25th July 2010: Fraser's Hill

I made sure I had a good night's sleep so that I could be in my hide at first light migraine-free, and I settled down to wait for the pheasant to appear. Within moments however, I felt my skin being assailed by gazillions of tiny biting insects. They were much smaller than mosquitoes, but with a much more ferocious bite. It became utterly impossible to remain motionless with these things attacking any patch of exposed skin. I tried moving my hide in case they were just a localized swarm, but the forest seemed to be full of the obnoxious beasties. In less than an hour I'd had enough, and was forced to retreat with my hands, ankles and face covered in pink bumps, feeling as if I'd been roasted over an open fire! Over a week later, the bites are still as itchy as anything. Why can't those nameless horrors become extinct instead of Spoon-billed Sandpipers?!



I made my way to Hemmant's Trail in my never-ending quest to improve on my Malaysian Partridge shots. Instead I was treated to the sight of a pair of Denis Healey eyebrows bobbing about in the gloom!





With a bit of illumination from the flash, the eyebrows could be seen to belong to a subadult male Lesser Shortwing, which was involved in a territorial face-off with another bird.



The other male was a bit older, though still exhibiting signs of immaturity in the brown fringes to the remiges. An adult male should look like this.



Elsewhere on the trail, this female or immature Red-headed Trogon was perched inconspicuously a few feet off the ground.



I tried to look down toward Bishop's Trail from the road above where I'd seen the pittas on the 20th, but with no success. This immature Dark (Large) Hawk-cuckoo did appear quietly in front of me though.



A pair of Streaked Wren-babblers foraged in the short vegetation next to the road, and seemed completely fearless.



On Bishop's Trail I came across a pair of squirrels foraging on the ground. I later identified them as Red-cheeked Squirrels.

I decided to leave by the 10 am gate down to the Gap to give myself a couple of hours birding before heading back home to Penang.

There was lots of bamboo in seed along the old road, but no sign of any of the bamboo specialities. Instead, a pair of Orange-breasted Trogons put on a good show!






















This is the relatively soberly-coloured female.






























































And the more flamboyantly-attired male!

I heard a Marbled Wren-babbler calling distantly in one of the gullies, but when I got to my favourite spot for observing them I found that a tree fall had opened up the ravine, allowing a lot of sunlight in, and the birds were conspicuously absent.



Some of the large trees were dropping seeds, which were spinning to the ground like miniature helicopters. This tree was not a dipterocarp, as dipterocarp seedlings have two wings, whereas this had three, but other than that, I'm not sure what species it was.



A Little Spiderhunter was feeding on the ornamental flowers near the guardpost at the lower entrance to the old road.



Forget the Twin Towers or any other of the architectural marvels of Malaysia's modern cities, or any number of theme parks - this is what I'd travel round the world to see - pristine Malaysian rainforest in all its magnificence.

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!

Whistling Thrush Project: Fraser's Hill 20th June 2009

We were at the Waterfall before dawn, but unfortunately there was no whistling thrush there to greet us.
























Some distraction was provided by a female Red-headed Trogon which spent most of the morning around where we had set up our ringing station.



Later we came across an extraordinary party of five birds, which we assumed were a pair with three juveniles, although no apparent juvenile plumage could be seen. Even more peculiar was this behaviour of two of the birds - an adult male feeding another apparently adult male bird!










































The party stayed together throughout the two days we were present at the site, inciting several non-birding picnickers to comment on the 'pretty red birds'!



This male Little Cuckoo-Dove was another early morning visitor to the trees around our ringing station.























A short distance away, a fruiting tree attracted a variety of birds, including Blue-winged Leafbirds...











...and several Fire-breasted Flowerpeckers.



After closing the nets in mid-morning Muin and I worked our way slowly up the road, listening for Marbled Wren-Babblers at promising looking ravines. We drew a blank on the babblers, but saw several of these attractive Echo modesta damselflies.





The start of the Bird Race was greeted with torrential rain, which sent all but the most dedicated back to their digs. No such luxury for this pair of Little Pied Flycatchers!

In the late afternoon I returned to Jeriau to open the nets again, while the other team moved the nets from the top gate of the old road to a couple of streams on the new road. Once again we drew a complete blank. Even the Jeriau Blue did not put in an appearance!



A Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher turned up at dusk to hawk for moths in the gathering gloom.





On the way back to our vehicles after dark, we came across this 'gravid' Cyrtodactylus elok, which goes by the amazing English name of White-eyed Bent-toed Gecko! Gravid means it's pregnant apparently. You can see two eggs beneath the skin. Thanks to Muin for educating me!



After dinner I took out a party of people anxious to see the owl. Unfortunately we only got glimpses of the bird in flight this evening. I did manage to snap this wolf spider though.

29th January 2009: Fraser's Hill

First thing I had another go at photographing Siberian Thrushes - unsuccessful! This was partly compensated for by a single lucky shot of a Black Laughingthrush.






















Plus bee! I just can't get over the colour of that bill!



And a brief but photographically satisfying encounter with a Red-headed Trogon.

Things continued to get better with my first sighting of a Cutia - now Himalayan Cutia - for about 19 years!





The female was a little reticent.









But the male was stunningly obliging!





Despite a deterioration in the weather in the afternoon, I managed these shots of a Chestnut-backed Scimitar0Babbler.



And this Grey Wagtail was the only fruit of my frequent searches for roadside thrushes!