Pre-dawn to Dusk

 April 21

After another massive rainstorm overnight, we headed out at 4:45 this morning to go “owling” before dawn. As our guide said, it seems all the owls are on holiday. We were able to see two different types of Frogmouth, after a lot of hard work by our guides to call the birds towards us.

After breakfast we left the national park, ferrying back across the river. We stopped for an hour or more of birding along the side of a busy road, searching for the elusive Crested Jayshrike, a dark nervous bird that flits low to the ground in dense underbrush. We did get a few quick looks at it. Fortunately some other species flew in to amuse us during our search. As we wandered along the roadside, we suddenly heard the trumpeting of elephants. Our guides insisted we quickly reverse our direction; elephants are aggressive and a threat to curious tourists every year. 

The remainder of the afternoon we drove southwest (but not as far as Kuala Lumpur), up out of the lowlands to our next location at Fraser’s Hill. The drive was a bit longer than planned as the drivers had to search for a station with diesel fuel. The price of diesel has increased 300% over the past month and some stations have no supply.  

As we climbed up to higher elevation the landscape changed to hardwood trees and bamboo. We stopped several times to look for “bamboo forest specialist” bird species and did see a few. It is a delight to be in coolish temperatures again.  But 4:45 am to 7:15 pm makes for a long day! 

Pictured: Yellow-breasted flowerpecker, Blyth’s Frogmouth, Large Racket-tailed Drongo chasing a Rhinoceros Hornbill, Yellow-bellied Warbler 

Unexpected surprises

 April 20

There was a massive rainstorm last night, so we awoke to slightly cooler temperatures and even higher humidity than yesterday. The mosquitos and the leeches, which had not been evident yesterday, were clearly happy with the new conditions. To be fair, leeches are an important food source for ground birds like pittas, and many creatures munching on mosquitoes. Our group is well prepared with leech socks (to prevent leeches getting inside your shoes or to your legs). We’ve only had 3 leeches across our group of 8 so far, and all were found before they latched. So it’s worth the reduction in our stylish appearances. 

Carrying on from yesterday’s treks uphill and downhill through the rainforest, today we climbed 400+ boardwalk steps up to a shoulder on the neighboring hill. This is certainly an aerobic birding trip! We then went down a muddy rooted track to an area with good chances for rare birds. We didn’t see the one we came for, but we did see several other spectacularly beautiful birds, including one that we had searched for repeatedly yesterday (the Garnet Pitta). We also saw two types of broadbill that we were not expecting to see during this hike. It continues to amaze us that these brightly colored creatures are so very hard to find! 

On our return trip we walked carefully around a Wagler’s pit viper perched on a small tree next to the stairs. It was ready to spring (it had wrapped its tail around the stem of the plant so that when it did spring it could return to its perch). We were grateful that it did not, as a full dose of venom is fatal in 30 minutes without treatment. But he was beautiful. On the way to lunch we saw a cloud monitor on the lawn… another reminder that we are staying in the wilderness! 

After lunch we chose to return to our cabin on a woodland track, and were rewarded with a flock of Malayan Crested Firebacks. These large pheasants skulk through the forest. We were hoping to get a glimpse of one; we were lucky enough to have a whole flock wander through an open area just off our trail…five males and three females. They look like they are going to a masquerade party.

In the late afternoon we returned to the blind near the cabins. Although many of the species enjoying the fruiting trees were the same as at prior visits, we also had some amazing new birds including two kinds of hornbills. 

Pictured: Garnet Pitta (another skulker), Green Broadbill, Black-and-yellow Broadbill, Malayan Crested Fireback, Wrinkled Hornbill (eating a fruit), our group in full regalia including leech socks, Wagler’s Pit Viper. 

A full day of birding

 Sunday April 19

Today was one of the few times we have “birded all day” without other activities. We headed out at 5:30am for a pre-breakfast walk. The objective was to find nocturnal bird species before sunrise. While we heard several we did not see any. On a couple of occasions large bats fluttered past. However, time spent at a bird blind at sunrise gave us a a lot of good activity, including a troop of dusty leaf monkeys. The blind looks out onto a field containing a group of large trees that bear fruit that several bird species enjoy.

After breakfast we headed out again, and walked on boardwalks through the rainforest until lunchtime. Our local guide commented that we were seeing a lot of unusual species and few of the common ones. We told him he could catch up on the common ones tomorrow. We went out again about 3pm and birded until sunset. Most of the time we were on boardwalks that followed the terrain— which means a lot of steps! We saw many wonderful species today; most were colorful and most were also difficult to find in the dense forest; their flitting behavior compounded this issue.

We are staying at the main accommodation for the national park. The camp began over 25 years ago with a handful of cabins but has steadily expanded as the park’s popularity has grown. We are in cabin 105, the last one in the row and a kilometer’s walk from the dining hall. This makes for a bit of time management to get to our group departures on time.

