Bukit Mertajam Hill 101003

Bukit Mertajam Hill or some call it Cherok Tok Kun recreational area is one of the good place to rest. The forest is still in quite a good condition. During weekend or even weekdays, this place will be full of people who came here to hike and cycle up the hill. On top, there are four tower which belongs to Telekom and Celcom. For the prupose of maintaining and guarding the tower,  a tarred road was made available up to the summit just like other hills with these kind of tower (e.g Bukit Palong,Baling). So when u see a hill with tower there should be a road up to the top, making it as one of a good place to go birding and herping (plus the forest is stil intact of course).

I came here to help 2 students from USM to do their final year research project on bats and herpetofauna. We have a special permit from the forestry,enabling us to drove our van to the top. While they are busy setting up the harp trap for bats, i get to do some birding.  Some of the birds seen,

A male Asian Paradise Flycatcher (rufous morph)

A male Blue Winged Leafbird

Dark Sided Flycatcher,

Some obstacle in bird photography, a Crow Billed Drongo with body and tail but without head

Head and body but without tail.

Well, nobody said bird photography is easy..

So i decided to do some butterfly photography. A mating butterfly but not sure which species..

Now come tthe herpetofauna,

An Oriental Whip Snake (pale morph).

 It was seen crawling in between the fern besides the road.

A newly described species, Cnemaspis shahruli, Shahrul's rock gecko

Eutropis rugifera,

Xenophrys aceras,

Note the short hind foot,

That's all folks. Thanks a lot.