The Fraser's Hill International Bird Race

The  Fraser's Hill International Bird Race takes place from 1pm Saturday until Noon on Sunday. Seng, Carol and I were one of 38 teams registered. Our goal was to get 50 species on Saturday and another 30 on Sunday morning. That would give us 80 species which would surely be enough to win the contest! It was clear from our recon that we would do well; my team mates' sharp eyes and knowledge of the bird sounds was impressive.

Saturday went well and we birded the hill and the new road down to the Gap amassing 44 species. After having no luck at Silverpark, we went to the army camp at 10pm and after an hour managed to add Brown Wood Owl to end the day on 45, 5 short of our target.

We were up and out by 6am on Sunday morning, driving straight to the Gap to bird the first 2km of the old road adding 23 species in 3 hours. We arrived back at the top to get Buff-breasted Babbler in trhe drain where we had seen it the day before and to have a piece of luck when a Black Eagle flew over. We then had a slow 2 hours finding just 4 more species to end on 74. A good total which turned out to be sufficient to win the competition. Our names and our team name Roadrunner are engraved on the silver trophy and we received binoculars, a field guide and some ringgit!

I had 4 lifers during the race (1 on the first day; 3 on the second) - all woodpeckers - and reached 500 species for the year on Sunday morning. I added 9 species for the year on Saturday and another 11 on Sunday to end on 511 species and 114 lifers in 2011.

Black Eagle

Large Niltava

Fraser's Hill

On ThursdayJune 23rd, I traveled with Seng and Carol to Fraser's Hill ahead of the Bird Race. We birded late in the day and I added 6 more species for the year, a Brown Wood Owl on the balcony of our accommodation complex being the stand-out bird. A pair of White-browed Shrike-babbler was the year's first lifer in Malaysia. I ended the day on 479 species and 107 lifers.

On Friday June 24th we continued our scouting ahead of the contest and I added 9 year birds including 3 lifers. I ended the day on 488 species and 110 lifers for 2011.

Oriental Magpie-Robin

Pacific Swallow

Phetchaburi

We spent the morning of my final day at the wetland area in Phetachaburi finding a number of birds that were new for the trip, in particular Spot-billed Pelican. We then had a bad period dipping ona a number of species including two birds I had really been hoping for - Cotton Pygmy Goose and, my favourite bird, the Hoopoe. Heading back to Bangkok I had my final lifer of the trip, a nice one, in Pheasant-tailed Jacana. I had 15 trip birds, 14 new for the year and another 5 lifers on my final day in Thailand. The trip had delivered 185 species and 96 lifers; a little short of my 200/100 target because of the rains. I ended the day on 473 species and 106 lifers for the year.

Oriental Pratincole

Pheasant-tailed Jacana

Painted Stork

Spot-billed Pelican

Kaeng Krachan's highest elevations

We spent 9 hours at the highest elevations in Kraeng Krachan on Sunday; it rained for much of the time and again the birding was slow. We added 16 trip birds, all new for the year with the highlight being two further barbet species and Brown Hornbill. We added further species late in the day, Vinous-breasted Starling at our place of accommodation, House Swift (already seen in Bangsar) and then Indian Nightjar at a well-known spot after dark. I added 18 species for the year to reach 459 and had another 11 lifers to reach 101 for the year!

Pied Starling

Flavescent Bulbul

Little Spiderhunter

Indian Nightjar 

Kaeng Krachan - Day Two

It rained all day on Saturday 18^th and birds were few and far between. We started the day in a hide where we had Red-legged Crake, Silver Pheasant and Greater Necklaced Laughing Thrush within the first hour, but with rain getting heavier added nothing new in two further hours! Birding the mid-elevation parts of Kraeng Krachan yielded just 12 further trip species in many hours with the best bird being Great Barbet. I ended the day on 441 birds for the year and added 8 lifers that day to get to 90 in 2011.

Sooty-headed Bulbul

Red-legged Crake

Silver Pheasant

Green Bee-eater

First Day at Kaeng Krachan

Friday 17^th began in exciting style when I saw my first ever pitta – a Blue Winged Pitta – from a purposeful hide built close to a nest. The rest of the morning was pretty bleak as it rained steadily the whole time and we saw few birds as we visited the lower elevation part of Kaeng Krachan National Park. The rain continued into the afternoon but the day was saved by visiting know nest sites of Black-naped Monarch, White-browed Piculet, Black-backed Kingfisher and Dusky Broadbill.   The latter was my 7^th broadbill species, completing the set for S.E. Asia. We did well owling in the evening adding two species to the diurnal Collared Owlet seen earlier in the day and also included a stone curlew. I added 18 trip birds, all new for the year to reach 429 or the year. I added another 11 lifers to get to 82 for the year.

Black-winged Stilt

Spotted Owlet

Eurasian Thick-knee

Green-eared Barbet

Driving through Bangkok to new destination

We spent a little while on Thursday 16^th birding along the road as we exited Khao Yai, finally catching up with Banded Broadbill. The birding was quite exciting as we had to keep well ahead of an elephant that was coming down the road and causing distress to those trying to enter the park! We then drove 5 hours south to our next lodgings, breaking our journey around Bangkok to visit a temple famous for nesting Germain’s (edible nest) Swiftlets and to visit some wetland areas. I added 26 birds for the trip, 25 new for 2011 to reach 411 for the year. I also added another 11 lifers to reach 71.

