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Fire pistons were used in a big part of Southeast Asia but they were by no means the only way of starting a fire and their distribution is a bit erratic. Hand drill, pump drill, and fire saw have all been recorded in the past. Fire thong and bamboo strike-a-light were used almost exclusively in...

My latest addition: The cylinder still contained some of the original tinder ;) Although the seller had no details on the background of this fire piston, I think it is most likely that it comes from the Northern part of peninsular Malaysia or the Southern parts of Thailand, after comparison...

I always thought that for fire starting with 2 stones, at least one of the two should be made of marcasite (or pyrite) to provide the right kind of sparks. Percussion or scratching of quartz on quartz can seem to make sparks, but this is in principle a light emitting effect, and for a great...

The amazing Dalem Gumino shows in his videos that the bamboo strike-a-light can not only be done with bamboo species in the genus Schizostachyum, but also with: Gigantochloa apus (Tali bamboo, Tabashir bamboo, string bamboo, apus bamboo): Note: 'tabashir'/'tabasheer'...

Fire piston it is, and it looks well made ;) It makes fire by swiftly compressing air. Cheers, Tom

I have read only 3 of the 19 chapters of this book so far, but I can tell you already that it is a treasure trove of fire knowledge! It consists of 19 chapters and these are all filled with short fragments as told by the author's oldtimer Sami informants. It has some black & white pictures as...

And this is how they looked in real life, Red-billed tropicbird (Note: the id at species level of the skull is tricky, but it is now confirmed by Naturalis museum as a tropicbird species, and red-billed is far more likely to occur around Curaçao than the other candidate, the white-tailed...

Here is the yellow-crowned night heron. The small bone beside the skull is the left 'lacrimal', a small bone that is positioned at the front of the eye socket. The right one is still attached in the right position. Compared to a grey heron skull: The red-billed tropicbird* (*id still...

Natterjacks are also smaller and more agile, they can 'run' a little mouselike, something that a common toad doesn't do. Cheers, Tom

Link to a video with the chi ku cha in use on the island of Bonaire: https://www.patrimoniokulturalintangibelboneiru.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/RB-Chi-ku-cha.mp4 On that island the cactus fences are made in a slightly different style, with the datu pieces slightly leaning into each other...

Not exactly 'today' but these pictures are of fungi encountered in two weeks (21 November - 5 December) on the tropical island of Curaçao. I cannot find much information on the fungi overthere so I have no idea what species these are...anyway, enjoy ;) The first one might be a Phellinus(?)...

A termite nest. The brown-throated parakeet ('Prikichi', Aratinga pertinax, each of the ABC-islands has its own subspecies) uses these nest to make their own: they hack out a space in the brittle blob and the termites close off the walls of the bird's nest hole (the nest hole entrance is on the...

@Tengu, everything tastes better on Curaçao ;) @forrestdweller, I will try to find out more. For now, most of the information I have found talks about calabash shampoo as an anti-lice treatment for dogs! Some wildlife: A (very distant) picture of the 'bina' (Odocoileus virginianus...

Part 2 Things to avoid 1, the manchineel tree/ manzaliña https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel Quite common at beaches. The tree grows quite high, has grey bark and sports little apple-like fruits that have fooled people into eating them, but these fruits are seriously poisonous. Sap of the...

The small container contains a Curaçao whiptail lizard (Cnemidophorus murinus) skull. The skin seems to be attached to the skull directly in some places and when I tried to remove it, the skull disintegrated into a quite interesting 3d puzzle... The other skulls in preparation are of a badly...

I had a 2 week holiday on the South Caribbean island of Curaçao (my fathers birthplace), and in this thread I will try to post some stuff on plants and animals there that might be of interest to a bushcrafter. Most of the information in this thread will be applicable to Aruba and Bonaire as...

Some more in the making, all from the South Caribbean island of Curaçao. Will be continued! Cheers, Tom

Great find! Cuckoo is most likely, all young cuckoos are rufous so it should not be that rare. They are all leaving for Africa this month. Cheers, Tom

My chicken-of-the-woods jambalaya: Cheers, Tom

Found these giants last week next to a road in Amsterdam, I believe them to be lurid boletes (edible, but not to be taken in combination with alcohol): And these CotW are on the way to the park next to my work (also in Amsterdam), on the 28th of july; And just 6 days later: There's even...