Bukit Fraser Day Two: Mind The Gap

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As planned, I headed out for some sunrise birding before breakfast which only begins at 7:30. I didn’t make it very far though, because I was distracted by a flock of stunning Silver-eared Mesias just on the edge of town. There was a White-thighed Langur just on the edge of town past the Shazan Inn too, there seem to be more of those around that I was expecting.



Breakfast is included with the room so I made sure to eat as much as I reasonably could before heading out for the day. Today I decided to try and do quite a long walk with a rather nice loop covering a range of altitudes going down the mountain a bit and back up again. (Bukit Fraser translates as Fraser’s Hill, but given that it gets to over 1500m I think it’s probably fair to call it a mountain). Bukit Fraser has two one-way access roads. The ‘new road’ going down and the ‘old road’ going up so today I decided to do a loop that involves going down the new road, across a connecting bit of road called ‘The Gap’ and the back up the old road. My phone has a GPS app that lets me see my altitude without needing an internet connection so it was interesting to track the altitude going from just under 1300m at the top of the new road to a low of 870m at the bottom of the gap. I wasn’t sure if I would make the whole loop because it’s quite long, probably about 20km downhill and uphill, but I did it and it was a nice day’s walk.

There were lots of cool birds seen along the way (see the list, I won’t go into detail about all of them) with a range of vegetation at different altitudes. Particularly cool were some big pink orchids that weren’t growing as epiphytes but instead coming up in big stands from the ground. The different altitudes also have distinct types of fern that are dominant which change as you go up and down which was particularly interesting.

As I was heading down the new road, I heard a big crashing in some trees and something moving off. I think it was a Siamang but I couldn’t be sure. Siamang are probably the biggest target at Bukit Fraser so I was disappointed that it disappeared off so quickly before I could confirm the ID. A bit later though, maybe about an hour’s walk, I saw a siamang clearly moving slowly through the canopy near the forest edge and it was soon joined by a second one: a pair of siamangs which I got a nice prolonged view of as they moved around and slowly moved off. A great sighting. A bit further down was another new primate as a lone male Pig-tailed Macaque ran across the road and disappeared. Much shyer than the Long-tailed Macaques in the town.

I was enjoying the walk – this was the downhill bit so not very tiring – with lots of interesting things to see. It did, however, start to rain slightly and at about the 4km marker (to the junction with the gap) I started to get pelted with rain. I was prepared for the rain though, and I had a rain mac so the binoculars and camera could stay nice and dry. But the rain was pretty heavy. My shorts certainly got a good wash for example. I didn’t have to walk for too long in the rain though because I was able to get a lift with a German family who dropped me off at the junction with the gap and saved me about 3.5km of the walk. I continued to walk down The Gap until I came to a shelter with a bench where I could sit and wait for the rain to clear. There was one casualty though: the field guide. I thought I could shelter it with my body while I used it to identify a bulbul but as it turned out, this was insufficient and it got a bit wet. Very wet actually. This was about 200m before getting to the shelter though so as soon as I got to the shelter I could try and rescue it and I tore out pages from the middle of my notebook to put between the affected plates to they wouldn’t stick together. It was fine, I think I’ve managed to save it, but it’s looking rather worse for wear given it’s not even been a week yet.

Since it was around 1:30 by this point and I had to wait anyway, I had the lunch that I had brought with me while in the shelter waiting for the rain to clear and then headed onwards as the rain stopped and the sun came out.

I also got some useful information from a birder I met on the way up the old road back up to Bukit Fraser. Apparently, there is a spot where Hill Partridges can be seen reliably at around 11 and again at 4 crossing the road not too far from the town. I’ll definitely have to try for that tomorrow (for anyone interested, it’s along a road called Richmond Road that leads to a dead end and disused bungalow just right past the gat coming up from the gap. It’s marked on the map. Apparently there’s a patch of bare earth where the Hill Partidges cross. I’ll have a look tomorrow). The birder I met also said he’d seen a few Orange-breasted Trogons along The Gap a bit earlier which I must have missed, but oh well. On the way up I was scanning the tree trunks for colugos although I didn’t find any. A was starting to imagine colugos on every knot on every trunk by the end though.

The last few kms back up the Bukit Fraser were a bit gruelling as I was quite tired by this point and it had started to drizzle. It’s fairly steep at points too. One particularly nice bird wave near the 3km (distance back to Bukit Fraser) mark kept me going though with cutias (which were high on my to-see list) as well as a small group of what was possibly my most wanted bird at Bukit Fraser: Blue Nuthatches. These are absolutely gorgeous nuthatches with a lovely white a glossy blue colour. Stunning.

I got back to my room at about 5:30, making it a 9 hour walk which is fairly slow for just over 16km but it is up and down a lot and of course, lots of time stopped to look at and identify birds. I was going to go for a look at the sunset birds back at the Telekom Loop but my feet were too sore and I was too tired so I went back to my room to be on the internet for an hour or so and rest a bit (and write this). The sun’s just setting soon so I’ll head out now to find some food and the go for spotlighting. I think I might try going down the ‘up’ access road this time (back where I walked today) rather than going back to the Telekom Loop because I can get to the proper forest quicker this way.

Having now got back form spotlighting, I would describe it as moderately successful. As mentioned, I went back down the road that I can up this afternoon and a spent a few hours out spotlighting, going down to the 3km marker and back up (so 6km spotlighting in total). Lots of microbats and insects as usually and on the way down that was it. Nothing else at all, not really any movement either. On the way back up between km 3 and 2 I saw two interesting things though, the first was a Red Giant Flying Squirrel (the same as I saw a few of yesterday) and then more excitingly was a Small-toothed Palm Civet. So not bad, and I can’t complain about a new mammal, but I was expecting a bit more and the forest here seemed quieter than up the Telekom Loop last night with just one squirrel and a smaller number of bats. I’m not sure why because if anything this forest is better habitat but I think it’s just luck. Most people do talk about spotlighting around the Telekom Loop though so maybe I’ll stick to that for the next two nights. I really want to see a Slow Loris which is supposed to be fairly common around Bukit Fraser. Small-toothed Palm Civet is certainly rather good though, although I may have slightly overdone the walking today. I feel a bit like my field guide looks.



New birds seen:

Silver-eared Mesia

Grey-cheeded Fulvetta

Malayan Whistling Thrush

Ashy Drongo

Large Niltava

Black-throated Sunbird

Mountain Leaf Warbler

Asian Fairy Bluebird

Ochraceous Bulbul

Streaked Wren-babbler

Black-headed Bulbul

Long-billed Spiderhunter

Orange-bellied Leafbird

White-rumped Shama

Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

Black-browed Barbet

Pale Blue Flycatcher

Everett’s White Eye

Grey-cheeked Bulbul

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

Blue-winged Leafbird

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

Oriental Cuckoo

Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo

Yellow-Breasted Warbler

Grey-chinned Minivet

Cutia

Blue Nuthatch

Chestnut-crowned Warbler



Mammals:

Siamang

Southern Pig-tailed Macaque

Slender Squirrel

Dusky Langur

Small-toothed Palm Civet

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Comments

[Jean]

Tattered
Do give both field guide and birder a bit of a break, won't you.