Budding Birdwatcher: April 2024

Plaza Shah Alam shopping centre was within walking distance of Concorde Hotel and it was here that I scouted the lunch venue for my mum. I did not drive to Johor for Raya Aidilfitri this time as the traffic jam I encountered during Chinese New Year holidays was a frightful reminder of the hours wasted on the North-South highway of Plus. Kluang Rail Coffee was the surprise find. Originating from Kluang, Johor this humble coffee shop has expanded to include a branch here in the capital of Selangor. More about Kluang Rail Coffee can be read HERE.

Blast to the past when I saw their slogan above

My drink arrived first and it was their signature coffee topped with sprinklings of milo dust

Roti bun Goyang with Roti Kaya with pepper salt - simple yet delicious!

Too hot to sit on this bench that lunchtime 🙁

My mum enjoyed their Char Kuay Teow which was delivered by BellaBot from China:)

The Bellabot for restaurants video below was the model used by Kluang Rail Coffee to serve the final dish that arrived that day. I picked up the hot Char Kuay Teow from the top tier of the Bellabot tray amidst the music that was emitted from it. Quite clever of Bellabot to put a comical face of a cat on the screen with pointy ears, seeing how ingrained the love of cats is amongst Malaysians.

Kluang Rail Coffee's growth as a homegrown brand that originated from Johor before 1957 has been impressive and their adoption of technology to improve customer service is commendable. I end this blog with the calls of the Spoon-billed sandpiper (Spoonie) breeding grounds in Russia, which can be heard via Xeno-Canto below and a video on Saving the Spoonie by the Paulson Institute:-

The Kapar Power Station on a hot Friday morning (as pictured above). It was the third day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri and I'm so grateful for the public holiday and the availability of Concorde Hotel Shah Alam which I booked via Agoda for a very reasonable price at RM188 per night. We stayed for 1 night, and whilst my mum (and helper) rested in the spacious room, I ventured to explore the small town of Kapar. I've heard so much about the Kapar Power Station and upon checking Google Maps, it was less than 45 minutes from the hotel so off I went to the site where the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper aka Spoonie had been spotted during high tide amongst other species of waders at the ash ponds back in 2008, April 7th to be exact, by Mr David Bakewell. His pictures, checklist, pictures and the comparison made to the Red-necked Stint at eBird portal can be read HERE. A permit is required to enter the Kapar Power Station Ash ponds, the site of which has been the subject of the Kapar Declaration on the Future of the Kapar Ash Ponds, dated 25th June 2016 published by the East-Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) website HERE. It would appear that the Kapar Ash Ponds was removed from the Flyway Network sites leaving only Bako-Buntal Bay in Sarawak as the only site in Malaysia listed out of 16 sites in ASEAN region, as of 2017, according to a powerpoint presentation by the Director of Conservation, Sungai Buloh Wetlands Reserve, National Parks Board of Singapore which can be read HERE. True enough, Spoonie was spotted in Buntal Bay, Sarawak by members of Malaysian Nature Society Ms Batrisya and Mr Daniel Kong during shorebird survey in 2022, which you can read about HERE. Other globally threatened species that can be found at these flyway sites include the Great Knot, Far Eastern Curlew, Chinese Egret and the Nordmann's Greenshank. Seeing the Spoonie feels like winning the birdwatcher's ultimate lottery ticket, and I saw mine way back in 2012 in the salt farms of Pak Thale Petchaburi province of Thailand, during the Asian Bird Fair which can be read HERE. The consistent sightings of Spoonie in this EAAFP site at Thailand can be read HERE.

White-breasted Wood-Swallow chased off a House Crow in mid-flight and perched on one of these wires nearby the funnel of power station. However I couldn't get a good picture of the perched Wood-Swallow as it was out of range of my 600mm Panasonic Lumix digital camera. Had a good look through my 8x42 Minox binoculars though.

High tide at this mangrove forest area next to the Kapar Power Station

Night-Heron flying just above the river.

Black-Crowned Night Heron peering out from within the undergrowth at riverbank

Two Black-Crowned Night Herons.

A patch of mangrove forest nearby the entrance to the Kapar Energy Ventures Sdn Bhd (subsidiary of TNB) as pictured above. The checklist of the birds sighted and heard that morning before it got unbearably hot is available at eBird Malaysia HERE.

Black-crowned Night Heron in flight just above the river with the Great Egret perched together with four Night Heron species.

A group of Dusky Leaf Monkeys and White-thighed Surili were seen feeding on the same tree as several long-tailed macaques. The former two species were visibly shy and hopped away from the tree as soon as they saw me peering at them through my binoculars. The macaques were notoriously bolder and did not pay any attention to me at all! Macaques behave in a very gangster-like manner when they are in a big group, and I would steer clear of these creatures whenever I come across them in parks and forests. Took my mum and helper for dinner at Klang the night before and managed to find a table on the second day of the public holiday. The ladies at Yew Sifu Bak Kut Teh restaurant were friendly and welcomed us as the famous Four Eyes Bak Kut Teh restaurant under the tree nearby had soldout by 7.30pm!