348 : Madagascar Turtle-dove

Madagascar Turtle-dove - Nesoenas picturatus

Holiday season is nearly upon me and thoughts turn in part to the task which seems to exist these days only on family holidays. I have not really been out birding for my own enjoyment in any circumstances for a good year. I have not stopped to analyse why that is. I haven't even written up the birds that I have seen in Malasyia, Seychelles and elsewhere. I think losing access to my old web site has created a mental block. It just doesn't feel as good to come to a website with less than a dozen posts. The idea that everything is not in one place anymore is a bit upsetting.

I won't make myself any promises but what I will do is just gently get my camera kit in a good shape for the US and keep to my routine which includes time for a Daily Bird. It would be a shame to lose the habit of collecting these beautiful pictures and having a way to look at life other than through a cocktail list of work email inbox. That's a touch harsh but birding does elevate free time to something a little more adventurous than pushing a trolley around Spinneys.

These charming Doves were there to greet me each morning at breakfast at the Constance Ephilia. What a lucky and privileged life I lead. This was a superb family holiday - location, activities, food, privacy. Stunning place. It was a full board type arrangement so I could wander down to this restaurant next to a perfect tropical beach and have juice, eggs cooked as I wanted them and so on. How can anything be wrong with life when you can do that for a week ? We are off to New York in about 2 weeks and after a week of the Big Apple we are going up to Vermont to the Green Mountain National Park - a place called Manchester ! Time once again for my Sibley ! I have never really got to grips with simple basic US birds. I will have a backyard so I should be able to do some backyard birding.

Madagascar Turtle-Dove, Nesoena picturatus
Constance Ephilia, Mahe, Seychelles
August 2016

347 : Stripe-throated Bulbul

Stripe-throated Bulbul - Pycnonotus finlaysoni

I am surrounded by Bulbuls where I live in Dubai so its hard to get excited about these birds. This is a handsome enough species though common to this part of South-East Asia from Vietnam down around to Singapore and up into parts of China and Myanmar. I'd see these birds round the gardens at the lodge in Taman Negarra.

My life outside of stomping along jungle paths and floating down the river in my motor propelled  dug out tree consisted mostly of eating, trying to keep up with work with a very tenuous internet connection and then in the evening gently getting inebriated and then staying up far too late taking photographs of the local moths - "Moth Partee". They deserve a longer post in themselves but the general idea was to turn on the light on my back porch, head off for a big spicy dinner with several beers and then to return and try to see juts how many species of moth could be captured on film. Some epic "Partee" went on into the small hours - testing different configuration of lens, tripods and cameras.

Butterflys were certainly another draw - you didn't have to stray far from your table at the restaurant to capture some beautiful images.

Some days large flocks would gather at the edge of freshwater puddles to feed.

The music though again in the restaurant would drive me mad. They had one tape lasting about 90 minutes that went round and round. "Blue Blue my life is blue. Blue is my world when I'm without you". If you have ever had a naff song seared into your brain over a dozen meals by perhaps working in a restaurant then you will know the torture. I just have no concept of how they found these songs ? Were 60's euro-hits somehow de rigeur in jungle lodges in Malaysia. In a Stockholm syndrome type transference I spent a long time identifying and locating the various sh*t pieces of music that were inflicted on me in this solitary  mix tape. I know the full history of "Love is Blue" ("L'amor est bleu") as a recorded work eventually identifying a country and western version by Marty Robins that I preferred to the more classic Al Martino version. It was of course originally a euro vision song contest ditty.  I even listen to it (in numerous versions) at the gym and I use it as a soundtrack on my holiday slide show. The descent into madness while traveling alone has its own soundtrack.

To brighten things up I have to give a big tick to Malaysian food. Nasi Goreng became my staple. Rice usually chased down by a half dozen little side dishes of salty anchovy sauce, peanut satay and the like. Chilled beer, euro-trash and spicy food and butterflies. Not all bad.

I stopped short of ordering the local golden river perch delicacy. Given that I had seen signs for a fish conservation area and that the restaurant required 24 hours notice to lay on the perch banquet I thought it probably best to avoid. 

Stripe-thoated Bulbul, Pyconotus finlaysoni
Taman Negarra National Park, Peninsula Malaysia
9 June 2016

346 : Black-and-Red Broadbill

Black-and-Red Broadbill - Cymbirynchus macrorynchus

Another star bird from the colourful middle of the fieldguide. Again picked up on a "float down" the river. These birds build a grass-woven pear shaped nest chamber suspended and hanging down from a branch. We came across one mid-stream. Presumably a great deterrent to snakes and other nest predators. I did not manage to get a decent picture of this bird so I really need a better picture another time when I journey back to South-East Asia.

While we are on the subject of snakes we may as well get the expedition's snake encounter out of the way !

I thought from my initial research that this is a Speckled Pit Viper (Trimeresurus Wagleri). I was dismayed that I found it on a webpage entitled "The Medically Important Poisonous Snakes of Malaysia" by Professor Tan who works in the Department of Molecular Medicine in the Medical Faculty of the University of Malaya. On this occasion though it was a frog and not me. I know nothing about snakes but Matte was having none of it and retreated off the boardwalk. He told me it was venomous.  It didn't take the fellow long to make short work of this quite large frog. Professor Tan seems to think its bite would cause pain and local swelling. Its not a Pit Viper though as the Vipers have a very triangular head - so what is it ? I have been through upwards of 50 snake families to find the answer ! Its a Common Bronze Back Tree Snake (Dendrelaphis tristis) - not venomous at all and from what I have now read it can just give you a little nip ! I guess we imagine the worst when we see a snake.

