to the late master rapper francis m, but this sign in arayat, pampanga made me laugh.
Saturday, February 13
Wednesday, January 6
of butchers, murders and food
By this time of the year, the brown shrike rules our backyard. Only the yellow-vented bulbuls are brave enough to visit our garden with the brown shrike patrolling the yard from his strategic perches: the clothesline running across the yard, the rose bush, the bagawak. But his favorite perch is the kafir lime bush which my mom planted to flavor her thai cooking. The kafir lime is planted in the center of the garden against the back wall. It is a thorny bush and is proof of why the brown shrike is often called the butcher bird.
Quite the gourmand, our brown shrike and i seem to share another of my garden favorites: frogs! Frogs for me to watch (out for), frogs for him to eat! Having a raptor-like beak is not enough for the brown shrike to tear apart its meals: its feet are too small and weak to hold its prey that it has to impale its prey so it can deftly cut up its food into bite-sized pieces. During the Christmas break i espied our nasty little boarder on the kafir lime relishing something bloody on its beak. As soon as it flew off to inspect something else which caught its fancy, I did my own investigating. At first I couldn’t make out what I was looking at…
and then I realized: it was a little tree frog’s head!
Well, what was left of the head. It was not so delicately skewered through its eye socket, a thorn pushing out one of its eyeballs. Oh yum.
I was careful not to disturb our backyard boarder’s crime scene/dinner table and backed off. As soon as I was what the shrike probably presumed a safe distance away, it
immediately came back, looked at me suspiciously and proceeded to finish its meal.
To my surprise, he jumped to another branch and another and another, where he seemed to have stocked up on other frog parts! A leg here, another leg there, something I couldn’t figure out elsewhere. Sly bird! Like his name-sake he had divided the carrion into several choice cuts and distributed them throughout the plant! As soon as he had gorged himself, he took a long look at me (“ha! I ate everything, nothing left for you to steal!”) and took off. Feeling stupid for having missed body parts, I made another careful inspection of the thorny bush. Wow, this bird kept quite a larder! There was an entire desiccated frog skeleton hung out to dry! Probably the remains of a previous meal. Such a high calorie diet has fattened up our brown shrike who will be going on its long journey back north in a few months.
Quite the gourmand, our brown shrike and i seem to share another of my garden favorites: frogs! Frogs for me to watch (out for), frogs for him to eat! Having a raptor-like beak is not enough for the brown shrike to tear apart its meals: its feet are too small and weak to hold its prey that it has to impale its prey so it can deftly cut up its food into bite-sized pieces. During the Christmas break i espied our nasty little boarder on the kafir lime relishing something bloody on its beak. As soon as it flew off to inspect something else which caught its fancy, I did my own investigating. At first I couldn’t make out what I was looking at…
and then I realized: it was a little tree frog’s head!
I was careful not to disturb our backyard boarder’s crime scene/dinner table and backed off. As soon as I was what the shrike probably presumed a safe distance away, it
immediately came back, looked at me suspiciously and proceeded to finish its meal.
Hmph, did it think I was going to steal its prized catch? (Anyway, I would’ve thought the eyeballs would be very tasty and it really shouldn’t leave the best things for last.)
The entire affair has added to my list of “why it’s nice to have frogs in the garden even if they jump out at you from nowhere”. (Also another list: “why all the other birds are afraid to come to the garden from September to April”)
King of the backyard patrolling from the clothesline... for now.
P.S. A week later, we were having lunch at the famous Cely’s near the Nepo Mart in Angeles City and one of my cousins ordered betute (dressed frog stuffed with minced meat). I couldn’t help but remember our backyard boarder who prefers frogs on his menu as well.
Monday, December 14
red rafts - 3 years after...
i've always believed in balancing work with play and was glad that the mbb ra's arranged for cdo white-water rafting after the psbmb rev-up and convention in bukidnon early this month.
i was even more glad to know that they arranged it with red rafts (www.theredrafts.com) the same company that took me on my first (and only, before this) white-water adventure on the same river 3 years ago!
in 2006, tere and alex, adri and i took a trip to camiguin and cagayan de oro. because alex had to be called to work because of some ship disaster, it was only adri, tere and i who went ahead with white-water rafting. even if i'm quite sure i started the morning with a bit of apprehension, at the end of our 12 km, 14 rapids beginners' course, i was looking for more!
it was quite an experience and i recall seeing the silvery kingfisher after our first rapids, jumping into the river during stretches of still water, having lunch in the middle of the tour, and the adrenalin rush of shooting the rapids! it turned out to be one of my must-try activities recommended to all my travel- and adventure-loving friends.
so this year, even if i was excited about going through the adventure again, i didn't think it would be so different from 3 years ago. haha! to my delight, i was wrong.
we were fetched at our hotel early sunday morning. (well, it wasn't as early as if we were going birding, but after being on a bus for half the day and most of the evening the day before, 7:30am felt like 4:30am). adri and i quickly chatted up one of our guides, glenn (laki), telling him about how much fun we had the last time asking about our past guides.
