waders at likas mudflat

10th october 2008

this area was part of the south china sea before the existing roads was built several years ago and one of the nearest place to see some of the migrant that spends their winter here such as pacific golden plover, whimbrel and whiskered tern.

other species seen this afternoon;

• pacific reef-egret
• little egret
• great egret
• chinese egret - 3 birds !
• common sandpiper
• grey-tailed tattler
• greater sand-plover
• little heron
• purple heron
• collared kingfisher
• rock dove
• spotted dove

great egret

pacific reef-egret


flocks of little with great egret feeding

collared kingfisher

hoping more waders will turn up to this place as the illegal settlement nearby was demolished recently by the government, means less disturbance and rubbish that used to float during high tide would be seen in the future.

who knows new species such as white-faced plover or the rarest spoon-billed sandpiper ?

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

happy birding :o

birds at nexus karambunai resort

6-7th october 2008

stayed at nexus resort for a night to relax after celebrating Eid ul-Fitr with family and friends and did some digiscoping through the balcony overlooking the pretty south china sea. a bit lazy to walk around the resort and mostly common birds seen such as eurasian tree sparrow, spotted dove, asian glossy starling, collared kingfisher and common iora.

bird seen :

• brahminy kite
• collared kingfisher
• yellow-vented bulbul
• spotted dove
• zebra dove
• house swift
• common sandpiper
• white-breasted waterhen
• magpie robin
• olive-backer sunbird
• white-breasted wood-swallow
• pied triller
• striated grassbird
• common iora
• glossy starling
• eurasian tree sparrow
  

one of the bornean endemic, dusky munia

black-headed munia


yellow-vented bulbul preening

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

happy birding :)

happy Eid ul-Fitr everyone

1st october 2008

wishing all readers happy Eid ul-Fitr and thanks for all the supports for my blog :)

scarlet-rumped trogon

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

abandoned paddy field in tuaran district

20th september 2008

while waiting to break fast at my parents in law house, took short trip to a nearby paddy field and tested my fujifilm f31d for long distance shot to see the resolution produced by this camera (inspired to try after reading neil's post from hong kong regarding the nikon coolpix p5100 at this birdforum.net thread: CLICK HERE)

which the results was amazing using 45x eyepiece with his swarovski ATS HD80 !

my not really impressive results below compared with neil and distance around 100 metres digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82 with 30x eyepiece, resized and adjusted with nikon capture NX :

water buffalo used to plough the paddy field in the olden days, now left to roam freely due to the introduction of machines. it is also one of the item for wedding ceremony practiced by tribes in sabah

striated grassbird

white-breasted wood-swallow

together with spotted dove

this was taken with sony ericsson k660i

artistic shot hehehe

my favorite mt. kinabalu, the highest in borneo island :)

i will try my friend's nikon coolpix p5100 soon with 30x eyepiece on my scope and compare it with my pictures above :)

happy digiscoping !

blue-headed pitta at danum valley

4th - 15th september 2008

had a birding trip with a couple of bird guide, clive and eleanor from scotland which started at tambunan rafflesia centre, few nights at kinabalu national park then flew to lahad datu for 4 days at danum valley. then drove to kinabatangan river and sepilok orang utan sanctuary. on the 15th, spent few hours at manukan island for the tabon scrubfowl and visited lok kawi beach and tuaran paddy field too.

resident wild boar at danum valley named "janggut" or beard

maroon langur


yellow-eared spiderhunter seen daily feeding at flowering trees around the restaurant

little spiderhunter

bornean endemic blue-headed pitta

brown wood-owl


segama river


elanor at canopy walkway


asian brown flycatcher, common winter visitor


crested goshawk



boats used for cruising at kinabatangan river specially made for photographers


view of the restaurant


rooms at sukau river lodge


pacific swallow


rufous woodpecker at sepilok


clive and elanor


blue sky at manukan island

total birds recorded during the trip was 243 species with 31 endemic despite heavy rain occurred mostly in the afternoon after lunch :)

• oriental darter
• purple heron
• cattle egret
• chinese egret
  
• great egret
• intermediate egret
  
• little egret
• striated heron
• storm's stork
• wandering whistling duck
• jerdon's baza
• bat hawk
• black-winged kite
• brahminy kite
• white-bellied fish-eagle
• lesser fish-eagle
• crested goshawk
• crested serpent-eagle
• mountain serpent-eagle (seen in flight and calling)
  