I estimate the snake was perhaps 4-5 foot long but probably no more than the size of an ordinary domestic water pipe - if that - perhaps no thicker than a thin branch or your thumb in places.

So Matte needn't have retreated 10 m up a slope - he was probably more likely to step on something else up there !

There is an awful lot of tail going on with this snake.

The colours were beautiful - thankfully with a 400 mm lens I did not have to get too close. At the time given Matte's reaction I though it was the sort of snake that would spoil your holiday pretty quickly.

The thing was beautiful though and when it decided it was time to go it was off - at time a full foot of its body up off the ground weaving around to find a way up off the boardwalk.

Matte honestly was a woose with this fellow which made me feel a lot better. Tramping around in the jungle in the dark though to get into position to try for a Pitta ? It makes you think twice. I certainly came away with a bit of reticence about the jungle. This guy didn't seem phased by us at all. I guess he was busy though ! In retrospect I will take a couple of lessons the next time I go somewhere as to which snakes are going to cause you a problem.

Black-And-Red Broadbill, Cymbirynchus macrorynchus
Taman Negara National Park, Peninsula Malaysia
June 2016

345 : Whiskered Treeswift

Whiskered Treeswift - Hemiprocne comata

Treeswifts are like an ocean going ships at anchor. Unlike their cousins the true Swifts who spend the vast majority of their life on the wing - true Swifts mate, eat and even sleep on the wing - Treeswifts are the angels who have come down to earth. Each Treeswift adopts the crown of a tree as its home and sets up territory to capture whatever bugs and insects stray into the adjoining airspace. I watched one species of Treeswift in Sri Lanka fly in swooping rings around each of their home trees in the gardens of a great palace. This Treeswift was neatly placed in its tree next to a main road. Matte pointed it out for me on a driving trip out of the national park to try and pick up some different birds. This is a long range shot with a 400 m lens so you will have to excuse the clarity. The head markings are pretty unmistakeable even at this range.

Whiskered Treeswift, Hemiorocne comata
Just outside Taman Negarra National Park
June 4-6 2017

344 : Blue-Throated Bee-Eater

Blue-Throated Bee-Eater - Merops viridis

I am enjoying tapping up my birds again on this site after a long break. I have a big backlog of beautiful birds to capture. To stick into my online book like so many living stamps. It has been so long since I went to Malaysia (almost a year) that I had forgotten that as well notching up a couple of Hornbill species I added to my stunning collection of Bee-Eaters. Bee-Eaters have a very special place in the Daily Bird as the journey began with a Chestnut Headed Bee-Eater - bird number 1 in 2011 ! These have to be a favorite with all birders. If you are a British birder you are unlikely to see one until you venture over onto the continent where you will bump into our European Bee-Eater. If you make it on safari then a world of African Bee-Eaters opens up - to date I have managed to capture these charming Little Bee-Eaters. Or if you are dyslexic and live in the Gulf like me you can delight in these Little Green Bea-Eaters. My spelling is nothing if not atrocious. In November I am taking Jane to Zambia on a short safari. I know the camp we have chosen is close to a colony of Carmine Bee-Eaters. When I get a photo of one of those I will probably just collapse. They cannot be real but then again before I saw my first Bee-Eater in Italy on honeymoon I wasn't prepared for just how beautiful individual birds could be.

I was watching the BBC's Mexico series tonight and it looks like we will have to go to the Yucatan peninsula to see something called an Azure-browed Motmot. They nest inside collapsed limestone lakes and display with beautiful long pennant feathers. Their heads are crowned with iridescent aqua feathers set off with chocolate brown coloring. Not unlike our friend above. Mexico - I didn't know they had Howler Monkeys, Jaguars, Bears and Motmots - good old BBC.

Back to Bee-eaters. What is clear is that this whole family of Old World birds is a stunning jewelry box full of very special creatures. Treasure birds. When you are heading off somewhere new there is always the excitement of buying a new book - say Birds of South-East Asia or Birds of Southern Africa. for some taxanomic reason around the middle of each book there will be a collection of 4 or 5 plates gathered on which are all the Trogons, Parrots, Green Pigeons and Bee-Eaters. There is some science in the order of bird books which I cannot recall but it does seem as if all of the most special looking birds crowd together on just 4 or 5 pages somewhere near the middle - or perhaps its something to do with printing ?  So all of my bird books start with white, brown, grey, more brown, fawn, tawny, black birds and then oh wow ! - as if a bunch of primary school children with a new set of felt tip pens has been let loose the plate for the Bee-Eaters is dropped in to brighten up a rainy morning at school ... or a dark evening dreaming about a birding journey. No birder can ever tire of a Bee-Eater.

So this fellow was a compassionate gift from the National Park after I had managed to stumble my way through dense rainforest for 4 hours without getting a decent shot of anything. I did see elephant dung which was exciting but very old - but great to know that the pygmy elephants were there.

The forest knew that I had earned something decent other than my lunch and as we rounded a corner of the river both Matte and I started beaming and the instructions were given to cut the engine. All was quiet and we drifted past the perch and I started snapping away - with far more success than I had mustered during the rest of the morning. The sun was in the right place - I got a catch-light in the bird's eye. The bird was doing something interesting. It had caught a Bee and was rubbing out the sting on its perch. We drifted past - and then reversed back and I was able to check the shots and take another pass before the bird flew off. I have a bad habit of watching a bird fly away to see where it goes rather than trying for flight shots so most of my pictures are on perches !

