Digiscoping At Tabin Wildlife Reserve

27th - 29th april 2008

Short visit to Tabin Wildlife Reserve for observing new birding product at the core area which is the only primary rainforest left intact during the timber concession in the 70s until late 80s. 2 birders from Thailand, Rattapon Kaichid (Tu) and his wife Pitchaya Janhom (Jan) been staying at tabin for 26 days and they have explored the core area and stayed overnight at the observation tower around the mud volcano which produced many interesting birds and other wildlife for them.

Arrived late in the afternoon at the resort and the night after dinner, Tu and Jan presented us with slide show of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians pictures which taken mostly with digiscoping and I was told by CK who were at Tabin with them early this month, Jan was the winner for Swarovski Digiscoper's of the Year 2007 and were treated with birding trip at Namibia.

Their pictures were fantastic without any post-processing done, I'm privileged to met and learnt few tricks about digiscoping from them hahaha thanks Jan and Tu hope we'll meet in Thailand this year !

And it was raining the next day, while waiting for the rain to stopped, few birds perched quite low around the restaurant hehehe and this is what we called gift from the rain.

Black and Yellow Broadbill

Red-eyed Bulbul

Black-backed Kingfisher

ISO 1600!

Green crested Lizard


Brown Shrike


Wagler's Pit-Viper at the restaurant

Birds seen and heard :

• Wreated Hornbill
• Rhinocerous Hornbill
• Black Hornbill
• Bushy-crested Hornbill
• White-bellid Munia (lifer)
• Black-backed Kingfisher
• Black and Yellow Broadbill
• Banded Broadbill (heard)
• Thick-billed Spiderhunter
• Purple-throated Sunbird
• Crested Serpent Eagle
• Plain Sunbird
• Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike
• Black-winged Flycatcher Shrike
• Rubycheek Sunbird
• Green Iora
• Red-throated Sunbird
• Black Eagle
• Lesser Green Leafbird
• Red-eyed Bulbul
• Ashy Tailorbird
• Buffy Fish Owl
• Dark-necked Tailorbird
• Rufous-tailed Tailorbird
• Buff-rumped Woodpecker
• White-bellied Woodpecker (heard)
• Red-naped Trogon (heard)
• Scarlet-rumped Trogon (heard)
• Brown Fulvetta
• Cream-vented Bulbul
• Black and Crimson Pitta
• Fiery Minivet
• White-fronted Falconet
• Chestnut-winged Babbler
• Slender-billed Crow
• Dusky Munia
• Velvet-fronted Nuthatch
• Grey Wagtail
• Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

Non-bird seen :

• Forest Tree Crab (lifer)
• Bornean Gibbon
• Pig-tailed Macaque
• 4 Striped Tree Frog (lifer)
• Green Crested Lizard
• Wild Boar
• Pygmy Squirrel
• Giant Squirrel
• Plantain Squirrel
• Red Giant Flying Squirrel
• Thick-spined Porcupine (lifer)
• Banded Palm Civet (lifer)
• Leopard Cat
• Reticulated Python
• Wagler's Pit-Viper adult and juvenile (lifer)

Summary of the trip, Tabin Wildlife Reserve keeps on producing surprised wildlife for me and with many lifers for each trip, I will be back again and this time would be longer stay at Tabin.

Soon another book would be published by Wendy Hutton and Cede Prudente about reserve who were there with us.

Many thanks to Alixon and Wong Sui Lin for the invitation together with great sighting and nice packed lunch !

Tu and Jan website at www.naturefocusthailand.com

Images Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope ED82, SRB-griturn adapter and Fujifilm f31d


Happy birding !

mt. kinabalu trogon :p

23rd april 2008

wahahaha now i got my record shots a pair of whitehead's trogon this morning after my best friend, osman who currently leading another bird group with susan myers informed me about their finding yesterday afternoon :)

had only 2 hours to spend birding at the mountain today, after 15 minutes walked, saw the female flew in front and perched not far away from the trail. took few frames and heard the male calling.

female much cooperative than the male ...