• black eagle
• changeable hawk eagle (black and pale morph seen near gomantong cave)
• blyth's hawk-eagle
• wallace's hawk-eagle
• tabon scrubfowl
• chestnut-necklaced partridge (heard)
  
• red-breasted partridge (heard)
• crimson-headed partridge
  
• great argus (heard)
• bornean crested fireback pheasant (nearly missed this on our last day at danum valley !)
• white-browed crake (just a glimpse)
• white-breasted waterhen
• common moorhen
• purple swamphen
• pacific golden plover
• little ringed plover
• malaysian plover (last lifer for clive and eleanor hahaha)
• mongolian plover
• greater sand-plover
• grey-tailed tattler
• ruddy turnstone
• common sandpiper
• terek sandpiper
• black-winged stilt
• whiskered tern
• white-winged tern
• black-naped tern
• little tern
• great-crested tern
  
• pink-necked green-pigeon
• green imperial pigeon
• moutain imperial pigeon
• rock pigeon
• little cuckoo-dove
• spotte dove
• zebra dove
• emerald dove
• long-tailed parakeet (always seen in flight)
  
• blue-naped parrot
• blue-crowned hanging-parrot (scope view at canopy walkway, danum valley)
• large hawk-cuckoo (heard)
• oriental cuckoo (heard)
• asian koel
  
• black-bellied malkoha
• chestnut-breasted malkoha
• raffles's malkoha
• bornean ground-cuckoo (it came quite close to us hohoho)
• greater coucal
• buffy fish-owl
• brown wood owl (seen with hamit while looking for large frogmouth)
  
• probably barred eagle-owl (few seen at kinabalu national park in the mist ...)
• large-tailed nightjar (heard early in the morning with hamit from BET)
• black-nest swiftlet (at gomantong cave)
• glossy swiftlet
• silver-rumped swift
  
• asian palm-swift
• grey-rumped treeswift (easy at sepilok)
  
• whiskered treeswift (common at canopy walkway, danum valley)
• red-naped trogon
  
• diard's trogon (heard)
• whitehead's trogon
• scarlet-rumped trogon
• blue-eared kingfisher (heard only but clive and eleanor got a proper view at menanggul river)
• stork-billed kingfisher
• rufous-collared kingfisher (heard)
• collared kingfisher
• blue-throated bee-eater
• red-bearded bee-eater
• dollarbird
• bushy-crested hornbill
• white-crowned hornbill (favorite hornbill for this trip. a pair flew together while cruising along kinabatangan river)
  
• wrinkled hornbill
• wreated hornbill
• asian black hornbill
• oriental pied hornbill
• rhinocerous hornbill
• helmeted hornbill (eye level along access road at danum valley)
  
• gold-whiskered barbet (heard)
  
• red-throated barbet (heard only at gomantong cave and kinabatangan river)
• bornean barbet (heard)
• mountain barbet
• golden-naped barbet
• bornean brown barbet
• rufous piculet
• rufous woodpecker (very cooperative bird and posed for us more than 15 minutes)
  
• buff-rumped woodpecker
• buff-necked woodpecker
• sunda woodpecker
• grey and buff woddpecker
• maroon woodpecker
• black and red broadbill
• black and yellow broadbill
• green broadbill (seen while waiting for the blue-banded and giant pitta)
• whitehead's broadbill (decent view during mist at kinabalu national park)
• blue-headed pitta
  
• black and crimson pitta
• giant pitta (heard only on the way out from the trail)
• hooded pitta (heard)
• barn swallow
• pacific swallow
• large woodshrike
  
• sunda cuckoo-shrike
• pied triller
• scarlet minivet
• grey-chinned minivet
• green iora
• common iora
• lesser green leafbird
• greater green leafbird
• black-headed bulbul
  
• bornean bulbul
• puff-backed bulbul (mixed flock with sooty-capped babbler)
  
• flavescent bulbul
• yellow-vented bulbul
• olive-winged bulbul
• cream-vented bulbul (both white and red eyes)
• red-eyed bulbul
• spectacled bulbul
• ochraceous bulbul
• grey-cheeked bulbul
• yellow-bellied bulbul
• hairy-backed bulbul
• cinereus bulbul
• ashy drongo
• crow-billed drongo
• bronzed drongo
• hair-crested drongo
  