All was now very good with the world and with me. The rainforest and the river with its towering trees was now a friend.

I cannot remember the name of this individual tree species but some were in flower and tiny petals would float down carpeting the trails and water. They must have been 60 m tall some of them. They reminded me of the trees in Loth Lorien. Shining white bark and these huge sprays of hundreds of thousands of tiny flowers.

I also knew I had a cracking guide who by the end of my short stay would turn out to be one of those guys who gives so much in 3 days that you are just sad to say goodbye. This guy loved the Park and knew every tree, bird, mammal and reptile.  He had seen a tiger once swimming across a small tributary when out in a boat with his father. Once in a lifetime - and he lives on the edge of the park. There are perhaps 10 tigers left in the forest today. He was also active with local conservation - if only more people in Asia could be in love with the forest and its birds. He also had much keener eyes than me, a smart phone with tape lures (recorded song) for every species we wanted to see (although none seemed to work for us when we tried - wrong season) and a good sense of humor. I asked him what were likely to see one day and replied "with some luck not too many Homo sapiens".

I think this is his best smile for the paying birder look. He hated snakes and thats a good story for another blog. I look forward to telling that one. I was better with the snake.

So by lunchtime on the first day I had decided that walking was bad and that boats were good. We took to Matte's car one afternoon for a bit a road trip out of the National Park which is another heart-breaking story. I'll leave it there for now with the Blue Throated Bee-Eater. Thats 5 species out of the 25 or so species worldwide so in Bee-Eater terms I am 20 % of the way there.  In general terms I am just scraping 3 % of the worlds birds logged on this site. Who is in any rush though. I didn't know until this evening what a Motmot looked like and I haven't had time to check the spelling yet.

Blue-Throated Bee-Eater, Merops viridis
Taman Negarra National Park, Peninsula Malaysia
4-6 June 2016

343 : Rhinoceros Hornbill

Rhinoceros Hornbill - Buceros rhinoceros

Big birds need big trees and often very big nesting holes which is why you won't find a bird like this in a local park. These birds require "extensive areas of primary green rainforest".  Weighing in at up to 3 kg for a female with a body length of 90 cm this has to rank as one of the most fabulous birds I have ever seen. My unicorn from the trip. "Trip" seems a bit of a weak word. This was a journey. We will leave the trips for the seaside.

So I spent an hour or so after dinner sitting and chatting with my guide, Matte. The plan for the next day was to meet at 7 am and to take a short boat trip up river to be dropped at the head of a jungle trail. The plan was then to spend 3 or 4 hours in the forest and to get "tuned" in and see what was about. Go on foot, carry my kit in and set up and get some first bird shots. I couldn't wait. Overexcited I had a Moth "Partee" - more on Moth "Partees" in another post. Nightime madness.

It was humid, foggy, and worse still I was having real issues with my camera - I began worrying that the the camera body had somehow become filled with condensation. There was a slight blur on the edge of everything. I discovered later after switching camera bodies that I had knocked a focus button. The numbers of times I have got into situations in the "bush" and then faced some technical issue. Buttons knocked, cards dropped, batteries flat. I was also packing some extra equipment - a directed flash and had been fussing about that half the night ! Everything I have read had taught me that taking shots in the rainforest was more like taking a picture of your dog in your kitchen at 5 am. with the roller blind closed. Flashes use a lot of battery power - the camera kit had expanded to industrial quantities of rechargeable, rechargers etc. It is now taking an hour to pack and checklist to pop out for a little "trip".

So on the boat chugged with me fussing over buttons and wiping lenses and generally getting worked up about seeing a Pitta and not being able to get the shot. I needn't have worried on the pitta front. They don't exist for me.

We were dropped on the banks of the river and then climbed up some dodgy log steps to enter into the forest- we soon swallowed up by the canopy and I can only describe it as another world. Towering trees, a path about a meter wide, wet, soil consisting of rotten leaves, thick steaming air and bouncing around at indiscriminate distances, heights, ranges and levels of clarity the birds. `You could not see horizontally more than say 3-5 yards at times due to the dense foliage. It was gloomy, it was hot - but it was a cacophony at birds at times. Other times eerily silent. Western man cannot survive in the rainforest. It is designed to wipe him out... for me in one morning. 

We trudged around that jungle trail for a long morning. I climbed over tree buttresses, got caught on spiky rattan, sweated, cursed fiddled and faffed with my camera. Strained my eyes into the gloom - what was better ? My steamed up glasses or my short sighted naked eyes. I discovered the joys of spiced coconut oil as an insect repellant and coolant. I missed seeing the deer that Matte spotted. I caught sight of the odd bird like shape but pretty much that was it. I learned a lot though - about my complete unfitness for trekking in the rainforest. My shirt was utterly drenched, underwear a giant sponge, the seat of my trousers covered in mud and sweat from slipping. My monopod started to bite into my shoulder. I could not to seem to find my footing, any technique of comfort for walking or carrying my gear - I couldn't find even a rhythm for breathing let alone operate my camera. "Working" in the rainforest with just a simple rig and lenses, flash and so on - nearly impossible. I had absolutely bitten off more than I could chew. I applied my common sense, brute strength, what was left of my intelligence, reason, even tried to charm and talk to the jungle - it was having none of it. It just beat me and my kit into submission. 

