Awakened by the sometimes shrill, at times sweet and melodious tunes of the chestnut-capped laughingthrush, the streaked spider hunter, the long tailed sibia, oriental magpie robins and many other birds just outside the room, amongst the trees just out of reach at the balcony of our second floor room in Jelai Resort as well as those from the nearby forest surrounding the resort.
It was six-fifteen in the morning as I jumped out of bed to listen to their wondrous songs and watch their hopping from branch to branch or flying through the cold morning air from one tree to another as they roam from flower to flower or branch to branch searching merrily for their breakfast, their beaks pointing into the flowers in search for food. Not only was their frolicking among the branches a sight to behold, their bright colours contrasted with the greys to present a feast to my eyes. I quickly ran for my camera but they were not as easy to capture as I thought for their quick movement coupled with the constant breeze did not give me very clear pictures.
At the balcony, the other two members of my team joined me to recognise the birds that came close enough to be identified with the help of books such as Birds of Fraser’s Hill by Morten Strange, an illustrated book with ninety five birds in coloured photographs and A photographic Guide to birds of Peninsula Malaysia and Singapore by G.W. H. Davison and Chew Yen Fook with full-colour photographs illustrating each of the two hundred and fifty-two species.
As a first timer in a bird race, a novice, recognising all those birds was indeed difficult. The birds I know before this are the canaries which I had bred at one time. Budgerigars and parakeets were reared by me at one time for their beautiful plumage. I have tried to breed finches without success. The sweet melodious voice of the green singing finch was what attracted me to birds, feathered birds, at the age of twenty. Since then I have always been attracted to beautiful birds, the feathered ones as well as the non-feathered varieties. At one time I was one of those rare people who breed naturally red feathered canaries. Unfortunately, there were too many mosquitoes in my area and they left ugly swellings on my canaries' feet. It pained me so to see them suffer those mosquito bites that I sold the whole batch of them to an engineer who came all the way from Ipoh to search for them. Of course, I know about the spotted dove with its peaceful cooing and the peaceful dove which many villagers rear and are often seen at the peaceful doves’ singing competition. The shrilled call of the attractive black-combed red-whiskered bulbul is popular among many bird keepers. However, when it comes to birds in the wilds of Fraser’s Hill, I am a true novice.
So, there was much reference to be made and a last minute study did not help much. Fortunately, at Fraser’s Hill there is a birds' information centre where books on birds and information concerning the more popular endemic species is available.
We paid sixty ringgit to register ourselves as a team called the Hawk Eagle. We were given T-shirts and a participants’ tag to be hung around the neck. Before we were flagged off at one o’clock we took a simple quick lunch and gathered for a welcoming speech followed by a briefing on the rules by the president and the secretary of the Malaysian Nature Society. And with that the race was on.
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