Bristol to Kagu ? (1 Viewer)

[Jos Stratford]

Cheers mate, but I reckon it would benefit from some pics like the ones in your thread

Nick some from the web, say you struggled through bush and sweat and that you are amazed by the photograph that resulted, no one will ever find out

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Nick some from the web, say you struggled through bush and sweat and that you are amazed by the photograph that resulted, no one will ever find out

You mean just like no one's found out that I'm actually still in Bristol ?

 

[Larry Sweetland]

More Krabi and Phi Phi

The last few days have provided some interesting birding, especially in terms of birds that I've found tricky to identify.

First evening back in Krabi we did the mangrove walkway and heard the bird I thought might be Ruddy Kingfisher again. Also had great views of a Slaty-breasted Rail as it walked around below us nearby. On returning to the town the only recording of RK that I could find was rather different to what we had been hearing.

Next morning we set off on the 40 minute walk to the mangroves behind the Maritime Hotel in time to get there by dawn. From the hotel pier we had great views of Brown-winged Kingfisher, and watched an egret on the far bank that I couldn't identify which was clearly of Little/Chinese proportions. The bill pattern was very like the picture in Robson of non-breeding Chinese Egret, being black with the basal two thirds of the lower mandible being yellowish. There was no sign of plumes on the head or nape. The legs were dull blackish, more olive-black behind, especially towards the feet. The feet were dull yellow, tinged greenish. Could it have been a Chinese ? Or maybe just a Little.

After hearing nothing of the mystery call for maybe an hour, I headed back towards the hotel and heard 3 of the mystery birds in the mangroves to my right as I walked back. They remained stubbornly invisible, even as two of them moved out of the mangroves and into the manicured parkland in front of the hotel. By now I figured they must surely be something else, probably a common species giving a call I'd previously not noticed. I persued them across the lawn and eventually saw one as it flew out of a palm tree. I was by now totally surprised as well as dead chuffed to see that it was a Ruddy Kingfisher after all. I ended up obtaining 4 or 5 further flight views as the birds headed back to the mangroves, but could never get to see one perched. Awkward birds indeed considering their size and appearance.

Later that day we climbed the hill to the Tiger Temple, which provided an excellent view of the area for miles around, and there was a great display of up to 9 species of avian aerial insectivores around us, including Rufous-bellied Swallows .

Next morning we caught the 9.20 boat to Kho Phi Phi, seeing a couple of Lesser Crested Terns on the way. Pied Imperial Pigeons were pretty common in the hills around town, and there were plenty of swiftlets here to wonder about. We set off on a longtail boat at 5pm towards the two stacks of Koh Bida, south of Phi Phi Ley, seeing a few Bridled Terns on the way, and stopped of at Koh Samah bay, where the Thaibirding website mentions Black-nest Swiftlet to be very much in evidence. The Thai birding site's list for Phi Phi in fact only mentions this species, so I assumed that that's what we were at least mostly seeing. Try as I might I could not see any difference between these birds and Germain's, except perhaps that occasionaly a bird would look shorter-winged, and I thought perhaps most of these birds looked slightly longer-winged, bigger-headed, and bigger than birds I'd studied in Krabi before leaving for Phi Phi, if I used my imagination!. I certainly could not perceive any difference in the colour of the rump band or underparts, or any difference in the depth of the tail notch. Other birders in other reports seem to note one or other species, and it appears from general non-birding literature, that birds with both black nests and white nests occur on Phi Phi. One day hopefully I'll get to go somewhere where I can see them on the nest, but until then I'm going to have to dodgily count them on wing length, and see if the words "Black-nest Swiftlet" make me wince when I see them on my list. In fact I'm going to look at the swiftlets over here too and see what I reckon. One thing I can assure you of, is that if one ever happens to circle me closely in great light while I'm on the Garrison camp site on Scilly, I won't be the one who confidently shouts out : " Black-nest Swiftlet". I wonder if there's anyone who could. Unfortunately there are no flight shots of BNS on Oriental Bird Images, mostly nests ! but the one shot of an adult on the deck in a pose resembling a flying bird does show that the notch depth and rump colour are within limits of birds I was thinking was this species. Still, it's all very very naughty.

