 |
15/08/04
20:38 Bat Shoot #1:
Tonight we are out shooting bats with Kwok Wai. |
 |
15/08/04
20:46 Bat Shoot #2:
This must the most relaxed and civilised "field" trip ever. Literally
just sitting down and letting the bats do all the work. |
 |
15/08/04
20:54 Bat Shoot #3:
The bats have come to feed on the fruiting chiku trees in this very
urban setting. They are flying around quietly in flocks like little
black butterflies. Most people would probably have missed them, but
not eagle-eyed Kwok Wai! |
 |
15/08/04
20:59 Bat Shoot #4:
Kwok Wai is getting really good shots while I am struggling with my
set-up which is designed more for taking flatworms moving at...well...snail's
pace ;-) than bats zooming around at hundred miles per hour. Also,
those bats at high up and far far away. Might as well be on the moon.
|
 |
15/08/04 21:16
Bat Shoot #5:
The bats have fed and stopped flying. They are apparently are now
hanging about (literally) in the upper branches, digesting. So it's
time to pack up everything. For a change, all the cameras are pointing
upwards instead of downwards. Alas, I've got absolutely ZERO decent
shots. Kwok Wai, however, has lots and will be posting
these up on his website.
|
 |
16/08/04
19:21 Bat Shoot #6:
Today the wildfilms crew is here to try document the bats. It's a
lovely sunset and Tom got great footage of it. |
 |
16/08/04
19:58 Bat Shoot #7:
The bats were back and having a great time. We discreetly filmed one
particular chiku and realised, wow, the bats are SMALLER than the
chiku. It took about half an hour and lots of bats taking turns before
half the chiku was eaten.
Posted
by kllow14 Posted on 18/08/04 13:39 Wow, they also have
sharing and caring ideas instead of just wack food. COOL!!
Posted by Ria Posted on 18/08/04 14:30
Actually, they just "wack food". But because they are so tiny,
I guess there's only so much chiku they can stuff into their
mouths before they need to go off and digest. So the next one
just comes in grabs a bite. Sometimes, there appears to be arguments
by impatient bats who think the one on the chiku has had enough.
Posted by voyager Posted on 19/08/04 00:55
Should see them just take each other off the chiku... By crashing
into the poor sap eating there! |
|
 |
16/08/04
20:23 Bat Shoot #8:
Filming is a lot easier than taking photos (though Tom will kill me
for saying this :-) Just lock the frame and let it roll. The person
we should feel sorry for is the one holding the lights.
Posted
by kllow14 Posted on 18/08/04 13:40
Yeah, buy more ice creams then....;P
Posted by Ria Posted on 18/08/04 14:28
Yah, that's one way to make sure I don't get scolding from the
crew :-)
Posted by Himawari Posted on 18/08/04 16:42
But it is worth the neck ache just looking at them feed......they
look so cute when they hugged the chiku. :o)
Posted by voyager Posted on 19/08/04 00:55
Yah... And the way that the chiku that they were eating is actually
LARGER than them.... |
|
 |
16/08/04
22:26 Bat Shoot #9:
We're back home and it's time to pack up for tomorrow's early morning
trip...but before we knock off for the night, let's check out our
bat footage!! |
 |
16/08/04
23:18 Bat Shoot #10:
Wow! Awesome footage of bats stuffing their faces INTO their food
(and WITH food). This is a shot of the video screen. The bright portions
on the upper and lower right are the number displays on the video.
The actual shot is really quite dark as we didn't want to disturb
the bats feeding. |
 |
17/08/04
20:03 Bat Shoot #11 (last):
We're BACK, with ALL the BIG equipment to properly document those
cute little bats. Here is Tom trying to collect their animated "discussions"
over the chikus. The bats were still at it tonight. And in the end,
there were more than enough chikus for every one :-)
Posted
by kllow14 Posted on 18/08/04 13:45
Bat 1 - Wow this chiku taste nice, better than the ones in AMK.
Bat 2 - Really, come on let me have a taste of it too. You can
have a quiz. How many bats it takes to eat 1 chiku?
Posted by Ria Posted on 18/08/04 14:26
You really crack me up :-) Where does this wonderful humour
come from?...Actually, the conversation is probably more like
"hey, it's MY turn on the chiku"; "says who?"; and as Bat 1
and Bat 2 fly off to discuss this further, Bat 3 swoops in to
chomp off a mouthful going "yummy!". (of course, this is a PG
rated site, so we don't add what we strongly suspect are stronger
adjectives and nouns used in the conversation :-)
Posted by Ria Posted on 18/08/04 14:26
The quiz is a wonderful idea!!
Posted by Huziah Posted on 18/08/04 18:38
I have a chiku tree in my backyard garden. The bats attack them
boldly after 7pm. We used to not hear them now we can very clearly.
We have never gotten to eating any of the ripe chikus. In the
daytime, the crows sneak into our kitchen while our silly Burmese
cat hide in terror while the crows pick on his food! How's that
for living with nature???
Posted by kllow14 Posted on 18/08/04 23:59
If you really want to eat the ripe chikus, then you will have
to defend them while they are still growing. When I was growing
up, my father would wrap the fruits that he wanted to protect
in newspaper or plastic bags, and ensure that there was a way
for any water that condenses in there to flow out. But then,
that worked with mangoes, and we were never fans of chikus very
much.... Posted by voyager Posted on 19/08/04 00:52 Hurray to
Huziah for also supporting the cause for nature too. Burmese
cats are usually shy in nature if i am not wrong.
Posted by Ria Posted on 19/08/04 01:12
In defending our chikus, do spare a thought for the bats and
leave a few for them yah? :-) Besides being really very cute,
bats play a very important role in general. Various different
kinds of bats play a role in pollinating our favourite fruits
like durians, dispersing seeds of our forest trees and thus
regenerating our forests, eating mossies and other nasty bugs.
And of course other animals eat bats. Without bats, our world
will be so much poorer in spirit and in substance :-) |
|
wildsingapore
home