this time we were going to try the advanced course: 18 km and 22 (yes, twenty-two!) rapids. i was really looking forward to it!
when we got to the jump-off point i was a little disappointed to see so many people and so many rafts (not just red rafts). last time, we had the whole river to our selves, with only the large red rafts group practicing for an upcoming competition. fortunately, the number of people did not take anything away from the excitement of the experience, and doing the rapids in succession gave the next group more (or actually in some cases, less) courage. eventually during the course of the river, we would lose sight of the other rafts anyway.
the rapids were no less fun to run the second time around, in fact it was an even more exciting experience! this time, white-water rafting was more extreme (yes, it can get more extreme!), with set-ups being staged to make the rapids even more exciting. if my first time i didn't fall into the water once, this time, falling into the water was part of the experience! paddling upstream, sliding out of the raft, flipping the raft, standing on the raft while navigating rapids - all part of the fun and adrenalin rush. the first time i fell into the water, i think i must've swallowed more than a liter of river water, and i thought i was never going to surface! after the first fall, the idea of falling didn't seem so scary anymore! so yes, i fell in a couple of times more! (video is worth a thousand words: http://katrinket.multiply.com/video/item/29/riding_the_rapids) wearing a life vest and a helmet never felt more useful! later, when we were talking to one of the guides, richard (who was also there when we tried it in 2006), i commented on how different the approach was this time. to which he answered "oo, kasi dati and emphasis talaga safety". and to which i jokingly replied, " so ano ngayon, endangerment?" actually, i always felt safe the whole time, even with the set-ups. the twists and tricks really added to the adrenalin rush, fun and craziness of the whole experience.
i'm glad all of my raft-mates were game: adri, kino, xy-za, zee, myka, andoi and our guides glenn and tata. it made meeting the rapids head-on and the imminent being thrown in the river seem less crazy.
no silvery kingfisher this time, but two brahminy kites soaring above the river was a sight for everyone to enjoy.
after 4 hours on the river, we were still energized enough to paddle-race with the other raft (joey, biji, karen, me-ann, richter, anna) towards lunch: inihaw na manaok, halabos na hipon, pinakurat, rice, bananas and coke never tasted so good!
cagayan de oro river white water rafting: can't pass this one up! (go for red rafts)
2006: beginners' course: 14 rapids, 12 km, no spills!
2009: advanced course: 22 rapids, 18 km, 3 spills!
i will never forget: the sight of nothing but foaming water in front of my eyes.
i was even more glad to know that they arranged it with red rafts (www.theredrafts.com) the same company that took me on my first (and only, before this) white-water adventure on the same river 3 years ago!
it was quite an experience and i recall seeing the silvery kingfisher after our first rapids, jumping into the river during stretches of still water, having lunch in the middle of the tour, and the adrenalin rush of shooting the rapids! it turned out to be one of my must-try activities recommended to all my travel- and adventure-loving friends.
so this year, even if i was excited about going through the adventure again, i didn't think it would be so different from 3 years ago. haha! to my delight, i was wrong.
we were fetched at our hotel early sunday morning. (well, it wasn't as early as if we were going birding, but after being on a bus for half the day and most of the evening the day before, 7:30am felt like 4:30am). adri and i quickly chatted up one of our guides, glenn (laki), telling him about how much fun we had the last time asking about our past guides.
this time we were going to try the advanced course: 18 km and 22 (yes, twenty-two!) rapids. i was really looking forward to it!
when we got to the jump-off point i was a little disappointed to see so many people and so many rafts (not just red rafts). last time, we had the whole river to our selves, with only the large red rafts group practicing for an upcoming competition. fortunately, the number of people did not take anything away from the excitement of the experience, and doing the rapids in succession gave the next group more (or actually in some cases, less) courage. eventually during the course of the river, we would lose sight of the other rafts anyway.
the rapids were no less fun to run the second time around, in fact it was an even more exciting experience! this time, white-water rafting was more extreme (yes, it can get more extreme!), with set-ups being staged to make the rapids even more exciting. if my first time i didn't fall into the water once, this time, falling into the water was part of the experience! paddling upstream, sliding out of the raft, flipping the raft, standing on the raft while navigating rapids - all part of the fun and adrenalin rush. the first time i fell into the water, i think i must've swallowed more than a liter of river water, and i thought i was never going to surface! after the first fall, the idea of falling didn't seem so scary anymore! so yes, i fell in a couple of times more! (video is worth a thousand words: http://katrinket.multiply.com/video/item/29/riding_the_rapids) wearing a life vest and a helmet never felt more useful! later, when we were talking to one of the guides, richard (who was also there when we tried it in 2006), i commented on how different the approach was this time. to which he answered "oo, kasi dati and emphasis talaga safety". and to which i jokingly replied, " so ano ngayon, endangerment?" actually, i always felt safe the whole time, even with the set-ups. the twists and tricks really added to the adrenalin rush, fun and craziness of the whole experience.
