My Adventure During Raptor Watch

This coming sunday serves another nature escapade as the Malaysian NatureSociety's Raptor Watch returns to Tanjung Tuan, PD. This nature freak will of course be taking the annual sojourn once again to PD and hopes that there'll be at least more raptors flying overhead as compared to last year. W

What the hell is Raptor Watch i here u ask? and why is it so special that every birdwatcher this side of the continent takes the trouble to congregate to Port Dickson, of all places.

Well, every bloody year millions of birds make a dangerous journey to escape the cold of the northern winters. Some of these birds are called Raptors: eagles and related families such as buzzards, sparrowhawks and a crazy-quilt black and white bird with feathers in his cap called a black baza. Some reach as far as indonesia, if they can find their way through the haze first that is.

In january, these birds start to fly back north, gradually building up in numbers until in early march there are sometimes thousands per day passing over the Straits of Malacca from Indonesia to Malaysia. they won't stop long in the peninsular: they have a long journey ahead, back to Siberia, perhaps, or Japan, or to the remote areas of eastern China.yours truly, being the pleasent opportunist that he is, has abstained himself from volunteering during the event due to several reasons:

1. Taking about a million schoolchildren (about 60 exactly) on nature hikes under the blazing hot sun is entirely not his cup of tea

2. Running around like a headless chicken doing errands such as 'getting the v.i.p.'s their drinks' is certainly not what he calls 'bonding with nature'.

3. Running around again putting up posters, searching for lost children and picking up rubbish is equivalent to the many usages of a red-hot poker on a particular human appendageas such, i will refrain from volunteering my services for any donkey work and will instead practice the following;

1. Taking a nice quiet walk up to the lighthouse as green sea turtles are known to swim around the sea below the cliffs of this partciular area;

2. Having a nice rest under a shady tree, armed and ready with my binoculars to do exactly what the event organisers had in mind in the first place, watch the incoming raptors.entry is free for this event, so to those of you who can sacrifice a day from your blogging are most welcomed to come down to PD this sunday. (ceh! tengah promote MNS event ni). at least, you'll have something to blog about for monday morning.