5-6th February: north-west Kelantan

A group of us from Penang set off on an exploratory trip to some rarely-visited Kelantan wetlands - To' Uban and Empangan Bukit Kwong (see map), in the wild hope of finding some long-lost rarity! Our imaginations had been fired up by Tony Sebastian's reports of vultures, dabbling ducks and pelicans in the early 90s.



It took us a couple of hours of driving till we finally located this beautiful lake, set deep in rural Kelantan.



There is a stunning white mosque known as Masjid Brunei on the shore.



We eventually found our way to it. It was just as impressive close-up as it had been from a distance!



We were unable to find a boatman so were reduced to scanning the many good-looking areas for waterbirds from the shore. A male Pheasant-tailed Jacana flew into the vegetation opposite and was lost to view, leaving us wondering what else might be in there. Definitely a place worth revisiting next winter.



A roadside pair of Indian Rollers caused an unscheduled pit-stop at Tok Bali.



A Black-naped Oriole shared the same tree. Judging from the width of the yellow at the tip of the tail, I think this is a male, and the restricted yellow on the tertials and secondaries reveal that it is a one of the resident 'maculatus' race.



A Grey-faced Buzzard flew by. I hope to get better shots of this species next week at Raptor Watch, Port Dickson!



Empangan Bukit Kwong is a man-made reservoir right on the Thai border.



We were surprised to see Javan Mynas were common in the area.





As were White-vented or Great Mynas. The origins of these birds are debatable, but they have certainly established a viable presence there.



A mixed flock of Jungle, White-vented and Javan Mynas!



A number of Pintail/Swinhoe's Snipes were feeding in the same area.



Master of disguise! Spot the snipe.



Easier now?

Our plans were hastily rescheduled when we met a boatman who gave us a description of 7-8 birds he sees on the lake daily which closely matched Oriental Darter! Unfortunately he wasn't free to take us out, but we found another boatman who was willing, though he himself had not seen the birds.



Scanning hard!



A wary Common Kingfisher watched us pass.



As did this Chinese Pond-heron.



New life!







This Osprey allowed us to approach fairly closely.





Before deciding to move elsewhere. No darters this time, but again, another place certainly worth revisiting.







A late afternoon visit to Pergau Dam on our way back home yielded a few good birds - Long-tailed and Dusky Broadbills, White-crowned Hornbills and Himalayan Swiftlet, but it was this impressive Rhinoceros Beetle which attracted the cameras!

21st July 2010: Around Kuantan, Pahang

I was in Kuantan to help deliver a workshop on biodiversity issues for oil palm plantation managers (more details here), and I arrived a day early to scout for likely sites for a field trip.

Sadly, most areas of swamp forest remaining in the Kuantan area are badly degraded. The most interesting area ornithologically was a fragment I named Sungai Pancing Selatan, which could be reached down about 5km of logging track. Here I saw and heard a few birds of note - Blue-winged Pitta, Red-throated Sunbird, etc, and a longer visit would have turned up more birds. However, most of the area had been or was in the process of being cleared.























To log swamp forest, first you have to drain it. Drainage canals could be seen in several places slicing through the forest.



This was the fragment I tried birding in, not more than an island of forest.



All around, clearance was progressing and with it, how many tons of carbon are being released into the atmosphere?



According to a local man I spoke to, the forest is being cleared for oil palm. Most likely this is a smallholder rather than a large company. There is so little swamp forest left in Peninsular Malaysia, it's tragic to see what little there is being whittled away.



Lowering the water table to make the land more suitable for agriculture will likely also increase the fire risk greatly.



Elsewhere I came across this bald-headed Common Myna. You can tell when you've become known as the local 'bird-person' in your community, because sooner or later someone will come up to you and say "I saw this funny bird with a yellow head the other day, and it looked like a vulture!" Common Mynas with few feathers or no feathering on their head are a common enough phenomenon, though no one knows for sure what causes it, whether it's part of their normal moult strategy or disease of some kind.



Without the covering of feathers, it's quite easy to see the ear opening, behind and below the eye. Handsome fellow eh?!

14 July 2010: Sungai Burung, Penang Island

It's mid-July, times are hard, pickings are slim!

I equipped myself with the call of Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoo and headed off to some mangroves this evening, but again, not surprisingly, drew a blank!

The Copper-throated Sunbirds which I discovered 4 years ago are still in their favoured area, but less photogenic owing to the undergrowth having been cleared. Now they keep to the tops of the palms.



I told you times are bad. Reduced to photographing House Crows...



Jungle Mynas...



Crested Serpent-eagle...





Brahminy Kite...



...and Asian Glossy Starlings. Actually, these birds are one of my favourite common birds. Juvs and adults both look smart in different ways. This is a juv already starting to grow some glossy green adult feathers.







This younger juv is still all in fresh juv plumage, and the eye is just changing from brown to red.





Check out the difference in eye colour between these two birds!

This post just shows that it's not all about finding interesting and exciting birds! You have to put the hours in as well!

HCV Assessment 9-10th June: Pahang 2

Our second site visit took us about 40 minutes' drive north, to the north-east corner of Bukit Ibam Forest Reserve.

Here too we encountered a Rail-babbler, and had a little more time to try to get some reasonable views.



The bird spent over ten minutes calling from a spot frustratingly just out of full view!



It then gave tantalizing glimpses through the dense foliage as it circled round us.







In good sunlight, the colouration of the bird is strikingly intense.





But more often than not, in the semi-darkness of the forest floor, the white supercilium was what gave the bird away.



In small forest pools, Ictinogomphus decoratus is the commonest large dragonfly.



We identified these tracks as belonging to a Pig-tailed Macaque.



Some orang asli families use forest produce for their livelihood. This tree is known locally as 'pokok kuin' (Keruing (Dipterocarpus sp)). A hole has been made in the trunk to collect oil - 'minyak kuin'. The hole is first fired to 'clean out' any impurities. Then it is left for the oil to collect. Oil is harvested weekly. Two hundred litres of the oil can sell for RM600. The oil has various uses, especially as resin in boat-building.



Collecting of minyak kuin may be a sustainable use of the forest, but the levels of hunting we heard about probably are not. In one home we found this baby Binturong. It had been caught three days previously and was in a sorry state, though still quite lively and strong.



We persuaded the family to part with the animal, and we released it back into another part of the forest. This photo was taken just before release. The poor animal no doubt thought its end had come, and started wailing pitifully and struggled vigorously! Once released, it climbed a small tree and promptly curled up and went to sleep!



The estate had one of the healthiest populations of Barn Owls we have encountered anywhere. We counted 16 birds in one two hour nocturnal survey!











































Owls are so numerous that the estate no longer uses chemicals to control rats.



Or maybe because the estate no longer uses chemicals to control rats!



And the owls weren't just Barn Owls...



There were Spotted Wood-owls...



Buffy Fish-owls...



...and Barred Eagle-owls!

On our final morning I had chance to snap a few of the common estate species:



Black-naped Oriole...



Jungle Myna (the birds here were distinctly blacker than the ones we around Penang)



...And a smart male Little Green Pigeon.