• greater racket-tailed drongo
• dark-throated oriole
• asian fairy bluebird
• crested jay
• short-tailed magpie
• bornean treepie
• slender-billed crow
• velvet-fronted nuthatch
• white-browed shortwing (nearly half and hour waiting for this bird to showed itself !)
• black-capped babbler
• temminck's babbler
• white-chested babbler
• ferruginous babbler
• short-tailed babbler
• moustached babbler (heard)
• sooty-capped babbler
• scaly-crowned babbler
• rufous-crowned babbler
• bornean wren-babbler (heard)
  
• striped wren-babbler (heard)
• black-throated wren-babbler
• mountain wren-babbler
• grey-throated babbler
• chestnut-rumped babbler
• chestnut-winged babbler
• bold-striped tit-babbler
• fluffy-backed tit-babbler
• brown fulvetta
• chestnut-crested yuhina
• white-bellied yuhina
• sunda laughingthrush
• bare-headed laughingthrush (heard)
• chestnut-hooded laughingthrush
• white-browed shrike-babbler
• magpie robin
• white-crowned shama
• white-crowned forktail
• bornean whistling thrush
• yellow-breasted warbler
• artic warbler
• mountain leaf-warbler
• eastern reed-warbler
• bornean stubstail
• sunda bush-warbler
• friendly-bush warbler (heard only at mesilau and not friendly at all ...)
• dark-necked tailorbird
• ashy tailorbird
• rufous-tailed tailorbird
• mountain tailorbird
• yellow-bellied prinia
  
• eyebrowed jungle-flycatcher
• asian brown flycatcher
• verditer flycatcher
• indigo flycatcher
• snowy-browed flycatcher
• little pied flycatcher
• malaysian blue-flycatcher
• mangrove blue-flycatcher
• white-throated fantail
• spotted fantail
• black-naped monarch
• maroon-breasted philentoma
• asian paradise-flycatcher
• bornean whistler
• white-breasted wood-swallow
• long-tailed shrike (hahaha my lifer !!!)
• grey wagtail
• asian glossy starling
• crested myna
• hill myna
• plain sunbird
• brown-throated sunbird
• red-throated sunbird
• ruby-cheeked sunbird
• purple-naped sunbird
• olive-backed sunbird
• crimson sunbird
• temminck's sunbird
• little spiderhunter
• long-billed spiderhunter
• yellow-eared spiderhunter
• grey-breasted spiderhunter
• whitehead's spiderhunter (view through scope)
• yellow-breasted flowerpecker
• yellow-rumped flowerpecker
• orange-bellied flowerpecker
• black-sided flowerpecker
• black-capped white-eye
• mountain blackeye
• duky munia
• scaly-breasted munia
• black-headed munia

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

white-browed shortwing my new lifer !

29th august - 1st september 2008

spent few days at tambunan rafflesia centre and kinabalu national park with brian and jim both from usa and saw around 54 species altogether mostly lifer for jim. weather was nice only once it rained in the afternoon after lunch.

this poor white-crowned forktail hit one of the window at the restaurant and took the opportunity to take pictures before it flew off again

four white bar on its tail

has long whiskered too


brian and jim

bird seen during the trip:

• blyth's hawk-eagle - 4 birds in fligh
  
• little cuckoo-dove
• mountain imperial pigeon
  
• large hawk-cuckoo - thanks jim for spotting this !
  
• oriental cuckoo - heard daily in the morning only
• mountain scops-owl - heard daily around 5.30 am
• bornean barbet - jim and brian missed this bird
• mountain barbet - superb view through the scope
• golden-naped barbet
• checker-throated woodpecker
• maroon woodpecker
• pacific swallow
• whitehead's trogon
  
• sunda cuckoo-shrike
• grey-chinned minivet
• bornean leaftbird
• bornean bulbul
• ashy bulbul
• flavescent bulbul
• ochracheous bulbul
• hair-crested drongo
• black and crimson oriole
• short-tailed magpie - seen nesting too
• bornean treepie
• grey-throated babbler
• temminck's babbler
  
• mountain wren-babbler
  
• chestnut-crested yuhina
• bare-headed laughingthrush
• chestnut-hooded laughingthrush
• sunda laughingthrush
• white-browed shrike-babbler
• bornean whistling thrush
• everett's thrush - quick view of less than than a minute, missed by jim and brian too
• white-browed shortwing - hahaha my lifer !
  
