Bilit Rainforest Lodge At Bilit Village

1st - 3rd July 2009

Spent few days at this lovely new lodge which begun its operation last year and has been receiving constant visitors to enjoyed the wildlife such as Orang Utan and Proboscis Monkey along the Kinabatangan River and the facilities offered by the lodge itself is superb !

• Internet room plus Wifi (Wifi didn't work well unfortunately, hope they will fix it soon).
• Optional caterpillar shoes and leech socks for visitor chargeable daily RM 15 per person for trekking at oxbow lake.
  

Each building that houses 2 rooms is connected by walkway


View of the restaurant from the pier


Pier with boats for cruising along the river


Map of the lodge plus trails to Oxbow lake


View of the forest and good place for birds such as Dusky Munia, Crested Serpent Eagle and Blue-eared Barbet




Spacious room with 2 twins and 1 single bed with air condition and fan

Living room with satellite television

Dining area

The bird life around the lodge and surrounding areas is good and the closest smaller river from the lodge is the Tanegang Besar. Heard Bornean Ground Cuckoo and saw a Hooded Pitta on the 2nd day in the morning but it was only brief.

Aboundant Raptors such as Lesser Fish Eagle, Bat Hawk and Crested Goshawk together with 5 species of Hornbill i.e Rhinoceros and Bushy-crested Hornbill.

JD the boatman, Alven and Chai waiting for the Bornean Ground Cuckoo

Wrinkled Hornbill


Chestnut-breasted Malkoha


Lesser Fish Eagle seen daily


Green Broadbill digiscoped at Oxbow lake


Common resident at the lodge, Eurasian Tree Sparrow


Lesser Adjutant



Blue-eared Kingfisher


Oriental Pied Hornbill


Crested Serpent Eagle caught sleeping

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

The lodge is situated at Bilit village which is around 120 km from Sandakan city on the east coast of Sabah. Daily direct flights from Kota Kinabalu is available and for journey via land, it takes 5 hours drive passing through one of the best landscape scenary in Borneo.

For more info, please visit their website at http://www.tropicalg.com/

Thanks to Chai Cherong Absolute Borneo for the trip and Alven for the laugh hahaha :)

Nikon Photography Workshop And Fieldscope EDG 85

20th - 21st June 2009

The 1st Nikon Photography Workshop in Sandakan held at Rainforest Discovery Centre was a big success with more than expected last minute participants registered on the first day even though all seats was booked a week before the event.

At the same time, Nikon Malaysia decided to unvield the new Nikon Fieldscope EDG 85 in Malaysia with a selling price around RM 13k for body and the eyepiece. It was officiated by the Honourable Mr. Au Kam Wah, State Assembly for Elopura Parliment during the workshop.

From a quick test done by me and few others friends, it is cleared that the EDG 85 is brighter, sharper and more contrast than the ED82 using the same 38x eyepiece on both scopes. The test lasted until sunset and colour fringing is invisible for the EDG 85 while looking at bird against the grey sky.

Now I need the EDG 85 and compare it with my friends's Kowa 883 and 884 to see who is the king of spotting scopes !

Some of the pictures taken during the workshop and courtesy of my best friend, John Prudente and Tee from Nikon Malaysia.

Registration counter

John Kong with Landscape Photography and Capture Nx2

Participants throughout the state

Kavid Yan from Nikon Malaysia for Nikon Creative Lightning

Jollence Lee in Wedding Photography

Seng, Mark, Me and Syakila

Mr. Sim (middle) Regional Manager for Nikon Malaysia with Kelvin Chan for Portrait Photography

Group Photo

John Kong with his new Mac !

Cede Prudente for Nature Photography

From left to right; Kavid, Irene, John Prudente, Carol Prudente and Mr. Sim

Hahaha future Nikon ads ? :p


Crested Serpent Eagle captured with 18-70mm lens !


John Bakar

Gary Albert

Dan Fiel @ Dulce


Dan and Carol

Birding and Digiscoping in Sabah by me :)


Officiating the new Nikon Fieldscope EDG 85


Enjoying the view from the new scope

The straight EDG 85 construction is similar like Nikon Telephoto Lens and getting on the target if faster than the old ED82

Pied Fantail

Rufous Night Heron

Special thanks for Irene and her staffs from Sandakan Foto for the workshop. See you on the next workshop hehehe :)

My next birding tour is on the 10th until 25th of July and at this moment, attending my brother in law wedding ceremony until this Sunday.

Happy birding !

Rajah Brooke Birdwing Butterfly Vs Plain Pygmy Squirrel

16th June 2009

As I walked back from the Kingfisher spot yesterday heading to my car, I couldn't believe I saw clean perched and eye level of this biggest butterfly in the world ! Hahaha after many years seeing this beauty in flight resembled like black colour bird, now I got the shot using my scope :p (Almost impossible to digiscoped when it was flying around)

And one of the smallest squirrel in the world is this resident species in Borneo, Plain Pygmy Squirrel measuring from head to taill, 13 inch. Feeds on algae that grow on a tree trunk and one of the fastest squirrel i have seen moved and jumped from tree to tree.

As usual, birding a bit slow nowadays with less activity in the forest. Only 2 species of birds was digiscoped recently.

Large Woodshrike

Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot

I will be off to Sandakan this Friday attending workshop and giving talk about birding and digiscoping in Sabah during the Nikon Workshop at Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sepilok.

Happy birding and hope to see you there :)

Green Broadbill

31st May 2009

Spent the Harvest Festival with Andrew and Gwenda at Lok Kawi hoping for the Black-backed Kingfisher. Despite arriving in the afternoon, action only begun after 3pm hahaha :p

This is the shots of Green Broadbill and considered as uncommon species in Borneo. The female yesterday was more cooperative than the male and while digiscoping the female, I did not realized the male was only less than a metre below ! So I got the female and Andrew had the male :)

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope ED82, SRB-Griturn Mk II adapter and Fujifilm F31D

Metallic green colour of this male



Female

Happy birding everyone.