Saturday 14 April 2012

Return To The Hadj

If Fraser's Hill is the Mecca of Malaysian 'birding', then surely

has to be the Ka'aba. Given this was the weekend,

there were over 50 people here this morning peering through the mist but it was something of a strange set up.

As can be seen from these images the equipment isn't exactly the 'lower end' of the market but apart from my own there wasn't a pair of binoculars to be seen. It always makes log keeping a lot easier to ask the person next to you what a particular species is, but on my first 4 or 5 enquiries the answer was "no idea"! I thought this most strange given the amount of 'clicking' going on so just to test the water further I waited for the Long-tailed Sibia to arrive and asked again - same reply. Turns out all these photographers want to do is post their images on the Internet and little more - each to their own I say, but still a little odd!

COMMON GREEN MAGPIE

Having said all of that, I am happy to 'borrow' this image from the web to illustrate the bird of the day and the most spectacular on show.

This bird is high priority with most bird watchers here (and the photographers) but this morning I made the huge mistake of bringing a lone bird to the attention of others before pointing the camera. By the time I got to focus it was gone, moment lost. It also became apparent very quickly that the assembled where also reluctant to point anything out to others, so that also became my stance.

LESSER RACKET-TAILED DRONGO
ventured a little nearer today

as did SILVER-EARED MESIA and

BRONZED DRONGO. New birds included

BLUE-WINGED MINLA

VERDITA FLYCATCHER (male)

along with a most obliging female.

Time for a quick 'bloom' before adding

GOLDEN BABBLER
to the World List along with
ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHER, GREY-THROATED BABBLER (the unidentified bird of 2 days ago) CHESTNUT-CROWNED WARBLER, LITTLE CUCKOO DOVE, and BROWN-BACKED NEEDLETAIL plus both BLUE-THROATED & CHESTNUT-HEADED BEE-EATERS.

and finally, as promised a few more Insects mainly Moths:-

Privet Hawk-Moth size.

7 inches long Cicada

The End