The fact that Matte was hacking at times let me know that we were on a little trodden path. It was a good trail apparently for birds as since a cave had closed due to a ceiling collapse earlier in the year there was no point to it for the ordinary trekker.

In 4 hours the net result of my labors that isn't blurred, rubbish and actually contains something that is discernible as a bird is below - I haven't even dared to try to identify this yet - almost a year later. In case I cannot and the net result of that 4 hours of pain, sweat and oh so English reassurances to Matte that "I'm fine, just a minute and then I will catch my breadth" was a blank. It wasn't in the end - we had a great little trip back on the boat that turned up a gem.

The net result of the 4 hour schlep was that  I saw 1 bird properly in 4 hours on foot followed by 10 minutes on a boat back (they call them in by mobile phone) where I then saw perhaps 30 birds. It was clear that a change of tactics was required. I decided that I wasn't cut out for the deep jungle and that I would literally kit myself up with a whole boat crew and cruise up and down the tributaries doing what Matte called "float downs" and using the boat as a photographic hide.

Before you lose faith in me it had been explained that I was in advance of the fig fruiting season so finding birds and getting decent shots in the jungle itself would prove pretty tough. There were plenty of easier trails to walk around closer to the camp and for the deeper jungle I could use the rivers and just focus on the photography rather than hauling myself through the bush. It turned out to be a good decision. Life changed after lunch ! A lovely lunch I might add as I became aware of the various boil like bites I had picked up that morning.

I would be giving up on the chance of seeing birds like e.g. Great Argus and Gurneys Pitta but I had heard the former a long way off and could not imagine how you would get to a Pitta even if it was just 30 yards off the trail ? I have read a book the Jewel Hunter on Pittas also by Chris Goodie which had been my inspiration for visiting Taman and he would merrily speak about "going in". Going off the trail and then just setting up in a bush surrounded by snakes and creepy crawlies and staking out calling birds. No way ! Not yet - not without a lot more rainforest birding under my belt. I was going to throw an engine and a whole dug out log at the issue - chuck cash at the problem as I always do. I was crewing up.

So in the afternoon after a delicious lunch (food I think another time) we started our new tactic of "drifting down".

The technique was to cruise up a tributary to the main river and then turn the boat around and turn its engine off and literally just drift down. It is the most peaceful and fantastic way to see the rainforest. "Margins" of habitat are always good places for birds. They provide a road for easy flight, opportunities to project song and for feeding - and you just see more. The bulk of my rainforest birds resulted from "drifting". I got some superb shots that will form the backbone of my posts from Taman Negarra. I felt like a fraud at first but then I thought "No" - actually you tried it - the jungle schlepping with all the kit and it didn't work. You can soldier on or you can change tactic and get what you came for - not heat exhaustion and a broken limb when you fall down a slope but photos for the task. The other point I failed to mention is that the jungle is hilly ! Plus I was kitted out in leech socks and it was permanently wet. I fear leeches - I had been lucky so far. My fear of the jungle overtook over lunch. It was time for a nice comfy boat with a crew of 3 and a supply of biscuits and cool drinks. Thats more like it.

So off we drifted - I will show some more shots of the river scenery in a different post. Lets focus on the prizes.

My middle aged wisdom soon paid off. A pair of calling Rhinoceros Hornbills. This is the female.

Soon joined by the male. You can see the greater recurve on the casque above the bill - nobody knows what the casque is for. The orange and red color is from a preen gland - it must be the result of mutual preening - the birds rubbing each others bills - let me help you with your rouge.

Finally I got a shot of them together. Absolutely stunning.

I have written about hornbills in my past postings, how they raise their young, habitat needs, and so on. If you want to dive into the world of hornbills and marvel at some diversity the original Daily Bird pre-techno crash has some good postings on the Malabar Pied  , Indian Grey, Southern Ground, Von Der Decken's, African Grey , Red-billed , and Crowned. This is the thing I love most about the Task. Three continents and five different journeys to capture photographs of 8 Hornbill Species. There are 62 species of Bucerotidae. I have a hornbill collection in my heart which stretches from Ruaha across the Serengetti the Western Ghat mountains in India and down through Sri Lanka and then out and across the ocean to Peninsula Malaysia. All mine.

This is is the first time I have really seen a pair together and certainly the longest I have travelled on my own to get a shot. I can still remember the elation - I have a short film which I will need to edit down in order to post up. Love these shots. A top moment.

Rhinoceros Hornbill, Buceros rhinoceros
Taman Negara National Park, Peninsula Malaysia
June 2016

342 : Horsefield's Frogmouth

Horsefield's Frogmouth - Batrachostomus javensis

In 2016 I took a trip to the Taman Negarra National Park in Peninsula Malaysia. Just me and a bag full of camera equipment for 5 days. I had been flirting with the idea of getting myself into the rain forest proper for several years - gifts of leech socks, shelves of books on Asian birds. At the end of the last financial year at work I just booked an economy flight to Kuala Lumpa and then threw some air miles at an upgrade. Escape. I was dreaming of hardship and machetes - but opted for a nice towel every evening and a spicy peanut sauce - Malaysia.

