26-30 May: Cameron Highlands

The idea was a few days of peaceful family holiday; the reality was that this was school holidays, when peace and Cameron Highlands are not words easily associated with one another!

A few photos from the four days away.

A couple of shots of not-so-easy-to-see Bay Woodpeckers - these were very vocal at the summit of Brinchang at dawn.

Snowy-browed Flycatchers are typical denizens of the shady mossy upper montane forest. They're completely fearless, and often the first indication of their presence is an awareness of a pair of beetling white eyebrows glowering at you from the side of the road as you walk past!

Lesser Shortwings are very common at the summit too, and come out onto the road to feed at first light.

I set up my hide at the roadside one day, and soon realized I was in the vale of the dinosaurs! First I found myself eyeball to eyeball with this juvenile Robinson's Anglehead Lizard.

 Quite a fearsome-looking beast!

 Then the Daddy dino turned up. Check out those teeth - enough to give a nasty nip!

This third one was missing the end of its tail - a subadult male I think. They all foraged a few feet in front of my hide quite amiably.

I also discovered I had parked myself near the home of a Three-striped Ground Squirrel. It provided me with regular entertainment as it darted in and out of the undergrowth collecting stuff.

 

 

Avian visitors were limited to a male Large Niltava (briefly) and a female White-tailed Robin (regularly).

Another day was spent in the hide at my favourite cuckoo-dove watering hole. Here are both species - Little on the left, a male Barred on the right.

A male Little.

And a female I think.

Male (top) and female Barred Cuckoo-doves. This is one of my favourite pigeon species - dunno why - perhaps it's because it took me so many years to see my first!

The female back-on.

Males of both species appear much larger than females, and are much bigger around the head and neck - perhaps the better to coo with!

 A female (front) and male.

The green gloss against the greys and browns of the rest of the plumage is one of the best colour combinations  I've seen in nature.

Later I moved my hide down to the stream to try to photograph the doves coming down. I wasn't successful - they were too wary I think - but I was rewarded by this juv Slaty-backed Forktail and male White-tailed Robin.

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.

4th July 2009: Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

This trip was a combination of a chance to spend a few days with some old friends, meet some new friends and take advantage of an extended Selangor Bird Group stay at a timeshare apartment.

The old friends were Dr Graham and Jenny McAll, and the new ones - Peter and Miranda Harris. Peter and Miranda are the founders of A Rocha - a Christian conservation organization. There's a short video clip of their work here. I read Peter's first book , Under the Bright Wings, some years ago, and have been an admirer of A Rocha's work since. Both the Harris's and the McAlls are here on A Rocha business, holding seminars in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur on biblical environmental stewardship.

Peter is what I would call a 'dead keen birder', so it was my job to introduce him to some Malaysian montane birds while the rest of the party relaxed and enjoyed themselves. It was a tough job but someone had to do it!



















We stayed at the Lutheran Bungalow, which is at the end of a very birdy lane in an area of CH I hadn't visited before. Pre-dawn this Blyth's Hawk-eagle was already on the alert.


















In a wooded ravine not far from the bungalow, large numbers of cuckoo-doves were coming down to drink in a sadly polluted stream. There must have been a hundred or more Little Cuckoo-doves, and about thirty Barred - a lifer for me after many years of looking! This was my first shot - a digiscoped effort.






































A couple of flight shots. Robson states that Barred Cuckoo-dove has a 'long, graduated tail with no white or grey markings', but as can be seen here, the outer tail feathers have quite obvious pale grey terminal and subterminal markings, which are lacking in Little.



















Later I found a branch where many of the birds would perch en route to or from the water. It was a little dark and in the shade, but at least it gave a chance of a clear shot. Here a female Barred sits alongside a female Little, giving a good impression of relative size and bulk.




















The female is well barred all the way down the underparts.



















In the sun, both sexes have a gorgeous mint choc chip green sheen to the neck and upper breast feathers.


















A couple of Little Cuckoo-doves on the same branch. I think the right hand bird may be a juvenile and the left one a female.

















A male (right) moves into a better posing position!

















Juveniles were a feature of this trip - obviously this is one of the peak breeding periods - here's one of several young Slaty-backed Forktails we saw.








































"Cuckoo-dove valley" held several singing Lesser Shortwings. Here's an obliging subadult male (aged by the brown primaries).



















A Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo enjoying the first rays of the morning sun. Most Lesser Racket-tails seem to be minus their rackets, but are easily identified by their square tail and wedge-shaped 'foreheadless' head.























Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrikes seem particularly numerous in the Cameron Highlands.























A composite picture of a single subadult Rufous-bellied Eagle. The underwing coverts and some of the body plumage is still juvenile. The shape of this eagle in flight is quite similar to Booted Eagle.

















 A short walk along Trail 5 in the afternoon yielded a few passerines, including this moulting male Black-throated Sunbird...




















... and several hyperactive Yellow-breasted Warblers - common but so difficult to get a decent picture of!






















A striking leaf!







I thought a pair of Everett's White-eyes were being very obliging, hanging around close by and preening - until I realized that I was sitting a few feet from their nest - so I hastily retreated!