Sun burn is really a tough thing to live with. Going through the day with it is discomforting to say the least. I have only myself to blame however. I should have applied sun screen on myself before standing under the almost merciless sun, increasing the chance of me getting skin cancer. But in term of cost and benefit, the fun I had is enough to not make me regret what I had done over the weekend; I spent the it with people from the Malaysian Nature Society. It was Raptor Watch 2007!
Take a look at the cool buntings!
A few people and I carpooled all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Tanjung Tuan, Malacca, the place where Raptor Watch has been held since 2000. I hitched a ride with the same person that I met back in the “adventurous” trip to Pasir Kumpal last year; an old English lady that has been a Malaysian longer than I have been alive!
First of, Tanjung Tuan has an interesting history. It is the site of the oldest lighthouse in Malaysia and it is still working after nearly 150 years in existence. According to a plaque right by a flight of stairs to the lighthouse, the spot of the current lighthouse was the spot of an even older lighthouse which was destroyed sometimes before 1860, built back in 16th century by the Portuguese. The place, Cape Rachado as it was called when the Portuguese when they first reached the cape was the site of a great naval battle – the Battle of Cape Rachado – between the Portuguese and the Dutch. The Dutch lost that particular battle, along with a great ship known as Nassau but the they ultimately won the war. Throughout the century, allying themselves with Johor and Aceh, the Portuguese was ultimately booted out of Malacca in 1641.
After years, this is how the lighthouse look now:
Down below from the lighthouse, a cliff!
It is so beautiful there. You have to be there yourself to appreciate. According to the locals, on a clear day, Sumatra could be see far in the horizon, across one of the busiest waterways in the world.
Another thing of interest is the political geography of Tanjung Tuan. Despite being so close to Port Dickson with is already far inside the state of Negeri Sembilan, the small cape is part of Malacca state. I am unsure why is that but I really love to know about it. But enough of the lighthouse. The main reason I came down to Tanjung Tuan is Raptor Watch.
To be frank, the first day disappointed me tremendously. Everybody that had been to the previous Raptor Watch told me that the sky would be full of them. When they said full at first, I had imagine something like the wildabeets at the Serengenti. Obviously, the word full was spoken as a figure of speech; it is not the literal meaning of full. Still, the number that flew above my head was far below what I had expected. Even those who I would call veterans were disappointed. They told me that it was due to the cloudy weather.
You see, the raptors are huge birds. How big?
This one raptor is in the care of Zoo Malacca:
Handsome, is he not? Or she? Whatever it may be, I dare not provoke it.
And this is a free raptor in flight on the first day; my camera does no justice to the majestic raptor:
I need to get one of these those B.F.C. soon if I want to get better photos of these great birds:
Based on what the other volunteers told me, the distance between the birds length and its beak could range from anywhere around half a meter to probably a meter. Their wingspan could easily double that length, or so I was told. Because of its size, the birds of prey, the raptors, do not have the energy to flap its wings to gain distance. So, they depend on heat to take them higher in the sky and from a sufficiently high point, glide glide away. They would just circle a warm area to get to a higher point. The raptors will do this as many times as they need to get to their destinations.
Thanks, or no thanks to the cloud, there was little heat for the raptors to utilize. Hence, the low counts of raptors for Saturday. That however made witnessing the raptors soaring all the more precious. Nevertheless, according to the counters stationed at the lighthouse, more than 1,000 raptors were spotted.
Talking about the destination, as far as the raptors that were spotted at Tanjung Tuan are concerned, their destination is Siberia. From Sumatra, they crossed over the Straits of Malacca into Tanjung Tuan and then all the way north to Russia. But why Tanjung Tuan? What makes the Malacca exclave so special?
Well, Tanjung Tuan is the shortest distance between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra.
Beside watching the birds, it was fun soliciting visitors to join the MNS. It was tough with many giving perhaps empty promises to join just to lose us while others simply dismissed the volunteers. I could accept no but empty promise is something I do not take quite well. It was great nonetheless. Our booth received lots of visitors and this was before we were ready for business:
A person, Angie, the one on the left side of the table, was equipped with a binocular and all, a sign of a birder, set a target of 20 new members for that day and we hit 21! Last year, for both Saturday and Sunday, about 20 people joined MNS. So, you could imagine how ecstatic we were when we more than match last year performance. The next day, she set 30 as our target and we hit 31 by the end of the day!
Out of 52, I got only four new members. But hey, pretty good for a newbie.
One thing I noticed though is that a significant portion of new members are foreigners. It is so good to see people are supporting conservation efforts regardless of nationalities or geography. And then, there are Singaporeans. Nature Society of Singapore are probably annoyed at us for stealing their members!
But really, it is sad to know that the Nature Society in Singapore broke away from its mother, the Malayan Nature Society, later the Malaysian Nature Society. While Malaysia and Singapore as countries parted in 1965, I do not believe the Nature Society in Singapore should have gone through the path of separation. After all, nature is one and it knows no man made divisions.
And yeah, the Minister of the Environment visited the membership booth! Our booth! My booth! And his wife, the beautiful Normala Shamsuddin wore a hat with an MNS badge!
I also managed to talk to Rejal Arbee, a father of a friend while I was at the Malay College who were with the minister’s envoy.
The next day was marvelous. The sun was shining mightily bright and the sky was as blue as it could be; this was how blue the sky was:
More importantly, it was hot right from the morning. Birders assert the positive correlation between high temperature and raptors count; I saw how that assertion was proven with my own eyes. After an hour after noon, the raptors conquered the sky, having arrived from Sumatra. I was amazed at the sight, seeing flock of raptors soaring, circling above us, passing us by, northward. In my head, I was imagining, these raptors were the Allies bombers during the Second World War, seemingly flying slowing in numbers and groups.
I wish I did not have to go home. I wish the whole event would not have ended. I think, I could just stand under the sun, standing, looking upward towards the sky, imagining me flying along with the raptors.
Heh. Me, flying…
That was what I felt when I discovered that I actually spent time with Miss Malaysia 2006! When I actually knew that she is last year’s Miss Malaysia, I said to a friend, “no wonder she is so beautiful!”
At the end of the day:
Watch out! Raptors in the sky!
Next stop: Endau-Rompin.
p/s — apparently, Tanjung Tuan is also the last remaining coastal rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia. If that is true, that makes the conservation of the area even more important.