new species again !

30th november 2007

weather has been bad recently where sabah was hit with two typhoons and didnt have chances to take pictures. then 2 nights ago met with ck, dennis and jollence talking about new adobe photoshop CS3.

then i asked them is there another possibilities that new bird might be blown off from its route to sabah, and they replied; "yes". hahaha then went birding the next day planned looking for the common kingfisher but didnt have the chanced to digiscope.

and today after sending my mum to the office, i drove again to my old patch, tuaran beach resort or known as sabandar bay resort where i used to work as a resident bird guide together with jollence few years back.

saw the common kingfisher, but too dark and again the peregrine falcon in flight then perched on the telecommunication tower same like yesterday. managed to get good pics of peacefull dove, white-breasted wood-swallow and juvenile yellow bittern.

on my way back home, stopped by at one of the marsh area and saw small flocks of pacific golden plover and suddenly one unidentified bird flew in and landed just in front of me and guess what ?

hahahahahahahahahaha my lifer, grey-headed lapwing (vanellus cinereus) !

juvenile yellow bittern

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

happy digiscoping !

some of my latest digiscoped pictures

26th november 2007

concentrated at tuaran rice fields and saw crow-billed drongo perched on the electric wires together with the spotted-necked dove and crested myna but unfortunately the drongo was fast and couldnt get picture of it, so this is few decent pictures of other birds :)

happy digiscoping !

little egret

common greenshank

striated grassbird


black-winged kite

digiscoping adapter

22rd november 2007

after waited for few months, at last my universal adapter arrived from srb-griturn 4 days ago and only today had chances to try it out at one of the popular beach, tg. aru where normally locals go 4 fresh coconuts, and picnic around the beach on weekends :)

birds can be seen around tanjung aru such as house swifts, java sparrows and green imperial pigeons. and i managed to get very good pictures of this blue-naped parrot after few rejected pictures being deleted from the card hahaha :o

nikon fieldscope ED82, DS30x eyepiece, srb-griturn adapter and fujifilm f31d


happy birding and digiscoping !

tambunan rafflesia reserve

13th november 2007

after being informed by dennis that he might saw sapphire flycatcher at tambunan rafflesia centre the day before with his wife, decided to investigate with dennis hahaha as the weather has been perfect and drove for an hour from small town of penampang (majority kadazan dusun tribe lives there) and arrived around 0720 hrs in the morning :)

few minutes later saw the sapphire flycatcher ! but then it came out to be 1st winter black and white flycatcher which is a common winter visitor for sabah around the mountains hehehe so hanged around for few hours and managed to see quite exciting number of birds mostly endemics for borneo :p

all time favorite:

bornean bulbul
ashy bulbul
mountain barbet
grey wagtail
asian brown flycatcher
1st winter black and white flycatcher
1st winter mugimaki flycatcher
dark-sided flowerpecker
chestnut-crested yuhina
mountain serpent eagle (flew very low on blue sky !)
whitehead's spiderhunter
temminck's sunbird
mountain imperial pigeon

this is the area where the best of borneo endemics can be seen easily hahaha


winding road from kota kinabalu to the centre

as usuall dennis busy with his office :p

take note that this is the area where birders would come and search for mountain leaf bird yellowish colour, bornean and mountain barbets, whitehead's spiderhunter together with the black-breasted fruit-hunter.

more info send me email :)

latest update !

10th november 2007

after several times birded this week at tempasuk for the buff-banded rail, saw it flew within few second exactly at 1734 hrs today with sinooorita when we almost left that place for dinner hahaha luck on my side again :p

on the 8th november, ck and dennis went to tempasuk early morning and they not only managed to see the buff-banded rail but another lifer for them, juvenile ruddy-breasted crake ! it's a winter visitor for borneo island but secretive similar like the other rails and coots :)

today species seen;

buff-banded rail - been chasing this bird since the 2nd of november !
common kestrel
grey wagtail
little egret
great egret
cattle egret
oriental pranticole
wood sandpiper
purple heron
wandering whistling duck
black-winged kite
black-crowned night heron
juvenile cinnamon bittern
white-winged tern
black-headed munia
scally-breasted munia
eurasian tree sparrow
spotted-necked dove
peaceful dove
white-breasted wood-swallow
barn swallow
pacific swallow
yellow-vented bulbul
straited grassbird

below is not very good picture of common kestrel taken few days ago hand held camera to the eyepiece :0

more birds seen but couldnt remember hahaha :0 happy birding !

buff-banded rail

31st october 2007

tempasuk in kota belud produced another surprised with the finding of new species for borneo island including malaysia. photos taken by fellow birder cum photographer, sinooorita.

very distinct supercilium and red bill but could be confused with water rail that has greyish face

nice pictures for identification of this rail

a birder from west malaysia indicates that this bird might be smuggled in from the philippines but most of us here in borneo agreed that this is vagrant and need to be documented properly when we see it again next time hahaha :)

comparisons between this species with water rail can be done through oriental bird images

thanks david bakwell in penang and kuching birding group as well steve pryor from oriental bird club for responding through emails and hope to see this bird again soon after the rain stopped !

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 :)