Jarring in Brunei

I thought it would be good to share some of my recent nightjar pictures. It's not that I am obsessed with these birds, but they do know how to pose for the camera! There is a nightjar in this first one; just follow the shooting direction of the camera's.

Making friends with a large-tailed nightjar.
With Merijn, Ulmar and Kolbjorn.

We came across this large-tailed while looking for snakes and frogs for the Wetland surveys - the 'herping' was not very successful that night, not a single snake. Luckily there was still this bird that kept us entertained for a couple of minutes.

Large-tailed nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus)
 trusting it's camouflage.

Here are some more pics, all taken with a 15-85 mm lens! From previous posts you may have gathered that the large-tailed's not only form a good picture subject, but that these birds are also rather common.

Same bird close-up from the side.

And a close-up from the front.

There are another 4 nightjar species in Borneo. From these the Bonaparte's nightjar (Caprimulgus comcretus, also referred to as Sunda nightjar) is the rarest; a thinly scattered species that, due to habitat loss, is listed as threatened (vulnerable) by IUCN. I always had a sneaky suspicion that one of the nightjars I had seen could have been a Bonaparte's nightjar. With a recent evening walk Dennis Yong picked up the call and I did finally confirm this species when it briefly flew overhead.

Now, obviously, I had to go back to the locality to see if I could get some better views! The below picture is the results after 3 stake-out attempts.

Bonaparte's nightjar (Caprimulgus concretus).
The clear white tail-tips suggest that this is a male.

I am very pleased with this shot as there are only few photo's of this small nightjar, though secretly I'm hoping I'll get a closer shot without the fiery eyes one day.

Folkert, 14/03/2013.

Wetlands International surveys

If you're expecting loads of nice bird pictures, this post may be a little disappointing... There has however been some great birding in Brunei last week, even though the total number of birds seen is rather low and the photographic evidence even more meager. But what a week!

In an earlier post I mentioned that Wetlands International just started with an 18 month project for the lower Belait district. This is a collaborative effort between Brunei Shell Petroleum and Wetlands International. There are several objectives to this project that foremost aim at a sustainable future for the fragile peat swamp forests of Brunei's lower Belait district. For more information please see this link.

The Biodiversity surveys form an important part of the project and since last week some globally recognized experts are surveying the area, including Dennis Yong. Dennis is one of the foremost Malaysian naturalists and his skills with picking up and identifying bird call are truly impressive - he seems to not only identify almost every single call, but is also able to mimic most calls directly from memory. And he is a really nice guy!

I feel very fortunate to also have been given the opportunity to help out. This week I have been assisting in the field on a couple of occasions, and especially Saturday was very memorable: the first time I have taken a boat ride up river from the Kuala Balai road to venture a deeper into the peat swamp forest. Saturday early morning we (Kolbjorn, Dennis, Merijn and myself) had arranged to meet up at the end of the Kuala Balai road. On our way over Kolbjorn and I had some splendid views of a ruddy kingfisher. We dipped however massively on the clouded leopard(!) that was seen by Dennis and Merijn next to the road, and only 10 minutes after we had past the exact same spot.
Our upstream destination was a little rickety rail track leading to a small logging concession, only accessible from the river. The rail track runs through some good peat swamp forest. On the river we spotted a chestnut-winged cuckoo (Clamator coromandus), which provided some good views. This is an uncommon/rare winter visitor to Borneo and was a lifer for me.

We arrived at the start of the trail/track around 08:00 and there was enough activity going on. We heard plenty, including 5 different hornbill species, good views were however few and far between. The most enticing call was surely the hook-billed bulbul. Attempts to call it in were unfortunately unsuccessful, and I hope to have another opportunity soon. Kolbjorn soon spotted a scarlet-breasted flowerpecker (Dicaeum thoracicus), a male, foraging in front of us. Another lifer for me and what a stunner! From habitat description the presence of this bird is not unexpected; to actually see one is an entirely different matter!

Besides the birds, we did also see some other forest life. This sambar deer was seen next to the track before it shot off with an ear-piercing alarm call.

Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor).

This giant squirrel observed us from a tree and then made for the deeper forest, possibly showcasing how it's cousins, the flying squirrels, evolved with some huge jumps. 

Cream-coloured giant squirrel (Ratufa affinis).

There were also plenty of cool insects around. This Kytadid does an excellent job in mimicking a leaf.

Kytadid sp.