Streaked Weaver

Asian Golden Weaver

White-rumped Shama

Black-headed Munia

Khao Yai - second day

On Wednesday 15^th we spent most of the day exploring new areas in Khao Yai but the day proved to be a little disappointing as many of our target birds eluded us. Green-eared Barbet and Green-billed Malkoha were the day’s best. We left the park for a short while in the afternoon to get birds such as Red-bellied Parakeet at well established spots. I added 14 species for the trip, all year birds taking my species count to 386 for the year. I added 9 lifers to take that count to 60.

Greater Yellownape

Red-breasted Parakeet

Plain-backed Sparrow

Ashy Woodswallow

Khao Yai - first full day

On Tuesday 14^th we birded in the park and saw three of Khao Yai’s top four birds – Siamese Fireback, Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo and Banded Kingfisher (but not Blue Pitta). In fact we had luck all day and found other targets such as Great Slaty Woodpecker and White-crowned Forktail.  The day ended with some successful owling including a very cooperative Brown hawk Owl. We added 30 species to our trip list including 30 year birds and 21 lifers. My year’s tally reached 372 species and 51 lifers.

Great Slaty Woodpecker

Brown Hawk-owl

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Great Hornbill

In Thailand

 On Monday June 13^th I flew to Bangkok for a week long birding trip in south central Thailand. I had provided a list of target birds to WildBird EcoTours and my guides Par and Roy met me at the airport. We drove for 90 minutes before birding in a lowland secondary forest area around a military camp where the highlights included Asian Barred Owlet and Green Bee-eater. Driving past some wet areas we added more birds including Lesser Whistling Duck, Asian Openbill, Greater Painted-Snipe and Long-tailed Shrike. We then drove to our lodging in Khao Yai National Park, passing an Asian Elephant on the road on the way in! We saw 50 species that day including 39 that were new for the year and 20 lifers. My year’s tally reached 342 species with 30 lifers.

Indochinese Bushlark   

Black-collared Starling

Paddyfield Pipit

Long-tailed Shrike

On the way to the airport!

I picked up four species for the year on the SkyBus en route to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal at the airport. This took my total for the year to 305.

Cattle Egret

White-breasted Waterhen

Around Bangsar

Ahead of my big trip, I stayed around Bangsar and played with my new point-and-click camera adding 4 species on Saturday, ending the day on 300 for the year and then adding one more on Sunday, including a surprising Purple Heron at the kolam on Lorong Maarof. (301 on June 12th)

Common Myna

Purple Heron

Peaceful Dove

Part Two

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Friday June 10th and added 5 species for the year en route from KLIA to Bangsar and another 5 species sitting on the swing in the front garden. (In fact I had seen one of the latter, White-vented Myna, between planes in Hong Kong!). This took me to 296 species for the year.

Asian Glossy Starling

Javan Myna

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

End of Part One

A short trip up the San Francisco Peaks yielded two new birds for the year so that I had 286 species for the year on June 1st. A short trip to Cave Springs on June 2nd and to Logan's Crossing on June 4th yielded nothing new although David managed to find a few new species. He headed back to the UK with 219 species from his trip here - and added 5 more in Charlotte, NC between flights. I did add Band-tailed Pigeon as a state bird for the year out in Koch Field on June 4th.

I am about to leave on international travel,with 246 state birds and 286 species for 2011.

May Recap

As expected May was a good month for my year list. With semester over I was able to get out more, and with my friend David in town we did some chasing to both southern California and southeast Arizona.

We had 158 species in the week long California trip. I hadn't birded in California for a long time and had no idea if I had seen California Towhee or Oak Titmouse before. They had been split from Canyon Towhee and Juniper Titmouse in the intervening years and my old records had been lost. I counted California Thrasher as a life bird when I may have see it before but the two swifts -Vaux's and Black - were definite lifers for me. I made a strategic error on the trip going after birds at the southernmost part of their range (Yellow-billed Magpie, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, White-headed Woodpecker, Tricolored Blackbird), all of which are much easier further north and all of which I had seen before anyway! I finished the trip on 253 species of which 50 had been seen in California.

After just a few days rest we set off again, this time to SE Arizona, seeing 121 species in 3-and-a-half days with some successful chasing of life birds. I found several of the birds first seen in California (Wild Turkey (Madera Canyon 26th), Swainson's Hawk (Willcox 27th), Semipalmated Plover (GWR 30th), Pacific Slope Flycatcher (San Pedro House 29th), Townsend's Warbler (San Pedro House 29th), Yellow-Breasted Chat (San Pedro House 29th), Rufous-capped Warbler (Roadside Rest 28th), Blue Grosbeak (Madera Canyon 26th) and Hooded Oriole (). So ending the month on 284 species, 243 had been seen in Arizona - just 7 shy of my year's target!  I am almost at my goal for state-birds for the year.


I added California Ground Squirrel, Merriam's Chipmunk, Harbor Seal, Western Gray Squirrel, Gray Fox, Desert Pocket Mouse, Merriam's Kangaroo Rat, Bannertailed Kangaroo Rat, Desert Cottontail, Eastern Cottontail and Brush rabbit to reach 27 mammals for the year. I added American Bullfrog, Red-spotted Toad, Western Fence Lizard, Eastern Fence Lizard, Zebra-tailed Lizard, Western Whiptail, Desert Grassland Whiptail, Sonoran Spotted Whiptail, Side-blotched Lizard, Yarrow's Spiny Lizard and Ground Snake to total 15 herps.