End of year clear-out 2011!

Here are some pics taken at various points over the year not published at the time.







Dusky Eagle-owls.





Malaysian Honeyguide.



The best I could get of the yellow shoulder patch.



Two birds together briefly.





The resident 'torquatus' race of Oriental Honey-buzzard.

16 - 18 Sept: Ulu Muda

I finally made a trip to the forests of the north of the Peninsula, with the main aim of seeing Plain-pouched Hornbill.

I went as part of a group staying at Earth Lodge. We had no electricity due to someone helping themselves to a length of cable over the recent holidays, but this proved a very minor inconvenience, as the forest was cool by day and night.



















The hornbills didn't disappoint, with regular flights to and from the roost morning and evening; 379 was the best count.




















The biggest flocks were over 30 birds, but most were in the 6-16 range.








































Photographing them in good light was a challenge due to mist and low sun, but I finally managed to catch this flock on the last morning.

The other highlight was the outstanding number of night-birds around the camp. I estimated 3-4 Reddish Scops-owls, 2 Collared Scops, 1 Brown Hawk-owl, 2 Buffy Fish-owls and one other large owl which called once briefly. Another frustrating once-only call was a probable White-fronted Scops. There were also 3-4 Gould's and 2 Javan Frogmouths in the area. The Reddish Scops, seen briefly and close-up at dawn on our last day, was my second lifer of the trip, and brought my 500 Club list to 555 - which has a nice ring to it!















































This male Gould's Frogmouth perched much lower than my only previous sighting.

Some other birds seen crossing the river while waiting for Plain-pouched Hornbills...



















One of a party of Great Slaty Woodpeckers.

























We counted 27 Large Green-pigeons flying to roost the first evening.



















Oriental Pied Hornbills were noisy and obvious!








































Oriental Honey-buzzard (top)and Crested Goshawk were among the six raptor species seen.



















A Ferruginous Babbler on a rare open perch! The bird activity on the forest trails was good, but the leeches were plentiful and ferocious, and I didn't have adequate protection, which meant I probably spent less time on the trails than I could have!















































I am pretty confident the swiftlets which came down to drink in the evening were Black-nest Swiftlets. They had virtually no tail notch, the plumage lacked the warmer brown tones of Germain's, and there was no obvious darker cap, which can be seen on Germain's with good views.






































Here's something you don't see every day...a leucistic swiftlet - very cool bird!




















A serene sunset on the Muda River. Something tells me I'll be back - once I've got my leech socks sorted!

16th March 2011: Tanjung Tuan, Melaka

After yesterday's bonanza, another relatively quiet day today.



A few more of the locals. This is the scruffier of a pair of Brahminy Kites. It seems to have only two tail feathers left!



An always regal-looking White-bellied Sea-eagle. This male regularly hunted in the sea below us, catching fish and a sea-snake.



He was kept busy by two growing youngsters in this nest, viewable from behind the lighthouse. This pic was digiscoped; the nest was a good kilometer distant.





I had been hoping to see and photograph a few other diurnal migrants during our time here, but was surprised at how scarce these appeared to be. Barn Swallows came across in one and twos, and very occasionally, we would get small numbers of Fork-tailed Swifts coming 'in off'. I spotted this one while it was well out to sea, ran to get my camera, ran back, and managed to find it again just as it whizzed overhead, so was quite pleased to get 2 out of 4 shots reasonably sharp! In fact, this last pic was probably my 'Pic of the Trip'!



This female Osprey was the second in our few days (I missed the first one!). This one thermalled up to join a flock of Black Bazas flying high overhead.

Not so many OHBs today. Here are three which passed close.





A female, I think.



In this view, you can see how dense and small the feathers are on the face - to protect the bird from bee stings when it goes after honey. You can also see a strand of saliva in its open bill! The scale-like feathering gives them a reptilian appearance!



Another female, with a finely streaked breast.





A juvenile to finish off with, with dusky secondaries, and very clearcut black outer primary tips.

15th March 2011: Tanjung Tuan, Melaka

Today was the day we were hoping for yesterday!





The morning was quiet enough, with just the resident pair of hawk-eagles to watch.

But around midday, someone shouted - "They're coming!"



They were too! Like to guess how many birds there are in this photo? Click on it to get a better view. (Answer at the end!)



It felt like an invasion was underway! (Also well worth viewing the enlarged version!) In case anyone thinks I might have 'embellished' these pics with Photoshop - I haven't!



Some of the birds sought thermals over the sea.






















On reaching land, they were able to regain height in the hot air rising from the land.

Others came in below or at eye level. So those on duty were kept busy clicking the counters, and I was busy clicking the camera!





This female in wing moult had found the crossing hard going.



As soon as she arrived, she pitched down into the hawk-eagle look-out tree and sat there panting for a while, till getting chased away.



Another exhausted female.



A really stunningly-marked female.





Despite the dusky primary tips, this must be at least one year old as it's in secondary moult. So most likely an adult female.







And another.





A couple more females from opposite ends of the shade spectrum.



The two females (right) have very much broader wings than the male on the left. They could be taken for a different species!

Lots more males!

















You could see the closer birds checking us out as they went past!



Some males had lilac mauve underparts - quite an amazing colour!







Most males had a variable number of blue-grey wing covert and flight feathers - all very clearly fresh and contrasting with the browner old feathers.

You might think this is a lot of pics, but I think I was quite restrained considering we had 4,700 birds over today!

Answer: 353!