Bird Watching @ Fraser's Hill - March'2012 - Pt 1

Fraser's Hill is still one of the best place to watch birds in this region. Recently Mark Winter, an expert in shorebirds (as described in States)  / waders (as pronounced in UK)  from England who has also declared himself as a Sunderland football club supporter visited the hill. We arrived at Fraser's Hill close to 10.30am as we were birding along the winding trunk road - the first bird we saw along the way was this Crested Serpent Eagle.

Certaintly looks like a well fed eagle. This raptor was seen after the Selangor reservoir area.

We also heard and saw a Moustached Babbler which calls (as verified by Mr Choo Jiin Hwa) was really loud and clear. Unfortunately i am not able to download the calls here. After having tasted the delicious "nasi lemak" and a cup of tea in Fraser's Hill, we headed to our first destination - JELAI HIGHLANDS RESORT. Here are some of its common resident birds:

This is a Long-Tailed Sibia feeding on a papaya given by the resort's staff.

This is another common bird at this place - a Chestnut-Capped Laughingthrush.

At times you will find this bird here - a Javan Cuckooshrike.

This is a male Orange-Bellied Leafbird which you can also find at this place.

Accompanying him nearby was his female partner.

We also saw a stream of raptors, presumably Oriental Honey Buzzards (OHBs) in spring migration to their breeding home. Unlike in Tanjung Tuan, they were travelling in high speed and in a single file one after another heading eastwards.

After having a great view of the migratory passage of these raptors we headed to our next destination which is the Pine Tree Trail. (have a look at the continuation of this trip in part II). Thanks.

An Afternoon Bird Watching in Kemensah - March 2012

Recently i had an opportunity to go bird watching with an "orang putih" who wishes to see our low land forest birds. We started around 2.45pm and due to the humid conditions the images gathered were not so good. Nevertheless we were able to see some interesting birds.

This is a male Baya Weaver guarding its nest.

This is a Large Woodshrike which has just taken a dip at a nearby marsh pond.

Images of woodpeckers always fascinate me - this is a male Crimson-Winged Woodpecker.

This is a male Whiskered Tree-Swift in its breeding colors.

We also saw a group of Jungle Mynas and this was one of them.

Other birds which was seen in this area were as follows:

White-Rumped Munia - (5) - seen near the car park area.
Stripe-Throated Bulbul - (3) - seen foraging along the trail.
Red-eyed Bulbul - (5) - seen along the trail.
Asian Brown Flycatcher - (1) - was foraging silently.
Black & Yellow Broadbill - (1) - only heard its calls.
White-Throated Kingfisher - (1) - was flying across near the marsh area.
Greater Leafbird - (1) - was seen foraging.
Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot - (3) - seen near the marsh land area.
Yellow-Bellied Prinia - (1) - only heard its calls from the marsh area.
Oriental Magpie Robin - (2) - one was seen on a dead tree and one was flying around at the marsh area.

Birding at Bukit Tinggi - March 2012

Bukit Tinggi is located about an hour's drive from KL. It has a slightly lower elevation than Fraser's Hill but certaintly not short of birds variety.

Some breathtaking views from above. On the way up we heard lots of birds' call notably pin-stripped tit babblers. We also saw a raptor - believed to be a changeable-hawk eagle perched on top of a lamp post.

This is a friendly Silver-Breasted Broadbill (Male). No wonder so many photographers are keen to go to this place.

Here is another shot of the Silver-Breasted Broadbill (Male).

This is a female Silver Breasted Broadbill wearing a thin necklace.

This is another friendly bird - a Grey-Throated Babbler.

We went to a place where the Hill-Blue Flycatcher was said to frequent. Well we did not see them but saw a Siberian Blue Robin instead as verified by Yang Chong :) I believe i may have also seen a similar one at Bishop Trail previously.   

We also saw a Blue-Crowned Hanging Parrot (a female i think).

This is a Grey-Chinned Minivet (female) which has just caught an insect.

Nearby was this male Grey-Chinned Minivet.

This was the most interesting find - could this be a Long-Tailed Minivet (first summer male)? According to the local experts here it is most likely a Grey Chinned / Feiry Minivet - immature/sub adult. Perhaps i need to have a word with Craig Robson.

This is a juvenile tiger shrike which can also be found here.

This is a barbet partly hidden among the branches - could not id which type it belongs.

This is a noisy Streaked Spiderhunter.

Finally i was able to take this Grey-and-Buff Woodpecker photos - a rather small woodpecker at 14cm.

Could this be a Common Woodshrike? - found perched nearby at a nursery area. According to the experts, common woodshrike does not occur here - so this is most likely a Large Woodshrike.

This Sultan Tit had also make an appearance.

This Brown Barbet (male) concluded our birding trip at Bukit Tinggi.

Tanjung Tuan - Raptor Watch 2012

Raptor Watch @ Tanjung Tuan near Port Dickson are one of those events which are "compulsory" to attend among the serious birders here. This year i was fortunate enough to attend as March is always the busy month in my work schedule. Glad to see most of  the "sifus" are presence here, either manning the raptor counters or the event booth - even Dave was making his second consecutive appearance this year. I have been forewarned by my partner Mr CY Tan that this year's count was surprisingly less than last year and there were times that they could not see even a single raptor in two days !

The first bird we saw at the car park was this Collared Kingfisher.

At the entrance of the light house we saw a group of Javan Mynas - this fellow was one of them.

Then there were a pair of this noisy but friendly Asian Dollar Bird flying around the light house.

The first raptor seen was not a visitor but a resident raptor which was this Changeable Hawk Eagle - pale morph. At about 11.03am John Steed cried out: "one coming from the left" !! Yup- that was the first raptor crossing from the Straits of Malacca - a Grey-Faced Buzzard which was flapping its wings quickly as though as he was late for work. Unfortunately i was not able to get any good photos as it was blur and far away.

While waiting for the raptors to flyover, we saw this White-Bellied Sea Eagle perched nearby.

It was only about 11.30:09 am, came the first raptors flying in a group led by this Grey-Faced Buzzard.

Then four of them flew in silently and were thermaling nearby.

As there were no more raptors sighted after this short excitement, we left the light house venue at around 12.50pm. All in all before we left, there were 14 raptors sighted from the straits - all of them were unfortunately Grey-Faced Buzzard ! We went down straight to the event site to enjoy and share the carnival mood with other local and international birders.

Note: on the second day i.e. 11 March 2012, the counters have registered more than 5,000 raptors flying across from the straits. So it looks like their flight patterns were also determined by the weather conditions as during my earlier trip the sky was cloudy.