Back to List Read Details
Major Lake Toba Event

Birdlife around a full Lake Toba in full swing

1. Lake Toba is full

Today, at the end of the dry season Lake Toba is almost full, so when you want to see more of Lake Toba than any other tourist has seen, this is the time to come to Lake Toba. It is of course a Contradictio in Terminus that Lake Toba is full at the end of the dry season. But what is a contradictio in terminus in this age of climate change ?When is Lake Toba full ?.In my opinion Lake Toba is more or less full when the harbour in Tiga Raja, the place where you board the ferry to Tuk Tuk in Parapat, is flooded. Not just a few centimeters but halfway up to your knees.


2.How come Lake Toba is full ?

Do not  ask me, I did not do it and normally I am not pissing in it. So, let us look at what we know. Just a year ago the water level of Lake Toba was exactly one meter below the current water level. How do I know, I just happened to measure it. How much water is that?. Let us take the surface area of Lake Toba as given in the introduction of this website as 1265 km 2 . So with 1 m rise in water level we are talking of 1.26 km 3 more water. I leave it to you to figure out how many liters we are talking and after that think in terms of bottles of beer which come in 0.6 liter bottles in Tuk Tuk. For sure we could organize a first class piss-up with that.

Reportedly, the rainy season in Tuk Tuk starts the first of November and lasts till the 30 th of April. Consequently, the dry season starts the first of May and ends October 31. Now let us look at some data. Total rainfall in Tuk Tuk from November 1, 2007 till April 30, 2008 was 1007 mm and from May 1, 2008, till October 31, 2008 exactly 1047 mm. How do I know, I just happened to measure it. So much for the wet season and the dry season, especially when you think of February 2008, in the wet season, with 63 mm and of August 2008, in the dry season, with 469 mm. Of course you can argue that what has been measured in Tuk Tuk is not representative for Samosir, Tomok, Ambarita, Simanindo, Parapat, Balige, Porsea, Pangururan or Barastagi. Please provide me the data  you have measured on a day to day basis in one of these places or any other relevant place and we can start doing some correlation exercises.

So my simple question is: if we have a downpour of 1007 mm in the wet season and of 1045 mm in the dry season, which adds up to 2 m, why is the water level rise in Lake Toba only 1 m ?. Any help in this regard will be appreciated.

3. The bird season

As I said before, why would you come to enjoy the birdlife around Lake Toba if you do not know the difference between a duck and a dove. For those amongst you who still like to watch strange and unknown birds, now from the first of November to the end of December is the time to come to Tuk Tuk, Lake Toba. I am writing this on the first of November having now for three days observed that the bird mating season is on. Whether it is a migrating, a singing, a swimming, a walking, a crawling, a creeping, a sitting or a flying bird, it is fun and activity all over the place and this season will last for about three weeks, depending on which bird is chasing his or his friends mate. Birds which come as chickens, domesticated ducks and turkeys and any other strange ducks are excluded from the afore.

Of course it can be interesting to check why these birds are starting just about today. The answer is quite simple. The stupid birds have not yet been informed on the climate change and as such still think that the rainy season is about to start tomorrow. The bird trick is to do the mating in the first weeks of November. It than takes about 3 to 4 days before the eggs are being put in place, sometimes also referred to as nest, and after 19 to 21 days the little ones are breaking the eggs. Just before that the rains start and "the worms" come out, so the bird expectation is that there will be a lot to eat for the youngsters and every body will live long and happily there after.

For me, I am still trying to figure out how these bloody birds know that today is about the first of November. Any help in this will also be appreciated.

Therefore, come and join the fun in Tuk Tuk, also strange birds are welcome, as with the birds we are celebrating the beginning of a new generation of birds which hopefully will be around for some time to lure professional bird watchers and ornithologists to Tuk Tuk to categorize them properly and give them their good names.


Writer:Gandalf,
Contributed to this news of Samosir Tourism from Samosir Island.


3993 views | 1 comment
Displaying 1 to 1 of 1  
Name : Annette15 Nov 2008
Birdwatching at Lake Toba
Thanks for your article on the birds. It's really remarkalbe how many birds are around. Not only seasonal though, most of them are here all the time. On our premises of Tabo Cottages someone counted 28 different species and I saw a new one building a nest just in front of our room yesterday. Since I like trekking I found that only 1 km away from here are different species again.
So, let's hope Samosir is going to be FULL with bird watchers some time soon too!!!
Horas
Annette
Title
* Name
* Email
* Comment