The fag end of 2007

Before Fumie asks, they are called John, Paul, George, Ringo and Pete.

I do requests

Now bring us some figgy pudding

A few Xmas leftovers. Isn't our dog a cutie. 15 years old and still makes a good Santa. The Koreans would love her.

I'm toying whether to keep the blog going. I don't post much and unless I spend a lot of time in the field, which I can't these days, the quality is just going downhill rapidly. Just grab shots with no real thought or passion in them. Roll on retirement.

Happy 2008 to anybody passing through.

A carol by Byrd?

A snappy chrysalis and a phosphorous blue sneer

These are in descending order:

Eupanacra busiris, Large-billed crow and Kwan Yin, our favourite goddess.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Mother

Common as muck....

These 3 were taken at the Lions Nature Education Centre this morning as I road-tested it after a canon recall. Nothing unusual but I like the Hair-crested drongo.

Mai Po revisited

For the first time yesterday Mrs. Ha came to Mai Po with me. She even took a camera with her. Here are some of the pics.








I'm not saying which of us took these but she was an absolute trooper and is now joining the HKBWS so she can get a Mai Po permit. We were blessed with few birds but we did have warm sunshine and low humidity. I even managed to wander round with the 500mm lens on a tripod without feeling completely cream-crackered. Today we explored the woods along the Wilson Trail above Ho Chung. She rapidly discovered how tough woodland birding can be. Lots of birdsong and calls but the most fleeting of glimpses of tiny creatures. A Pallas' warbler drove us mad as we tried to get views lasting more than a nano-second. Mike Turnbull and Snowball alerted us to a singing Mountain Tailorbird but we didn't see it. All in all a most satisfying couple of days. Mrs Ha is especially chuffed because I bought her a digital piano yesterday, a clavinola in beautiful ebony. It faithfully reproduces the sound of everything from a Steinway grand to a Harpsichord. We whizzed over to Tom Lee after lunch and picked up some sheet music - easy stuff she can already play, or at least she could 32 years ago when she packed up at grade 6. So when I come home on Monday night it will be Rondo Alla Turca and Fuer Elise.

Ying Tong Iddle I-Po

Mrs.Ha was taken to Yin Kong near Mai Po today. You may know Yin Kong as "Long Valley". HK's answer to the "Swampy affair" was the lengthy and successful protest against the KCRC's madcap scheme to build a spur line across HK's last remaining scrap of agricultural wetland. Long Valley is that site and it remains superb habitat for birds. Here are a few snaps of our romantic morning out (surely some mistake? ed.)






Sadly the big gun was not with us so the images are not good, taken with a 400mm lens boosted by a 2x TC. Next time I shall take the 500mm and use a tripod. Monopods are better than nowt but not a lot.

The birds are: Ruddy-breasted crake, Skylark, Snipe sp. and Wood sandpiper.

Kite flight

At last... some more birds :-)

For non-birders, these are Eurasian wryneck (a woodpecker), an Azure-winged magpie, a Dusky shrike, a Moorhen, an Osprey and a Chinese pond heron.

I had a wonderful day out at Mai Po playing with my new toy, kindly donated by Mrs. Ha. This is a 400mm f4 IS Canon lens - very light to carry. The weather is beginning to cool down and we are going into HK's golden period. Balmy, autumnal days of 25 deg C, dry, lower humidity and simply much more bearable.

In Britain the Wryneck might excite a few people and it was my first sighting here although they are not rare but uncommon passage migrants. My favourite is the Osprey. I was sitting in the Tower Hide and suddenly it started flying straight towards me. Head-on shots of birds don't always work too well but this is ok. If only I did not have a bad throat, life could almost be said to be good :-)

For Tiny

Tiny was kind enough to enquire the other day how I got the butterflies and birds to sit still. Well of course the easy answer is skill. That and a DSLR capable of shooting 9 frames per second. And a lot of luck. But here, especially for Tiny, is a more typical bird shot. This was a Long-tailed sibia and I hasten to add I have better images of it. But for every decent image there are a lot of these. Be comforted Tiny.

Beyond Hong Kong. Part the First

Mrs Ha and I have been on a brief foray into darkest peninsula Malaysia. Thus, this extralimital blog is dedicated to The Phiz.

A few general remarks. The countryside we saw was beautiful but surprisingly many of the trees in the Highlands seemed to be dying. It was not clear why this should be. However it may have to do with vehicular pollution. The exhaust fumes from virtually all of the HGV and PSVs were dense, acrid and black. I was taken aback and Mrs Ha found breathing unpleasant at times. I encouraged her to persevere as the alternative seemed undesirable. This combined with driving that made the honkies seem bordering on competent and sane made for most challenging conditions. Especially when the aircon on the AVIS hirecar packed up on the first day. Choke or suffocate. Hmm. Interesting conundrum to wrestle with.

