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| Hornbill viewing its domain. Saw this during my morning walk around my housing area. It was a rather chilly (for the tropics!) and gloomy morning, excellent time to go and exercise without sweating too much. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, this was taken using my camera phone, and then enlarged. |
Aunty Kan invited me to join her for her morning walk. I was glad I did, it was fun chit-chatting and peeking into other neighbours' gardens (hahaha what busybodies we are!)
Then I spotted the above hornbill on a tree. There were 2 of them. I remembered as a child here I used to see a pair of hornbills often near my school. I guess these majestic looking birds mate for life. As we got closer, its partner flew away, and soon enough, this one flew off too. It has been years since I last saw one. I do wonder whether they can still be found at my old school.
I found an old article from the Star on dwindling numbers of hornbills, due to destruction of swampland and peat forests. There was a swamp not far from my school, and I used to see brightly coloured kingfishers there all the time. There is a reserve forest near my school as well, though the areas bordering it have been replaced by luxurious million-ringgit houses. Sigh.