On the way back on the river we noticed a group of 5 straw-headed bulbuls. I had seen these birds previously in Danum and on the river upstream from Limbang, though never before in Brunei. The straw-headed bulbul is listed as vulnerable, mainly because of trapping for the cage-bird trade. To see it in Brunei is a good record. The 3 pictures I got are absolutely useless - but since this blog is mostly about the Brunei birding I decided to stay within the theme and include one anyway:

Straw-headed bulbul (Pycnonotus zeylanicus)

A final noteworthy record is the Bonaparte's nightjar (Caprimulgus concretus), also listed as vulnerable by IUCN. A bird was calling for several minutes early Tuesday evening. We had almost given up getting any views when luck finally struck and the bird flew into the beam of my flashlight from which we could follow it for around 5 seconds with some good close-up views - and more than enough for a positive ID!

All and all a very good week, 3 lifers added and some great calls identified. Am already thinking about the next trip upriver.

Folkert, 10/03/2013

Back in Brunei

I have been a little quiet the last couple of weeks, primarily because I was on leave. We spend some time in Europe with family and friends, which was very enjoyable. The winter weather was a nice change from the Bornean heat and humidity and even being snowed in for a day in the UK was fun.  Of course it is hard to complain with views like this:

View from our window, Cumbria (UK).

Maybe I ought to bring a proper camera next time: the snowy background could have made some pretty pictures of the local finches and robins!

Yesterday Kolbjorn and I went for some early morning birding in Teraja. Birding wise the morning was a hard going. There was loads of activity, but we only recorded very few species. The dense forest cover makes for difficult bird watching and the only reasonable picture I got is of this cicada.

Cicada sp.

This morning I spend some hours at KB road and around the Seria grasslands. This cinnamon bittern was trying hard not to be noticed!

Cinnamon bittern (Isobrychus cinnamomeus).

Usually there are some little ringed plovers around the ditches of the Seria estuary between September-April. This male is already in nice breeding plumage.

Little ringed plover (Charadrius dubius)

Another update is on the Malayan night heron. Since the encounter mentioned in a previous post I have now seen two other individuals around Panaga, all 3 birds within a 15 km. radius. This was the first one:

Juvenile Malaysian night-heron (Gorsachius melanolophus).

A second bird, also a juvenile, I saw a couple of days later roughly a kilometer away from the locality where I saw the first bird. Upon scrutinizing the pictures I am convinced that these are 2 different birds.

Juvenile Malaysian night-heron (Gorsachius melanolophus).

A third bird, an adult this time, was already seen by some friends of ours in their garden. Robert was kind enough to call me when he saw it one late afternoon. As soon as I arrived at his doorstep I noticed the bird running for cover. Despite some later attempts I never got the bird on camera. Luckily Kolbjorn did get a very good picture!

Adult Malaysian night-heron (Gorsachius melanolophus).
Picture by Kolbjorn Schjolberg, published with his permission.

The Malaysian night heron is normally considered a relatively rare migrant, and I had always thought that this species was a real specialty of Panaga. With 3 observations and reasonable certainty that it is still under sampled, this may actually be a fairly common migrant in the coastal areas of Brunei and Sarawak. Due to it's skulking and secretive behavior it is still a very tough bird though!

Coming weeks I'll likely support Wetlands International, see link, a couple of times as field assistant. The biodiversity surveys in support of an overarching wetlands conservation study for the Kuala Belait peatswamp will start this week. Hope that will turn up some good species!

Folkert, 03/03/2013.

Panaga and KB road, 19-01

A quick recap of my weekend's birding and photography attempts. I'll start with this morning when I went for a short trip to KB road. With great weather, the whole morning was a little slow going. There was definitely a lot of activity, most of it was however well outside the reach of my bins and camera. I assumed the loud crashing sounds coming from the ditch were announcing a bearded pig and I cautiously moved back a little. I was quite surprised to see this little fellow pop up from the long grass, as the cause of all the ruckus.

Yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula ssp. saba).

The looks are a little deceiving. While the yellow-throated marten scores high on cuteness, this is a ferocious little carnivore. These animals are widespread in Asia, the martens in Borneo are a separate subspecies: Martes flavigula ssp. saba.

Yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula ssp. saba).

Yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula ssp. saba).

I am very happy with these shots. For a first time encounter you can't ask for any better posing!

The rest of the morning was uneventful. A rufous-bellied hawk eagle was noteworthy, unfortunately it was a little too distant for anything better than some simple record shots.

Rufous-bellied hawk eagle (Lophotriorchis kienerii).

Surprisingly, on my way back I again saw two red-billed malkohas. After not having encountered these birds on the KB road for 2 years, they are now rapidly establishing themselves as one of the regulars!

A second trip with my camera was yesterday evening, when Kolbjorn and I went for a short night drive along the Panaga coastal road "hunting" for owls and nightjars. The grassland just behind the beach is a good spot for nightjars and we saw at least 6 different individuals (the 6th sitting in the middle of the road on our way back). We were secretly hoping for some more exotic species than large-tailed's but not this night. Below 3 different birds:

Large-tailed nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus).

Large-tailed nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus).

