Saturday, December 29, 2007
yoz....
2nd day of feeling unwell
slept most of today....
dunno if tonight can sleep or not...haiz
because of the illness, had to miss chanbara today
just got my red belt but cannot wear it....wth
today is the 3rd or 4th day in a row my friends on msn have gone on strike and all never log on
wanted to talk about a trip to ECP tomorrow but guess thats not happening anymore...damn
on a different note, i have been throwing my HW aside these few days and tonight i must at least get my bio back to what it was before the hoildays
heck care about the chem HW already...
today i posting my day 3 reflections for EAGLES
enjoy...
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Day 3
I woke up at 0630 take in the clothing we hung up to dry as it was raining a little in the morning. After the short rain I went to wash up and prepare for the day’s activities. We gathered in the hall to start the morning PE activity. After warming up, we started a jog to the entrance of the farm which was a 15 minute walk from the hall. That jog was my first time jogging ever since school closed for the holidays. As I got to the gates of the farm along with the leading few people, I turned back to see a huge gap between us and the rest of the group. We waited for a while before jogging back to the hall for breakfast and meet up with everyone behind us on our way back to camp. Having a cup of hot milo after a long jog was heaven for me as I finished my breakfast and went to take a cold shower to wash off the sweat from the jog.
We went back to the vegetable plantation to collect back the traps we placed the day before and to do some active catching of the insects there. As it was my first time to the plantation, I have no idea what insects I might see as well as where to go to catch insects. We entered a tent like area where the vegetables are housed to look at the vegetables and find insects on the vegetables as well as insects flying around in the tents. The first thing I spotted was holes in the leaves of the vegetables and this is a sign that that leaf has been attacked by insects. Within the tent were a few dragonflies flying around and the group wanted to complete their dragonfly collection by catching a red dragonfly. I managed to trap it against the netting of the tent and my own net and went ahead to transferring it into a plastic vile. On the tent netting that I trapped the dragonfly was a little yellow colored ladybug with a strangely transparent wing casing. Even though it was an insect, almost everyone we ask, even the girls, found it very cute.
These two insects that we have caught were good to the plantation as they feed on insects that harm the plants. Dragonflies feed on small flying insects that might harm the plants ether by eating its leaves or drinking its sap. Ladybugs eat just aphid throughout their life and thus stop aphids from sucking the sap out of the plants and killing it.
The next insect we found was with the aid of the farmers spotting two small beetles on the long bean fruit. Transferring these two beetles was not an easy task as we could not use our fingers to push them into the vile as there were too small and we could not take the long bean off the plant or the farmers will be unhappy. In the end, we managed to make the beetles walk into the vile themselves and quickly closing it to prevent this prized catch from getting away. As it was one of the insects we found that is a pest to the farmers, it is more important to us that the pest controlling insect. Without it to prove that there are insects feeding on the vegetables, the other insects we have that feed on them will have little value to us. And our luck was wonderful enough for us to find an assassin bug in the very same plant we caught the beetles in. assassin bugs feed on other insects and act as pest control for the farmers. With this we have a predator and pray link between the insects we found.
As we went to collect our pitfall and light traps to see what we have caught, I caught a smaller red winged dragonfly with help from a friend. This one is different from the one we caught earlier as its wings were a transparent red where as the one before was just transparent. Another dragonfly added to our collection. The traps laid the day before gave us little results as in the farm area as there are very few large insects that are attracted to the smell of the bait and fall into the trap. The smaller ones can fly in and out with ease and ants can just climb down and up the sides of the jar. The light trap was not any better as the insects were just flying around the trap and not into the trap to be caught. The other light trap that was set up provided one small moth which we feel was a good catch considering how the other two traps failed to catch anything.
After another pitiful active catching section, we returned back to camp and planned out the afternoon’s activities. When the other insect group returned with a great number of catches and a pitfall jar full of forest cockroaches, we talked about how to take pictures of all the insects we have caught so far for the project. We spent lunch assigning roles to the people for the photographing later. I was to go along with another member into the forest to take GPS readings of the spots where we caught the insects and where we placed the traps.
Walking into the forest gave me hope of finding more insects that we have not caught. We went to the spots where we caught the earwig and small beetle to take GSP readings of the easting’s and northings as well as bearings of the spot. We did this for the three pitfall traps and the termite nest as we walked further into the forest towards the dam that the end.
To our surprise, our teacher in charge of the biology groups rode up to us on a bicycle and greeted us before falling off the bike right in front of the group. We hurried to her side to check if she was alright before most of the group left with her back to camp to have her wounds treated.