The travel was fairly straightfoward but long and tiring - 7 hours business class to Kuala Lumpa on an Emirates 777 from Dubai with a fine selection of food and wines ! After customs and being reunited with my ton of camera gear I made my way to the public taxi booking kiosks. The details of how to do this were all online but it was still still a leap of faith. I paid about $US 100 for a 5 hour taxi ride to the river ferry crossing at Taman Negarra - you buy the ticket from the kiosk and then just head out to the line. I selected a slightly better car than the base model. Who is going to take this trip I thought ? It was like rocking up at Gatwick at 10 and asking to be taken to Durham by a bloke who lived in Croydon.  They have to take you apparently - my town was the last on the list - the end of the line and an afterthought. I was already feeling sorry for the guy. He is going to have to be one of life's givers !

The poor guy who drew the short straw for the trip told me that he had never been that far "up country" on a job. He had a tattered map out. On my phone a pin was stuck in a big blank area - white. He had to phone his wife to say that he could be quite late home. The conversation took some time - I guess his dinner was getting put in the microwave that night.  I guess for him it was 5 hours there and then 5 hours back - more than a normal day's work and it was already 10 am. To get some efficiency from my 3 days off I'd decided to fly overnight straight from work. Today was get there and get orientated day.

We planned for a stop on the way for lunch about halfway and then on the edge of Kuala Lumpa on some sort of ring road we also made a further stop to stock up on water, drinks, biscuits and so on.  The other option was to pay the hotel exorbitant amounts for a transfer shared with other people in a min van departing from some hotel in central Kuala Lumpa. I'd missed that anyway and also I am a touch averse to other travellers. This was the better way but a complete leap of faith. Having done a few odd trips now to the odd corners of places where the birds lurk I have started to realize that the best communication is a pocket full of dollars and a smile. It will get you to most places and most of these guys just want to earn an honest living. I did feel sorry for him though and I made it clear early on that the tip would be a good one. In contemplation of the rewards of heaven my guy then decided to give me a full 5 hour description of our route, Malaysian politics, food and culture. He was a bit of a star - a nice bloke like me - I had lucked out.

My taxi guy also turned out to have a real penchant for listening to cool music to keep his paying customers happy -  he had built up a mighty collection of CD's to entertain his customers. His two western CD's consisted of  Leo Sayers greatest hits (I kid you not - I still have the music burned on my brain) and a compilation of further 70's smash hits including Carly Simon and David Essex - just "Another Winter's Tale" you know (except it was 85 degrees Fahrenheit and the rain was starting) just one more love that failed. Oh David please stop. Carly had been to Paradise but she'd never been to me. Shed had lunch with sultans and all sorts. God knows where we were headed. Would Carly Simon be there ? Each CD lasted about 40 minutes so I guess we went through Leo 3 times and the other one a good 4 times - I did try the local music but I wasn't owning it. I begged him to put "I Won't Let the Show Go On" for a fourth time. That natty little bit at the end is fun. I remember Leo from the age of about 5 on Top of the Pops - number one for my whole childhood it seemed like. It was a very long long way, slow like my Leo childhood but made more wistful and romantic by his rendition of "Babe I'm Leaving" - yes indeed leaving my senses somewhere along that road. My Heart was in your hands - I checked my watch at one point to note that I had been traveling for 1 hour and 7 minutes. I promised myself not to look again until after our lunch stop. We started on the motorways and then like a journey into the circulatory system of your body we set off down smaller and smaller ways until finally we were on a single lane of pock-marked rutted capillary road flanked on each side by oil palm (unfortunately) and a few pockets of hopeful trees. On occasion tarmac gave way altogether. Then a disaster. Mordor in Malaysia (and that's a straight theft from the De Caprio film I know).

We came into a clear fell - an area several kilometers wide which was just heartbreaking. Like a Surrey heathland but scattered with bulldozers, stumps of trees, hardly a man in sight. That red and white tape stuff fluttering in the wind.  Just the wreckage of our Tesco's shop. Yes our Tesco shop. Pristine rainforest torn down to make way for the crap that lubricates our cakes and biscuits. Palm oil. Rows and rows of the trees on occasion on the way - a sterile monoculture replacing pristine rain forest. I will set aside some time for a rant against oil palm in a future post. Palm oil is now banned from out house. Lays crisps are gone. No Doritos for the boys.

And then rising up from this bleak common and blocking the blue sky and making its own weather - there she was. Not Carly, but a sheer wall of huge 40-50 m tall trees. Just the other side of a slow lazy, muddy river edged with shanty town - the deadly Eden - the Jungle. Leo sounded apprehensive and did his natty little dooby doo bit again - eyes agog in clown paint.  The border town with the wilderness was all a hum of petrol driven generators, stray dogs and children playing on motorbikes. One child pulled a wheely and then drove into a ditch ! We drove on and I wondered whether we should have stopped. Not poor or rich this place - a town of hawkers - a town built around the gateway to the national park - park ? That's a not park ! That's not man made at all - its just not been unmade. There are elephants and tigers and clouded leopards in there. Great big striped tapirs rooting out roots with enlarged tusker teeth ! That's God's own menagerie in there. A great mess of ants, sweat, mahogany and birds - millions of them, bright, dull, brown, shiny, metallic, loud, skulking squawking and rare - loads of really rare birds. Why - well I'd just driven through it - the nothing. This is now the last parcel of pristine rain forest in peninsula Malaysia. About the size of, say, Essex - a last block of trees - a wild zoo hanging on by its fingernails. The edge burning and taped off by men in hard hats. It needs visiting often but it isn't as flashy as Borneo or Saba. So its not on the beaten track unless you want to find it.

