Gunung Brinchang: Part 2

Our decent of Gunung Brinchang took several hours and the walk back to the hotel was nigh on ten miles. I guess it would have been quicker for a non-birder ~ Mrs Birdingsometimes is very patient.

The final species noted from the upper slopes was little pied fycatcher - we encountered a dapper pair in a gully. The male is strikingly plumaged (like all back and white flycatchers), while the female (below) is a surprisingly grey-blue, a feature of the westermanni sub-species found in Malaysia/South Thailand

As we left the moss forest and jungle we entered tea plantation territory - fascinating landscape and a lovely aroma of fresh tea! I know a certain North East birder who would like that - a lot...!

Hard labour working the steep slopes of the tea plantation - I guess it keeps you fit.

In the tea plantation area we added a few more species - glossy swiftlet darted along the ridges, paddyfield pipit worked the tracks between the tea plants and fire-breasted flowerpecker kept to the tree tops. Mountain bulbul continued to be numerous and we bumped into another flock of mountain fulvetta.

While trying to photograph more white-throated fantail a single drab female black-throated sunbird gave close views - how I wish this could have been a bright coloured male! Nonetheless, a good photo opportunity - unlike the fantails which simply teased.

We arrived back at our hotel in the late afternoon, picking up some boiled sweetcorn cobs and fresh strawberries from hawker stands in one of the villages. Tired but satisfied.

A very high flying flock of presumed mountain imperial pigeons flew over and we picked up large billed spiderhunter during the last few hundred meters. 

We had one more day in the Highlands - this was spent on track 4, as previously posted. No photographs that day... not quick enough for the slaty-backed forktail and the blue nuthatches were seen on a shopping trip to collect provisions before our final destination: Pangkor Laut - a small island to the west of Lumat / Pangkor Island - few species but better images to follow.

High

Our destination after K.L. was the Cameron Highlands, residing at a very nice hotel 1500m above sea level - a chance to enjoy the Malaysia sunshine without the high humidity. It was odd to be so far from home and to be surrounded by colonial style buildings.

Birds were conspicious around the hotel but proved tricky to photograph. All the best viewing was done "camera-less!"

Still, it was very enjoyable as most of the birds were new to me and often attractivley plumaged. Two species predominated in the hotel vicinity, both of which are modestly presented here.

Black-throated sunbird (above) were tiny, very active and amazingly plumaged! I really wish that I'd spent some more time trying to get better images ~ however time was a premium so we had to keep moving to make the most of the stay.

Silver-eared mesia (above) were great! Roaming the scrub behind the hotel and dropping into the trees to feed these were very pleasing to view but again, frustatingly tricky to get a good pic - the group image presented here is the only image where the "whole" plumage can be see - check out the colours - lush!

After settling in to the hotel we made plans to do one of the many hill walks available in the area - more on that in the next posting...

KL>CH

A quick update for the last week.

Arrived early Tuesday morning to a very warm and humid Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after a long but reasonably comfortable flight with Malaysia Airlines. MA provided the most generous red wine serving that I've had to "force" myself to drink in recent flights - it was a good start!

Birding KL was limited to a morning in Bukit Namas (a small wooded area below the KL tower). It was  good visit with crippling views of a hunting crested goshawk - eventually it caught a rather large snake near to where we were standing!

Other birds in the urban areas included black shouldered kite, black-naped oriole, asian glossy starling and numerous common and white vented myna.

On the motorway north to the Cameron Highlands (approx 3.5 hours north of KL) we saw numerous white-throated kingfisher (all perched on telegraph wires on the roadside, quite unlike "our" kingfisher in the UK!), several small flocks of little egret and many swiftlet sp.

Our hotel in the Cameron Highlands is conveniently located near to several of the jungle trails - great birding opportunities are on offer, but it's hard work. Glossy swiftlet are bundant outside the hotel and both silver-eared mesia and black-throated sunbird feed on the slope behing our room

Our first full day saw us ascend Gunung Brinchang - a colossal 6'666 ft mountain covered in jungle, moss forest and tea plantations. Birding at the top gave us encounters with large nitava, white-throated fantail, golden-throated barbet while further down fire-breasted flowerpecker, little pied flycatcher and mountain fulvetta entertained.

Today has seen me hike "track 4", taking in Parfit waterfall and some jungle near to the hotel. The first walk through was very limited birdwise, but we saw some great plant-life as pointed out by the hotels resident guide.

Towards the end of the walk the guide made comment about the birds that he saw on the stream that looked like oriental magpie robin and suggested I took a look later in the day: I did that and was pleased to see that his odd omr's were in fact slaty-backed forktail. Result!!

Birding out here is great but hard work (especially when you are not sure of the bird calls and song...) However it is full of surprises - even this evening on our walk into the nearby town to get some bottled water - four gorgeous blue nuthatch in a roadside tree - stunning...

We move back to the coast tomorrow - hopefully I'll be able to provide an update from there too.