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Langkawi, Malaysia 28 Aug - 1 Sept 2012 (1 Viewer)

MKinHK

Mike Kilburn
Hong Kong
Wednesday 28th August – Penang and the ferry
A very early start in the basic but gigantic rooms of Krystal Suites close to Penang Airport produced some of the expected urban birds – House Crow, Common Myna, Glossy Swiftet, Asian Glossy Starling and a Black-naped Oriole being chased out of its tree by a House Crow. An adult Black-crowned Night Heron, a Brahminy Kite and Pacific Swallows by the jetty added to the list before we boarded the ferry to Langkawi.

At least 100 Bridled Terns were the dominant seabirds, supported by a couple of flyover Greater Crested Terns and as we entered the shallower waters around the islands a single Black-naped Tern appeared. Two more pairs of Pacific Swallows graced the jetty and what I think was a Striated Heron took off across the bay as our luggage arrived on the pier with an optics-juddering thump.

Langkawi
The drive across the island produced the fist Little and Cattle Egrets and more Common Mynahs, plus a couple of dark-winged waterbirds that dropped into the paddy and a pair of Tree Sparrows at the petrol station. The hotel, whose grounds are adorned by splendid large trees showed its value by giving up some 28 Oriental Pied Hornbills and, big surprise, a Great Hornbill as well as a Reef Egret, a few squirrels and a small family party of Dusky Leaf Monkeys, which were whiling away the afternoon in the closest tree to our room

The Cable Car area promise more than it delivered, but I did get what appears to be a new bird for Langkawi – Yellow-vented Bulbul in the Oriental Village. There was a bit more quality in the shape of a couple each of Dollarbird and Hill Mynah at the base station, plus two Striped Tit Babblers, a probable Ochraceous Bulbul and some House Swifts at the top cable car station.

The ride back to the hotel was enlivened by drive-by views of a dozen Red-Wattled Lapwing on the reclaimed land close to Perdana Quay.

Cheers
Mike
 
Thursday 29th August
I started the day with a swift couple of hours around the Seven Wells Falls. Unfortunately it was one of those sessions that make the good days seem worthwhile. My best birds were all in the carpark – two Greater Racket-tailed Drongos and a pair of Forest Wagtails were the rather limited highlights, and I struggled mightily to add one Orange-bellied Flowerpecker at the bottom of the falls and a couple of Red-eyed Bulbuls at the top. What was more surprising was that I also hardly heard anything calling. However the forest itself – especially the streams flowing into the upper falls - were wonderful, and no doubt the better for the four days of storms and rain that finished on the Tuesday we arrived in Penang.

Carrie and I then joined a mangrove tour organized by Junglewalla. This was not really a birding trip, but the karst/mangrove forest was wonderful even if the only birds we saw were several White-Bellied Sea Eagle, good numbers of Brahminy Kites and what I think was a Large-billed Crow. We also heard Collared Kingfisher a couple of times The only other birds were a Common Sandpiper and a couple of very red-bellied Red-rumped Swallows.

We did better with other wildlife – a Mangrove Pit Viper was curled on one of the supports under the jetty for the bat cave. This cave held two species of insectivorous bats, a truly gigantic toad and a troupe of very camera-friendly Long-tailed Macaques.

The real highlight was seeing my first ever Archer Fish, some thirty five years after being entranced by the description in a wildlife encyclopaedia of a fish that could knock insects off a perch above the surface by spitting a jet of water at it. I didn’t watch this happen in the wild but did at a holding pen, before seeing a wild fish loitering below the surface about an hour later in the tour.

On the way back to the hotel I had brief views of a good-sized Water Monitor crossing a river, and passing views of Cattle Egrets and Little Egretsin the paddies, an opulently bright yellow Black-naped Oriole, a couple each of White-throated Kingfisher and Paddyfield Pipits.

There were once again good numbers of Oriental Pied Hornbills around the hotel grounds, plus a troupe of each of Dusky Leaf Monkeys and Rhesus Macaques. But the best was definitely saved for last. Walking back to the room after dinner I heard a Collared Scops Owl and then, out of the corner of my eye, an odd shape about eight feet up a tree trunk turned out to be a Colugo – a flying lemur. It had a rather squirrel-like head with large dark eyes, and tiny ears, and appeared to be wrapped in a large dark cloak covered in evenly-spaced white spots. That was furled in ruffles about the forearms and tapering to a neat point. It stayed still on a white blemish on a rubber tree for several minutes before finally deciding discretion was the better part of valour and hunching its way up into the foliage.

Cheers
Mike
 

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30th August

We started the day with a nature walk with Irshad, the boss of Junglewalla at the Datai Resort. This walk was not really dedicated to birds, but we did see an early Arctic Warbler, Pacific Swallows nesting in the roof and a Dollarbird in the carpark, plus a Brown-throated Sunbird that went over at high speed. Other birds included the always astonishing Asian Fairy Bluebird, several Ochraceous Bulbuls, a very approachable Orange-breasted Flowerpecker, singing Dark-necked Tailorbird, Grey Wagtail (another migrant), Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, a Ruby-cheeked Sunbird as well as Crested Goshawk, Brahminy Kite, Crested Serpent Eagle, and an adult White-bellied Sea Eagle sunbathing with wings drooped open like a Grey Heron.

We dropped in to the Andaman Hotel to look for Colugo in their carpark, eventually finding a female with a baby in a tree right by the carpark. The hotel also delivered a Flying Lizard, an unidentified skink and very close views of the Dusky Leaf Monkeys. On returning to our hotel my eye was caught by a movement off the lobby verandah, and once again I had eye-level views of Great Hornbill down to thirty or forty feet. We had a couple more over lunch from a restaurant in Perdana Bay, and on returning to the hotel I was delighted to find two more Colugos right outside the room.

That evening we joined another nature tour, this time to the island’s highest mountain, Gunung Raya, which is covered in wonderful tropical rainforest. We started in a rubber plantation at the foot of the mountain, where the only bird was a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo. The principal targets before dusk were again Great Hornbills, which we saw feeding in fruiting fig trees, and gliding majestically, and bizarrely slowly above the canopy, and Great Slaty Woodpecker, a pair of which called and showed beautifully in silhouette on a tall bare stump as the sun set above the forest. A Mountain Hawk Eagle also showed briefly but rather distantly. On the way down we had brief spotlight views of a Collared Scops Owl on overhead wires and two possible Flying Squirrels.

1st September
On my last morning I again headed for the forest above Seven Wells waterfall, and again drew an almost complete blank, despite going a great deal further into the forest. I had a few butterflies (including both males and a female of the spectacular Archduke and a couple of frogs, but once again noticed an eerie dearth of insects. I did see both monkeys and picked up a couple of leeches to let me know that I really had been in the jungle, even if my bird list showed no such evidence.

Our final foray was to the enjoyably tacky Underwater World, which is on the main drag at the southern end of the island, and we filled up before the boat ride at the admirable Red Tomato Restaurant just a few doors further south. A few Bridled Terns and a couple of Common Terns were the only birds from the ferry.

The other highlight of the trip was watching formally dressed arab ladies heads totally covered by a chador - not even eye-slits - lining up to have their picture taken at the op of the cable car - The only way to tell them apart was their different styles of sunglasses.


Cheers
Mike
 

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