So feeling a bit dirty we then moved on to the stacks where the frigatebirds were hopefully due to appear at dusk. The boatman stopped between the stacks and we waited. Eventually frigatebirds started to appear out of nowhere and a core group of spiralling birds was gradually increasing in size. The boatman said they's get closer, and indeed they did as they gradually circled the stacks, but they were too distant to identify, except to occasionaly give the impression that a minority of the birds were a little larger and bulkier. I started to worry that the light was fading fast so encouraged the boatman to go after them. I would strongly advise that this is done earlier than I did because you really don't have much time. We managed to get fairly close to the spiralling group of what by now had to be getting on for 1000 birds. Most were clearly Lesser Frigatebirds, a few nice adult males being clocked. The first larger female-type bird that I had a decent look at refused to show any white in the axillaries and I wonder if It could have been a Greater Frigatebird. I wondered later if male Christmas Island Frigatebirds have a stage where they have extensively white underparts after they lose all the white in the armpits. If it wasn't for the eventual appearance in my bins of a larger bird that turned into an adult male Christmas Island Frigatebird, I would have left the area only having noted that there were some larger birds present. Lucky we went for them when we did, though we missed out I think on what would have been much better views if we'd done this 15 minutes earlier.

657 RUDDY KINGFISHER
658 Lesser Crested Tern
659 Pied Imperial Pigeon
660 Bridled Tern
661 BLACK-NEST SWIFTLET
662 Lesser Frigatebird
663 CHRISTMAS ISLAND FRIGATEBIRD

I'd love to hear about anyone elses experiences or comments on how they got on with identifying non-breeding egrets, swiftlets, and frigatebirds in this part of Thailand, if anyone's up for mentioning it here.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Murrelet revisited

Just thought I'd let you know that although there isn't an official Vietnam records committee, I've just heard that the Halong bay bird has been sort of officially accepted as an Ancient Murrelet by the sort of unofficial lot who would at least unofficially be recognised as the official recorders if such a body officially might exist !..... So YIppppeeeeeee !!! B and have this one yourselves B

 

[martinf]

Just thought I'd let you know that although there isn't an official Vietnam records committee, I've just heard that the Halong bay bird has been sort of officially accepted as an Ancient Murrelet by the sort of unofficial lot who would at least unofficially be recognised as the official recorders if such a body officially might exist !..... So YIppppeeeeeee !!! B and have this one yourselves B

Congrats Larry, well done.

 

[Jacana]

I'll be visiting Thailand next year, so all of this info is most helpful thanks!

 

[halftwo]

Thanks for the pint & congrats.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Similan

..... another tube of superglue, another border to get through
Lemmy Kilminster

Well we had one more mission before crossing the border into Malaysia, our 14th country of the trip so far, via Hat Yai.

From Ko Phi Phi we took a boat to Phuket and headed north again on the bus back to Khao Lak. We had to wait another day before there was finally a vacancy on the campsite at island number 4. We arranged a great value open ticket snorkelling tour through the friendly and effiicient Asia Tours, based on the opposite side of the road to the Nanthong supermarket and c150m up the road to the north. This involved some fabulous snorkelling, and an overnight stay on Similan 4, before rejoining the tour the next day for a second sumptuous lunch.

