Lost in the Woods:👽 Wildlife Hunter

Hello everyone 🤠 How's your day? It's Mac once again, welcomes you to my new adventure. The rain is pouring, the sun is hiding. Today, It feels bored at home. As the rain stopped, I went strolling down the woods.

It's more than 8 hectares of forest. I'm quite familiar with the place because this is owned by my boss and we've been here several times. But now, I'm here alone just to challenge myself. I'm hoping to discover a wild life for this visit. As I walked down the wild, it was dark and scary. I then decided to roam around and find some mollusk/tree snails for lunch.
FYI: Mollusks/Tree Snails might be disgusting to eat but they're too clean. They won't survive once fallen down from the tree. They only ate leaves. Even Their intestines were traditionally used as treatment for Asthma/Tuberculosis.

Can you spot the mollusks?

The ground is wet and muddy. I just heard the sound of the stream water flowing down the mountain. Before I got there I almost slid and bumped into the hornet bee's hive on the ground. I was startled and slowly climbed up afraid of being noticed by its armies. Luckily I escaped and continued my journey.

Hornet bees are considered as one of our enemies in the wild. They could sting us with venom or something that may result in having a fever if our immune system can't resist. A single sting is enough for you to feel a burning sensation and swelling of the skin. If unluckily stung at the head for at least 5 times, you could die. That's how harmful a hornet bee is.

Anyway, I kept on walking with my eyes looking up and down attentively. I looked up to find some snails and looked down to make sure I stepped on a safe place. I also need to be careful not to step on snakes or whatever scary👽. All my senses were working every time.

Every now and then, I can see millipedes on the ground. Whenever I see it, I won't get near. I know it's also dangerous. It sprays poisonous substance that could stain and burn your skin and even blind your eyes. I have a childhood friend who has experienced this. He played these arthropods because it will roll its body once touched. With that, he suffered the consequence until now. His face has light black pigments.

As I walk down the steep mountain, the surroundings gradually turn darker. Heavy clouds started to completely occupy the sky again.

I then realized it's going to be more challenging. On the other hand, I felt excited. I missed strolling around the wild in heavy rainfall. I know that tree snails will climb down during the rain, so it'll not be difficult for me to reach them. Unfortunately, the wind clears the clouds. There's no rain. I then reached the first stream and washed my feet.

I was amazed by how the water creates a design on the surface of the rocks as it flows down like a mini waterfall. Nature is truly amazing. From then, I continued climbing up hoping to get more mollusks. At about 70-100 meters away from the stream, I saw something that caught my attention. It's a kind of fungus that grows mostly in an area where sunlight is rarely seen.

At first, I thought it was decayed already since its structure looks like it started to rot. But when I touched it with a stick, it was hard and just grown. I didn't touch it with my hands because I'm not sure if it's safe or not.. when I got home, I searched it via Google lens and found out its name.

It is indeed a fungi commonly called as stinkhorn. Some terms include bamboo mushrooms, bamboo pith, long net stinkhorn, bridal veil, or veiled lady. It's a fungus in a family of Phallaceae. In Cebuano, we call it generally as "ohong"😂. This kind of thing is not the same with those we cooked and ate. We thought that this is poisonous. In other countries, they made a recipe out this. Sometimes, they add this to some dishes to enhance the presentation/plating. Who would've thought that this is not poisonous after all? Even then, I still not suggest for you to cook and eat this thing unless you've tried it yourself in the past😁.

Moving on, as I reached at the top of that steep mountain, I smiled as I smelled the breeze coming from the wide cogon grass field.

Cogon is one of the major serious problems of farmers in the Philippines and even in South Africa and Australia. This kind of grass is hard to deal with because the root itself is a perfect reserve for a newly grown grass. This is also one of our problem here. My boss wants to reforest this cogon field. It's more than a decade that we tried to plant Coconut trees, Mahogany, timber trees and other fruit-bearing trees but during summer, the cogon grass will be burned and everything we planted will be burned too.

Anyway, I went ahead and experienced an itchy walk through the grass aiming to reach the forest across. Cogon has a finely serrated leaves that could slit your skin or irritate you upon contact, but I had a high tolerance on grass allergies so I didn't mind passing through it.
After a short while, I realized it's passed 12:00 already and I need to head back. On my way home, I noticed something strange under the pile of rocks. There's an inviting dark hole. So, I went ahead and have a look. As I got near, I turned on my phone's flashlight to clearly see what's inside. Then I realized it's a bee hive.

Unfortunately, it was abandoned, No honey, no bees, nothing left except for the hives. I think someone might sprayed something in there to poison and make them evacuate. It was not my luck yet😁. So I continued rushing home to cook for my lunch. Anyway, for all the sacrifices I've been through, I only got few mollusks😢.

I planned to blog it but it's not worthy so, I changed my mind😂 maybe next time😁.

For this adventure, I didn't regret because I discovered something In the wild which is the main goal. That's all for this blog. I hope you learned something just as I did. Thanks for reading, have a pleasant day ahead. Till next time hivers, Adios!

Disclaimer: all the photos presented were mine and edited via Canva unless stated otherwise.