egrets returning to their roosting place

(this picture was taken near the warren country club)

our last visit to melaka was made memorable not because of the accommodation, food or attractions; it was the sight of the cattle egrets returning to roost on the trees that made the trip and stay at mahkota hotel worth the while.

the hotel apartment is typical of the state of affair. the state of maintenance is still not compatible with the four-star status. when we finally checked in, after a long delay, the toilet light was out of order and in nah's case, the room's water closet was not functioning properly.

the food in melaka was so so. as i mentioned in my earlier blog, i prefer the singapore's version of chicken rice although the rice-balls may be a kind of novelty. the peranakan fare that we get in singapore is as authentic as you can get anywhere.

the attractions like the old churches, the stadthuys, st paul's hill, the dutch cemetery, a famosa and others are all in the history books and i had seen them all though this was the first time i explored them quite closely.

but the returning of the egrets to their roosting place was the most fascinating. i have read about egrets in singapore spreading out to all corners of the island in the day and then returning to the jurong bird park vicinity in the evening to roost. but, it was in melaka that i witnessed for the first time flock after flock coming back to spend the night on the trees.

just before twilight time, they started coming back in batches. some flocks were as large as twenty birds but some were as few as eight birds. they seemed to come from one direction. while a distance from the roost, they would have decided which tree/s to descend upon. because once they settled on a tree, there was very little movement.

in the morning, it was like watching the whole thing in reverse. the birds would take off in batches, circled around and headed as a group for their own 'hunting ground'. in the day, egrets fan out in groups to open fields, canals and wetlands to look for insects and small animals.