This leaves my other group member, the GPS reader and me the walk to the dam to take a reading of the spot. Along the way we talked about everything under the sun until the GPS reader spotted something running across the path under us and alerted us. We quickly put a net over it and transferred it into the vile and finally indentify it as a harvest spider. Even though it’s called a spider and has eight legs, it’s not one. It is of the same class as spiders and do not produce venom or silk.
After a long walk we finally reached the dam, we hurried to sit down to rest our legs. I was told that the dam provides all the power for the farm and all our electric needs from the camp. I was amazed at how this small dam could power the farm as well as everything in the camp. This really showed me the power of nature to provide us with so much.
After taking our readings of the dam, we made our way back to camp for the evening activities. The activity for us that day was the water obstacle course. As many of us have been to mawai and have done the obstacle course there, we knew what to do from the one. The logs used for the course here were thicker than the ones in mawai and we found it easier to get across this one as compared to the mawai obstacle course. The ropes used here were also thicker and thus made it easier for us to move on. All this made the Obstacle course very easy for some of us and many did not even get any water above the knee.
We were broken up into groups to try out the different challenges the course posed to us. This took about 45 minutes and we have tried all the different log crossings and rope walks the obstacle course had. Next up was a race to an island on the other side of the Obstacle course but we had to go through all the challenges of the Obstacle course at least once in order to win the race. The first group that makes it to the island had to send two people on a rife, a boy and girl, to rife their way back to the starting line.
As my group made our way through the Obstacle course, we became the first to finish the Obstacle course and make our way onto the island. The rife on the island was a rather small one but we just went ahead and got a girl onto the rife. I went into the water to push the rife off as my friend got on. As soon as the rife left land, it started to sink. It seems that the small rife cannot take the weight of 2 person and will sink. Since I was already wet from pushing the rife off, I took it on myself to be the boy needed and pull the rife to the starting line. But as I pulled the rife into an area with lotus, the spikes on the stocks of the lotus began to cut into my leg and I could not take the constant pain of walking in that area anymore. I climbed onto the rife but it started to sink back into the water again, and after that I climbed back onto and off the rife to stop it from sinking as well as keep my legs away from the spikes. I tried to use the bamboo pole given to us to push the stems down before walking over them, but this was slow and does not work well as I still get cuts from the spikes. In the end I decided to lie on the side of the rife and push off with the pole to move forward and towards the starting line. This got me wet as the rife was floating in the water rather than on it, but it was the most effective way to get to the starting line. After a great effort to reach the starting line, I clawed the rife and myself up onto land so the girl behind me did not have to do this kind of dirty work which is not fitting of a lady.
After this terrible rafting experience is over, we waited for the rest of the groups to make their way through the Obstacle course again to return to land and off to wash up before dinner. A plans to head out to do some active catching in the night with the LED light was thought up and we went ahead with it to test our luck in catching some night flying insects.
After taking a light snack before heading out at 2200, we headed to the duck rearing area to set up the LED light to attract insects to us. We took with us some nets, the LED light and a powerful touch and headed out into the darkness. The effectiveness of the LED light became known when we turned it on and within a few minutes, there were small flying insects swarming around the light like bees to honey. But these small insects were too small for our nets to catch as they will just fly right through the holes in the net. As we reached the duck rearing area, we relies that we did not bring the white cloth and some of the group had to return to camp to get it. In the mean time, the rest of the group stayed back and gazing into the clear night sky to look at stars and hopefully find spot a shooting star. We were spotting constellations and I was racking my brains trying to remember the stories behind the constellations and telling them to my fellow group mates. We did see a few shooting stars before the other group members return with the white cloth. We set up the LED light behind the white cloth to attract the insects. Within minutes, we found a small fly landing on the cloth and we caught it and contained it before returning to star gazing. The trip out at night was more star gazing than insect catching as most of us are constantly amazed that the number of stars that can be seen here but not in Singapore. The skies was filled with stars that kept our eyes glued onto and may have missed a few interesting insects that may have come visit us.
We headed back lighted by the powerful touch that brighten the whole road in front of us and brought us some sense of safety as we walk back to camp to head to bed and rest up for the night and get ready for tomorrow. We have ended the active catching for the whole camp and started taking photos of all the insects we have and identifying them.
Sleeping again in the sleeping bad brought warmth and some padding below me to give me a sound sleep throughout the night.
thats it for day 3
pictures will be posted up soon....i hope
died at
20:28
