Wildlife's coming home!
The days of atmospheric, cloud covered hills are upon us - hours, half days, days of clear blue sky and segmented by days of cloud and proper Chinese rain - everything is beautifully clean and warm, the wet season riverine migrants are here.
The eles are a muddy mess and as Plai Tawan's training hours take shape under the guidance of Khun Lord Nong Pleum remembers her scool days with ever more jealousy.
But this is just a short note to help my own memory to record some of the recent sightings on the home ponds, sightings not afforded by previous seasons.
The Red-whiskered Bulbul nesting outside the Rim Khong Ball Room and pictured in a previous mail has successfully hatched three chicks.
The pond beneath the Mae Sai wing has long been a haunt for our own domestic ducks and some of the less shy species of bird, noisily the Coucals, White-throated Kingfishers hunting there and a family of White-breasted Waterhens, but recently we have begun to see a Cinnamon Bittern in the foliage on the hotel side a pair of Pied Kingfishers hover hunting there - perhaps up from the river where several pairs have been successfully breeding for the last few years - and last night a Cormorant (not sure which subspecies as this bird watching goes on with a coffee cup not binoculars) chose the pond as a rest in it's migration.
The grassland 'out of Africa' wet season pond has it's usual flock of Lesser Whistling-ducks - counted 34 the other day - breeding happily, lots of young. So the hotel area is year on year becoming a haven for wildlife of all sizes.
Talking of which, and a purely speculative question to sit on the web and wait for a searching scientist, does anyone know the latin name for the Bamboo Catterpillar found fried in markets throughout Northern Thailand? Does anyone know what it grows into if left un-eaten? Since we started to control hunting on our land we must have saved hundreds of these things (though I'm sure a few get got) but I'd love to know what I'm saving!
Thanks
John
John,
One EON SEO wrote last year on thailand-foods.blogspot.com as follows:
BAMBOO CATERPILLAR, GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN.
Rot Duan or bamboo caterpillar is an excellent menu which well known among Thai. We can found it in dried insect shop. Bamboo Caterpillar is different from another insect because it good class food, expensive, hard to find and nourishing your brain. It is one of 300 type of food in forest.
Rot Duan has many names up to its location if it lives in Northern called "Dai Pai or Dunag Pai", in E-Gor tribe called "Habolua" in Karieng tribe called "Kli-Kler" and Burmese called "Ju Sung". Rot Duan is a grub of moth, family Pyralidae and it is a tropical insect zone found in Northern and North East of Thailand.
Rot Duan is eating for long time in local and it's believed that the best time to eat is between November to December which is the time for incubating. It's very good taste. Besides fry it you can cook many styles such as parches, put in chili sauce and bake.(sic).............
The circle life of Rot Duan will start from moth lay its egg to swathe of bamboo shoot which sprouts in raining season. Then the grub will incubate and live in bamboo trunk and eat only bamboo film. It will live here for 8-9 months. The time to keep it is incubating time, it's white and one bamboo trunk will have Rot Duan about 700-800 grams which can sell in 200 THB per kilo. It can be kept for 2-3 year by freezing.
How to cook Rot Duan?
Buy fresh Rot Duan in most delicious time: November to December then washes and scalds it in hot water. Parch it in
the pan until it go up and stable. Put it down from stove and sprinkle little salt or Chinese sauce. Serve as snack.
End of quote!!
In spite of Eon Seo's reference to the caterpillar being of the family Pyralidae, most other references which I can find point to an edible caterpillar known as the Bamboo Borer which is the larva of Omphisa Fuscidentalis.
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John,
We've surfed all over the place for a picture of the moth Omphisa Fuscudentalis, but can only find illustrations of the caterpillar. Perhaps the appetite of the woodpeckers and the good market price combine to ensure that they never reach maturity.
P & J.
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...that and only living for five days!
I have to say I doubt a market price of 80,000 baht per kilo - after they've been dried and fried they're only about 25 baht for a plate.
I can also back up the statement that human predation is the limiting factor as there are few woodpeckers around here, perhaps we hear them pecking, but seldom calling and I have only seen one on a few occasions.
Perhaps I can use this as a food chain illustration to all the people who think I'm mad for trying to save the frogs, insects etc. Everything is prey for something and keeping the larvae might encourage the woodpeckers.
Thanks for the research, thanks also to June Billings who has been performing e-mail based research too!
John
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Yes we suspect a misprint in the original of the extract we forwarded by e-mail. It's likely that the the quoted price should have read 80/120 baht/kilo rather than 80120.
What preys on woodpeckers??
Quis custos custodiet?
P & J.
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There are Perigrins around as well as a few jungle cats (or domestic cats living wild in the jungle), I suspect the local folks would eat them too if they could get their hands on them.
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