Taman Negarra is accessed via this small riverside shanty town. On the river there a number of floating restaurants and then it is a short ferry trip across to the gateway to the National Park - Loth Lorien  itself and also a handy "luxury" jungle lodge that I had booked myself into for the princely sum of about $US 100 a night. The Mutiara - it was that or some cheap hotels and hostels and a trip back across the river every night. My back packing days are well and truly behind me now. Cash gets thrown at any issue. I opted for the highest end I could. As far away from the tattooed students with man buns as I could. Be gone, humanities students  and sports scientists - large old lawyer with a few grand of camera kit coming through. I had been quoted a fairly chunky sum from Imagine Asia to put together a simple itinerary to Taman so I was quite proud of myself for wending my own way and ending up very comfortably situated in my own Swiss hut in the rainforest. I think I pieced together the trip for a bit over £1,000 which I am quite pleased with - not that the money is the issue. For me it's comfort and not getting ill or lost - and avoiding faux Maori tattoos and bragging about how to live on two dollars a day. That's not the point, Tarquin - spend as much as you can  - buy buy buy - thats the way to keep the blinking rain forest standing up. It has to be worth more than the ingredients for a digestive. You are not helping by living on 2 dollars a day - you spend more in term time on a sandwich.

I was now my own little Stanley. Air conditioned and serenaded by easy listening music, but adventuresome nonetheless.

Above - the end of civilisation on the banks of the river

I think it was a dollar to cross on the little boats. I had a real job getting my heavy kit down to the water's edge and then onto the small ferry boat. Almost didn't happen, but I found reserves of strength as I thought about a Tiger beer and a green curry. Wheres a batman when you need one ? Two camera bodies, all my lenses, a flash (more anon), monopod, mini tripod, chargers, bins, lightweight spotting scope, books, laptops and half of boots the chemists ... It was an expeditionary type haul of kit ! They might not have Molton Brown ! Next time I do need a sherpa. I tottered onto that boat and I swear it listed like the Bismarck in Montevideo harbor. The captain looked horrified and made me sit opposite my bag - the boat settled back down into the tea stained water. And off we pottered. At the other side there was a thing like a mine cart - they had an electric winch to get my bag up the stairs to the little resort set on the bluff of the river bank.

I wasn't exactly slumming it ! I have to admit - Somebody realized I was coming and built a resort for me.

Welcomed with a cold towel and a juicy drink and broad smiles I was home. And this was my little air conditioned cabin - complete with a terrace with river views, resident wild boar and macaques and a separate sitting room and bedroom. Hardship posting again Neil. I had to work while I was away for a couple of hours a day so I needed something a bit more solid than a hostel etc. Plus - I don't do hostels full of people from the University of Weston Super-Mare. So it was pretty much a full days travel to get myself installed on the edge of pristine rain forest with half a ton of camera equipment and my humour and health were intact.

I did start to feel a little odd - I always go birding and then wonder what an earth I am doing. There is no hiding from it when you get there  - I have opted to travel on my own to a rain forest with the intention of getting some pictures of birds. I will be honest - I always wonder what the hell I am doing. Wouldn't it be better to fly to say New York and go for lunch or wing it over to Paris to wander around a gallery. I do that with the family anyway. So this is me apparently - finding myself - a swiss hut in a rainforest with a daily turn down service. To my horror I realized that Tarquin and Bunty had to walk past my front porch to get to the edge of one of the forest trails every day. Off they would trot and back they would come after about 25 minutes - yeah it's a bit hot and muddy in there isn't it, and your man bun and girlfriend are both having bad hair days now. That tie dye has sweat patches on it and bright yellow sports wear mate is not good for seeing anything you Charlie. You need to look like a wise colonel in 'Nam like me. Blend in like a silky ranger. They do insist on going for their walk at 11.30 am these types as well ! That's lunch and siesta time for both me and the rain forest ! All is very quiet. I digress - it just beggars belief that all these idiots had travelled to see the rain forest but could not get out of bed at 6 am when the action is. They seriously went to a board walk thing and did a 1 km loop for 10 minutes at lunchtime - saw nothing and then went to look at the T-shirts in the gift shop but wouldn't buy one because why would you want to give money to the national parks service of Malaysia - its a rip off. Oh well - whole place to myself every morning then while they are sleeping off their night of Cat Stevens, arak and rice and vegetables.

So it's just me - and when the door shuts the equipment bursts out all over the room and I get the funny sense that I really am some sort of intrepid explorer. People ask me - really - what you go on your own ? Yes and I am my own worse company - terrible company -  I get bored very easily and homesick in a day and I hate not being busy unless I have a beer in my hand and someone to talk to - In short I find it hard to relax and wonder why I am there and not at work or in Spinneys buying the ingredients for a cheesecake. I force myself to bird the first day or two - by day two I am tuned in and you start to see stuff. Marvel at things again while Tarquin stomps past going for a land speed record. Honestly I watched a couple of back packers go striding past me one day while I was watching a land monitor digging out a meal. Its only a 1.5 m lizard after all. I can't stand people who don't see anything - they don't even bother looking. They don't stop still or listen - its hard work seeing stuff. You have to look properly. I have no idea why some of the people were there - "Trekking" in the rain forest. They would only stop to take a picture next to the biggest tree buttress 10 m from the park sign. Round the board walk loop at lunchtime and back to the hostel. Morons.