when i saw the male, it took off quite fast and perched at other tree but unfortunately too many leaves and twigs blocking my scope's view and it was a bit dark as well :p

found only in borneo, this male actually much bigger in size than other trogons in greater sunda

bornean whistling thrush

while waiting for the trogon to came back (which it did not !), another endemic showed itself less than 10 seconds. this thrush was split from the sunda whistling thrush that is endemic to java, and eventually became bornean endemic hehehe :)

hope can get another pictures soon before my trip with ck to jakarta this coming may :o

digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn adapter and fujifilm f31d

celyn resort, kundasang

14 - 15th april 2008

stayed overnight at celyn resort, kundasang with a couple from denmark, mr. and mrs. padersen and visited the kinabalu national park headquarters and poring hot spring sub-station. main interest was to see birds and orchids and luckily weather was good during the tours and nice room at the resort too hahaha :p

bird list :

• black-sided flowerpecker
• ochraceous bulbul
• little spiderhunter
• red-eyed bulbul
• brown fulvetta
• orange-bellied flowerpecker
• white-crowned shama (endemic)
• blue and white flycatcher
• eyebrowed jungle flycatcher (endemic)
• sunda cuckoo-shrike
• temminck's sunbird
• chesnut-hooded laughingthrush (endemic)
• ashy drongo
• bornean treepie (endemic)
• chestnut-crested yuhina (endemic)
• bornean whistler (endemic)
• grey-chinned minivet
• mugimaki flycatcher
• indigo flycatcher
• white-throated fantail
• yellow-breasted warbler
• mt. leaf warbler
• mt. tailorbird
• large hawk cuckoo
• oriental cuckoo
• hair-crested drongo
• grey-throated babbler
• bornean whistling thrush (endemic)

view of the crocker range from my room :)


stalls at kundasang town is well know for its fresh vegetables and local fruits

happy birding everyone :)

no whitehead's trogon but i got ...

30th march 2008

drove up to kinabalu national park this morning for the whitehead's trogon, hoping to get record shot of this elusive bird. after walking for few hours, called it a day but managed to get few pics of different species that resides at mt. kinabalu especially the giant squirrel !

bird list :

• whitehead's spiderhunter
• bornean treepie
• bornean whistler
  
• bornean whistling thrush
• bare-headed laughingthrush
• chestnut-hooded laughingthrush
• crimson-headed partridge
• red-breasted partridge
• ochraceous bulbul
  
• indigo flycatcher
• little pied flycatcher
• yellow-breasted warbler
• sunda bush warbler
• mountain leaf warbler
• mountain tailorbird
• oriental cuckoo (heard)
  
• large hawk-cuckoo (heard)
• golden-naped barbet
• hair-crested drongo
  

at last white-crowned forktail's picture :p

this sunda bush warbler has lovely tunes

still my favorite indigo flycatcher

little pied flycatcher

my best encounter with giant squirrel !

digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn adapter and fujifilm f31d

whitehead's spiderhunter

27th march 2008

no booking for tours yet, met ck at the tufted duck site in the morning then drove up to kinabalu national park for a day birding together with dennis who were staying overnight at one of the resort near the HQ.

main mission today, to get as many pics as possible of the whitehead's broadbill, spiderhunter and trogon ! hehehe :p

my record shot of this whitehead's spiderhunter :p


lovely little black-sided flowerpecker and it started raining when i took this pic

saw 3 whitehead's species today but only 2 with decent shots. fantastic birding with quality birds around the HQ.

pictures was digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn adapter and fujifilm f31d

walaaaaa my tufted duck :p

25th march 2008

hahaha another luck yesterday at tuaran district while i was busy taking pictures of the javan pond heron and wandering whistling ducks, found single female tufted duck which is half asleep and it was pretty dark around 1815 hrs. and my camera ran out of battery so left early this morning and arrived at the site around 0600 hrs.

scanned with my scope but couldn't see the tufted duck, but saw stork-billed, collared and common kingfisher, intermediate egret, purple heron and yellow bittern with the wandering whistling duck busy preening and bathing on the water.

then out of nowhere, saw 1 duck being chased by another duck and by looking through my scope, hehehe got it now and captured few shots and videos available at youtube

this duck breeds at north palaeartic and winters at south east asia. more pics at www.orientalbirdimages.org

female tufted duck and has yellow iris

white vent and pointed upward of its tail


where is the male ?

images digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn adapter and fujifilm f31d

whitehead's broadbill

21st march 2008

have been observing this pair since early this month at kinabalu national park and today had chance to captured it on video and few photos too hahaha together with laura and collin from england :p

endemic to borneo island

didnt see may birds today compared with yesterday but laura said; "it's not the quantity but the quality we had today hehehe" :)

bird seen and heard today :