i'm glad all of my raft-mates were game: adri, kino, xy-za, zee, myka, andoi and our guides glenn and tata. it made meeting the rapids head-on and the imminent being thrown in the river seem less crazy.
no silvery kingfisher this time, but two brahminy kites soaring above the river was a sight for everyone to enjoy.
after 4 hours on the river, we were still energized enough to paddle-race with the other raft (joey, biji, karen, me-ann, richter, anna) towards lunch: inihaw na manaok, halabos na hipon, pinakurat, rice, bananas and coke never tasted so good!
cagayan de oro river white water rafting: can't pass this one up! (go for red rafts)
2006: beginners' course: 14 rapids, 12 km, no spills!
2009: advanced course: 22 rapids, 18 km, 3 spills!
i will never forget: the sight of nothing but foaming water in front of my eyes.
Thursday, November 19
guaiabero galore
i had such a horrible work week (not my classes but something else) last week, that i was itching to go somewhere far, far away from the office. by some serendipitous event, lydia called for butterfly watching at subic (which of course is really birdwatching, especially since the dragontail season was at its tail end), and nestor kindly offered adri and me a ride.
because it was "butterfly-watching", we arrived at subic with the sun shining, but i was still surprised by the birdi-ness. whiskered tree-swifts, woodpeckers, a pompadour green pigeon,a chinese goshawk, parrots (lots! colasisi, guaiabero, blue-naped and raquet-tail) dollarbirds, a serpent eagle, cuckoo-shrikes, ashy minivets, coletos, etc., etc. made for easy birding (again, i think that the label "butterfly-watching" contributed to this).
there were several tigbi (a type of fig) trees in fruit, and after a wonderful lunch with tina and wency, lydia, bob and cynthia, and nestor... we discovered one by our favorite after-lunch hangout. the shrill calls of the guaiaberos constantly rang out inspite of it being mid-day. there was even a female tarictic carefully hopping from branch to branch eating its fill of fruit.
i love guaiaberos. to me, they fall under the category "cute" (yes, right up there with the philippine falconet). what's not to love? one, they are chunky, little balls which whiz past like green bullets. two, they're parrots! parrots have such personality! i love watching parrots (big or small) walking along branches, gingerly grabbing the branch with each foot while walking sideways or up. three, they are fascinated with their food. yup, whether munching on flowers or fruit, they can be be so engrossed with eating that they become oblivious to your presence. four, you may hear them, but you won't necessarily spot them. these little green balls literally melt into the foliage... don't take your eyes of them or it may be now-you-see-'em-now-you-don't. just the challenge which can keep you staring at a tree for hours. which leads me to reason #5: they could be kermit the frog singing "it's not easy being green".
(and... while frantically searching for noisy but-hard-to-see guaiaberos, what would fly out of the tree but a small flock of pompadour green pigeons. yes, green, big and also with invisibility powers.)
anyway, the couple of hours i spent staring at these almost-invisible birds were enough to give me my birding fix that would carry me through this work week.
(lala, if you're reading this... this is for you. parrots in subic always remind me of you now. ☺ thanks to adri for letting me use his new toy)
there were several tigbi (a type of fig) trees in fruit, and after a wonderful lunch with tina and wency, lydia, bob and cynthia, and nestor... we discovered one by our favorite after-lunch hangout. the shrill calls of the guaiaberos constantly rang out inspite of it being mid-day. there was even a female tarictic carefully hopping from branch to branch eating its fill of fruit.
(and... while frantically searching for noisy but-hard-to-see guaiaberos, what would fly out of the tree but a small flock of pompadour green pigeons. yes, green, big and also with invisibility powers.)
anyway, the couple of hours i spent staring at these almost-invisible birds were enough to give me my birding fix that would carry me through this work week.
(lala, if you're reading this... this is for you. parrots in subic always remind me of you now. ☺ thanks to adri for letting me use his new toy)
Tuesday, November 17
camaro for dinner
anyway, when i got home, my mom was waiting for us with a dinner treat: camaro for dinner! camaro - not the car, but mole crickets! adobong camaro... yummy.
camaro is a pampangueño delicacy. in season, the crickets come out of the dry ground when the farmers stamp the fields with their feet. the crickets are caught, wings (and a few legs) pulled out (other parts as well i suppose), then it's straight to the pot to make adobong crickets.
ok, so mole crickets cooked with vinegar and toyo might not be for everyone. it was definitely not for me when i was much younger! my mother had made the mistake of describing the taste of camaro as "it's good! when you bite it a creamy, tasty fluid will come out". not exactly the description you would tell visually-oriented persons. of course i would describe it as: very tasty. like crunchy, tasty adobo. or simply: mmmm... yum.
excuse me while i fish out a cricket leg caught between my teeth...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)