Back to reality

Arrived back home after a "reasonably ok" 27 hour  boat, road and air trek from Pangkor Laut - KL - Heathrow - Newcastle.  

Hornbills have now been replaced by wood pigeons...



Malaysia was great!

En-route we even managed to "tick" BBC sport pundit Alan Hanson in Heathrow...

I've had a quick review of the Malaysia images and hope to start preparing a few for the blog over the next few days. First images should be posted on Monday.

Meanwhile, work beckons.

More from the 'Laut

Lazy days continue here on Pangkor Laut.

Quiet potters about the island are still enlivened by new discoveries - granted they are insignificant, but at least it's more species for the holiday list. Recent additions include scarlet backed flowerpecker, chestnut-headed bee-eater, and more familiar to UK birders - common sandpiper!

The great hornbills have numbered 5 birds - a gang that has taken a great dislike to the fruit bats and flying foxes that roost near to the pool. Yesterday all 5 were ganging up on the bats & foxes - stalking them in the palms and unceremoniously grasping their wings with their huge beaks and yanking them off! I'm not aware if they've ever killed a fox/bat but they come awfully close judging by the squeals.

Pangkor Laut

A quick update from our current residence - Pangkor Laut, a 300 acre island on the West coast of Malaysia - a true heaven on earth. The accommodation is wonderful and the staff are very attentive. Knowing that I was a birder, they've even supplied a field guidebook this morning - albeit from 1950! (The birds of the Malay Peninsula by A.G Glenister)

It's beautiful here, though quiet bird wise.

Keeping me entertained are bold oriental pied hornbill - very tame as they get fed outside the bar! Less tame but mighty impressive are great hornbill - absolutely huge (book states a body length bill - tail of 120cm!). Amazing how they can hide themselves in the tall trees. In flight you can hear their wings - described in a book that the hotel has given me as sounding like a steam train! I'm looking forward to working on some of the hornbill photographs upon our return to the UK.

There are a minimum of 5 white-bellied sea eagle in out bay and at least 4 brahminy kite. Black-naped tern feed off-shore.

I'm still seeing new birds which is good, highlight yesterday was a male asian fairy bluebird in the dense jungle.

In the bay there are otter and monitor lizard, while very cheeky long tailed macaque monkey try their best to open the villa doors to steal fresh fruit!

No watches, no mobile phone to carrry - life is good here...

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.

Quick Post

A new month has started with a quick look at the patch, West Hartford. Not really too much to report: the water on the flash has evaporated somewhat despite the glorious August weather (see above!)...

On the flash / mud was a single curlew, one oystercatcher, a frustrated mallard, several black-headed, herring and lesser black-backed gull and a juv shelduck. Med gull could be a real possibility (there has been one here before, a few years back though) as numbers at Newbiggin have swelled significantly this last week or so.

Overhead barn swallows continue to show in good numbers and there are still plenty of wood pigeon kicking about.

~

Speaking to birdingsometimes parents earlier this afternoon revealed a possible red kite sighting over the Whitelea area of Cramlington earlier this week, mobbed by corvids - one to look out for.

~

I'll be out and about over the next few days - expect some updates...

Gateshead Egrets & Cleveland Whiskered Tern

As expected,  I pointed the car south today, picking up Mark prior to a quick stop-off at Cousin Robs' former patch to see the four little egret that had arrived earlier in the week.

Part of a mini-invasion to the region these four represent the first record for Shibton Pond and birds 2 - 5 for the Gateshead area (a colour ringed bird on the River Derwent has also been recorded recently - it was a juv from Norfolk that had been recorded at Bishop Middleham previously).

So a good start, albeit if the birds were un co-operative photograph wise, choosing to roost on the island throughout our visit. A lone barnacle goose looked thoroughly out of place with the canada goose flock.

Teesside was the next destination, and in true form I've continued my inability to photograph whiskered tern in the UK... This was my 4th encounter but my first juvenile, having seen adults at Pennington Flash (Greater Manchester), Lound (Notts) and three at Swillington Ings (Dipping collared pratincole, North Yorks).

Got out the car at the reclaimation pond, climbed the bank and promptly had the bird fly low over our heads off to to Saltholme. At Saltholme the bird was roosting distantly on the west pond, so we took opportunity for a cooked breakfast at the visitor centre.

Upon our return we discovered that the tern was back on the reclaimation pool, so that's where we headed. Good but distant views continued as the tern fed over the water (in company with a 1s little gull), and eventually the bird came in close - one unsatisfactory soft focus shot on approach (above) then I was completely unable to achieve focus lock on the camera as it drifted slowly over our heads again.... grrr!!!, much cursing followed.

The tern then settled distantly onto Dormans Pool - and with that we moved on - this was not going to be a good day for rarity images!