Pictured: Banded Broadbill, Blue-banded Kingfisher, mother and baby Dusty Leaf Monkeys, stairs on the trail 

First post from Malaysia

 

Saturday, April 18

We traveled without incident from New York to Singapore and then on to Kuala Lumpur. The flight to Singapore took slightly over 18 hours. We were surprised that the intended flight path went over Greenland, past Svalbard, and south through China past Chengdu. We were surprised again when the actual flight path diverted south over Eastern Europe and then hugged the southern edge of the Himalayas (past Islamabad and Kabul) then over Kolkata and south over Thailand. 

The airports in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were beautifully decorated inside including green spaces and water features— quite different from most US airports! 

On Friday night we met the other four members of our birding tour (a couple from England and two gentlemen from different parts of Australia) and one of our trip leaders, a birding professional originally from Belgium. We ate at a “hot pot” restaurant. It was fun to watch each of the foods be cooked in boiling pots (one mild and one spicy) right on our table. 

Saturday morning we left before dawn to drive for an hour north of KL to a birding location up in the mountains. Dawn comes late in this part of Malaysia (about 7am) because all of Malaysia is in a single time zone. When we go to Borneo, sunrise will be at 5:15, and were we to go to Sulawesi it would be even earlier. 

This morning’s birding trails are on property controlled by a resort whose buildings emulate a medieval French village. Watching macaque monkeys play in front of half-timbered houses was bizarre. The morning birding was a mix of standing behind a blind and walking slowly along roads to spot birds: 28 new species before lunchtime. It was a relief to start the trip at higher elevation where the temperature and humidity weren’t too severe.

Many of the birds we saw today were striking, not only for their colors but for their names. We’ve never seen leafbirds, tailorbirds, spider hunters, or flowerpeckers before. 

After lunch we drove Northeast for 3.5 hours to our lodge in the Taman Negara  National park. Actually Taman Negara means “national park” in Malay. The park protects an ancient rainforest. We will be in the eastern, lower elevation part of the park. 

Pictured: “Colmar Tropicale”, short-tailed gymnoes (a small tree shrew), Orange-bellied flowerpecker, flying rhinoceros hornbills, female rufous-collared kingfisher 

I

Reflections on Churchill

 Reflections on Churchill

Churchill Manitoba in the winter is truly the “deep north” and worth experiencing (at least for a few days). Its history is rooted in trade and transportation. People have lived in the Churchill area for thousands of years, starting with the Thule people about 3000 years ago with successive waves of population by the pre-Dorset and Dorset cultures, and then the Inuit about 300 years ago. South of Churchill the Dene and Cree also moved in.  The first Europeans (late 17th century) were trappers and whale hunters, and the Métis reflect a mixed heritage from that period. 

The Hudson Bay Company established a trading fort in 1720-40. While Hudson Bay is only clear for freight shipping from July to October, it was the only option until 1929 when the train line from Winnipeg was completed. After the fur petered out, the major industry was whale hunting.  Then in the mid-20th century, after whale hunting was banned, “whale cowboys” would trap belugas to ship to zoos and aquariums. The mid- 20th century also saw the creation and abandonment of the army base, a research rocket base, and a commercial grain port. Finally, in the 1980s, polar bear trips began the shift to ecotourism as the major income source for Churchill. In some ways the community has come full circle, returning to sustaining themselves based on the natural resources of the area (in this case through ecotourism).  

There is currently a debate about reopening the port for mineral shipments, as the warming of the NW passage is increasing the ice free shipping lanes; the effect this will have on the polar bears and beluga whales is the counter position. 

A word about the isolation of Churchill: there is no road access from Winnipeg. The train ride from Winnipeg takes two days, in part because the last 150 miles is over muskeg, relatively thin land above the permafrost and very prone to freeze-thaw heaving. That last 150 miles takes 12 hours  because the rail bed is so uneven.  Flying round trip from Winnipeg costs over $2000.  When we flew up on March 5th the cloud cover prevented much of a view, but on our return flight, clear skies enabled us to see how vast and flat the landscape is between Churchill and Winnipeg. In Churchill the highest bluff (formed by isostatic rebound) is 100 feet high. 

We spoke to a number of Chuchillians, some of whom grew up there and others who came for a visit and fell in love with the place. As our art instructor, Sandra Cook, said— in the winter there is a sense of accomplishment to do even the simple things (like going grocery shopping in -40F walking into the wind, as it’s too cold for your car to start anyway).  During the fall when polar bears are common sights in town, the rule is to leave your house and car unlocked at night in case someone needs a safe place to be. 

There is a huge town center (over 200,000 square feet) built by the army when the town had 4,000 residents, before the base closed. The town center includes all three schools, the hospital, the library, the town offices, basketball court, hockey and curling rinks, a swimming pool, gymnasium, art center, and movie theater. On Monday, when the windchill was -50 or lower, we heard children at the indoor playground. 

