake up, retrieving my soul from my dream world.
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Involved in a serious conversation,
feels like nothing has happened |
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| We were sleeping here a few hours ago |
Everyone was busy saving and packing their stuffs out of the water. All electronic
devices were lifted and transported using Ces (motor-boat) to a higher ground, close to
helipad. Some of them already drowned and wet. Whilst the water level kept rising, it was
under my knee at 4 am, and at 6 am had reached my waist and flooded the rest of
the camp. That includes our bed which were made from plastic-sack which are
supported by woods. Mas Adi, the camp manager stated that this was the worst
flooding ever in this camp.
That day we spent only for saving and
moving stuffs around the camp to escape the water. Moreover, it was the
flowering season, so thousands and thousands school of bees, wasps, flies were bothering
us, looking for sweet smell things and even perched in our clothes with full of our sweats which were not sweet anyway. So, no place was safe that time, water was
occupying all over the place, while the air was full of armies of bees,
wasp, flies and other insects. Sadly, each of us got stung more than once in almost everyday by the wasps or the bees. Even more, some animals such as fossorial and
water snakes, lizards, and even scorpions and spiders were floating and
swimming all over the places, going out from their lairs down there. We had to be cautioned when we walked around the
camp, so scary.
However, the good thing was when we found several herpetofauna during the
flooding, 6 individual of two different species of Calamaria sp, one Xenopeltis
unicolor, and two Eutrophis ruddis. Most of the calamaria were found climbing or
hanging on something on the surface of water, most of them were caught by Jhon. I saw the
rainbow snake (Xenopeltis unicolor) went inside the logs close to camp, while two
Eutrophis ruddis possibly male based on the colouration on their throat were
climbing in a tree quite close to our sitting place.
The water level slowly decreased during midday until the afternoon. Everyone was busy looking for their thongs or
sandals and boots which were carried away by flood. Fortunately, it all stuck
in around the shrubs which was close to the camp, but mixed with muds and litters. I got my sandals quite far from the camp, and spent two days to look for it.
Eventually, we had to go for herping that night, we got to transect four. We found the leaf litter along transect four was fully covered by the very thick muds so we hardly find the frogs especially leaf litter ones. Some of the frogs maybe wiped out during the flood. But at least we discovered two species of frogs (Rana Picturata and Limnonectes palapanensis), and one species of reptiles (two individual of cyrtodactyllus maleanus) in that transect.
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| Cyrtodactylus malayanus, crawling in a root of a big tree |
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| Limnonectes palavanensis in a leaf litter covered by muds |
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| Hylarana picturata was located in a higher ground which was not covered by muds |
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| Stick insect |
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| Red backed kingfisher (Ceyx
rufidorsa) |
During observation, we also saw a quite big stick
insect, hanging in a tree located in the same transect that night. The rain
seemed getting down very soon and we
were still afraid that tonight the water level will be increased and flooded the
camp again. So we were hurried back to camp. As soon as
arrived at camp, we were welcomed by Jhon because he wants to show us what he
have found, a king fisher which I forgot its name when Jhon mentioned it. It
could be Rufous backed Kingfisher or red backed kingfisher (Ceyx rufidorsa).
To be continued.....
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