13-14th June: Pedu Lake, Kedah

I stole a couple of days off work to accompany Choo Eng, Angie and James to the access road to Pedu Lake up on the Malaysia/Thailand border. Warning: there follow some of the worst photos you are ever likely to find on a bird blog!

 

A male Crimson-breasted Flowerpecker.

 

A typical view of a Raffles's Malkoha!

 

These two Red Junglefowl looked like a couple of old dears out for a morning stroll!

 

At last!! A flock of noisy, broad-winged and apparently tailless birds chasing each other around the treetops turned out to be...

 

GREY-AND-BUFF WOODPECKERS! Not the greatest views, but my #1 "Bogey Bird" laid to rest at last!  

  

If you have one of the older versions of Robson, you'll see that Whiskered Treeswift is illustrated with all dark wings. The 2008 edition corrected this oversight, but the rather obvious broad white trailing edge to the wing is still absent in other field guides. Odd how something so obvious can go unnoticed - but then - how many people really look at flying swifts/swiftlets/treeswifts?!

 

The sun setting beyond Pedu Lake.

Early morning Blyth's (Javan) Frogmouths were very active. Above is the female - plainer and more rufous; below is the male.

Hooded Pittas were rather numerous, easy to hear but difficult to see!

We watched a displaying Great Iora briefly. It's many, many years since I last saw one. When it was doing its fluttering parachute display, the bird showed a very obvious white rump (see lower picture). The photo shows that the 'rump' appears domed, as if fluffed out. When I got home and checked the books I was rather puzzled to find that Great Iora doesn't have a white rump! Further reading solved the mystery. The nominate race which we get here has "long, silky, white upper flank feathers" (Wells 2008), and it seems that it puffs these up when displaying, giving the impression of a white rump. Well - you learn something new everyday!