good instinct for new species !

27th october 2007

after a visit to my fiance's colleague open house for the eid festival, took her to kota belud, but this time to another village where i saw my 1st big flocks of oriental pranticole with her last year and guess what ?

hahaha saw eastern march harrier perched on the ground at the paddy field ! had a good views from the scope at the same time enjoying the afternoon breeze with my love one hehehe :p

my little car that takes me anywhere with 6 litres of petrol for rm 10 can run for 100km with aircond on :)


area where we saw the eastern marsh harrier


flocks of little egret, black-winged stilt, white-winged and whiskered tern and few other sandpipers and plovers with stints


my future birder


well smile for the camera :o


another 2 months before the next harvest


mt. kinabalu from the distance

small reunion of birders

26th october 2007

the night before met with ck and osman at local mamak restaurant discussing about a trip to kota belud as we normally busy with our tours, so hanging out birding with others guides seems to be 'rare' nowadays as we normally guides birding groups for birders around the world hahaha :p

so chose kota belud about 50km up north from kota kinabalu city and it is one of the main producer for rice in sabah and one of the favorite birding ground for myself as migratory waders normally seen congregating at the paddy fields.

left at 0430 hrs together with denis who mostly works in the office but managed to squeezed in with the rest of the members for a wonderful morning and full with fun.

reason for this trip was a verbally report about seeing grass owl by one of the guide together with his birding group few months ago. but we didnt see any ...

mt kinabalu amazes me each time i looked at it ...

hut uses by farmers for resting during mid day

another plots now been grown with paddy

new road leading to another town of kudat where the rungus tribe lives


nice view hahaha :p


ck with his gun :)


demonstrating to osman about digiscoping while poisoning him the advantages of spotting scope hahaha


viewing a peregrine falcon at one of the electric post


not sure what happened to denis ? hehehe

fantastic morning with birds and good breakfast then drove back to kk :o

another vagrant hahaha

21th october 2007

tuaran district is located at the north west of sabah with estimated populations of 80k consists of tribes of dusun lotud, bajaus, chinese and other minority ethnics. it takes about 30 minutes drive from kota kinabalu city and this area would be alive on sunday with the open market held every sunday and one of the nicest place to watch sunrise from the might mt. kinabalu :)

on the 9th october went for short birding at the field and saw another vagrant passage migrant, single 1st winter red-necked phalarope !

pictures of the phalarope can be seen at www.photomalaysia.com under nature and wildlife category taken by my friend, sinooorita

favorite feeding area for waders such as common greenshank and long-toed stint

other side of the road dry paddy field for zebra and spotted-necked dove

nice houses belongs to the farmers

plastic bags used as a scare crows

at last great knot and sanderling !

4 october 2007

hahaha my new birds the great knot and sanderling today as didnt see any yesterday evening and with my friend who go birding almost everyday now to fill his time after retired hehehe :)

deep blue sky was perfect to identify the great knot and sanderling

few pacific sand plovers, and terek sandpiper around

sometimes this small patch of water used by the waders to cooled down itself by dipping in

at least about 1 km out to the sea during low tide

time to take pictures !

this is sinooorita member of photomalaysia.com and just started birding cum photography 2 years ago but seen many migrant waders now hahaha :)

sunset at lok kawi beach ...

3 october 2007

the past few days weather has been unpredictable and brought haze as well. went to one of my favorite beach for waders that can be seen in small number regularly during the migratory season from september-april every year. except some of them came earlier in june hahaha :p

recorded species around lok kawi with the help of friends;

great egret
little egret
chinese egret
pacific reef egret (white and black morph)
ruddy turnstone
sanderling
great knot
common redshank
terek sandpiper
common sandpiper
curlew sandpiper
greater sand-plover
lesser sand-plover
malaysian plover
kentish plover
grey plover
pacific golden plover
little-ringed plover
common ringed plover
red-necked stint
whimbrel
little tern
white-winged tern
whiskered tern

scope are essential to identified waders as they are sensitive with human's movement especially if we try to get as close as possible to take pictures of the waders. means i need my adapter for my scope and start digiscoping !!!

