Hi all,
A month or so ago I put out an RFI for Fraser's Hill which is about 100k
north of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. It was suggested that I contact a
guide by the name of Mr Durai. Being shy I didn?t.
On Feb 14 I was in a car being driven to FH and told the driver I was
going birdwatching. "I will call Mr Durai for you" the driver said. Mr
Durai was at my hotel within an hour of my arrival and took me from one
end of FH to the other for the next two and a half days. Was it worth
it? Well, 72 magnificent birds and 60 ticks says yes! Brilliant!
Unbelievable! The cost? A donation of cash to the local school.
>From my hotel window at the Jelai Resort Hotel (far from a resort but
cheap, friendly and comfortable) I had 10 ticks including sibia,
flycatchers, mesias and sunbirds. Spiderhunters were everywhere as were
Siberian Thrush, barbets, laughingthrush, Scarlet Minivets like small
balls of flying fire, and the unbelievably brilliant green and yellow
Long-tailed Broadbills.
The highlight? Easy. My first motor bike ride, no helmet, hanging on to
the panic bar for dear life, I was taken down the "new road" to look for
birds. On the way back we stopped to look out over a valley. From the
forest trees some 30 meters below us first one hornbill flew out and
then, over a period of 2 to 3 minutes 32 more followed in continuous
formation: in all 13 Great, 10 Rhinoceros and 10 Wreathed Hornbills. Our
view was filled with these huge black, white and yellow birds that
cruised away on deep, slow wing-beats like escapees from a David
Attenborough dinosaur documentary. For a few moments we watched, silent
in awe, but were soon both jumping and shouting in disbelief.
If you are in Malaysia you must go to Fraser's Hill and look up Mr
Durai. His e-mail is still but if that is too hard
just ask, everyone in FH knows him. He tells me the birding is better in
June/July than in Feb. The upside for Feb is, it is not as hot and
humid.
My list included 6 flycatchers including Blue and White, 4 hornbills, 4
bulbuls, 3 laughingthrush including Black, 4 barbets, 3 malkoha and 3
woodpeckers. I did see a Mountain Peacock-pheasant but sadly it was a
recent roadkill.
Thanks again for the replies to my RFI.
Jen Spry
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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