The Fraser's Hill International Bird Race

The  Fraser's Hill International Bird Race takes place from 1pm Saturday until Noon on Sunday. Seng, Carol and I were one of 38 teams registered. Our goal was to get 50 species on Saturday and another 30 on Sunday morning. That would give us 80 species which would surely be enough to win the contest! It was clear from our recon that we would do well; my team mates' sharp eyes and knowledge of the bird sounds was impressive.

Saturday went well and we birded the hill and the new road down to the Gap amassing 44 species. After having no luck at Silverpark, we went to the army camp at 10pm and after an hour managed to add Brown Wood Owl to end the day on 45, 5 short of our target.

We were up and out by 6am on Sunday morning, driving straight to the Gap to bird the first 2km of the old road adding 23 species in 3 hours. We arrived back at the top to get Buff-breasted Babbler in trhe drain where we had seen it the day before and to have a piece of luck when a Black Eagle flew over. We then had a slow 2 hours finding just 4 more species to end on 74. A good total which turned out to be sufficient to win the competition. Our names and our team name Roadrunner are engraved on the silver trophy and we received binoculars, a field guide and some ringgit!

I had 4 lifers during the race (1 on the first day; 3 on the second) - all woodpeckers - and reached 500 species for the year on Sunday morning. I added 9 species for the year on Saturday and another 11 on Sunday to end on 511 species and 114 lifers in 2011.

Black Eagle

Large Niltava