first batch of waders at lok kawi

30 sand plovers comprises of lesser and greater recorded at lok kawi beach today making them the 1st batch to arrived here similar like last year in late july. some of the bird still in breeding plumage with few juvenile mingling together with the rest. good sign for the survival of this species hehehe :p

but no wandering tattler ...

karim enjoying the breeze

perfect weather for snorkeling at one of the island

usual spot where the sand plover can be seen during the migration season

common sandpiper in breeding plumage and can be seen throughout the year here in sabah

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

happy birding !

paul and family

woke up early this morning and met paul and jean together with their kids from holland and has been on holiday nearly 5 weeks now for a day birding at kinabalu national park which started at power station then after breakfast, explored silau-silau trail that produced good birds for them hehehe :)

a bit cloudy then gradually blue sky accompanied us for the whole day and at power station, some of the endemic found was the bornean whistling thrush, chestnut-crested yuhina, mountain blackeye and the noisy bornean treepie.

photography possessed some difficulty especially birds that perched against the grey sky and got 2 record shot of the black and crimson oriole with the hair-crested drongo after lunch. some of fast enough birds for digiscoping such as ochraceous bulbul, bare-headed laughingthrush, mountain wren-babbler and the never-stay-put grey-throated babbler !

black and crimson oriole after swallowing green caterpillar

hair-crested drongo

other birds seen today :

• bornean treepie
• bornean whistling thrush
• bornean whistler
• checker-throated woodpecker
• moutain leaf warbler
• mountain tailorbird
• whitehead's trogon
• moutain imperial pigeon
• white-browed shrike-babbler
• white-throated fantail
• indigo flycatcher with juvenile
• ashy drongo
• grey-chinned minivet
• chestnut-hooded laughingthrush
• glossy swiftlet
• black-capped white-eye
• black-sided flowerpecker

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

in search of the wandering tattler

17th july 2008

my friend karim sighted a pair of probably wandering tattler few days ago and we went to tanjung aru on the next day during low tide around 3.00 in the afternoon to try our luck.

when i arrived, there were few peoples looking for bivalves, shells and other stuffs and only few waders such as common sandpiper, pacific reef egret and unidentified tern (quite far even with the scope).

and no wandering tattler and these bird is not recorded in borneo except for the common visitor; grey-tailed tattler. but who knows it might arrives on the shore this coming migration season :p

hehehe just wondering ...

late in the afternoon


great egret in breeding plumage

digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn Mk II adapter and fujifilm f31d and sony ericsson k660i

my parents' in law house

while staying at my wife's house, i've noticed some of the asian glossy starling roosting at one of the beetle nut tree near the window and this is the shot :)





this starling is widespread throughout borneo and mostly moved in big flocks up to 50 birds and juvenile has streaked body and feeds on papaya :)

this week i'll be searching again for the hose's broadbill and giant pitta at poring hot spring with friends and hope be able to get record shot of this elusive birds

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

happy birding and digiscoping :p

my parents' house

24th june 2008

woke up early this morning and start shooting from the 1st floor of my parent's house after sending my beloved sister and brother to the school :p

white-breasted waterhen

blue-throated bee-eater tend to spend their summer here

juvenile eurasian tree sparrow taken 2 days ago

spotted dove despite common in borneo, it is a lovely bird

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

happy birding :)

likas lagoon part 3

17th june 2008

good weather today as usual and not windy like yesterday but unfortunately, arrived a bit late and only yellow-bellied prinia was close for getting decent shot. other birds such as intermediate egret and purple heron quite far until around 11.00 am

but heat haze was the main problem too ...

out of 300 frames today only 18 managed to get into my hard disk hahaha :p but it was fun digiscoping with my best friend, karim and before we left in the afternoon, yellow-bellied prinia was a treat for him where he missed it yesterday hehehe.

shot for today, combination of good and bad :p

collared kingfisher

common moorhen

little heron

purple heron around 100 metres

hey it's you again ! (yellow-bellied prinia)


exposure value stop above 2/3 - advice from chris gomersall and it really works wahaha !

great egret same like above

purple heron


magpie robin - sings exactly 5.30 am daily behind my parents' house !

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

happy digiscoping :)

likas lagoon part 2

16th june 2008

nice weather this morning and after sending my fiance to her office, drove to likas lagoon again this time with karim and main mission, to get better shot of the cinnamon bittern and yellow-bellied prinia, only the latter with reasonable result :p

small patch of the lagoon near with the main road

it was sunny and windy at the same time, so digiscoping with fully extended aluminum tripod, cause lots of vibration which is visible through the lcd. an article i read from the internet stated that with carbon fibre tripod it takes only less than 2 seconds to dampened the vibration and with aluminum tripod, more than 4 seconds !

one thing that disappointed me is, i need to reset my camera function to macro and continuous shot (top 3) after i reviewed my previous shots and it has no programmable mode like what other cameras offered. so i tend to missed lots of opportunity of getting decent shot with my kit ...

my shot for today :p

yellow-bellied prinia (one of the difficult bird to digiscoped !)

not very good picture of this striated grassbird

purple swamphen and my favorite bird today

white-browed crake taken around 11.47 am this morning

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

likas lagoon part 1

15th july 2008

been visiting likas lagoon for the past few days practicing to get sharper image with my digiscoping kit. the conclusion is, i need carbon fibre tripod either from gitzo, benro or velbon to get more keeper than using my current aluminium tripod from manfrotto due to the vibration from extreme magnification ...