The town is very diverse, with a high proportion of First Nations but also people from all over Canada and the world. As a community they are working hard to overcome the lingering effects of the Residential Schools experience of previous generations. There is a deep appreciation of the nature and the stillness; many of the townspeople have cabins to “get away from the bustle” of an 800-person town! The brief Arctic summer is said to be beautiful with migratory birds, wildflowers on the tundra, and the bay full of beluga whales. 

For those of you who are curious about how one dresses to stand outside and watch the lights, a photo of Kevin is attached. He is wearing: thermal underwear, then a layer of shirt and pants, then a fleece, then a puffy jacket, insulated snow pants, a heavy long parka, a woolly hat, two pairs of socks and insulated boots. A buff or balaclava to cover the face and hand and foot warmers  finish the gear. 

Pictured: Kevin all suited up, downtown on a cold day, looking out on frozen Hudson Bay,  landscape view from the plane, sunset showing the snow drifts across the road 

More about auroras

 The aurora borealis is an amazing phenomenon to behold. The physics that causes it to happen (simply put, electrons from solar wind colliding with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere causing them to emit light) does not enter into the mind as you watch the shifting patterns of light dance across the sky. On a clear night, the contrast between the ribbons of color and the dark starry sky is striking. As you watch you appreciate the Inuit’s belief that the lights are their ancestors playing. If you whistle, you can get them to come closer, but do not whistle too loud or long because they may come down and take you up to join them. Though the eye does not always catch the subtle colors (our night vision is not overly color sensitive), the camera can capture a greater range of colors: green, reds, and blues. This allows us to share beautiful images.

On a cold cloudy day, ice crystals in the clouds cause refraction of the aurora causing the entire sky to appear green. The snow on the ground reflects the color causing it to take on a greenish tinge. Standing in the boreal forest immersed in this eerie green glow, you feel like you have been transported into a horror movie. Though, even on cloudy days, bright bands of aurora create interesting contrasting patterns against the green background sky.

Pictured: images showing the “green snow”, the red upper aurora bands, and moon rise 

Final day in Churchill

 Sunday March 8

We returned from last night’s outing about 1 am, and of course we lost an hour with daylight savings overnight, so it was a bit of a late breakfast this morning.  Late in the morning we went back to the dog sledding center (Wapusk) where we looked at the aurora on Friday night. 

David Daley is a 3rd generation Métis (First Nation people’s descended from European trappers and local people), and his wife is from the Cree nation. When Dave was growing up, snowmobiles were not yet common and dog sledding was essential transport in the winter. He spoke eloquently about his dogs, and what it takes to train and maintain a cohesive team. Most of his dogs are rescues, and he carefully matches the dogs to their best role in the team and to ensure the dogs like each other. He has raced in sixteen long distance ( over 400 mile)  races, including one from Churchill to Winnipeg ( 1200 km). He only runs the dogs for about 80 miles before giving them a rest of several hours, feeds them, and checks them for sore feet or ankles. The dogs wear booties to protect them.  He says he seldom wins the races because he won’t overtax his dogs (but they place high in the standings most of the time anyway). He said that if you push the dogs too hard, not only is it bad for them but sometimes they’ll just give up on you. 

It is largely to pay for the dogs’ food, as well as to share this traditional skill, that he takes tourists for dog sled rides. Dave had specially designed dog sleds for two tourists to ride with a musher in the back: one guest sits and the second stands with the musher behind them. The ride is about a mile and a half through the boreal forest. He calls the ride “I did a mile” like the Iditarod… the ride was fun, the dogs were beautiful, and to hear the musher gently communicate with her team was great. 

After lunch we heard from local poet (who also runs one of the hotels in town and works as a guide) about what drew her here from Saskatchewan and what she loves about this area. 

On and off over the past few days we have been following Willow Ptarmigan tracks around town, and this afternoon we finally got to see some. In winter, these birds are so fluffy and so camouflaged in white that they look like arctic hares until they move. Even their feet are covered (in this season) with fluffy white feathers. We found them hiding in a grove of scrubby willows (the buds are their main food source, hence their name).

We stopped for some pre-sunset pictures overlooking Hudson Bay on our way to town for dinner. Tonight we returned to the snow shoeing  location for our last round of aurora watching. The skies had been clear all afternoon, but clouded up again while we were at dinner. About 9 pm a stiff NW wind picked up, the sky cleared, the temperature plummeted.  We watched diffuse strands of aurora until well after midnight. At that point it was -15 with a windchill of -30. Although the aurora tracking systems predicted that the aurora would get stronger about 2 am, the temperature by then would have been -25 (-40 windchill) and we decided we had had enough. 

Pictured: trip mates dog sledding, sled dog, willow ptarmigan, pre-sunset, aurora