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