• mt. wren babbler
• bornean whistler
• bornean whistling thrush
• eyebrowed thrush (visitor)
• golden-naped barbet
• chestnut-hooded laughingthrush
• chestnut-crested yuhina
• bornean treepie
• grey-throated babbler
• crimson-headed partridge (heard)
• yellow-breasted warbler
• mt. leaf warbler
• sunda bush warbler
• white-browed shrike-babbler (heard)
• blue and white flycatcher (visitor)
• dark-sided flycatcher (visitor)

bob's mission of bornean endemic

9th - 14th march 2008

had a wonderful trip with bob for a week where birding started at kinabalu national park for 3 days which is the best place for bornean endemics then flew to sandakan city on the 11th march and stayed at tomanggong lodge (www.sukaulodge.com) searching for hornbills and bornean ground-cuckoo. last 2 days spent at rainforest discovery centre for the bornean bristlehead and black and crimson pitta.

one of the highlight for the trip at kinabalu national park was a 10 minutes view of the everett's thrush at bukit ular trail on the 10th march. saw it hopping along the trail and the light was good enough to enable us to see the whole part of the bird before it faded off the trail. other species seen; a pair of whitehead's broadbill, bornean treepies, sunda bush warbler.

when we arrived at sukau river lodge, water was quite high and cruising along resang and menanggul river produced lots of lifers for bob such as 6 storm's storks perched on a same tree, long-tailed parakeets, oriental darter and buff-rumped woodpecker. but the number of birds at menanggul river a bit disappointing in the morning probably because of the floods. by the way, bob got a pair of white-crowned hornbill through the scope late in the evening around 6.30pm in front of the lodge hahaha :p

checked in at sepilok bed and breakfast then continued birding at rainforest discovery centre for the bornean bristlehead. this is a new area for birding frequented by local photographers and digiscopers and has excellent trails and soon it would be linked with sepilok orang utan sanctuary.

bob left sabah to west malaysia for a week birding with weng chun hope he'll get his last helmeted hornbill hehehe :p

total lifers for bob : 89

total endemic seen : 11

total species seen and heard : 144

non bird species seen :

• orang utan
• proboscis monkey
• long-tailed macaque
• silver leaf monkey
  
• red giant flying squirrel
• pygmy squirrel
• prevost squirrel
• plaintain squirrel
• bornean pygmy elephant

new lounge and departure hall for kota kinabalu international airport

truck load of oil palm fruits


me and jessie

pic taken from viewing platform at rainforest discovery centre


from the left, alex, yin, cede and bob looking at a flock of pink-necked green pigeons


rhinocerous hornbill

white-bellied woodpecker

pictures was digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn adapter and fujifilm f31d

enjoying bornean endemics within 2 days

28th feb - 1st march 2008

when i received email from alastair who hailed from scotland few weeks ago, it seems impossible to see the main star of borneo i.e whitehead's spiderhunter, broadbill and trogon within the space of 2 days because some of the birds could be found only at certain trails, so it takes at least 3 to 4 nights for getting the most of bornean endemics :p

left kota kinabalu city at 5.30 pm where i met alastair (specialist for south african bird species) at jesselton hotel and drove for 2 hours to kinabalu national park where we checked in to fairy garden resort which is located about 3 minutes drive to the park hq.

then off for the 1st bird, mt. scoop owl was calling less than 5 metres but unfortunately i forgot to bring along my torch !

mt. kinabalu

off to the park the next morning and birding was done around timpohon gate where we saw bornean treepie, chesnut-hooded laughingthrush, indigo flycatcher and ashy drongo. walked along bukit ular trail for the everett's thrush but no luck.

breakfast at fairy garden resort then continued birding along silau-silau, and bukit burung trails where this time saw black and crimson oriole and bornean whistler. it rained during lunch, so decided to search for the dark-sided flowerpecker which were seen feeding nearby the restaurant :p

sunset seen from fairy garden resort and hoping for more birds tomorrow

came back to the headquarters around 8.30pm for the mt. scoop owl where al tried and imitated the called for nearly half and hour but luck wasnt on our side ...

last day for the endemic and had a go again for the everett's thrush at bukit ular trail. heard and al saw the crimson-headed partridge and eventually managed to get a full viewed with the scope, female whitehead's broadbill hahaha :)

left kinabalu national park and headed to kiansom waterfall to see the white-fronted falconet but it was drizzling when we arrived, no sign of the bird then stopped at likas lagoon and produced few more lifers to al such as striated grassbird and white-browed crake and his final lifer was the blue-naped parrot found at tanjung aru beach before i sent him to the airport.

