| 29th May 2010, Kemensah, Selangor. |
| I’ve been hearing her calls over the last few weeks but so far she had been very reluctant to show herself. Managed this one shot, not a particularly good one of this Rufous-Fronted Babbler ( Stachyridopsis poliogaster )playing hide & seek between the bamboo leaves. This is my lifer.  A Pin-Striped Tit-Babbler on a different bamboo tree. Better shot since I wasn’t pointing against the light.  |
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| 29th May 2010, Kemensah, Selangor. |
| Day 14 ( from discovering the egg): The egg was visible today, still unhatched. The male bird was doing some maintenance to the nest by adding new saliva that holds the nesting materials together My first attempt at a video on the blog. Sorry for the quality.   Glueing fresh feathers to the edge of the nest. The chick must be coming soon!   The nest and egg clearly visible |
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| 28th May 2010, Kemensah, Selangor. |
| I’ve seen fat birders but never a fat bird and she’s a fat bird! Although I’ve shot a Grey-Breasted Spiderhunter before this is my first for Kemensah. The streaks on her breast are not that obvious, could she be a juvenile? Hmmmm…. a fat juvenile.
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| 22nd & 23rd May 2010, Bentong, Pahang. We had a family gathering at my brother-in-law’s orchard, a beautiful place on high ground with the hills of Bentong as the backdrop. I was curious as to what species of bird I would find there. Spent 2 hours on Saturday afternoon and 3 hours Sunday morning to see what I could photograph. The result was quite interesting. |
| A male Velvet-Fronted Nuthatch
A male White-Rumped Shama
Buff-Vented Bulbul
Spectacled Bulbul
Common Iora
Three Brown Barbets Blyth's Hawk Eagle
Orange-Bellied Flowerpecker (shot by Ilyas)
This place also yielded a lifer for me, a Black-Throated Babbler which was posted earlier |  A male Black & Yellow Broadbill   A family of Chestnut-Winged Babblers  Rufescent Prinia   Male & female Orange-Backed Woodpeckers  Wreathed Hornbill (shot by Ilyas)  Male Blue-Winged Leafbird (shot by Ilyas)  Either a female Brown-Throated or Red throated Sunbird (shot by Ilyas). I’m more inclined to go for the latter because of the orange tinge at the throat.  |
| 23rd May 2010, Bentong, Pahang. |
| A family gathering at my brother-in-law’s orchard was a good opportunity to look for birds. Next to the orchard was still thick jungle. I had to wait for 2 hours for this beauty as she called from the thick undergrowth, never coming out in the open. Finally she gave me two 5-second windows for these shots. An adult Black-Throated Babbler (Stachyris nigricollis) . Both male and female look similar. Status: Near Threatened. A lifer
There was a pair and I think these are photos of two different birds.
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| 22nd May 2010 (Saturday), Kemensah, Selangor. |
| DAY 7 (from discovering the egg). From what I had read the incubation period is between 18-20 days and about 30 days for the chick to fledge. Still a long way to go!
The morning downpour had left the female soaking wet. Egg still not hatched. I was concerned for the birds and the nest because we had two days of thunderstorms and strong wind. Looks like she’s OK. The male was nearby on another tree, resting and sometimes making his hunting passes for insects.
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| 16th May 2010, Kemensah, Selangor. |
| I don’t consider myself a brave guy especially when you’re outnumbered but what I saw really got my blood boiling. Poachers up to no good along the trail that I do my weekly birding! This was simply TOO MUCH. I stopped the Jeep right where they were setting the traps to question these guys and told them what they were doing was wrong. They didn’t look the violent type so I told these guys to take down their traps and go. If things turned nasty I knew that civilization wasn’t too far away.
Bird traps covered under pieces of cloth. Below: this is what they look like. They have a live bird, in this case a Hanging Parrot to lure other Parrots into the cage. This was shot as it was being lowered down from the tree. I was told by a friend who ran an orchard in Kemensah that at the peak of the fruit season (especially Rambutan) he had seen poachers hauled in about 20-30 Hanging Parrots per day.
I don’t know whether I was being brave or just plain stupid when I took my camera and tripod and started shooting amidst these guys. I knew I had to LOOK brave and after viewing ‘Pendekar Bujang Lapok’ countless number of time ( and I still laugh everytime), I knew the sort of face to put on (see below, used without consent!) Used the face on far left.
Jokes aside, I was just glad that they decided to call it quits, maybe off to another location in Kemensah! Maybe next time I shouldn’t be too ‘gung ho’ in my reaction. I also saw the movie ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ and the outcome could may well be different. |
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| 16th May 2010, Kemensah, Selangor. |
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Haha……, I know what you must be thinking. It’s Madi and his Kelantanese humour again, he’s pulling our legs! What nest, what egg? Patience and all will be revealed. OK , from a different angle. A single white egg on a tiny nest superglued to the branch of a Rambutan tree right in the middle of a vehicle trail hardly 12 feet from the ground. I don’t know how many days she’d been incubating the egg but I will be following the progress over the next few weeks.
On my way out of Kemensah I noticed that the male ( with rufous ear covert) had taken the position over the egg.
19th May 2010 Wednesday: Went into Kemensah after work to check the nest at about 5.45pm. Phew, it’s still there. The male was on duty. No sign that the egg had hatched.
Next checkup will be on Saturday |
| A female Whiskered Treeswift sitting on her nest while brooding her egg. |
| 15th May 2010, Kemensah, Selangor. |
| Difficult to get good pictures of the Bamboo Woodpeckers because they are always too far . This was only my second encounter with this species. Anyway this is a male bird ‘stripping’ the soft outer layer of the stem to get to the food.
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| 15th May 2010, Kemensah, Selangor. |
| A pair of Red-Throated Sunbirds (Anthreptes rhodolaemus) were happily getting their supply of nectar. The male is very colourful with the iridescent green and purple.
The less colourful female looking rather curious. |
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| 15th May 2010, Kemensah, Selangor. |
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Knew roughly where to go based on Mike’s description of the area. This was my first stopover, the objective being the Short-tailed Babblers. A pair was already busy foraging in the undergrowth when I entered the target zone. A lifer |
   It’s quite obvious how they got their name. |