Saltholme was quiet - one little egret, a few black-tailed godwit,  a yellow wagatil and not much else of note. Greatham Creek was both spotted redshank and avocetless... and with that we headed back to Northumberland.

_going home time_

At 06:00 this morning my working week was complete - a catalogue of errors and challenges* (* opportunities) had been gracefully handed over to the other equally-tired-but-just-as-enthusiastic replacement shift equivalent... and I was off... for two weeks annual leave.

Prior to some disturbed recovery sleep I called at West Hartford, and was rewarded with a nice view of one of the barn owls while being serenaded by greenfinch and willow warbler. A Pheasant chuckled from within the field and a few black-headed gulls were socialising on the shallow flash - it's still looking good for waders.

Back home a relative garden rarity was encountered - two chiffchaff. You may mock, but that's a good record for the 'Sometimes garden!

So, in terms of annual leave and available birding time: the pager battery has been refreshed and a new notebook has been acquired - let's hope both are put to good use. Saturday is looking good for a trip out to the south of the region, the juv whiskered tern in Cleveland would be a bonus if it lingers (as would as visit to the cafe at Saltholme!), then after that I'll be birding sometimes elsewhere.

Common Tern

This is one of the two common tern that was fishing Arcot Pond on Saturday, inbetween having a pop at the hobby! Common tern do not breed at Arcot, but presumably commute from Big Waters.

Arcot Hobby

Here are a couple more images of the 1s hobby at Arcot Pond on Saturday 24th July. When I first arrived the hobby was perched distantly in the dead trees at the west end of the pond. The image is posted more for "bird in habitat" than that of stunning portrait!

The flight shot (below) was taken as the bird swept in low over the pool chasing insects. The hobby had just managed to shake off an angry common tern! As previously mentioned, the speed at which the hobby would hunt was staggering - this is one quick mover!

Hobby: touring the patch.

I checked out West Hartford this morning and much to my surprise one of the first birds to be picked up was the 1s hobby (11.25) - distantly feeding on insects above the River Blyth. As with the first appearance of this Cramlington mega, it did not hang round long - it sped off east along the course of the river, towards Bebside. A great start! I dispatched a text to STH, who replied pretty quickly with news of a shoveler at Arcot (Cramlingtons other well watched spot).

Not too much was going on over at the flash - the hobby sighting was complimented with a soaring buzzard and a couple of kestrel.

Checking the pager there was news that a hobby, possibly this bird, had been at nearby Wallsend Swallow Pond at 11.00.

Then the mobile rang - it was STH, with an enthusiastic "Hobbys' at Arcot!!!"... so it was back to the car and off to Arcot for me!

Sure enough the 1s hobby was still present, in fact it was showing very nicely, perched in the stand of dead trees that are in the south west corner of the pool (these trees once held a 1s osprey in the early 2000's!).

With not much further a do, it fed for the next forty minutes or so, freaking out the barn swallows and common terns on the pool, gorging on the plentiful insects. Often the hobby would soar very high then without any notice, stoop incredibly fast to the pool and zoom over the water. Needless to say it was very very tricky to photograph - the image in this post is hot off the card... I think I have a better shot or two to play with later.

As if the hobby wasn't good enough, another Cramlington scarcity appeared over the back of the pool. With the presence of hobby freash in our minds, my first call of "hobbys' back" was quickly sense checked - it was a cuckoo!... mmm, oops! To put the cuckoo sighting  in perspective, it's probably the first I've seen in the town since approx 1992!!

Also at Arcot this morning: grey heron, great spotted woodpecker, common tern, sedge warbler, buzzard, kestrel, sparrowhawk, mallard, moorhen and canada goose.

So a great morning. The hobby drifted south-east (to Holywell / Wallsend Swallow Pond?) just after 12.30. Hope we get another visit.

Barn On Brick

I've managed several late evening visits to West Hartford this week, taking advantage of the last set of lateshifts prior to our annual summer break. On most evenings there have been two barn owls hunting, often providing great viewing in the orange toned light from the setting sun.

On Friday night I had my camera gear in the boot of the car, and it was pleasing to arrive and promptly have one of the owls' already out hunting.

Frustratingly the owl was too efficinent, and very soon after checking me out from the top of the brick building that is located in the field west of the flash, the owl dropped into the grass and lifted with an unfortunate rodent.

Time was not on my side this evening, I had to leave before the owl returned (and there was a nice bottle of red waiting...). Hopfully I'll get some more owl photo opportunities this weekend.

boo, bo bo

No sign of the 1s hobby this morning at West Hartford, it had been photographed during a prolonged stay on Tuesday. The flash is filling nicely with all the recent rain though - should be good for waders! A second visit this evening was better, with two barn owl hunting.

Popped

in to West Hartford between petrol filling and work, no sign ofthe  hobby but barn owl hunting. lots of swift this morning...