I have been wanting to visit this park for quite sometime now just to see whether it is a good place to go birding. However, i just could not find the right time and kept postponing the visit due to many circumstances. I have to admit it is quite far from my place, 70KM to be exact. So, that changed last Saturday(14/10/15) as i managed to get a person who is more familiar with Kuala Selangor than me, my wife. She went there the week before for a Firefly watch in Kampung Kuantan with her parents, a quite popular tourist activity in Kuala Selangor.
Well, the park is just 500 meters to the left of another popular tourist spot in Kuala Selangor, Bukit Melawati, an old Dutch fort a few hundred years ago. The entrance fee to the park is just RM4.00 per adult, Rm1 for kids. After paying the fee and asking the dos and don'ts i started my hiking through the park.
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| The place to get your ticket and map to the park. |
There are plenty of accommodation in the park from a proper building to a timber type chalet and even A-frame small chalets for two. I saw plenty of direction signs so you do not get lost easily.
I decided to check out the wooded area near a big white building on the left of the signage above because i heard sounds of birds and knocking sound like the ones produced by woodpeckers.
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| The first birding spot i checked |
It was my lucky day i guess because less than five minutes i did see a woodpecker looking for insects on a low tree, it was a Flameback Woodpecker. I could not be happier because i have never photographed this bird before.
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| A Flameback Woodpecker |
However, this place was swarming with blood thirsty mosquitos! Even my anti-mosquitos lotion did not do any good. I could not concentrate on my birding as i spent so much time hitting mosquitos on my arms, neck, ears and wherever they were biting, aaargghh! I should have worn a long sleeve shirt, gloves and balaclava for better protection, they were practically chasing me around!
Before i left the place i spotted another species knocking hard on a tree branch, it turned out to be a Coppersmith Barbet. It did not seem to be bothered by my the sound of my shutter snapping and my flash.
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| A Coppersmith Barbet |
There is a signboard with a map of the whole park for you to follow, showing the tracks, birding sites, observation towers, boardwalk etc on a few locations so you can keep track where you are, which is very helpful.
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| Please read this map first before starting your hiking |
Then came the suicide jungle trail, swarming with mosquitos, do not stop for a second if you love your blood! It is a beautiful jungle trail with lots of birds all over but i just could not take photograph of any birds for a second without having four or five mosquitos biting me on each arm at the same time, it was madness!
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| Too many mosquitos along this path! |
After about 150 meters i reached a nice blue bridge over a small river. When you reached this spot you got three choices, turn left, right or straight toward an observation tower. The left and right track will meet each other at some point as they are a loop. I decided to go left first.
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| I call it The Blue Bridge |
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| A potential spot for kingfishers, herons and egrets |
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| Left track |
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| Right track |
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| The left track was more interesting.... |
Along the left track i heard a lot of birds but it was not easy to photograph them as the mangrove trees were thick. I managed to photograph a Yellow-vented Bulbul and a White-throated Fantail.
After a half an hour along the left track i reached a mudflat with a few observation huts, gazebo and a watch tower. This mudflat is full with mudskippers, crabs and i think this is where egrets, herons, sandpipers etc congregate to look for food. It was lowtide and all i saw were mudskippers and crabs.
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| A hut near the mudflat |
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| A gazebo to rest and observe birds |
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| The mudflat |
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| a lot of life can be found in this area |
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| a blue spotted mudskipper |
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| with a friend |
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| and sometimes when they got hot they jump every few seconds |
My next spot was the watch tower which gave me a good view from 30 feet up over the entire area. I could see the Bukit Melawati Lighthouse clearly from up there and the mudflat below.
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| The watch tower |
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| Bukit Melawati in the horizon |
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| The mudflat below |
While i was on the tower i saw a bird perching in the hot sun on a dead tree, it was quite far away, i think it was a Dollar Bird.
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| A Dollar Bird? |
Then i heard an eagle sound nearby. True enough it was a Brahminy Kite circling the sky looking for a prey, it had a friend too perching on a tree overlooking a canal.
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| Brahminy Kite |
After about half an hour i came down from the tower and continue to the boardwalk into the mangrove swamp. It was quite an experience to walk alone through the thick mangrove swamp, kind of scary. I heard a few kingfishers, i saw a Collared kingfisher but too difficult to photograph. An owl flew away as it saw me, what a miss!
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| The entrance of the boardwalk |
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| The U shaped boardwalk is more than 300meters long |
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| Some of the signages nearby | | |
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It was getting too hot in the afternoon so i rested under the gazebo nearby, took a few sip of water, dry my shirt. While cooling my self i saw an eagle flew nearby erratically, so i shot a few shots but i am not sure what species it was.
I continued my walk pass a stream and saw a big egret but it flew away before i could even raise my camera, smart bird!
I cut my birding time short as i was loosing too much body liquid from walking for two hours in the hot sun, propably covering about two kilometers but mainly due to the mosquitos. I was not prepared for the intensity of hits by the mosquitos in this area. I feel this park has a potential to be a good birding spot because i heard and saw more birds than i photographed.
Oh, in case you want to try this place there is another thing you should look out for, huge wild hogs! My wife and kids ran helter skelter when they came across a wild boar the size of a small cow!
Till next post, happy birding.