There are few birds species here, the only passerines we saw were 2 Barn Swallows and a distant sunbird sp, but pigeons have the place pretty well covered. Pied Imperial Pigeon is very common here, Green Imperial Pigeon and Emerald Dove were also present, and of course there is the Nicobar Pigeon which puts this place on the birding map. Our only sign of Nicobar Pigeons on the first day was when we flushed a group of 3 birds that were rustling on the ground in the forest at the top of the trail to the high view point in the middle of the day. The next morning we could only find one rather wary bird in the camp site. Tis podgy delight appeared very early and soon disappeared. Not quite the Attenborough moment I had envisaged whereby Nicky would take a short video of the bird with me crouched immediately behind it, nodding and declaring in enthusiastic hushed tones "..and here.... we have... the Extraordinary.....Nicobar....Pigeon."

Other people have found the species much more numerous and easy to see here. There are a few large buildings under construction at the back of the campsite encroaching into the jungle, so lots of disturbance there. Also the campsite had been at capacity for more than 2 weeks of festive period so this might have been a short term effect. I really hope this fragile species isn't about to go into decline here.

We've made it as far as Penang, where I was surprised to see hoards of House Crows, I might even put this cheeky species on the trip list for effort, presuming it's ship assisted rather than deliberately introduced. Plenty of swiftlets around. Interestingly most, presumably Germain's, look typically short-winged (recalling Melodious Warbler), when compared to the apparent Black-nests on Phi Phi (which recalled Sooty Albatross)

Not sure where to next. Haven't really got a plan for Malaysia. Any ideas apart from TN, FH and KS more than welcome.

664 NICOBAR PIGEON
665 House Crow

Jacanas post has reminded me to mention that, due to the unconventional format of this report, it's not exactly easy to find useful logistical bits, so if anyone has any specific logistical questions , please ask.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Penang

There appears to be no sign of the plague of swiftlets overhead wherever we go abaiting. These birds are causing considerable danger, as it's hard not to try and make sense of them constantly, even when crossing the road. Thet are however clearly identifiable as ..er... swiftlets.

Today we took the funicular railway up Penang Hill and walked dawn. Had I realised that there was such good forest habitat up there I'd have suggested an early start. Interesting migrants were represented by a Ferruginous Flycatcher, 2 Mugimaki Flycatchers, and a Tiger Shrike. Other birds included some Glossy Swiftlets amongst the plague, a Cha(lle)ngeable Hawk-Eagle, Red-eyed, Grey-bellied, Hairy-backed and Olive-winged Bulbuls, Grey-throated Babbler and Orange-bellied Flowerpecker.

Still having trouble working out where to go. A brief look into Belen NP revealed no cheapish options. Think we'll probably head for the hills next. Hoping to explore Cameron Highlands. Anyone know any good birding spots there ?

666 Glossy Swiftlet
667 Changeable Hawk- Eagle
668 Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
669 Ferruginous Flycatcher
670 Tiger Shrike
671 Grey-bellied Bulbul
672 Red-eyed Bulbul
673 Mugimaki Flycatcher

And Here's a pic of me, with Brits Jason and Jen, really trying to understand the Nordmann's Greenshank at Krabi.

 

[halftwo]

You glossed over the snorkelling bit there Larry, come on, some flesh on dem bones.
Glad you got the Nicobars.
And those shorts don't suit you.

 

[birdboybowley]

I was on Island 4 in April 06 as part of the touristy day trip thingy. We had an hour on the island and after walking through to the other side and searching through the understorey, and running out of time, we found a pair.....walking around the tents in the campsite, literally at our feet. Had to keep moving backwards with the vid as they were too close!!! Such fantastic birds I had to do a painting of them...

Snorkelling was good too, but we'd just come from Sipadan Island off Borneo so whilst everyone was gushing about how great it was we were kinda underwhelmed!
Sounds like yr having a great time, brings it all back - I can't wait to go again, 06 was the best year of my life!

Ads

 

[Jacana]

awesome painting!

 

[halftwo]

awesome painting!

Indeed.

