Malaysia

Its many years since I seemingly spent halff my working life visiting our offices in Kuala Lupur and Penang. I used to go go over at least four times a year  to support the staff working there and have many happy memories of the delicious food but not so happy memories about the heat and humidity. As with most of my working life travelling to foreign climes I hardly had any chance for sightseeing or birding so when it was suggested we go with my brother and sister in law for a few days holiday in Kuala Lumpur and then onto Pangkor Laut island we enthusiastically agreed.

Our hotel in KL was next to the botanic gardens so the first afternoon was spent exploring and the area around here and re-familiarising myself with some of the commoner birds. After a few days sightseeing we headed off to Pangkor Laut Island - famous for its good numbers of Oriental Pied Hornbill! These regularly visit the resort restaurants to scrounge food and there are around 20 pairs on the island. The resort have their own conservation team based in the conservation centre and chatting to them I learnt that the island is in fact overpopulated with Oriental Pied Hornbills. Nest boxes put up for them to breed in have been removed  - apart form 1 or 2 - to try and persuade them to move back to the main Pangkor Island where many have migrated from.

Hornbills pair up for life and the female blocks herself into the nest chamber until the young are old enough to fend for themselves. She relies solely on the male to provide her with enough food. A natural nest was right next to the beach side restaurant and the females bill can just be seen poking out in the photo below.

The conservation team have photographed indivdual males and identified them by the shape of the black mark on the 'casque'. The one by the beach was called Matt and he was a very attentive mate! He went off forraging and then regurgitated food from his crop for his mate - the photo below shows a large beetle. He also brought back lizards and plenty of chips he'd pinched from unguarded plates!

Above: Male Oriental Pied Hornbill with juvenile Water monitor. His mate rejected it and it was picked up by the resident House Crows below the nest chamber

Hornbills could be seen all over the resort and this was a new species for me. They don't breed every year so it was common to see pairs together (the female doesn't have the large 'horn' or 'casque'. Quite often they'd be pair bonding.

Female Oriental Pied Hornbill

Male (top) and female (bottom Oriental Pied Hornbills

I also learnt there were 8-9 Great Hornbills on the island but these wer more elusive. Even though I went out with the camera specifically looking for them I only had tow sightings  - both times when I didn't bother taking the camera! 

I was privileged to be to be taken behind the scenes at the conservation centre to see 4 young Hawksbill Turtles that hd been rescued entangled in fishing ger. One had to have a flipper amputated as it was deemed beyond saving. With very little money the team are doing a great job. Unfortunately fishing gear isn't the only hazard and the team showed me turtle 'poo' they'd collected full of ingested plastics. Indeed, although the beach looked idyllic the staff were raking up plastic after every high tide.

The beach area was also home to the only two surviving Red Jungle ~fowl on the island. There are plans to re-introduce more but for the moment there are only 2 males left. The others had all been predated by Water Monitors with many of the chicks providing a tasty snack for the Hornbills! 

Our Hill Villa was set in the native jungle covering the island  - a method behind our decision was that it should have been cooler higher up and, surrounded by trees, I'd see more birds from our balcony! Only the latter proved true! 

White-bellied Sea Eagles flew over daily and on an evening sunset cruise around the island we saw a nest with two well grown young.

Olive Bulbuls were the commonest bird seen and fed in the trees around our balcony. The 2nd commonest bird was Common Tailorbird but these were more often heard rather than seen. 

Olive Bulbul

I was also lucky enough to see a family group of Asian Fairy Bluebirds and managed to photograph a stunning male in the morning light. The problem was that after being in an air conditioned bedroom all night both the binoculars and camera steamed up when taken outside so quite often I missed a good photo as I was trying to get rid of the condensation on the lenses.. They couldn't be left out as the resort is home to a number of Long-tailed Macaques who steal anything. Rooms and windows have to be locked during the day to stop the Macaques getting in and trashing everything.

Used to seeing the introduced Indian or Common Myna I was pleased to see the island held a good population of Hill Myna's and a pair frequented one of the large trees a few metres from our room.

A pair of White-rumped Sharma also frequented the area and I soon learnt to recognise their call and song. For such a colourful bird they could be surprisingly elusive.

The jetty and surrounding beach area was also good for wildlife with Pacific Swifts screaming by and Pacific Swallows perching on the railings.Common Sandpiper and Striated Heron were regular on the surrounding rocks.

I was also extremely fortunate one day to see 3 Asian Short-toed Otters and an impressive Water Monitor.

Other wildlife around the resort included a colony of Fruit Bats and Wild Boar. The Fruit Bats could be heard chattering and grunting away during the day flapping their wings to try and keep cold. The boar seemed to haver swum across from the nearby Pangkor Island.

One morning I photographed a species, from our balcony, I was unfamiliar with and it appears to be a Van Hasselt's Sunbird - if correct this would be a new species for Pangkor Laut and the conservation team have asked for the photos to document it. It was only on view for a few seconds and I was looking down on it so unfortunately didn't get any front - on photos.

A great holiday and even though it wasn't a birding trip I ended up with 22 lifers!