Malaysia part 5 Grounds for divorce

The private island of Pankor lout was where our marriage hit the rocks. Sara went for a walk along the beach, asking me to take some photos of her as she went. That was of corse only if I did not want to join her. Can in one hand, camera in the other I lay on the veranda of our villa and politelly declined the walk. It was close to feeding time for the Pied hornbills and I did not want to miss that. So I took some photos of her on the beach, drank up and went to the bar for Pied hornbill feeding time, its a hard life.
When we met up she was going on about the big birds she had photos of, yes I said they are all around us its feeding time. No not them little things look at the photos #*$*&!!!!!!!! BITCH Great hornbills. I only got very distant views the day before, nowhere near a photo oppertunity. The very birds I travelled to Malaysia hoping to see and Sara had the shots of the trip.Cow!!! I even had a photo of her in the act.

Tart

I hate her

Caught in the act the photo of the photo being taken 

 Even though its a few months since this abomination took place I am still a bit hurt and the bitch shows no remorse. The mangroves at Kuala selangor were little compensation so you can add your own captions to the rest of the shots  HAPPY NEW YEAR

Malaysia part 4

The Cameron highlands was where we went before Pennang so this is really part 3. Near the hotel was a small park surrounded by forest and birds came past in waves from all directions. We visited tea plantations but found the tourist attractions poor, the butterfly garden was a joke.  Again food was good and cheap, beer was deer but I did not let that stop me.

Blue whistleing thrush

Silver eard mesia

Red headed trogon

Ditto

Thick billed crow

Lesser raquet tailed drongo

Scaly breasted munia

Pied fantail

 The next and final part  will be about Pankor laut  and Kuala selangor

Malaysia part 3 eventually

Our next stop was the Cameron highlands but the photos below are from Penang so this is part 4 , part 3 will follow this. We stayed in a 5 star hotel where White bellied sea eagles could be watched from the hot tub on the balcony. Food was good, birding from the balcony good, Botanical gardens good and I got some good curry pastes from the Spice garden to take home. Georgetown was disappointing but guinness was widly available so not that bad.

Little heron

Crested myna

Moniter lizard

Little green pigeon

Black naped oriole

Duskey leaf monkey

Olive backed sunbird

Inadequate field guide sunbird sp

Coppersmith barbet

White throated kingfisher

So if I get round to doing it my next post will include a half decent shot of a Silver eard mesia

Malaysia part 2

Taman negara was our next port of call, a 130 million year old rain forest reached by boat. This place has a swish resort at its entrance where we stayed for 3 nights, trails into the forest were well managed with modern plastic boardwalks. Birding was difficult but what was seen was usually spectacular. On the first morning before the sun was up a Tapir showed its self, cue great excitement, but on the last night a different very tame Tapir was rolling on the grass surrounded by kids. That took the edge off my initial sighting making me doubt the status of wild Tapir around the resort.

Dark throated oriole

dodgy Tapir

8 inches of millipede

 I found the best way to see birds in this dense jungle was to sit in a hide smoking, over looking a clearing. The Tahan hide proved to be the best and sitting for a while the sweat stopped streaming off me and every now and then a few birds would show themselves. The light was not good and the image below was typical of many shots, but I always viewed birds with my bins before trying to get a shot so a lot got away from the camera.

Black and red broadbill (pin sharp as usual)

Jungle pigs

Crimson winged yellownape

 A bird I had always wanted to see is probably the commonest in the world in its domesticated form, Red junglefowl showed well from the hide with 2 hens in tow, although in eclipse form still proved a cracker.

Cock a doodle do

 A group of Chestnut breasted malkoha that arrived in a wave of birds around the hide proved a highlight and I even managed to get a half decent pic. Lots of butterflies flitted about some of them huge and very pretty. A high and long Canopy walkway was a good laxative and a boat trip up river past native villages was good.

chestnut breasted malkoha

200x zoom action  Black thighed falconet

Brown shrike

Next part is from the Camron highlands and Penang

Malaysia part 1

 I returned home last week after a cracking couple of weeks in Malaysia. The first 2 days were spent in KL we went to the Bird park which has the largest walk in aviary in the world. To be honest it was a bit disappointing with very few species on show. Next port of call was the botanical gardens for my first taste of Asian birding. Oriental magpie robins were the most obvious birds and there were Mynas about. Both nights were spent in Chinatown food was tasty and very cheap House crows were plentiful  even in the city centre.

Magpie Robin

Asian glossy starling

House crow

Our next stop was up in the mountains at Frasers hill a small place spread out among the hills surrounded by forest, this is home to an annual bird race and has a very good interpratation centre. The birds did not give themselves up easily but I did see some crackers including Green magpie and Little pied flycatcher. Getting good photos however prooved difficult, the dense foliage and poor light coupled with the fact that birds appeared in waves and vanished in to thin air meant that little of what was seen made it in to the camera. What did make it on to the SD card were taken with shutter speeds of 1/20 second at times so few are up to my usual super sharp standerd.

Spectacled laughingthrush

Streaked spiderhunter

Large niltava

Trapdoor spiders home

Black and crimson oriole