 

[deborah4]

Wicked photo Larry - perfect hardback cover to the 'Zen and the Art of Birdwatching' that you will be publishing on your return to Blighty - first copy free to the person who comes up with the best caption of course

 

[halftwo]

Wicked photo Larry - perfect hardback cover to the 'Zen and the Art of Birdwatching' that you will be publishing on your return to Blighty - first copy free to the person who comes up with the best caption of course

How about:

Ilkley Moor birding was never the same after Global Warming set in.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Cameron Highlands jackpot

Thanks for the laughs and the beautiful painting you lot what are you like?

From Penang we travelled to the Cameron Highlands by bus. We had no birding gen except for 1 line in Where to watch birds in Asia, that simply mentions that 2 montane species not found at Frasers Hill occur at the Cameron Highlands. One of these was Yellow-breasted Warbler, so we gave it a go. We decided to go to the town of Tanah Rata, because our travel guide book mentioned several budget guesthouses and that there were walks into the hills. We didn't even know if there would be any forest around. This ended up being far far better birding than I could ever have hoped for, as birding is excellent immediately outside town, with good habitat within easy walking distance. Maps are available with numbered walking routes.

We birded trail 4 to the Parit waterfall and beyond it to the watchtower, trail 5 for the first c1km of forest, the road parallel to the main road that starts at the police station, and the peak of Gunung Brinchang. All were good.

The best mixed flock was on trail 5, where I finally found a Yellow-breasted Warbler , along with 2 lovely Blue Nuthatches, Grey-chinned Minivets, Mountain Fulvettas, Long-tailed Sibias, Black & Crimson Oriole, Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush, Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo, Blue-winged Minla, Golden Babbler, Mountain Bulbul, Fire-tufted Barbet,Javan Cuckoo-Shrike, White-browed Shrike-Babbler and Green Magpie.. Mountain Tailorbirds, Silver-eared Mesia, Black-breasted Sunbird, Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, White-tailed Robin and Streaked Wren-Babbler were generally common. Everetts White-eyes were found on the "parallel road" and low down on Gunung Brinchang. Malayan Laughingthrush (split from Chestnut-headed?) were widespread but much shyer than the Chestnut-capped LT. Less common were Little Pied, Verditer and Rufous-browed Flycatchers, Long-tailed Broadbill, Mountain Imperial Pigeon, Chestnut-tailed Minla, Brown Bullfinch, Lesser Shortwing, Orange-bellied Leafbird, Malayan Partridge etc. We also saw a couple of what I originaly took for the local race of Blue Whistling-Thrush , which is quite similar to Malayan Whistling-Thrush in plumage, but not in size. Now I think I might have dismissed them too quickly ! It gets better.

Whilst having lunch in town a British birder called Brian spotted us and we chatted. He'd been here a while and had heard from a trekking guide that Mountain Peacock-Pheasant is sometimes seen in the scrubby bit leading up to the watchtower past the waterfall. This morning I headed off there at dawn in the drizzle but had no luck by the time I got to the tower. I carried on in a straight line past the tower for about 500m into the forest on the narrow trail then turned back. When I had returned to a point about 200m into the forest, there was a bird edging onto the trail ahead of me. I raised my bins and MOUNTAIN PEACOCK-PHEASANT!. It then quickly walked across the trail and had disappeared by the time I reached the spot where it left the trail. Wow! Not an easy bird I gather.

Something else I really ought to mention. When we were at the summit of Gunung Brinchang I saw a swift that appeared to be a Waterfall Swift. Unfortunately I have no previous experience of this species, and the views were not good enough for me to claim it confidently, especially given the potential importance of the sighting (unless they're now known to be here ?). All I can do is to encourage anyone who comes to this site to please keep an eye out for swifts over the forest at the top of this mountain (and let me know if youy see one!). If anyone knows more up to date information on what's known about this bird's distribution in peninsular Malaysia, I'd love to hear it. All I could find by googling was an intrigueing record from Cameron Highlands quite recently mentioned in an impact assessment paper.

Doh! just noticed Mugimaki flyc wasn't new for the trip in Penang so back to 673.

