Vaccination Drive and that Flock of Migrating Geese in an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place

The Lesser Whistling Duck landing right into the grassy patch at the edge of  Lake in Paya Indah Wetlands. The flock of Cotton Pygmy Goose flew in later to swim in a quieter part of the lake. 

Birdwatching trips are now put on a backburner. The covid-19 cases statistics in Malaysia do not show any sign of improvements and I have lost count of how many waves we have had to face since we went into lockdown on 17 March 2020. The Government has set as one of the targets, 10% of the population to be vaccinated and in my personal opinion, this should have been done months ago. The Government registration portal which can be accessed HERE was a real challenge for me when the second phase of AstraZeneca vaccines opened for the elderly to register. I spent an entire Sunday morning, trying to register for both my parents, almost going mad jumping from the browser in my laptop to a different browser in my mobile phone, and a third different browser in my IPAD when the last step which was selecting the place and time for the AZ vaccine could not be completed. It turned out that there was a technical glitch in the registration portal itself, and that glitch was fixed within 1 hour AFTER complaints flooded the Government Portal Facebook. Why the telephone hotline service was not available that Sunday when it was already decided earlier that the registration portal would only be activated on that particular Sunday and at noontime, really baffles me. Despite all the frustrating attempts made via laptop, and 2 other devices, I managed to secure AZ vaccine registrations for my parents. Their first doses were received on 11 June 2021 at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur and based on recent news, their second doses which were originally slated for 3 months later, would be expedited a month earlier. I myself got my first dose on 30 June 2021 at MITEC, Kuala Lumpur

Birdwatching from an armchair has been my experience for the past few weeks. I noticed a flock of honking geese at the 17th minute 38 second clip of this episode 6 Season 1 of Wizards of Waverly Place entitled "You can't always get what you carpet" where Justin teaches Alex how to ride the magic carpet and they stop their carpet ride at a red light above skies of New York City. It was quite funny watching them wait patiently for a flock of migrating geese to fly pass before continuing their "carpet flight" lessons. It really left me wondering what this species of migrating geese was. You can watch that episode HERE . I read an article about migrating snow geese which during springtime can be found flying in flocks around New York harbour. The snow geese are migrating northwards towards their Arctic nesting grounds. A snow goose can live up to 8 years, which is a very short lifespan compared to a human being. I read this in a blog by NY Harbor Nature HERE. I found more information about Snow Goose and its likely confusion with the Ross Goose in eBird which you can read HERE. Snow Goose adult blue morph pictured HERE and the adult intermediate morph pictured HERE, looked identical to the flying flock from the Wizards episode. Snow Goose adult blue morph with (a much bigger sized) Canada Goose in the background is also pictured HERE.  There is a picture of a HUGE flock of Snow Geese in Missouri, USA at a place called Loess Bluffs HERE. There are vocal recordings of the Snow Goose in the eBird website, with the honking loud calls of the Geese in California, USA which were exactly what that flying flock in Wizards episode, sounded like:) Birdwatching is a hobby to me and discovering a whole new species (although not as exciting as the experience of seeing a new species for myself) through a Disney channel series during a raging pandemic, whilst staying at home is good enough for now. If only there was an elf that loves birdwatching as much as it loves chocolates. The chocolate-loving elf had bitten the character Alex Russo in one of the episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place and she ended up craving for anything chocolate. The elf who loves birdwatching would have had a calmer effect on humans. The Snow Goose reminds me of our Cotton Pygmy Goose species which can be found here in Malaysia. According to eBird's description of Cotton Pygmy Goose HERE it is a tiny duck. The word "Pygmy" is in the name of this Goose species and it is a relatively small size goose like the Snow Goose. The Goose-related adage What's Sauce for Goose is Sauce for Gander comes to mind. So What's Sauce for Pygmy Goose is Sauce for Pygmy Gander, I suppose. There's also a species of elephants known as Borneon Pgymy Elephants and many more flora and fauna species which has the word "Pygmy" in their names but I digress. I had observed a delightful flock of Cotton Pygmy Goose, and Lesser Whistling Ducks in Paya Indah Wetlands way back in 2017, which I had blogged about HERE. The journey to get vaccinated, is the first step towards the promise of more birdwatching and memorable travel adventures to come.