Budding Birdwatcher: River Therapy and the family of Rufous-Bellied Swallows

Canadians got it right when it comes to parks and gardens. Canada fully understood the German word Waldeinsamkeit (there is no equivalent of an English word in translation) and how parks can play an important role to heal our mind and soul. The Ontario Parks website blog can be read HERE. Japanese has a practise called Shinrin-yoku 森林浴 (Forest Bathing) where they believe the forest is a place to heal oneself. Finding a clean river and wading through crystal clear waters up to my knee-level whilst surrounded by lowland forest was a healing experience for me and to find this clean river in the borders of Selangor and Perak was pure serendipity. I guess third time is the charm, as the third place I came across was an open field of green which eventually led to sandy ground and the RIVER (as pictured above). The above field belonged to Bernam Nature Hut, which has camping grounds nearby and is linked to the village opposite the river by a bridge. Bernam Nature Hut's website can be read HERE. There is a car park space opposite the river in which I parked my car and luckily enough on that day, the car park attendant was visibly absent hence parking was free for that day. Tanjung Malim and the small towns around this southern region of Perak is definitely worth a re-visit with my family and friends. Thye Fah coffeehouse breakfast looks hearty and the food at Sungkai including the Salted Baked Chicken are some of the recommendations featured in this website HERE. A Food Guide to Ipoh, Sitiawan & Taiping from Singaporean perspective can be read HERE .

Sandy bottom of this forest river is partially exposed

Pure joy as I ventured nearer to this river

The river water was icy cold

Deeper ends of the river as it winds nearer to the forest

Clear bottom of sand, pebbles and rocks. Calm waters in this part of this river

Deeper waters of the river

Shallower part of the river

Would be quite cool for them to display their website address on their wooden signboard

A wobbly bridge that leads to the Bernam Nature Hut.

Village to the left of this river and Bernam Nature Hut to the right of this river.

RM17 for a small plate of snacks - light, fluffy and spicy when dipped in chilli garlic sauce

Yik Mun chicken curry bun with Spanish Latte

I headed towards Kuala Kubu Bahru, Selangor in the afternoon and birdwatched at the areas around Kampung Pertak, Selangor and the Selangor River dam. The Rufous-Bellied Eagle (Latin name) was also spotted soaring and flapping above the tree-tops nearby the Selangor River Dam. The sub-species are further described HERE. The checklists from eBird Malaysia are available below:-

https://ebird.org/checklist/S220216153

https://ebird.org/checklist/S220221483

https://ebird.org/checklist/S220222962

Seeing not one but THREE Rufous-Bellied Swallows later that afternoon doing their flybys together with the House Swifts and Pacific Swallows was like watching miniature planes zooming around and under the bridge, just above the waters of the dam. The RB Swallows behaved very much like a close-knit family, sticking closely to each other and they did not mingle with the other swift and swallow species. The rufous red on their bellies and necks stood out and somehow I felt a child-like joy seeing this little family of swallows. Mr Hayao Miyazaki, the founder of Studio Ghibli picked "Swallows and Amazons" by Arthur Ransome as one of this favourite 50 children's books. It is wonderful to know that the creative genius of Hayao Miyazaki was fueled by these books. Mr Arthur Ransome himself was inspired to write his book after giving sailing lessons to his friend's children. He had two dinghies, one of which was named the "Swallow." Clifford Web was the illustrator in the collection of books by Arthur Ransome, and one of his illustration of what looked like a dipper species (Dippers are not found in Malaysia), ends this blog.