good instinct for new species !

27th october 2007

after a visit to my fiance's colleague open house for the eid festival, took her to kota belud, but this time to another village where i saw my 1st big flocks of oriental pranticole with her last year and guess what ?

hahaha saw eastern march harrier perched on the ground at the paddy field ! had a good views from the scope at the same time enjoying the afternoon breeze with my love one hehehe :p

my little car that takes me anywhere with 6 litres of petrol for rm 10 can run for 100km with aircond on :)


area where we saw the eastern marsh harrier


flocks of little egret, black-winged stilt, white-winged and whiskered tern and few other sandpipers and plovers with stints


my future birder


well smile for the camera :o


another 2 months before the next harvest


mt. kinabalu from the distance

small reunion of birders

26th october 2007

the night before met with ck and osman at local mamak restaurant discussing about a trip to kota belud as we normally busy with our tours, so hanging out birding with others guides seems to be 'rare' nowadays as we normally guides birding groups for birders around the world hahaha :p

so chose kota belud about 50km up north from kota kinabalu city and it is one of the main producer for rice in sabah and one of the favorite birding ground for myself as migratory waders normally seen congregating at the paddy fields.

left at 0430 hrs together with denis who mostly works in the office but managed to squeezed in with the rest of the members for a wonderful morning and full with fun.

reason for this trip was a verbally report about seeing grass owl by one of the guide together with his birding group few months ago. but we didnt see any ...

mt kinabalu amazes me each time i looked at it ...

hut uses by farmers for resting during mid day

another plots now been grown with paddy

new road leading to another town of kudat where the rungus tribe lives


nice view hahaha :p


ck with his gun :)


demonstrating to osman about digiscoping while poisoning him the advantages of spotting scope hahaha


viewing a peregrine falcon at one of the electric post


not sure what happened to denis ? hehehe

fantastic morning with birds and good breakfast then drove back to kk :o

another vagrant hahaha

21th october 2007

tuaran district is located at the north west of sabah with estimated populations of 80k consists of tribes of dusun lotud, bajaus, chinese and other minority ethnics. it takes about 30 minutes drive from kota kinabalu city and this area would be alive on sunday with the open market held every sunday and one of the nicest place to watch sunrise from the might mt. kinabalu :)

on the 9th october went for short birding at the field and saw another vagrant passage migrant, single 1st winter red-necked phalarope !

pictures of the phalarope can be seen at www.photomalaysia.com under nature and wildlife category taken by my friend, sinooorita

favorite feeding area for waders such as common greenshank and long-toed stint

other side of the road dry paddy field for zebra and spotted-necked dove

nice houses belongs to the farmers

plastic bags used as a scare crows

at last great knot and sanderling !

4 october 2007

hahaha my new birds the great knot and sanderling today as didnt see any yesterday evening and with my friend who go birding almost everyday now to fill his time after retired hehehe :)

deep blue sky was perfect to identify the great knot and sanderling

few pacific sand plovers, and terek sandpiper around

sometimes this small patch of water used by the waders to cooled down itself by dipping in

at least about 1 km out to the sea during low tide

time to take pictures !

this is sinooorita member of photomalaysia.com and just started birding cum photography 2 years ago but seen many migrant waders now hahaha :)

sunset at lok kawi beach ...

3 october 2007

the past few days weather has been unpredictable and brought haze as well. went to one of my favorite beach for waders that can be seen in small number regularly during the migratory season from september-april every year. except some of them came earlier in june hahaha :p

recorded species around lok kawi with the help of friends;

great egret
little egret
chinese egret
pacific reef egret (white and black morph)
ruddy turnstone
sanderling
great knot
common redshank
terek sandpiper
common sandpiper
curlew sandpiper
greater sand-plover
lesser sand-plover
malaysian plover
kentish plover
grey plover
pacific golden plover
little-ringed plover
common ringed plover
red-necked stint
whimbrel
little tern
white-winged tern
whiskered tern

scope are essential to identified waders as they are sensitive with human's movement especially if we try to get as close as possible to take pictures of the waders. means i need my adapter for my scope and start digiscoping !!!

few waders along the creek catching worms and invertebrates

locals come every weekends looking for shells and bivavles depending on the tide along the beach

sun setting down slowly

fisherman putting nets on the water as tide coming in

i'll come again tomorrow hoping to see the probably wandering tattler saw few days ago :)