Monday, March 23, 2009

The "Bird-watching Week-end"

While Nancy was still in Hong Kong with an accreditation team, I joined a group of teachers to take Nancy's guest author, David Schwartz, up to Bukit Fraser (Fraser's Hill) for an overnight trip primarily for birding. (Nancy had intended to go with us but missed the trip since she had to change to a later flight out of Hong Kong in order to complete the work of the team.)


As a confirmed non-birder, I had some misgivings about joining a group of fanatics who would be spending most all of the time gazing into far-away trees to try to spot tiny, well-nigh invisible creatures with wings that usually liked to hide behind dense folage. But, I enjoyed the trip! The accommodations were nice, especially since the bungalow (pictured) came with three delicious meals. (The view was across the golf course.)

Although I was "well-armed" with a 10x zoom camera, I came home with zero pictures of birds. However, on a night walk with our highly-skilled guide, I did get pictures of a trap-door spider and a tarantula!
A Sunday morning hike yielded pictures of beautiful orchids, a centipede, a unknown winged creature and a huge Snakehead moth right on the front porch of our bungalow.

Our group was quite compatible and most of us are pictured below while on our Sunday morning bird-watching hike down the "new" Fraser's Hill road which is now blocked to traffic due to a huge landslide that promises to keep the road closed for some time. To set the record straight, I did make good use of my pair of borrowed binoculars and had a good view of the following birds:
- A Large Niltava -- iridescent blue in color,
- An Orange-bellied Leafbird -- in a tree right at the edge of the golf course at Fraser's Hill,
- A Grey-chinned Minivet (female) with bright yellow coloring, and
- A Long-tailed Sibia - rw

2 comments:

N said...

wow, beautiful! i really like the moth... does the net come with it? very interesting.

Riley Case said...

Great photos of bugs on your bird tour. I keep waiting for 1) Great bird photos; 2) Number of birds spotted by sight; 3) Number of birds identified if bird sounds are added; 4) Rare bird sightings; 5) Unusual behavior of other birders; 6) Explanation of how the experience has turned you into a bird-watching enthusiast; 7) Comments on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the bird books used. However, like I say, good bug pictures. Riley Case