Tasmania … Kuala Lumpur

I am home again.
I know, because I had to catch a frog in the kitchen last night and release it outside, because I was woken up by the mosque this morning, because there are bulbuls in the garden and house geckos on the ceiling.

We flew out from Launceston, and here are some of the photos from the wetland centre just out of town there, where we managed to get our Tasmanian birdlist up over the 100 mark with the addition of the Purple Swamphen and the Reed Warbler. Heard the grassbird, but didn’t see it, alas. Black Swans were nesting all over the place!

This is a lovely area, manned by volunteers. I tried, years ago, to get authorities in Malaysia interested in doing something similar in my own area where we had a lovely swampy place. I once counted 21 bird species in half an hour without moving myself from one spot. And that was just birds. There was other wildlife – tortoises, butterflies, lizards and so on. It is a housing estate now, sans park of course.

The whole of Kuala Lumpur with its millions of people in the greater metropolitan area – once surrounded by swamp parkland teeming with life – has nothing like this. Launceston, with its tiny population, can do better than a huge rich metropolis like Kuala Lumpur. Here we have roads and hoardings, noise and pollution and much ugliness instead.

Wildlife and biodiversity has no value here unless it brings in money. And swamps are seen as ugly, full of dangerous things like mosquitoes and snakes.


Comments

Tasmania … Kuala Lumpur — 3 Comments

  1. But Glenda I never heard a thing about being Noramlyed!!!!!

    Must admit I am not too keen on mosquito swamps either. Not enough to destroy them tho.

  2. Ah, you were just down the road from me, you must have driven past!!! Those wetlands are great, last year the flood reached the height of the road it was so wet. There is another bird sanctuary half an hour further up the valley too.
    We do sometimes frond frogs in the creek and puddles at the dam.
    Yes, J is right, was there any Noramlysation??? Glad you enjoyed the island state!!

  3. I wasn't Noramlyed at all. But husband was. He was travelling at the same time in the opposite direction…

    You live in a truly lovely place, 2paw.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.