Birding With Naturetrek Group

27th - 30th August 2009

Latest lifer from my recent trip with Naturetrek led by Hamit from Borneo Eco Tours at Tabin Wildlife Reserve was a Malaysian Honeyguide perched on a Menggaris (Koompassia excelsa) tree with full viewed from different scopes hahaha !

At the same time, the group managed to completes 8 species of Hornbills at the reserve with White-crowned and Helmeted Hornbill seen along the Tomanggong Road and Mud Volcano plus Large green and Thick-billed Green Pigeon as a bonus.

Heard Blue-headed and Banded Pitta but only Black and Crimson Pitta willing to showed itself for a while. On the way back from the Mud Volcano, Red-naped Trogon was seen and photographed.

Another star bird seen was a pair of Blue-banded Kingfisher hehehe. It was found hunting for food along the stream behind the river lodge. Last time when I saw it was in 2008 with Ck during my first trip to Tabin. So good to see it again :)

Some of the pictures during the trip;

Mt. Kinabalu from Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

Female Banded Kingfisher.


Enjoying the view a pair of Wreathed Hornbill.

Female Wreathed Hornbill.

Wreathed Hornbill.

A pair of Black Hornbill resting near the restaurant.


At Mud Volcano site.

Orang Utan with few months old baby.

Green Paddy Frog digiscoped from one of the pond.

Monitor Lizard.

White-fronted Falconet waiting for prey.

Old honeycomb.


White-crowned Shama seen daily around the lodge.

White-crowned Hornbill.


Waiting for Banded Pitta along Mud Volcano trail.

My favorite resident Malaysian Blue Flycatcher.


One of the uncommon bird in Borneo, Blue-banded Kingfisher.


Female Blue-banded Kingfisher.

The group continued with Osman at Kinabalu National Park for few nights. Wished them luck with the Whitehead's Trio :)

And Tabin Wildlife Reserve continue to impressed me with variety of birds and mammals seen from this trip. Next target bird for the reserve is Bornean Bristlehead. Is it possible ? Yes !

For more info, please visit Tabin Wildlife Reserve website at www.tabinwildlife.com.my


Happy birding.

Nikon Fieldscope EDG 65 and FSA-L2 adapter with D3

20th - 21st July 2009

Tested the new Nikon Fieldscope EDG 65 with digital photo adapter FSA-L2 connected on Nikon D3 courtesy from Tee of Nikon Malaysia.

Mounted on Manfrotto 501 video head.

The range of the FSA-L2 starts from 400mm to 1650mm with aperture from f5.6-f22 and manual focus. Shooting with FX body, there is a vignetting at 400mm and disappeared at 750mm.

Some of the sample digiscoped from a recent trip at Kinabatangan River and Rainforest Discovery Centre. Shooting between 1600 to 2500 ISO.

Pied Fantail.

Brown Barbet.

Ruddy Kingfisher - Uncommon species in Borneo.

White-fronted Falconet - Another Bornean endemic.

Blue-eared Barbet nesting.

Monitor Lizard.

Long-tailed Macaque.

Proboscis Monkey - Endemic to Borneo.

Red Giant Flying Squirrel in flight !

Freshwater Crocodile digiscoped from the restaurant.


Cede at the back with Tee, Irene and Kim cruising along Kinabatangan River.


Tee with EDG 85 and Coolpix P5100, and Cede with his Nikon 500mm VR and middle is the EDG 63 and D3.

The new scopes from Nikon is one of the best scopes I have tested against with my current ED82 and ED50.

My only concern with the scope is the weight are over 2kg for the EDG 85. Other than that, I'm impressed with sharpness, colour renditions and brightness of this scopes and the new wide zoom eyepiece.

The game has just begun from Nikon for their competitors !

Tawai Forest Reserve, Telupid

3rd - 7th August 2009

Team up with Javanus from WWF, John, Denis and Syamsul at Telupid district, about 3 hours drive from Kota Kinabalu for a surveyed of birds and mammals at few forest reserve around Telupid. The project was initiated by the state government under the forestry department and World Wide Fund group as part of Heart Of Borneo (HOB) project and to promote tourism in the district itself.

Sites covered was, Microwave station about 400m asl, forest edge around the base and river next to the pump house belongs to water department. Total species seen was 100 birds and the main productive site is along the access road to Microwave station, managed to see over 50 species in one single morning.

The base on the edge of the forest reserve.


Chief cook, Syam

Workplace for data entry.


Haze season through out the state at this moment.


John observing White-bellied Woodpecker high on a death tree.


Access road to Microwave at the reserve. Entry to this place is restricted.


Denis, John and Javanus.


Looking for White-crowned Forktail on a stream.


Me and John

In between the break from birding, me and John visited my father's village at Langkabong and trekked to one of the unknown waterfall. Saw Oriental Darter, Dollarbird and Gold-whiskered Barbet including the uncommon Red-crowned Barbet calling from the distance.

The waterfall itself has a potential for attracting visitors from outside Telupid and surrounded by forest reserve. Water is cool and very refreshing.

Tuntungan Waterfall.


Crimson Sunbird.


Jerdon's Baza.

Diard's Trogon.


Milipede.


Butterfly.

Images digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope ED82, SRB-Griturn adapter and Fujifilm F31D.

Next trip would be next month on the other forest reserve and I will be driving to Kinabatangan River tomorrow for another birding tour.

Happy birding !