[Murray Lord]

I am going to Panti forest with a Singapore based guide on September 5-6 (and possibly for a third day). If anyone will be in the area and would like to come along and share costs please let me know.

I intend to prioritise trying to see Rail-Babbler.

Murray Lord
Sydney

[Larry Wheatland]

I've long wanted to go there Murray, be great to read about what you see when you go. Hope you find someone to share the trip, should be well worth it.

[Simon M]

Hi Murray,

I'm due to lead a birding trip in Borneo from 14th - 30th September and decided it would be cool to head out and do some (relatively) budget birding elsewhere in SE Asia beforehand. I had been planning on going to Sumatra, but if you have any suggestions of a longer itinerary surrounding the 5-7th September I certainly open to other ideas!
I would be keen on those dates and am available - but it's a question of working into a longer trip coherently....
PM with any further thoughts,
Cheers,

Simon

[kurakura]

hmmm so many good places to go around.... for just a few days, you need easy access - I would go west java rather than Sumatra. I will not be in that area till november:(

[ianreid]

Originally Posted by Murray Lord

I am going to Panti forest with a Singapore based guide on September 5-6 (and possibly for a third day). If anyone will be in the area and would like to come along and share costs please let me know.

I intend to prioritise trying to see Rail-Babbler.

Murray Lord
Sydney

Murray,

sorry I didn't find this thread in time, but I am replying in case others find it and are looking for information about Panti.

I visited there just before you in late August on a stopover from Adelaide back to London. My pictures and report are on my birding pages at

http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~ian/Birding

I was with some local birders, friends of a friend, and we did a day trip of it leaving very early Sunday morning, returning late afternoon / early evening. We had a great day. They were very modest about their abilities suggesting we had missed stuff a pro guide would have found. Probably true, but great company, and I was certainly not complaining when we'd had 3 species of Broadbill, Rail-babbler, Banded Kingfisher, 2 sp, of Trogon, etc.

I would highly recommend Panti as a destination for someone looking for day trip from Singapore. I am not sure I would attempt it first time without local knowledge, though it would seem to be pretty straightforward to get there with a hire car if you were particularly adventurous, esp if you had satnav. Once there, the birding is basically along the Bunker Rd, with a few trails off either side.

Cheers, Ian

[Murray Lord]

Hi Ian,

I had a good two days at Panti. Got Rail-Babbler well by 9.30 am on the first morning, though we didn't hear any more calling. Also had three broadbill species and a variety of other birds. Only disappointment was a lack of any hornbills, and not being able to locate a frogmouth that had been seen a day or two earlier.

Someone else I know was there recently and had no trouble getting from Singapore to Kota Tinggi by public transport, and then arranging a taxi to drop him off and pick him up each day. So there are certainly more cost efficient ways of doing it, if you have the time.

Con Foley has posted some great recent Rail-Babbler photos at http://confoley.com/recent-rail-babbler-sighting

[ianreid]

Hi Murray,

glad to hear you had a good time there also. I too was surprised at the lack of Hornbills -- the one trip report I had seen on the web (from surfbirds) mentioned 4 species of Hornbill! Con's pics are awesome -- he had taken some others a day or two before I went, upping the ante somewhat!

Cheers, Ian