Large-tailed nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus).

Not bad at all for a quick drive down the road! Planning for another night drive to KB road this week.    More on that later.

Folkert, 20/01/2013 

Panaga garden chases

This week I had two good garden chases. The first one was Wednesday night when Axel texted to say that he had some owls in his garden. Even though I was already in bed, I clearly couldn't let this opportunity slip. So 5 minutes later I was in Axel's garden and my wife was on facebook to let her friends know her husband lost it again...

We initially had some trouble locating the birds, but the soft screeches of the owlets could soon be heard in the neighboring garden. Our scramble through the bushes was rewarded with excellent views of two young sunda scops owls.

Juvenile Sunda scops owl (Otus lempiji).

These scops owls are the most common owls in the Panaga, though that doesn't mean they're that often encountered.

A second noteworthy garden scramble was this morning when I heard the loud call of a crimson-winged woodpecker. I quickly picked up my camera and with a bit of luck and some tenacity I managed to locate two birds a couple of gardens down the road. Even better, they didn't seem that bothered by my presence, though I can't say the same for the ants and mosquitoes...

Male crimson-winged woodpecker (Picus puniceus).

These woodpeckers are an uncommon encounter in the Panaga gardens. The male and the female can be separated by the red cheek patch, which is only sported by the male.

Female crimson-winged woodpecker (Picus puniceus).

Sometimes all the good stuff is just a step from your front door!

Folkert, 12/01/2013

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

To the mountains of Sabah!

For our christmas holiday my wife, son and I decided to spend a couple of days in Kota Kinabalu. This time we decided to undertake the journey by car. In case you were ever contemplating to do the same, a small word of warning: the total distance of around 400 km took us about 11 hours - the biggest bottleneck being a 3 hour wait for the ferry crossing across the Pandaruan river.

I had pre-arranged a day trip to KNP HQ with Andrew Siani for the 21st of December. Andrew is a birding guide from KK and I can thoroughly recommend him. Check out his blogspot for some excellent pictures: http://borneoavifauna.blogspot.com.

Andrew picked me up at 5 AM and roughly 90 minutes later we arrived at KNP HQ. The weather was lousy: grey, wet and cold. We drove up to the powerstation and I almost immediately bagged two lifers from the car: a Bornean forktail and an Eyebrowed jungle-flycatcher. A good start! The follow-through was less impressive: as soon as we got out of the car I thoroughly messed up a perfect photo opportunity of an indigo flycatcher. While I was faffing about with the flash, the bird perched nicely 3 feet in front of me and I somehow managed to end up with only severely overexposed and underexposed pictures! The below, hardly cropped pic, is my best recovery attempt.

Indigo flycatcher (Eumyias indigo).

A walk along the Bukit Ular trail, starting from the power station at the Tempohon gate, seemed a little slow-going at first. A distant Bornean treepie was heard and seen and we were a little lucky to stumble upon a Bornean stubtail (which I clearly would have missed if Andrew hadn't picked it out).

Highlight of the morning was an encounter with one of the Whitehead's trio: a male Whitehead's broadbill. The bird stayed long enough to get a few shots without flash.

Whitehead's broadbill (Calyptomena whiteheadi).

This second picture was taken with flash. I am still not sure which picture I prefer. It looks more natural without flash though that really doesn't pay tribute to the almost iridescent green!

Whitehead's broadbill (Calyptomena whiteheadi).

This was one of my most memorable birding moments in Borneo; what a bird, absolutely magnificent! There was more. At the end of the trail we heard both Kinabalu's partridge species call and I got some brief close-up views of a pair of red-breasted partridges.

We stayed close to the road for a while, trying to call in a fruithunter (unsuccessfully...). Several warbler species wandered by as did this grey-chinned minivet.

Grey-chinned minivet (Pericocrotus solaris)

A pair of pale-faced bulbuls on the other side of the road were very obliging. The only time I had seen this species before was a single bird flying over the top of Bukit Pagon. This time a much better view!

Pale-faced bulbul (Pycnonotus leucops)

Before we called it a day we went to some flowering bushes close to the entrance of the botanical gardens. No Whiteheads spiderhunter, but this male Bornean flowerpecker didn't disappoint.

Bornean flowerpecker (Dicaeum monticolum).

Bornean flowerpecker (Dicaeum monticolum).

Just when we decided to head back to the car two black-capped white-eyes provided some great close-up views. While this is a common bird around KNP HQ, seeing it from this close was very much unexpected. I observed this with some other birds here as well; quite a few of them weren't particularly shy around humans at this altitude. 

Black-capped white-eye (Zosterops atricapilla).

Despite the weather this was a very memorable morning and a good reminder that I should try to venture into the higher areas of Borneo more often! Thanks for a great morning, Andrew!

Folkert, 27/12/2012