It has been awhile since I last visited Fraser's Hills because of the constructions going on and the fact that there weren't that mush of birds and butterflies (especially butterflies) to see with all the disturbances around. However, I went up yesterday out of curiosity and also because I had no other plan and I was already halfway at Bukit Telaga, having set my fruit bait and it was too early for butterflies...
A Chocolate Tiger on the meadow at the palyground...
The forest seems to be ablaze with blooms as many trees were either flowering or having new shoots due to the fluctuation of temperature and moisture...
A Jezebel butterfly attracted to the flowers...
A fern shoot near Brinchang Bungalow...
This lofty and restless insect was difficult to photograph: the Smaller Wood Nymph
The Little Pied Flycatcher. I was walking towards some bushes behind Jelai Bugalow when this tiny bird flew onto a branch just above me and was surprisingly not disturbed by my presence...
A tiny skipper butterfly drinking nectar fom Morning Glories...
Flowering trees that gave a very delicate vanilla-jasmine perfum to the crisp morning air in the hills...
The Jelai Bungalow...
A Flower Pecker visiting Loranthus (a mistletoe) up on the trees...
Beautiful vistas on a clear blue morning sky from above the Mountain ridge...
The newly finished public garden (yet to be openend to the public). Hope they can maintain this one against fickle mindedness in management, public abuse (rubbish and vandalism) as well as neglect as in many touristic and recreational places in Malaysia...
A restless butterfly seen on the cement benches of the playground next to Ye Olde Smokehouse. The road to Jeriau was still closed to traffic due to landslide. As there were ample signboards put up along the way to indicate to visitors that the road is closed, many still soldier on, seemingly incapable of reading signboards (actually very large and conspicuous ones) only to be confronted by a cul de sec and difficult reversing techniques with their bulky weekend cars with families in tow... and finished by picknicking everywhere or anywhere with a shade and littering the place later with plastic wrappers, styrofoam boxes and curry stains...strange and persisting Malaysian culture.
Flowers on a medium-sized tree...
Pine trees...
The crowd was starting to build up and it was not very interesting for my activities so I went down early...on the way down, I saw many butterflies hovering over a flowering Mussaenda tree. It was the Rajah Brooke's birdwing that caught my attention but I only managed to photograph this one - Tailed Jay.
The Mussaeda...
Hovering above the blue sky were raptors...the distinctive crest indicates this could be a Hawk-eagle or a Buzzard
Another swift flyer visiting the Mussaenda
Everything blooming...
Two tiny butterflies engaged in an aerial combat...
From left to right: Charaxes bernadus crepax, Charaxes distanti distanti both known as Tawny Rajahs (C. distanti is a very rare species), Polyura delphis (the Jewel Nawab which is a pearl white butterfly at the back), 2 at the foreground is the Common Nawab, Polyura athamas athamas, and the extreme right is the Indian Nawab, Polyura jalysus jalysus. In case you are wondering: in the butterfly world, the Charaxes species are generally called Rajahs (they are stronger flyers with a decidedly more stout body) and the Polyura species are called well, Nawabs...