673 Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush
674 Long-tailed Sibia
675 Black & Crimson Oriole
676 Streaked Wren-Babbler
677 Fire-tufted Barbet
678 Silver-eared Mesia
679 Mountain Fulvetta
680 Golden Babbler
681 EVERETT'S WHITE-EYE
682 Mountain Leaf-Warbler
683 Blue Nuthatch
684 Malayan Laughingthrush
685 YELLOW-BREASTED WARBLER
686 Grey-chinned Minivet
687 Javan Cuckoo-Shrike
688 Rufous-browed Flycatcher
689 MOUNTAIN PEACOCK-PHEASANT
690 Rufous-winged Fulvetta
691 Chestnut-tailed Minla
692 Malayan Partridge
693 Blyth's Hawk-Eagle

 

[halftwo]

Wow, Larry, fantastic stuff there - I'll ask around re Waterfall swift - know some bods who've seen them - but I can't remember where.
Sounds like you stumbled on a really good site.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

possible mistake

I've edited the last post to reflect that I'm no longer sure of the specific ID if the pair of whistling-thrushes I saw. I might have been too hasty thinking they were too big for Malaysian and just identifying them on impression of size. We should be a bit too high for Blue here. Didn't get enough on the plumage to confirm either way.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Kl

We're now in Kuala Lumpur and have been enjoying looking around the city. It has not been without bird interest, the most quasi-exciting moment being finding an adult Milky Stork in with a flock of 35 Painted Storks. I originally assumed the flock was wild as I saw them wheeling in the sky about 500m ahead, but when I found that they had gone down on a dried up lake in a park a couple of hundred metres from the large Kuala Lumpur bird park, it rang a few very large alarm bells. When I got back to the hotel and looked at the field guide, I saw that Painted Stork should be a vagrant itself, so I guess unless I clutch at straws and hope that a wild Milky on the move over KL happened to fall in with the dodgy Painteds I'm onto a loser here. Nice bird anyway. Any locals familiar with this bird and know it's history?

Also of interest was a coffee-coloured Leucistic House Crow, and good numbers of Black-naped Oriole, Asian Glossy Starling, House Swift and Koel in the city streets (just like in Penang). There were also lots of feral Javan Mynas which made a change to the feral Crested Mynas in Penang.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Bukit Fraser

Getting to Fraser's Hill from KL was a bit trickier than we expected. We took bus 43 from the Bangkok Bank to Rawang, then a connecting bus to Kuala Kupu Bharu. As from the beginning of this year, the bus service from KKB to Fraser's Hill has stopped! We took a taxi for the 41km journey, which cost about 10 pounds. Hitching this stretch would probably be easy, it certainly was doing it in reverse when we left Fraser's Hill this morning. The road from Fraser's Hill to Raub is also blocked by a landslide, so the onward route towards Taman Negara is impassable!

When we arrived we were informed that the only budget place to stay, the Puncak inn, was closing for renovation the next day, so we could only stay one night ! Luckily the town's resident birder, Mr. Durai, who we met while birding that afternoon, helped us out with the most luxurious accommodation we'd had so far this trip, for a very cheap price. When we offered to pay more he refused ! He's a very nice guy who is keen to meet any birders who turn up at Fraser's Hill to share information etc. We also met ex-pat Brit birder John, and we all enjoyed the first evening's birding together.

We birded the new road (N) down to the chasm at km 4. This spectacular landslide makes the road impassible probably even on foot without climbing gear. We birded the 8km road down to the Gap (G), the road to the waterfall (W), and the Pine Tree trail. N and G produced some great birding but it was exhausting without your own transport. I twice set off walking an hour and a half before dawn to get down to the Marbled Wren-Babbler spot 1`- 2 km above the Gap for first light, only to dip :-C. Numbers after the letters G, N and W refer to approximate distances in km from town.