endemic that were heard and seen;

• bornean treepie
• chesnut-hooded laughingthrush
• chestnut-crested yuhina
  
• bornean whistling thrush
  
• bornean whistler
• crimson-headed partridge (another pair seen at silau-silau trail before lunch)
• red-breasted partridge (heard)
  
• mt. wren-babbler
• whitehead's spiderhunter
• whitehead's broadbill
• mt. blackeye
• bornean stubtail
  
• dark-sided flowerpecker
• golden-naped barbet
• mt. barbet (heard)
  

with the endemic in al wish list, he managed to see 15 out of 44 endemics of borneo in such a short trip. he'll be back to sabah with his best buddies for another specialty of borneo i.e bornean ground-cuckoo and black-throated wren babbler.

happy birding and digiscoping :)

close up with white-crowned hornbill :p

25th february 2008

Assignment for birding (17th - 24th feb) at Tabin Wildlife Reserve for a week with 2 groups which came from Finland and Japan. During my 1st 2 days, it was raining heavily as the weather has been bad since 2 weeks ago for the whole state of Sabah.

Despite the weather, birding did well with few notable species such as White-crowned Hornbill, Wallace's Hawk Eagle, White-fronted Falconet and one of the target bird for the Finnish group was Olive-backed Woodpecker.

When the Shinwa Tourist Co. Ltd Japanese group (http://www.naturing-tour.com) arrived led by Ooi Chin Hock, senior birder from West Malaysia and my best friend Andrew Siani, they were greeted with fantastic weather and during their stayed, birding was done along the tomanggong road and around the restaurant.

Notable species for the Japanese group;

• White-crowned Hornbill
• Chestnut-necklaced Partridge (good pictures by hideo tani http://torihenro.com)
• Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker
• Banded Kingfisher
• Rufous-fronted Babbler (my lifer)
• Bornean Blue Flycatcher
• White-fronted Falconet
• Storm's Stork

Non bird species sighted;

• Orang Utan
• Pgymy Squirrel
• Leopard Cat
• Wild Boar
• Monitor Lizard
• Long-tailed Macaque
• Pig-tailed Macaque
• Green-fenced Lizard
• Brown Agamid
• Barking Deer
• Bornean Bibbon

this Long-tailed Macaque tried to get into my room !


At last my full moon !


Female White-crowned Hornbill about 15 metres


Male White-crowned Hornbill

Thanks to Dennis, Andrew Siani, Ooi Chin Hock and the tour leader from Japan, Mikiko Hashiba during the trip :)

Pictures was digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope ED82, SRB-griturn adapter and Fujifilm f31d


Happy birding !

no nordmann's greenshank but i got ruff !

2nd february 2008

visited one of my favorite patch about 15 minutes away from my parents' house late this morning around 10.30am. last year, counted more than 100 black-winged stilts and pacific golden plovers at the same month, but this year it was lesser as expected :p probably due to the changes of climate and unusual seasons ...

kids playing around and some of them was fishing using nets


perfect blue sky but heat haze was obvious while looking through my scope :p


flocks of common greenshanks but some of them looked like nordmann's ...


grey heron


shaky wooden plank as i tried to photographed the grey heron


hahaha single ruff among the common greenshanks, another lifer today :)

spent nearly 4 hours around the wetland before i picked my mum from her office nearby. when we arrived at home, beautiful package from angela contained waterproof beg and lcd sunshade :p so my digiscoping rig getting exciting now hahaha !

continued birding around 5pm after a long chat with my best friend and drove to different wetland where i saw few smooth-coated otters last year. tested the lcd sunshade with magnifying glass and below is the result

brown-capped woodpecker


pacific swallow

so far so good and i'll try tomorrow during bright sunlight to see how well the sunshade perform :)

birds seen today

• purple herons
• grey herons
• brahminy kite
• osprey
• common kingfishers
• black-winged stilts
• common greenshanks
• marsh sandpipers
• barn swallows
• little egrets
• great egrets
• intermediate egrets
• ruff
• pacific swallows
• yellow-vented bulbuls
• pied triller
• white-breasted wood-swallows
• brown-capped woodpeckers
• oriental darter
• white-bellied sea-eagle
  

pictures was digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn adapter and fujifilm f31d