Birding is not exactly relaxing - it's more of a struggle. The relaxing bit is sifting through the photos at the end of a long day or making a ritual of a meal on your own with a tick list. I never quite know who I am when I am away on my own birding - it happens only a couple of times a year. It is like meeting up with an old but very very geeky awkward friend called Kevin. I feel a bit silly in all honesty ! I am Kevin. Do grown men do this ? Well they should I think and I should more often. All that finding yourself nonsense you ask ? Its more forgetting yourself and mostly just being somewhere ridiculously different. Then after the realization that you are on the edge of some wilderness potentially teeming with birds comes the panic - what if I can't find them ! I have to promise myself very clearly that I am there for quality photographs - 30 would not be a failure - that the Task is not one that can ever be won and that I can always come back - perhaps with one of the boys or Jane another time.

Was it worth it ? Yes. Even if I had seen just one this one bird it was worth it - and it wasn't in the forest at all.

My first bird courtesy of a tip touting member of the hotel staff was this wonderful Blyth's Frogmouth (SSP affinus). I was led to it and some graceful Malaysian mid-management hands gestured to the tree tops. Look - "Fwargmowff" - a what ? "Fwargggmowff". It takes me a while to find the thing - Oh my f*cking god a Frogmouth - I had joked I might see one - this guy has ordered me one and served her up as a little spicy hors d'oeuvres for midday. Just in time for lunch - yummy.

The bird was sitting on a small nest glued to a branch overhanging the steps up from the river ferry and as I learn later was looking after a chick. Smack bang at the entrance to the hotel without a care in the world. Snoozing in the humidity like me after a large plate of spicy food and a cold beer. Nasi Frogmouth.

This is not a family of birds I know at all. This is my first Frogmouth. A real Asian birder's bird. Somehow a cross between a kingfisher and an owl ? They look animatronic. A ridiculous creation - more muppet than bird. They inhabit the night - indeed have a wide mouth like a frog and crunch up anything that crawls or wriggles. They are the most bizarre looking birds I have ever seen. Jeepers they must frighten you if they get stuck in your torch beam.

I spent a fair few hours over the course of a couple of days wrestling for the best shots I could. There were plenty of non-birders staying in the hotel who strained to try and see what I was looking at.  You could look away for a few seconds and then have difficulty yourself finding the bird again. But it was worth it. There is nothing like a proud parent - of a very ugly chick ! Is the bird ugly ? Its no Demoiselle Crane is it ! I should have charged for views through my lens in the end. Birders would ask politely for a look and dance jigs. Look there's a chick I would say. Broad smiles - birders are cool. Kevin is cool.  Every day I would set up and just watch for an hour.

So I was all set up for a special few days. It doesn't get much better than this ? A cracking bird and the rain forest waiting. I was a little apprehensive so it was clear that I needed to unpack some more and find the restaurant and study the menu properly - no point in dashing off into the jungle and getting all steamed up. Slowly slowly catchee monkey. It can all wait. Lunch is important when you are exploring the rain forest. Plus I hadn't hooked up with my guide yet. He would turn out to be as special as the place itself. You can't fake loving birds - this guy adored his birds and the forest. I had him booked for 2 days with a little meet up that first evening to discuss a plan of attack over a beer. Time to get my hat and leech socks out.

Horsefield's Frogmouth, Batrachostomus javenis
Mutiara Resort, Taman Negarra National Park, Malaysia
June 6 2017

341 : Seychelles Kestrel

Seychelles Kestrel - Falco araea

I have to say I am doomed to fail in the quest of the Daily Bird because I am just not ruthless enough when it comes to tracking down endemics and rooting out every last tick that an island or country has to offer. I do my best - in India I spent a long weekend tearing around getting dozens of photos, Tanzania the same on safari twice. I will need to go back to all of the Indian Ocean islands I have visited  because there are endemics that exist on single islands and I am never really willing to sacrifice a day to or two of family holiday time to chase after these - Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher will fall into that camp. I was not willing to get up at 5 am - get a ferry or plane to another island and then chase a single bird (well a few hundred of them) around a plantation until I got a half decent picture - returning just in time for supper. That's why I will never make it into the big thousands on this site. I am not driven enough for every last species when on a family holiday.

I have to say I prefer it when the birds come to me and I happen to be a in a good mood and have my camera handy. This small Seychelles Kestrel is restricted to a handful of the inner granitic islands and nowhere else. Who knows when the first pair of Kestrels bred in the Seychelles - windblown from a mainland or perhaps Mauritius or Madagascar further South. Natural Selection then kicked in with smaller birds getting an advantage and over time a whole new small species of mini Kestrel was created. These Kestrels do not hover like the kestrels back home but perch and dive on their prey a bit like the small pygmy falcons (click on the link to the old Daily Bird for some African Pygmy Falcon action in Ruaha National Park) and Falconettes we have seen on our travels elsewhere.

So these birds have a diet of lizards rather than small voles and mice as they do in the UK. They have filled the niche filled by Merlins, Falconettes and Pygmy Falcons or Shrikes elsewhere.

There are only 420 pairs of these birds in existence - imagine that. The representatives of this species do not even number 1000 individuals. These are the only kestrels on the Seychelles. The number is limited by the size of the islands themselves ! They have evolved into a cul-de-sac and will remain a backdrop to luxury island holidays.

So this picture was taken from the villa - you can see why I am going back at some point ! Not for the flycatcher. I am ruthless about my family holidays - if not the birds.

We met a guy while on safari several years ago and his kids were in their teens while ours were at that time perhaps 6 and 9. He made it quite clear that family holidays and the opportunity to have them are finite and as such they are an investment for all time. He asked me what the big memories were of childhood and yes - holidays were a big part of them. 