Our hotel, the splendid Cameron Highlands Resort Hotel was a welcome relief and the staff obliging and friendly. The food was of excellent quality if limited in variety. My objections centred on traffic noise, mosquito fuming at midnight (noisy and noxious to inhale) and piped muzac. There was however an ever readiness to help me search nightly for moths.

Birds were scarce in the Camerons but the plant life was wonderful. We did 2 hikes. The first was on the Jim Thompson Mystery Trail. This was free and led by the hotel's resident naturalist. He made a great deal of effort and found us some excellent plants. Undoubtedly many were common but still new to me.




These 2 were quite different in ease of finding. The upper one was deep in the jungle on the ground whilst the other was on an open bank near the hotel. Quite beautiful.

As this is a birds and bugs blog I ought now to throw in a few birds and here are images taken at Fraser's Hill, which sadly I shall come to later.







They are Black-throated sunbird, Streaked spiderhunter, Chestnut-capped laughing thrush and Little cuckoo dove. But you knew that didn't you?

But let me return to the Cameron Highlands. Exploring the trails is fun and happily leech free (unlike Fraser's Hill). The other sources of amusement are somewhat limited. There is the tea plantation to visit and you could, well, visit the tea plantation again and of course there are 2 butterfly farms. These were rather disappointing. No. They were dreadful. Manky butterflies in manky surroundings. Allow me, if you will, to illustrate. 2 butterflies. One taken in captivity, one in the wild. Which is which?




It may be a little known fact that the Rajah Brooke birdwing butterfly prefers kipping on its back but somehow I doubt it. In addition to the flutterbys each 'farm' had a collection of insects and snakes. I was alarmed to see the guide banging the glass of a tank containing a live cobra, simply to get it to strike towards passing visitors. Gruesome.

We could, had we so wished, visited one of the many strawberry farms in the area. Mrs Ha is not a fan of the strawberg however and I like mine with clotted cream and scones. So we took a raincheck on the strawbery farms and indeed everything else in the area. Actually, I do the place a great disservice. Right opposte the hotel was a golf course. It was sparingly patronised as far as I could tell but in good nick through lack of use, probably. So if you are a flogger rather than a hiker, by all means go wield a niblick and swing your mashie. Fore!

Before I venture off to the Hill named after Fraser, allow me to redeem AVIS' reputation by saying that they drove a replacement car all the way to the Cameron Highlands from KLIA. And thus armed with a new tank (known in the trade as a Hyundai Sonata, built for comfort not speed) we pootled off to FH. The petrol situation got a bit dodgy and we stopped to refill before starting the long, tortuous drive up to the clear, clean, dank air of Fraser's Hill. Mrs. Ha is prone to car sickness so this was an unwelcome surprise to her. 90 minutes of torture. But then we arrived at the piece de resistance for the entire trip, Ye Olde Smokehouse. In my humble opinion the smoke should come from the embers of the bible black ash of the building after some tragic "accidental" arson attack. Not exactly a warm welcome. And then the room. Spacious yes. And there it stops. The entire building is tired, coughing up blood as it lurches drunkenly towards an overdue demise. It looks dirty. Maybe it is clean and is in need of some TLC but I fear not. The carpets on the staircase look and feel tacky with a patina of grime. The bedlinen startled us. Sheets so gossamer thin and a bedspread stained with perhaps old strawberry juice. One can only hope. And damp. Fraser's Hill, is, by virtue of its locus, damp. And here it seeps into every nook and cranny. We hoped the food would be better.

Dinner offered some exciting options so we opted for the traditional. Roast leg of lamb. Very Malay. And indeed it led to significant malaise. The soup was passable. Indeed, I passed it later. The lamb however was the stuff of sole. Not Dover but boots. I fear the creature died an agonising death and this was its revenge. And to boot it was barely warm. The veggies were on a par with the meat. Marginally above room temperature at best. Unusually for me, I complained. Not a gentle protestation but a loud, vigorous howl of dissatisfaction. Suddenly people froze. Then they scuttled to and fro. The manageress appeared. Désolé was not the word. I was offered free bread and butter pudding. Fortunately it was a one night offer. They clearly superheated it to ensure it was not tepid. It was like chewing rubber with raisins added. A meal from the bowels of hades.

The following morning we were both clear on one thing. We would not spend another nght in the Ye Olde Shitehouse. And so after a morning birding we drove hot foot to the joys of KL and The Shangri-La. And here I think it is time to introduce one of KL's lesser known gems - Chrysopelea paradisi, the Paradise Tree Snake.I believe it is mildly venemous and thrives on a diet of geckos and small children. OK, I made up the bit about small children but I can always hope.




What a cutie!! I found this in the Lake Gardens. My lucky day. I also found this which is mildly less prone to make Mrs. Ha run a mile.