• bornean stubtail
  
• sunda bush warbler
• yellow-breasted warbler
• mountain lear warbler
• mountain tailorbird
  
• yellow-bellied prinia
• eyebrowed jungle flycatcher
• indigo flycatcher
• little pied flycatcher
  
• asian brown flycatcher
• snowy-browed flycatcher
  
• white-throated fantail
• bornean whistler
• grey wagtail
  
• temminck's sunbird
• whitehead's spiderhunter
• grey-breasted spiderhunter
• black-sided flowerpecker
  
• orange-bellied flowerpecker
• black-capped white eye
• mountain blackeye
• black-headed munia
• scaly-breasted munia
• dusky munia

i will be away on the 4rd until 15th september with another birders. hope can see their target species especially pitta and ground-cuckoo :)

pictures was captured with fujifilm f31d

common redshank at lok kawi

27th august 2008

arrived a bit late at lok kawi because there was a traffic jammed around kota kinabalu city due to the rehearsal for the coming independence day for malaysia :) when i arrived, karim was busy taking pictures of the waders and it was quite warm today with blue sky.

planned to take pictures of the red-necked stint with orange flag sighted by karim few days ago and from the info he received sent by
australasian waders studies group, the bird was tagged around january 1990 in victoria, australia and might be first for borneo :)

but no stint with flag today and some of the birds were seen at lok kawi beach:

• pacific golden plover
• little egret
• little tern
• grey-tailed tattler
• ruddy turnstone
• lesser sand plover
• greater sand plover
• red-necked stint
• common sandpiper
• collared kingfisher
• little ringed plover

Common Redshank

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

happy birding !

wood sandpiper in tuaran

23rd august 2008

weather was good this morning but windy and took few hours birding at paddy field near with my parents in law house hoping to get good pictures of wood sandpiper and long-toed stint, at the same time keeping an eye for temminck's stint that i saw last year at the same place :p

only few got into my hard disk :)

wood sandpiper

spotted dove

purple heron

other birds seen today

• dusky munia
• crested myna
• white-breasted wood swallow
• pacific swallow
• scaly-breasted munia
  

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

happy birding !

my favorite bird of borneo

19th august 2008

resident at mt. kinabalu and one of the best subject for digiscoping hehehe :p

indigo flycatcher

bamboo orchid Arundina graminifolia

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

happy birding and digiscoping !

digiscoping with sony ericsson K660i

11th - 13th august 2008

im impressed with my new sony ericsson cellphone that has 2 mega pixels camera and very user friendly lens with my 30x eyepiece hahaha :p and some of the pictures taken recently at semporna and tabin wildlife reserve with vent group led by susan myers and david bishop

all image was taken hand held (except the night heron with fujifilm f31d and srb-griturn Mk II adapter) and digiscoped with nikon fieldscope ED82

rufous night heron

red-bearded bee-eater

a pair of black hornbill

oriental dwarf kingfisher

vent group from usa


rufous piculet feeding at wild ginger

the cellphone also offered built in gps (with optional accessory) and also web blogging which is useful for traveling.

at lahad datu airport while waiting for my flight back to kota kinabalu, met with ingo (member of avian watch asia) who was at danum valley for several days n he managed to get lots of pictures of birds especially the black and crimson pitta huhuhu :o

nice birding :)

commonest waders at tuaran paddy field

2nd august 2008

after sending my wife to her parents' house, drove back to the same spot where i saw a wader wading at one of the paddy field nearby. by looking through my scope, it is confirmed the wood sandpiper has arrived and some of them still wearing their horny breeding plumage :p

paddy field

wood sandpiper

from the distance (wish i have zoom eyepiece !), 3 little ringed plover mixing together with spotted and peaceful dove, scaly-breasted and black-headed munia at one of the drier plot.

white-breasted waterhen

moving on to another plot, saw 2 long-toed stint (my favorite wader hahaha) together with common moorhen, intermediate egret and white-breasted waterhen. 2 cinnamon bittern suddenly flew from the bush and landed not far away from me.

long-toed stint

good birding and other birds seen today :

• purple heron
• black-winged kite
• yellow-vented bulbul
• yellow-bellied prinia and
  
• pink-necked green pigeon

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