Bangkok City Birding: 14th - 20th March: Fraser's Hill, West Malaysia

Sunday, March 28, 2010

14th - 20th March: Fraser's Hill, West Malaysia

My first vist to Fraser's Hill, with my old friend Chris Collins, provided me with a dose of reality and a fistfull if Sundaic lifers. Obviously I'd been hoping for Mountain Peacock-Pheasant, Malayan Whistling-thrush, Cutia, Rusty-naped Pitta and Marbled Wren Babbler...well we scored one-and-a-half of these, getting excellent views of Marbled Wren-babbler about 1km above The Gap, and finding a Rusty-naped Pitta on the Telekom Loop (if travelling anticlockwise around the Loop, the bird was down the slope just after the house called "Green Acre") which responded to playback on three days bet never showed itself.

Silver-eared Mesias are very common around the town of Fraser's Hill

White-thighed Langur - supposedly common, but we only encountered one group.

Nobody we met had seen the other targets recently, so after initial, fruitless attempts, we elected to try for some of the birds that are seldom-seen at Fraser's, but (my) muched hoped-for lowland birds. this meant we spent a coule of days driving Highway 55 below the Gap, stopping where the forest looked promising and playing Collared Owlet calls to solicit interest amongst the passerines; and scanning over vistas for raptors and hornbills. This strategy worked very well, securing us excellent views of three Helmeted Hornbills 1 km below the Gap, as well as brief views of a group of c. 8 White-Crowned Hornbills - incredibly these two difficult species were seen from the same lay-by on the roadside (on different days, but presumably visiting the same fruiting tree), as were a total of about 15 Wreathed Hornbills. We also picked up a number of Great Argus calling deep in the forested valleys, a pair of Rhinocerous Hornbills, and a Maroon-breasted Philentoma. This road also gave us excellent views of Rufous-bellied Eagle, Black Eagle and a healthy passage of Oriental Honey Buzzards (up to 25 birds visible at one time on our last day).

We came across three different pairs of Red-bearded Bee-eaters
during the week, one pair gave exceptional views whilst food passing.

The first of these bee-eater pix was taken with my 300mm f4 +1.4 TC, whilst the lower image was taken with a 600mm f4, lent to me by a very kind bird photographer from Hong Kong who had spent a few hours staking out this bird. I think my little lens holds up quite well considering it cost one sixth of the price!