My wife and I spent four nights at Fraser's Hill. This area is situated about 100 km to the north of Kuala Lumpur and is about 1500m in elevation. The temperature at Fraser's Hill is always pleasant and is a welcome relief after a few days in steamy KL. It often was misty with low clouds and occasional rain but it was not cold. I could walk quite comfortably in shorts and t-shirt into the night.
Fraser's Hill is famous with birders for its amazing birds. Birding is a big deal here and there is an international bird race every June. The infrastructure is great with well-marked trails and often signs that indicated what was likely to be seen. The mountains in Malaysia are home to a number of birds that are more typical of the Himalayas further to the northwest. Birds like Sibias, Cutias and Laughing-thrush are here and sought after. Monkeys like such as the Macaques, Leaf-Monkeys and Siamang are frequent. Years ago, while I drove around looking for night birds, I found a Leopard Cat on the road. This is one of the smaller cats and is not much bigger than the domestic variety.
Fraser's Hill is mostly forested. Here are habitat shots of the area:
There is plentiful hotel and bungalow accommodation here. This is a popular place on the weekends so advance bookings are a good idea.
We stayed here at Pekan Banglo:
The local mosque is something all visitors know about. The first call to prayer is at 5:15 each morning. For me, this was a call go get out and get into the forest before sunrise.
Most of the trailheads had signs and maps like this to help out with the birds that were likely:
We did not have a car here on this trip so I did lots of walking at night. This proved to be successful and I found a few snakes.
A sad find was this gorgeous but DOR Blue Malaysian Coral Snake (Maticora bivirgata). It was killed around 1 pm, which was quite surprising since this is usually a nocturnal snake. This individual was huge and about 1.5m in length.
I found this Thai-Malayan Pit Viper (Popeia fucata) on the road on one of my night walks. I originally thought this to be a White-lipped Pit Viper but I was told on another site that the White-lipped is a lowland species whereas Popeia lives in the uplands.
This Variable Reed Snake (Calamaria lumbricoidea) was a challenge to photograph since it never stopped moving.
I found two of these tiny Malayan Mountain Reed Snakes (Macrocalamus lateralis) on the road.
This Southern Mountain Slug Snake (Pareas vertebralis) was active during a rainstorm one night.
Lizards were represented by a couple of skinks and a single dragon. I think the following are Blotched Forest Skinks (Sphaenomorphus praesignis). These were all found along road cuts and usually had burrows into the bank. One was found on a log.
I think that these are (Mabuya multifasciata) but I am not certain.
This little dragon was a bright green until I caught it and moved it off the road. It changed colours in just a few moments when it was stressed. I am not certain of its identity. Any ideas?
Frogs were not plentiful but I did see a few. I need help with these since I don’t know their names.
Frog 1:
Frog 2:
Frog 3:
Frog 4:
Toad 1
… more to come (butterflies, moths and other inverts)
Regards,
David
Fraser's Hill is famous with birders for its amazing birds. Birding is a big deal here and there is an international bird race every June. The infrastructure is great with well-marked trails and often signs that indicated what was likely to be seen. The mountains in Malaysia are home to a number of birds that are more typical of the Himalayas further to the northwest. Birds like Sibias, Cutias and Laughing-thrush are here and sought after. Monkeys like such as the Macaques, Leaf-Monkeys and Siamang are frequent. Years ago, while I drove around looking for night birds, I found a Leopard Cat on the road. This is one of the smaller cats and is not much bigger than the domestic variety.
Fraser's Hill is mostly forested. Here are habitat shots of the area:
There is plentiful hotel and bungalow accommodation here. This is a popular place on the weekends so advance bookings are a good idea.
We stayed here at Pekan Banglo:
The local mosque is something all visitors know about. The first call to prayer is at 5:15 each morning. For me, this was a call go get out and get into the forest before sunrise.
Most of the trailheads had signs and maps like this to help out with the birds that were likely:
We did not have a car here on this trip so I did lots of walking at night. This proved to be successful and I found a few snakes.
A sad find was this gorgeous but DOR Blue Malaysian Coral Snake (Maticora bivirgata). It was killed around 1 pm, which was quite surprising since this is usually a nocturnal snake. This individual was huge and about 1.5m in length.
I found this Thai-Malayan Pit Viper (Popeia fucata) on the road on one of my night walks. I originally thought this to be a White-lipped Pit Viper but I was told on another site that the White-lipped is a lowland species whereas Popeia lives in the uplands.
This Variable Reed Snake (Calamaria lumbricoidea) was a challenge to photograph since it never stopped moving.
I found two of these tiny Malayan Mountain Reed Snakes (Macrocalamus lateralis) on the road.
This Southern Mountain Slug Snake (Pareas vertebralis) was active during a rainstorm one night.
Lizards were represented by a couple of skinks and a single dragon. I think the following are Blotched Forest Skinks (Sphaenomorphus praesignis). These were all found along road cuts and usually had burrows into the bank. One was found on a log.
I think that these are (Mabuya multifasciata) but I am not certain.
This little dragon was a bright green until I caught it and moved it off the road. It changed colours in just a few moments when it was stressed. I am not certain of its identity. Any ideas?
Frogs were not plentiful but I did see a few. I need help with these since I don’t know their names.
Frog 1:
Frog 2:
Frog 3:
Frog 4:
Toad 1
… more to come (butterflies, moths and other inverts)
Regards,
David