few waders along the creek catching worms and invertebrates

locals come every weekends looking for shells and bivavles depending on the tide along the beach

sun setting down slowly

fisherman putting nets on the water as tide coming in

i'll come again tomorrow hoping to see the probably wandering tattler saw few days ago :)

secret of garama river

19th september 2007

it has been more than a year since i came to this river searching for the elusive proboscis monkeys. the feeling was great as good weather accompanied me and other couple from england, malcom and helen who were keen birders and has been staying in south africa for few years. lots of lifers for both of them with the help of fantastic boatman who helped to spot barbet and kingfishers ...

birds that seen:

little green heron
common sandpiper
white-breasted waterhen
black-nest swift
asian palm-swift
grey-rumped treeswift
barn swallow
pacific swallow
gold-whiskered barbet
blue-eared kingfisher
ashy tailorbird
pink-necked green pigeon
brown-capped woodpecker
olive-winged bulbul
magpie robin
brahminy kite
blue-crowned hanging-parrot
hill myna
asian glossy starling
large-tailed nightjar



mammal and reptile list:

proboscis monkey
long-tailed macaque
silver-leaf langur
water buffallo
crocodile

nice view of the river hoping to see birds and other animals


looking at the proboscis monkey

off they go !

calm river with crocs

reflection of the tree on the water


smiling faces of helen, jamly and malcom :)

everett's thrush of mt. kinabalu

10th september 2007

went birding with lars from sweden who has been here 3 times and decided to search for the elusive everett's thrush at one of the trail around kinabalu national park. unfortunately didn't see any, means a reason to come again hahaha :p

bird list:

whitehead's trogon a pair
white-throated fantail
grey-throated warbler
sunda bush warbler
mt. leaf warbler
mt. tailorbird
bornean treepie
ashy drongo
mt. blackeye
bornean whistling-thrush
flavescent bulbul
bornean whistler
red-breasted partridge
crimson-headed partridge (heard)
whitehead's broadbill (heard)
bornean stubtail
little pied flycatcher
chestnut-crested yuhina
blue and white flycatcher
mugimaki flycatcher (lifer for lars)
bare-headed laughingthrush
sunda laughingthrush
chestnut-capped laughingthrush
golden-naped barbet (heard)

looking at the mt. kinabalu in the evening hoping for good weather tomorrow

road leading up to the trail


morning view of the valley from the trail


lars patiently waiting for the thrush

walked on this trail 6 times since 6.00 am until 4.oo pm

recce trip to Crocker Range National Park

date 27-28th august 2007

horukuru
john prudente
cede prudente
john kong
albert and wendy hutton

this time combining with well known photographers, writer and naturalist to the national park for overnight trip mainly birding and photography as well updating info about this newly accessible place.

john posing in front of his house with 2 mountain biking on top of albert's mitsubishi

hehehe myself :p


looking through the binoculars identifying figs and albert's 4x4 was overheat !


other view from opposite road


john kong admiring the view of kota kinabalu city from the top mean while cede was shooting at the mountain imperial-pigeon seen perched on the bare tree below eye level.


preparing equipments for birding


uphill again !


checking for leeches and all was infected hahaha :p

end of the trail while albert looking up at the sky maybe scanning for the mars


cede and alim were looking at the flocks of pygmy white-eye (endemic)


yehaha time to go back to the rest house


sumptuous dinner with alim and wendy and big smile from cede


28th august 2007 morning birding day. the other john and albert gone for downhill biking after the birders left


john kong and albert couldn't resist fighting the mud with their bicycles after the walked yesterday


john passing down his knowledge about camera to wendy who just bought new Nikon D40x for her upcoming trip to peru

which one better Nikon Fieldscope ED82 with 30x eyepiece or Nikon AF-S 600mm with D2Xs ...

the star for this trip; white-fronted falconet spotted by john. the smallest raptor in the world and confined only at north borneo. well it is small right by looking at my picture :p the bird is on the top of left branch


last shot for the falconet before left for late breakfast


smile for the camera hehehe :p

photos taken using john prudente Fujifilm S2PRO with combinations of 600mm, 70-200mm and 18-70mm lenses as well contributions from cede and john kong during the outing