It is night, about 10.30pm. My two sisters-in law have fallen asleep. Terry is reading at the other corner of her “room”. (I called the mosquito net as room, ;->!) Sleep has not come for me.
The Malay song is still playing at the house next to us. Tonight, Ruslan, our guide has decided to turn on his generator and listen to some music. Their children are still chit-chatting among themselves. Tomorrow is the first day of the school holidays, I guessed that this evening the children has just came back from their boarding school at Gerik for the holidays. Thus they must have a lot to talk about.
It was peaceful outside. Besides the music, I can only hear the squeaking sound of insects. The temperature is quite cool now. Thought we have the mosquito net, I do not really think that it is required here.
I am sleeping on my sleeping bag. Preferred the hard wood floor rather than the single bed mattress provided. Actually the facilities and the condition of our accommodation provided here are much better than what I have expected.
We were in a “tanjung”, surrounded 3 sides by the man made lake, the Temengor Lake, which was formerly a jungle before the hydroelectric dam was built.
Earlier this evening, we have just did our first flight census of the Plain-pouched Hornbills. The birds were flying toward one direction, but they could have either flew directly above your head (Chin’s position), or from your left over the range of forest (my position), or from the right ( Lian’s position).
Initially we were not so familiar with the counting, especially when there were a huge flocks of birds flew passed us. Luckily, there were quite a distance from the time we first spotted them until we lost sight of them. Thus gave me some time to counter check. Thought it was not an easy job. The birds might flew in a V formation. From far, it just looked like one line of birds flying, making it hard to distinguish whether there were one or two birds in a spot. Thus you might missed out the bird flying behind the other bird.
Chin’s position was the easiest to count ( for the next few days, I took this position, as I wanted to take photo of the birds, heh heh very convenient excuse.) They flew directly above your head, you can see and count them clearly. And they flew closer to you.
For my position, as it was quite a distance away and the birds flew in a huge flock after a huge flocks. I needed the binocular in order for me to count. And I have to wait for a distinct V formation, or for them to break into smaller groups so that I can get the most accurate number. Once there were so many flocks of them came at the same time, I have to count them through the binocular one flock after another. By the time that I manage to get a break, I felt dizzy.
We also saw a family of wild pig (as only male one can be called as wild boar) opposite the lake. There were six adult wild pigs and eight little wild piglets. They came for the snails in the water. We didn’t see them initially. It was one of the villagers at Kampung Tebang that have alerted us.
By now, everyone has fallen asleep. The music next door has quiet down. I think it’s time for me to switch off my torch light and try to get some sleep. I have to wake up around 5.45 am tomorrow morning for the morning count. Good nite, Belum-Temengor!
Night. 15th August 2008. Kampung Chuweh
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