Highlights were two new birds,Yellow-vented Pigeon (up to 10 G5), and Ferruginous Partridge (1 heard just below G3 one evening), great views of a ginormous Rhinoceros Hornbill (G5), and a partry of 3+ cuddly toy-like Black and Yellow Broadbills (surprisingly high up at N3). Many other good birds included Wreathed and Great Hornbills, Red-headed (3) and Orange-breasted ( G6) Trogons, Blue Nuthatch (G2 + G3), Malayan Whistling Thrush (W 3 and first stream crossing on N. Also heard near High Pines), Silver-breasted and Long-tailed Broadbills, Checker-throated, Crimson-winged, Orange-backed, Maroon, and Buff-rumped Woodpeckers, Lesser Yellownape, Speckled Piculet, Black Laughingthrush (W3 and G5), Chestnut-capped and Malayan Laughingthrushes, Black-eared and White-browed Shrike-Babblers, Large Hawk-, Oriental, and Drongo Cuckoos, Streaked and Long-billed (N3) Spiderhunters, Little Cuckoo-Dove, Great Green, Orange-bellied and Blue-winged Leafbirds, Chestnut-crowned and Yellow-bellied Warblers, Silver-rumped Swift (G7), Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot (G8), Chestnut-backed Scimitar-Babbler, Buff-breasted Babbler, White-bellied Yuhina, Streaked and Pygmy Wren-Babblers, Long-tailed Sibia, Blue-winged Minla, Mountain Fulvetta, Silver-eared Mesia, Large Niltava, Hill Blue, Tickell's Blue, Rufous-browed, Little Pied, Verditer, Asian Paradise and Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers, Brown, Gold-whiskered, Blue-eared and Black-browed Barbets, Blyth's Hawk and Black Eagles, Sultan Tit, Scaly-breasted and Cinereous (split from Ashy in HBW?) Bulbuls, Raffles's Malkoha, Red-bearded and Blue-throated Bee-eaters, Large Woodshrike, Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrike, Grey-chinned Minivet etc etc. Birds only heard included Mountain Scops-Owl, Collared Owlet and Malayan Partridge. The only lingering migrants were a Dark-sided Flycatcher and a few Pacific Swifts. We returned home once after dinner to find a House Swift on the floor touching our front door !

On the negative side, I knackered myself out searching high and low for White-hooded Babbler and it still eludes me. As did a few other species which other birders see here that I figured I stood a chance of , though they're all pretty tough: Long-billed Partridge, White-crowned Hornbill, Jambu Fruit Dove, Bat Hawk and Marbled Wren-Babbler. Dipping them wouldn't have mattered so much if I hadn't made a pact with myself to only have a beer in the evening if I saw a lifer!

So next we're off to the daddy of Asian rainforests,Taman Negara. We're starting to get a bit trail weary, so hopefully we can handle the heat enough to appreciate it (and I can earn a few beers !). It's hard enough to leave KL with all the delicious cheap Indian food around!

694 Little Cuckoo-Dove
695 Long-billed Spiderhunter
696 Brown Barbet
697 Black & Yellow Broadbill
698 Orange-backed Woodpecker
699 Chestnut-backed Scimitar-Babbler
700 Scaly-breasted Bulbul
701 Cinereous Bulbul (tax?)
702 Buff-rumped Woodpecker
703 Mountain Scops-Owl
704 "Oriental" Cuckoo (Don't know if lepidus is under Horsfield's or Himalayan)
705 Black Laughingthrush
706 YELLOW-VENTED PIGEON
707 Dark-sided Flycatcher
708 Rhinoceros Hornbill
709 FERRUGINOUS PARTRIDGE
710 Red-bearded Bee-eater
711 Maroon Woodpecker
712 Great Green Leafbird
713 Buff-breasted Babbler
714 Black-eared Shrike-Babbler
715 Malayan Whistling-Thrush
716 Crimson-winged Woodpecker
717 Raffles's Malkoha
718 Gold-whiskered Barbet
719 Checker-throated Woodpecker
720 Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot
721 Silver-rumped Swift