I have been since that conversation an absolute profligate purchaser of the best holidays I can. Yes I save but nowhere near as much as I could if I  didn't do the big holidays and set a budget. So you make your choices and I'd rather spend a bit (a lot) more now and have a bit (probably a lot) less in retirement. It will come out in the wash but we are coming this way once and the kids will grow up. In the meantime a Seychelles kestrel is a nice by-product. as it perched on  tree next to my garden every day. 

The holiday advice guy was also the bloke who I asked why he was in the Serengeti ? Did he like animals and safari ? Was Africa his thing ? "No" - he said - "We are just here for the violence" - and sure enough every day he and his teenage family and wife drove off in pursuit of a river crossing to watch the wildebeest herd getting slaughtered by crocodiles. Still he was there in the Serengeti with his teenage family suffering the burn rate of a high end tented camp during the migration season next to the Grumetti river. Those kids will remember that holiday. I am sure it was all tongue in cheek. Looking back at my holiday photos it is absolutely staggering how the boys have grown in 7 years. We have been to Tanzania twice, Sri Lanka, Canada, Seychelles and Mauritius in the last few years in terms of "outdoor" type holidays - Oh and the Lake District which is now an exotic destination for us.

If you are birder just use the family holiday as an excuse to go to some glorious places for birding - if they are good for birds they is bound to be some form of high end resort, lodge, or caper going on.  Get out there and take the family.

This year its the East Coats of the States - birding in Central Park and I am sure we are going to get a country property in Vermont - time for the Sibley. Jane and I are going back on Safari to Zambia in the Autumn - but the two of us as the kids are both boarding from September (one has flown the nest for school already). I can feel the urge to accelerate the family holidays in terms of the number and destinations. There is also the chance of odd long weekends and weeks away with Jane during term time and places like Nepal, Butan and Northern India appeal - Burma ?

Well as I ahem always said there are too many birds and too little time but isn't just the birds. That rock in the picture was where I would stake out seabirds with my big lens - but in view was usually the boys wrestling or making a decent noise on a beautiful beach as the sun went down.

We don't get these times again. So lets make the most. It started with me Islay when then were tiny - I'd make a sandcastle but have one eye on an Artic Tern or a Seal. Nothing changes.

Seychelles Kestrel, Falco area
Make, Seychelles
August 2016

340 : Lesser Noddy

Lesser Noddy - Anous tenuirostris

This is a real Indian Ocean specialist with a population of 1,200,000 birds scattered around the coats and islands. This picture was taken on a boating day trip around Mahe in the Seychelles while on holiday. We hired a motor yacht and headed out for a spot of site seeing one day. We made it right around the top of the coast to opposite Victoria the capital.

I am calling these as Lesser and not Brown Noddy's due to the extent of the ashy head - on a Brown Noddy apparently the paler crown ends at the nape whereas these seem to have a much broader covering. The bill is also quite fine. What we need is a Brown and Lesser Noddy next to each other but I am sure I have got this right.

There are huge colonies of these birds numbering in the tens of thousands scattered around the islands so it was no surprise to find quite large fishing parties of these birds. I love a spot of fishing myself and the technique that seemed to work best on the trip I did another day was to drive through the birds while trawling in order to pick up the Tuna ! The tuna obviously drive the smaller fish to the surface so fishing birds are a great indication of tuna further down.

Something feeds on everything - and where there are tuna there are dolphins.

Another one of life's rules is that it is always a good day if you see dolphins. This proved to be right. 

Soon after this pod went under the fun started ! Tuna literally jumping clear of the water to escape. 

Please don't get me onto Dolphin captures for water parks in Japan. It just hurts too much. I won't ever visit a dolphinarium in the future and I hope that you will take that pledge. If you don't understand why then take look at the pages of the various groups that publicise how these beautiful animals are caught for the trade and the butchering that goes along with it of the adult dolphins. It will break your heart.

I have to say though that the below is perfectly permissible and in fact to be encouraged - line caught tuna !

The above is a Bonito - my youngest Sam reeled in the mighty yellow-fin !

Very excited - and now you see why ! That means lunch will be something special.

I have never done this before butstraight after landing the catch I marched into the beachside restaurant and negotiated with the chef. Lunch was a bottle of beautiful South African Rose and possibly the most stunning pairing of seafood dishes in a long long while. This Sashimi was to die for. Utterly fresh and melt in your mouth - this was the yellowfin with a stinging wasabi paste and rich soy.

And this was I think the Bonito or part of it just served as simple grilled steaks - perfectly pink in the middle. Lunch is always an indulgence - especially with wine - its sets you up for a very lazy afternoon ! This was my favourite lunch ever - and I *love* lunch. 

Oh yes - birds ! So Lesser Noddys - I would view them as a good opportunity to get some decent lunch if you see them in numbers fishing.  I will remember that lunch for the rest of my life. Some days are *good* and this was one of them. We always fish on holiday if we can. Sustainably. I don't buy factory caught tuna, I take a note of stocks in respect of anything I eat. We are Haddock not Cod people at home and in the Gulf we won't buy Hammour as a rule (the cod like fish) given that it is in trouble. Nothing wrong with a line caught yellow-fin in the Seychelles as long as the chef is going to treat it with respect. Less is more - in our case no cooking at all - soy and wasabi.

You get the idea - birds, fish, beaches, dolphins, sashimi, bliss.

Lesser Noddy, Anous tenuirostris
Mahe, Seychelles
July 2016