Down At The Dumps

I had the opportunity to pursue my second hobby last weekend as the dive season comes to a close. Unfortunately, the birding grounds happen to be at the dumps. Yes, the northern region’s landfill that is infiltrated with revolting and rotting rubbish. Yet hundreds if not, thousands of migratory birds transit here after flying their annual journey south from their respective countries of origin. Byram has a huge area gazetted as a landfill, a dumpsite for Penangites.

Anyone would be repulsed by the sheer whiff of the tons of garbage and the hotter it gets, the worse the smell becomes. The rotting garbage liquid seeps out from the ground to form a pond filled with maggots and scum that thrive in that kind of environment. You can see minute flies everywhere if you look closely but these are the grub that birds feed on! Fueling up for their journey, these birds perch on the fallen trees and branches in the still pond of vile fluids.

Staying in the vehicle, we appeared less threatening to the birds and could fire as many shots as we wanted without spooking them. It’s amazing how close I could get.

The heap of garbage is hardly a sight to behold and the pond looks like it would smelt your legs as soon as you come into contact with this contamination but just as we are in this world made up of people and the garbage that we have to put up with, despite the crap that they dish out to us and the propaganda in the media, God puts in an oasis of life designed to feed and allow a thriving population to exist at a place loathed by humans. No matter where we are or where we seem to be in life, if God can feed the birds of the trees, He can make an oasis for you in the dumps.