here - IJM Land

There’s nothing quite like the sight of seeing
hundreds of majestic birds of prey circling in the
sunny skies of Tanjung Tuan, Port Dickson. I’ve
never been much of a bird enthusiast but the sight
of these beautiful creatures flying across the blue skies was
enough to bring out the dormant birder in me. My first
experience in witnessing the raptor migration was unforgettable,
especially when viewed from the observation platform
of the Cape Rachado lighthouse, the country’s oldest lighthouse
(built in the 16th century) right at the top of a pristine
coastal rainforest reserve (Tanjung Tuan Forest Reserve),
overlooking the beautiful azure ocean, where on a clear day,
you could even see the distant island of Sumatera.
It’s amazing that this unique phenomenon that occurs in a
few special places in the world, has been often overlooked,
even by the residents of the surrounding areas of Alor Gajah
and Port Dickson themselves. It would have remained one of
Tanjung Tuan’s best kept secrets that might have quietly
slipped away into extinction in the midst of a rapidly developing
country, had it not been for a group of members from
the Malaysian Nature Society, who stumbled across this sight
during a bird watching trip over ten years ago.
The majestic aerial display by the raptors or birds of prey at
Tanjung Tuan occurs during the spring migrating season
between mid February to April every year as they make their
journey across thousands of miles from the Southern to the
Northern Hemisphere as winter draws to an end. The
raptors would converge at Tanjung Tuan, Port Dickson
exhausted, to roost and feed, before continuing on their
journey into Sumatra and other Indonesian islands, and
onwards back to their northern breeding grounds in Siberia,
China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, India and Indochina.
Tanjung Tuan is the nearest point to these islands and
remains an important stopover that is essential to the survival
of these birds in the midst of their long perilous flight back
home.
I!
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