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!

16th July 2010: Sungai Sedim and Penanti, Kedah

I made an early start to get to Sungai Sedim by dawn. I haven't been back for a while, and the road to the car park has been fully upgraded. Still, they've done a good job of it and the forest is still largely as it was.

A fruiting tree near my parked car was attractive to several bulbuls at dawn. Red-eyed and Black-headed were regular visitors. Finsch's were calling but never put in an appearance sadly.



A Red-eyed Bulbul drops in for breakfast!



A young male Scarlet-rumped Trogon arrived in the clearing unannounced. Unfortunately I had accidentally knocked the dial on my camera to Auto, so this was taken at ISO3200 - so not as good as it might have been, but not bad for that ISO speed!



This Red-eyed Bulbul was taken at ISO1250.



Several Agile Gibbons were calling, and I spotted this lone male feeding in the tree tops. He looked really huge - big beefy arms and very woolly fur.

DS650560.mp3

Agile Gibbon's call is quite different from the more fluid, sustained calls of White-handed Gibbons. Agile Gibbon has a very small range in South-east Asia, being confined to northern Peninsular Malaysia and Southern Thailand.

After Sungai Sedim I visited the Small Buttonquail site near Kulim. The area is still undeveloped, though a lot more overgrown than before. An extensive walk over the area produced no buttonquails at all.

On the way home I paid a short visit to Penanti, which is a favourite site of bird photographers in the State, due to the fact that there are usually bee-eaters and pratincoles breeding. Not today however. The only Oriental Pratincole I could find was one with a damaged wing.



Common Ioras are extremely common at this site.



I came across a juvenile Paddyfield Pipit still partially dependent on the parent bird. It was a good opportunity to study the juvenile plumage of this species.



This was the adult, looking decidedly bedraggled!



Interestingly, it appeared to have some freshly replaced crown feathers.



Here's the juv, looking pristine by contrast!



It was interesting to compare this with the Blyth's Pipit I saw earlier in the year. Compared to that bird, this one shows a quite different median and greater covert pattern, a heavier malar and more strongly marked head pattern, predominantly dark-centred mantle and crown feathers, and boldly-streaked rear flanks.





The dark loral line is quite obvious in these views.



A very bold and contrasting head pattern!

27th March 2010: Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sepilok, Sabah

By now a familiar routine was established - down to the Bristlehead Tower at dawn.





A pair of Common Iora's near RDC entrance. The calls of this 'aequanimis' race are very different from those I am familiar with on the Peninsula, and the birds look heavier billed too.



This endemic 'nigrimentum' race of Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker has much more extensive black on the throat and sides than the Peninsula race - a smart bird!



My daily pic of the Van Hasselt's Sunbird!

My vigil on the canopy walkway was cut short by the sound of a calling Black-and-Crimson Pitta in the forest below. I decided that a bird in the bush was worth more than no birds in the canopy, so I went down to try to get a view.



The bird eventually showed itself to me well after about an hour of effort. Having only had fairly poor views of one at Danum Valley previously, I was very happy with this one!





The light was even good enough to allow some decent shots without flash (lower pic).





Nearby a group of Short-tailed Babblers were displaying to one another.





A bit further on, a pair of White-chested Babblers foraged near a stream.



A pair of White-bellied Woodpeckers gave distant views.











































In the late afternoon the flying squirrels were active once again, though there were fewer animals than yesterday. Once again, no Bristleheads, but by now this didn't seem so surprising!