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!

31 March - 1 April: Gunung Telapa Buruk, Negeri Sembilan

I took a 'slight' detour on my trip back from KL to Penang to visit Rafi at his dream-home near Gunung Telapa Buruk. Though I didn't really need an excuse to pay him a visit, the offer was 'sweetened' by the frequent presence of a Grey-and-Buff Woodpecker in his garden, which is my No 1 'Bogey Bird' in Malaysia, as well as regular sightings of Eyebrowed Wren-babblers at nearby Telapa Buruk.

To cut a long story short, I didn't see either of them, but we did enjoy some very pleasant 'armchair birding' from his verandah!

Not close, but then how many of us can boast any kind of views of Wreathed Hornbill from our back garden?!

Brown Shrike - a commoner garden visitor, but not to be sniffed at, especially when acquiring really smart breeding plumage.



















While staking out the top of his woodpecker tree, I was amazed to see this flowerpecker land at eye-level. I'd only ever seen one Thick-billed Flowerpecker before, and that certainly wasn't at eye-level, so I was initially a bit puzzled by this bird.





















For one thing, the bill didn't seem that thick, certainly not compared to the illustration in Robson. It also seemed deformed, as if the upper mandible had overgrown the lower. Later digging around revealed that the race 'remotum' that occurs in Peninsular Malaysia has a bill "no thicker than Yellow-vented, Yellow-throated [sic] and Crimson-breasted Flowerpeckers" (Wells 2007). Furthermore, by looking at photos in OBI, I realized that the bill is always this rather unique shape, with the lower mandible fitting inside the upper. This must be an adaptation to facilitate piercing of fruits. Con Foley's recent amazing photos of Brown-backed Flowerpecker show that Brown-backed shares this bill characteristic.




















The streaks on this bird were rather less-well demarcated than those apparent on photos of nominate and 'modestum' races, and that olive wing patch really does stand out! Unfortunately, this was a fleeting view, as the bird was chased out of the tree by a Yellow-vented Flowerpecker! Still, it was a new 'garden tick' for Rafi!
























This pic of an obliging Silver-breasted Broadbill was my only fruit from our early morning trip up Gunung Telapa Buruk. The place seems pretty 'birdy', but both Eyebrowed and Marbled Wren-babblers remained resolutely silent and invisible!

29 June - 4 July 2011: Poring, Sabah

Just back from a relaxing few days in Sabah, initially to do a survey of bird life around a new Jungle Camp, entrancingly called "Lupa Masa" (Forget Time), and then to spend a few days in the more familiar Poring Hot Springs park area.



The dining area. The place really blends in with its surroundings, and it is not difficult to indeed forget time there. The story of the genesis of this place can be read here. It's not long before the only clock you take notice of is the natural rhythm of the dawn-day-dusk-night.





You sleep in 'sulaps' - ingenious structures housing cozy hammocks complete with mosquito nets. From one of these some lucky visitors had wonderful views of a Yellow-throated Marten family at play.



I wasn't quite as lucky, but was fortunate enough to photograph this male Purple-naped Sunbird while laying on my sleeping-bag!





It was only a few metres away, yet completely oblivious to my presence! Very nice!



Not a bad place to cool off after a hot day in the jungle! Complete with fish which nibble your toes, and the occasional Bornean Forktails and Bornean Whistling-thrush.









The endemic Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker was a common visitor to the dining room verandah.





Black-winged Flycatcher-shrikes were also seen there daily.






















If you visit the camp, look out for this fellow - I think he's wanted for rustling!






















Lupa Masa offers some exciting possibilities for exploring the quieter areas behind the national park. I spent the last few days of my stay in the park proper, trekking up to the spectacular Langanan Waterfall.

You can't go to a place called "Poring' and expect not to get wet, it is RAINforest after all! The rain was fairly predictable, however, usually arriving around midday or early afternoon, giving me clear mornings.



On my first day I decided to reacquaint myself with one of the Park's more well-known residents - Blue-banded Pitta.



This was a markedly brighter bird than the one I photographed at Kubah in Sarawak - too bad I didn't quite get the same photographic opportunities!





The red on this bird is far more intense and 'pure' than on the Kubah bird, and the blue chest-band is broader (cf these pics and these.

I spent a lot of time on the trails hoping for a shot of Bornean Banded Pitta, but a single call was the closest I got for my efforts!



I was pleased to get a look at the Bornean melanops race of Banded Kingfisher. This one was wrestling with a large stick insect. As I watched, it flew to another branch where a juvenile was waiting quietly.



Too bad my camera's autofocus popped out at the critical moment, but I was interested to see that the fledglings are sexually dimorphic - this one is clearly a male.



A bit late now, but a sharp shot at last!



Another juv Banded,another endemic subspecies (brookei), but a Broadbill rather than a kingfisher - rather overflashed! This and Black-and-Yellow were my only broadbills of the trip. Despite much searching, the Hose's remained elusive.





A few non-avian images. The second butterly was huge, and in flight had exactly the colour scheme of a White-crowned Shama (and it was nearly as big!).



Some friendly frogs!






















A Plain Pygmy-squirrel...



...which was not only cute...



...but also fascinating! As it moved around it constantly rotated the rear of its body to rub itself against the bark of the vine - whether to scent-mark, alleviate some itch, or for another reason I couldn't tell.



OK, so sometimes I was bored!



This Grey-headed Canary-Flycatcher seemed to be permanently stationed on this particular dead branch at all times of day and every day. This enabled me to try out every possible variation of ISO, flash setting and shutter speed, and still only come up with a rather mediocre series of photos! I'm hoping one day someone will help me understand how to use flash properly!

I'll finish off with two hard-to-photograph species:



Olive-backed Woodpecker (juv?) male.



Female.





And a rather fine White-necked Babbler.