I can finally confirm a kind of bird I've been seeing the last few years is not a rare species of vulture, but actually a great hornbill.
🫷 First, Some Kitty Overload 🐈⬛
The rainy season is starting to return to the Cardamom Mountains here in Cambodia, and with that has come a burst of life, from the insects all the way up to gibbons and birds, everything is coming back to life and the wildfires are slowly being snuffed out. Apparently ChairWoman Meow was too young to fully remember how intense the rainy season can be here.
Some mild rain today triggered some fears in my little kitty, and she came running at with claws extending and violently meowing to be rescued, so I put her in my lap until she fell asleep and transferred her to the bed so I could continue my ASEAN Hive work. It's nice to be at work on the computer and turn around see Ms. Meow just living her best life, sleeping and purring after being calmed down.
🐸 The Tree Frogs Return 🌳
When the rainy season returns, so do the tree frogs, and they don't seem interested in trees, but rather just about any location inside the cabin or house. It's not uncommon to wake up in the middle of the night to a cold wet smack on the face, either a tree frog falling from the rafters or a tree frog jumping onto the bed from another random location in the bedroom. I still prefer a tree frog falling on my face than a tiny hot fresh gecko turd, the struggle is real when you have a porous roof and no ceiling.
🔭 My Closest Great Hornbill Encounter 🦤
I guess I have a decent office when I can see rare wildlife in the background behind my monitor. There has been a bird that I've been seeing for the last two years, but the distance has always been so great that I assumed it was some kind of an uncommon vulture species. Even though the bird has always remained far away and elusive, on several occasions I've heard the wings pushing air, and it is far from quiet, dare I say kind of haunting. As I work on the computer I'm always scanning the forest for a gibbon sighting, but today I saw something that looked like a piece of driftwood high in the trees.
I walked to the balcony to investigate further and realized it was some kind of massive bird, and when the bird turned a bit, it resembled a toucan very much. I didn't know what I was looking at in the moment, but I tried to move carefully on the balcony and not make the floor squeak too much while taking pics and videos. When the bird took flight I immediately heard the wings and realized this was the bird I've been seeing high in the sky the last few years. I never realized how colorful it was because I was usually looking up in the sky at them.
Although just on the other side of the river and easy to see with the naked eye, my phone camera pictures don't do very good justice in showing the beauty of this bird. I was just lucky I had my phone nearby and was able to catch a few glimpses of this bird hopping from tree to tree. I only know it was a great hornbill now thanks to some internet research.
At first I was thinking I witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, buy my research informed these birds are threatened but not rare or endangered. Regardless of that info, they are rare here, so I won't be notifying any neighbors of this sighting because the local Cambodians believe threatened species' meat provides is basically a panacea, able to cure a wide range of ailments and restores sexual vigor.
Well, that's all for now folks, life has been stressful lately because my wife's US Visa interview is going forward while the our daughters' cases have been mishandled, so it's likely we'll face a family separation this summer, possibly with my wife going to the USA alone while I stay behind in Cambodia and take care of our daughters, and good old bureaucracy is to thank for that.
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Northern Thailand is now polluted. The atmosphere is now full of pollution (PM 2.5). I am fascinated and need your nature and animals now. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day friend.
Yes, I think here the air is a little better because there are only 40 villagers. However, there are a lot of wildfires here in the dry season, and this makes the air quality very bad.
Many times the behavior of the meow apparently, we have to preserve nature so that it is better because all of them and others will live peacefully in their green environment.
I think that's a bird my kitty would've been terrified to have seen across the river, haha. She seems to be aware that death from above is a possibility here, so many hawks and other predator birds here.
haha so sorry to see the poor cat😊
Those things are cool. There is an island off the west coast of Thailand called Koh Phayam and they have them in great numbers. What a wild looking bird!
I have definitely heard their wing flapping sound in other parts of the country in a few places, but the birds were always too far away for me to be certain. This sighting left no doubt, and I'll take that over seeing a cobra in the river any time.
What surprised me a lot is to find out that this huge bird only weighs 2 to 4 Kg, apparently
I would've never even imagined they are that light. I guess they gotta be light to flap their wings so slowly and achieve flight, incredible.
I told it to my niece and nephew and asked them to guess the weight. They didn't think it would weigh less than 30kgs. It sure intrigued my nephew.
Nice to hear that they flap their wings slowly. Makes sense then.
I was also surprised to see it jumping several meters from tree to tree instead of flying.
There is a big forest, there are very good living animals. We should conserve all the wild animals.
Yes it so beautiful, but Cambodia does not want to protect its forest, so I am just thankful to enjoy it before it is gone forever.
Bureaucracy seems to keep haunting you(r family) but the wildlife out there sure is breathtaking ✨ 🤗
So frustrating to think that now my wife will have to possibly face leaving the three of us behind and go to the USA on her own, or just stay here and let her visa expire. Either way is not ideal, she has no desire to go the USA without us, but this is how my country is mishandling their cases.
It is indeed a beautiful place where we live, and even though it's a wildlife sanctuary, the government does little to protect, and even profits from awarding large tracts of land to rich and powerful citizens. Cambodia's forests are nearly all gone, and I can't imagine any wilderness here existing in the next 20 years at the current rate of destruction.
I'm not sure if my kitty is scared of the rain. Last season she was okay, but I just think she was so young that she's forgotten. I assume all will be fine after we have a couple more rains and she gets accustomed to it again. She'll also have to get used to eating more insects and less tiny lizards and mammals with the return of the rains.
Long story with our visa situation. We aren't allowed to legally marry in Cambodia, so around five years ago we went to South America to get legally married, hoping to return to Cambodia with some more civil rights. However, COVID closed the borders and we were stranded there for three years, unable to return to Cambodia or go to the USA, so we began the immigration process there after being stuck two years, thinking the only way out would be US Immigration.
Now we've already paid the money, but it's been one hurdle after another, and now the US government has mishandled our daughters' cases and it appears my wife have to go on her own. We only really wanted to visit for a few weeks, but the tourist visa is too hard to get. So ironically my wife will now have to go alone somewhere she doesn't want to be and be there without her family. I am so angry at my government for the way they have handled our US visas.