Badas again

The Badas area is one of my favorite spots in Brunei. It is mostly prime peat swamp forest with some smaller areas of Kerangas. One plus point is that it is close to home. The other is that the area hides some type specialists that are hard to find elsewhere, examples are hook-billed bulbul, bristlehead, grey-breasted babbler and cinnamon-headed green pigeon.

Besides these specialists the species diversity is relatively large, abundance however not so much. Especially in the forest itself birding can put a real test to your patience. What's more, when you do finally get to see a bird it will typically do anything in its power to ensure that you will not leave with a good picture.

A small group of dusky broadbills I saw recently pretty much stuck to the canopy. Of course, when one of the birds decided to come down it chose the only branch directly overhead.

Dusky broadbill (Corydon sumatranus)

Due to the habit of rarely perching still for more than a few seconds flowerpeckers are not the easiest birds to get on camera under any circumstance. But this rare brown-backed flowerpecker also valued a rather large personal space and for 20 minutes I was chasing only brief glimpses after which it left the scene completely; these heavy crops are the best material I ended up with.

Brown-backed flowerpecker (Dicaeum Everetti)

Brown-backed flowerpecker (Dicaeum Everetti)

To offset this frequent frustration there are of course also the more satisfying sightings. I think someone wise once mentioned that the best sighting for a birder is a mammal (… or reptile in this case). I don't believe that is entirely true, but a second sighting of this Malaysian brown snake last weekend on the Badas road came pretty close.

Malaysian brown snake (Xenelaphis Hexagonotus)

Malaysian brown snake (Xenelaphis Hexagonotus)

Malaysian brown snake (Xenelaphis Hexagonotus)

I had seen this species once before on KB road and the picture I then managed even made it to the second edition of the Snakes of Borneo field guide by Robert Stuebing et. al. that was launched recently. Supposedly good pictures of this snake are hard to come by - this part of Brunei seems to be the exception to the rule.

Folkert, 03/07/2014

Happy new year!

A quick post on some of the egrets and herons I have recently seen. And for good measure I'll throw in a pic of a snake as well. End of last year we had a brief holiday in KK (see also previous post) and I spend one morning along the waterfront at Prince Philip's park. The first birds I saw were some whimbrels. One of the birds had only one leg left, but seemed to manage quite well.

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus).

I was aiming for some good pictures of the local specialties; blue-naped parrots and crested myna's. Both these birds were easily spotted, but the pacific and chinese egret's along the coast-line drew must of my attention. Here is the myna:

Crested myna (Acridotheres cristatellus).

And the pacific reef egret:

Pacific reef-egret (Egretta Sacra).

The star of the morning was however the chinese egret.

Chinese egret (Egretta eulophotes).

This bird was quite undisturbed by my presence and even approached me rather then the other way around. Here it is flying along the coastline.

Chinese egret (Egretta eulophotes).

Today most people were back in the office. One of my colleagues, Axel, informed that he had seen a Malaysian night heron yesterday. This was the second sighting as some other friends had probably seen one in their garden a fortnight ago. After my failed attempts to locate that heron, I had a lot more luck this time. The night heron was still at the same patch were it was seen by Axel yesterday! Big thanks to Axel for showing me!

I quickly drove back to get my camera and got a couple of shots before the bird disappeared in the undergrowth when some passersby approached this weird looking guy (me) to ask what I was looking at. It is definitely also true that you don't see a foreign expat lying in the grass next to the road in his office attire everyday... I'll try to go back again tomorrow afternoon to get some better shots.

Malaysian night heron (Gorsachius melanolophus).

The final picture of today is this Malaysian Brown Snake that I nearly turned into road kill yesterday. Luckily I noticed it just in time - and the snake seemed grateful enough to allow me some close-ups.

Malaysian brown snake (Xenelaphis hexagonotus).

Happy new year!

Folkert, 07/01/2013