and probably getting new camera like the nikon P5100 which is favorite among digiscopers with 12 mega pixels and custom setting for continuous shots and has built in hotshoe for using flash !

or get the new sony W300 that uses carl-zeiss lens (no colour fringing) and has 13 mega pixels ?

or get the nikon D300 for in flight shot ...

wahahahahaha too many choices but it all depends after my big day end of this month ...

anyone willing to donate ? hahaha :p

some of the shots today :)

collared kingfisher original image

cropped 50%


white-breasted wood-swallow original image


cropped 50%

cinnamon bittern and im happy with this :p

birds seen :

• purple heron
• black-crowned night-heron
• little egret (few in breeding plumage)
  
• great egret (with 1 in breeding plumage)
• yellow-bellied prinia
• spotted dove
  
• peaceful dove
• brahminy kite
• asian glossy starling
• emerald dove
• striated grassbird
• pacific swallow
  
• white-browed crake
• purple swamphen
• common moorhen
• yellow-vented bulbul
• black-headed munia
• osprey
• common iora (heard)
• glossy swiftlet
• pink-necked green pigeon

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

happy digiscoping :)

hornbill in aviary

6th june 2008

me and karim were looking for roosting site of the large-tailed nightjar along the old penampang - papar road without success, so decided to visit lok kawi wildlife park which is under the wildlife department now and has few animals such as bornean pygmy elephant, bornean gibbon, orang utan, proboscis monkey and quite small aviary for birds that is found in borneo i.e chestnut-capped thrush, great argus and blue-winged pitta !

while taking pictures of the birds which i havent seen in the wild (pied imperial-pigeon, silvery wood-pigeon and straw-headed bulbul) saw 2 hornbills; rhinoceros and wreathed preening each other on the same tree which is a bit surprised for me because i havent encountered this type of behavior before among different species of hornbill

this is the emailed that i've got from orientalbirding group ;


Hi Jason,

It is common to see birds of different species mingling together this way, especially when in captivity or in a aviary. In a

confined and cramped environment, different species seem to lose

their protective behaviour and animosity with other species. Over time and limited space many birds will lose their natural inhibitions. Even parrots can be taught to ride bicycles.

At the Zoo Negara (National Zoo) I have also seen different hornbill species interacting and perching side by side in small aviaries in the zoo. Of course in the wild, their natural instincts and behaviour take over.

Cheers
Mike Chong
Selangor, Malaysia
ARRCN: http://www5b. biglobe.ne. jp/~raptor/ index.htm

so the question has been answered hehehe thanks mike :)

videoscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn Mk II adapter and sony ericsson P990i

face of photographers

7th june 2008

visited rafflesia centre last saturday wth black-breasted fruit-hunter and long-tailed broadbill in mind, only short video out of focus of the fruit-hunter but did not get any glimpsed of the broadbill.

so while watching my friends in action chasing the juvenile bornean whistler in the afternoon, took few pictures of them hahaha :p

ready guys the bird's coming ! (chai)

too fast la this juvenile ... (karim)


ahhh (ron)


damn missed it again ! (jordan)

busy with wedding preparation, most probably next trip would be next month and lets hope i'll be able to get my first dslr nikon D300 hahaha :p

happy birding and digiscoping :)

all images was digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn Mk II adapter and fujifilm f31d

mountain barbet at tambunan rafflesia centre

1st june 2008

bad news, did not see any of the besra's chicks at the nest after waited nearly 2 hours this morning with karim, andrew and dennis. found out, chai who had been staying up there for 3 days, he did not see the chicks either except probably the parents not far away from the nest ...

then took breakfast at gunung emas restaurant and drove to tambunan rafflesia centre and birded the whole day around the office, which produced many endemic birds of borneo such at the chestnut-hooded laughingthrush, black-sided flowerpecker and bornean bulbul.

quite cold this morning at besra site


view of crocker range from gunung emas restaurant

mountain barbet of borneo :p


waiting for the black-breasted fruit-hunter to appeared again (which it did not !)

this is the famous jordan at amazingborneo.blogspot.com hehehe

birds recorded today at besra site and the rafflesia centre :

• crimson-headed partridge (heard)
• oriental cuckoo (heard)
• bornean treepie
• bornean bulbul
• black-sided flowerpecker
• chestnut-hooded launghingthrush
• cinereus bulbul (split from ashy bulbul)
• whitehead's trogon
• grey-throated babbler
• verditer flycatcher
• long-tailed broadbill (2nd sighting after 2003 wahaha :p)
• temminck's sunbird
• besra
• ashy drongo
• black-breasted fruithunter (a pair)
• glossy swiftlet
• sunda bush warbler
• little cuckoo-dove
• dusky munia
• chestnut-crested yuhina
• ochraceous bulbul
• black and crimson oriole
• maroon woodpecker (heard)

video of the mountain barbet feeding at one of the red fruit available at my youtube www.youtube.com/user/horukuru

planned another visit with the others this month but probably 1 or 2 weeks before the big day :)

images digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82, srb-griturn adapter mark II, fujifilm f31d and sony ericsson k660i