Blooms at the Nature Park - Jan 2011

After looking at the Wildlife in Kuala Selangor Nature Park, let's admire the flowers offered there.

Above are some 'flying flowers' busy sipping away at the Kuala Selangor Nature Park.
According to Commander from Butterflies of Singapore, who is an expert in butterflies, the first one is called a Blue Glassy Tiger and the second one, a Long Banded Silverline.

Most of the wild flowers were white.

Although they were not very showy, the butterflies seem to adore them.

Perhaps these flowers were bursting with untainted, juicy nutrients.

According to Donna of Garden Walk Garden Talk in her latest Garden Magazine, white is a great place to give the eye a rest.

Yellow was as popular as white in this park. 

There was even a blanket of yellow flowers on the ground.

But the butterflies must have found white a lot more relaxing.

Do you know that lantana is a weed?

Isn't this the kind of weed we really wouldn't mind growing in the garden?

What are your favourite weeds and wildflowers?

For more blooms, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Wildlife in Kuala Selangor Nature Park

Though I complained about missing many of the wildlife in my Nature Park post, I did manage to capture a few poor photos of some of the wildlife in Kuala Selangor.

Above are creatures living in the mud flats and mangrove forest.

They include mud skippers, blue crab, red crab, king fisher, water monitor lizard and some dead snails.

There were otters too.

This Brackish Lake System was created for birds to roost and feed. 

It also acts as a safe nesting area for many birds.

We could see huge birds with their nests on the trees.

Unfortunately I didn't have a suitable camera and my shots of the hawks and migratory birds turned out to be merely specks of white or black in the sky.

Finally I found a hawk that stool really still and managed to snap a photo at a close distance.

This shot came out a lot better than then the woodpecker shot. 

The wood pecker hid its head behind branches each time I clicked so I had to settle with this friendly hawk.

Red ants build a nest with leaves. 

One of them decided to hitch a ride on my back after I took this shot.

I thought the spider was kind of artistic with its web weaving.

Figs and ferns were abundant. 

Why are there holes and teeth marks on the tree trunks?

The berry photos above are before and after shots.

There is one photo which I took before using the mosquito repellent.

As you can see, the mosquito repellent made a lot of difference to the quality of macros.

Can you imagine gazillions of hungry blood suckers attached to your body?

If you decide to visit Kuala Selangor's Nature Park, you know what to bring with you.

Thankfully for us, a pharmacy was just within 300 metres away from the place.

....to be continued.

Nature Park

Here are some of the panoramic views of Kuala Selangor Nature Park.

  The Park of 800 acres shelters a wide variety of habitats.

The Park plays an important role in conservation.

It is a sanctuary for many mammals and birds including migratory shore birds.

So where are all the mammals and birds?

See the bunch of red-shirt mammals in front of my trail?

They enjoyed all the beautiful wildlife at close view.
Not wanting me to miss the beauty of wildlife, they kept yelling at me to hurry up and admire what they saw.

Each time I caught up with them, all I get is a description of a huge water monitor lizard or gigantic insect that they saw.

....to be continued.

Just to add, after reading an article about Sustainable Horticulture written by Patty of Gardening Pomona, I appreciate the Nature Park even more. Patty mentioned that cities and communities should be built with animals in mind since obviously they need food, shelter and water like us.  Creating animal corridors in cities and at areas linking cities and towns will be a solution to provide space for animals whose homes have been taken over my human and where Nature Parks are too far away for these animals to migrate to.

I am thankful that we still have many Nature Parks around in Malaysia.