June 2014

Another action-filled month has passed by.

Helen has been very steady with her teaching commitments and we have a number of guests coming and going…both family and BnB guests. Her cooking and organization is top notch. We had a diversion to Singapore to celebrate 25 years of marriage. We debated a number of places to go to but decided Singapore was where we signed on the dotted line and spent most of the 25 years. We flew down on Sunday 15^th and had dinner with Nick and Sophia at Rochester Park…it was very nice too. On Monday, the actual anniversary, we went over to explore Gardens by the Bay….which was pretty amazing.  We had lunch near the Arts and Science Museum then went to the museum to look at the photo exhibition of Annie Liebowitz, which was very interesting. 

We had booked dinner at Luke Mangan’s Salt Grill on the 55^th floor of the Ion Building.  The idea is to get there just before sunset and see the transition from light to dark.  The staff knew it was our Anniversary and appropriately decorated Helen’s dessert and coffee. It was a very nice meal and an excellent celebration for 25 years and two daughters we are extremely proud of. The next morning Helen went to see her friends at Tanglin School and I had lunch with some of my ex-colleagues at IMCB. We flew back later that evening.

The images of Singapore need to be seen in a large size so I have them in a non-public file on my website; http://grguy.smugmug.com/Amazing-Singapore/n-J93fT/

Coco did not seem impressed to be taken from her comfortable existence for 3 nights at the local kennels…she was a bit traumatized for a day before settling back in. We will have to make some other arrangement in the future.

The BnB business has been steady we have had three lots of guests during June and the booking has currently been been blocked off for family visits. We already have a long booking for July and another for possibly 3 months

My brother David and Lyn arrived for 4 nights in the back half of the month. It was good to have a companion who understood why expletives were made during a rugby match. Fortunately the All Blacks played their best game against England and the game was all but over at half time. Even the dog did not have to go under the table with a hard hat in place at any time in the 80 minutes.

Nikki also arrived a day or so after David and Lyn. She had a traumatic trip when Malaysian Airlines, who can lose a plane without trace, had a world-wide computer crash and the staff were unable to check in passengers by hand. Two trips were made to the airport before she was safely home. She goes back to New Zealand on the 5^th July. She is currently in Hong Kong with her boyfriend who is doing a PhD in Okinawa. After 6 years of solid study Nikki wants to take a year off her medical studies next year and do some research at the Institute in Okinawa.

The busy half of the year for local nature photography draws to an end. The bee-eaters are in their final phase of feeding the chicks and will head north in July. I have been documenting a pair of Woodpeckers nesting at Air Hitam Dalam and written up the observations in an illustrated blog.: http://malaysianwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2014/06/common-flameback-woodpecker-nesting.html

The same location has a pair of friendly Blue-winged Pittas and I managed recently to get them in the same frame. A fish farm has been constructed on the periphery of this reserve in the last 2 years. There is a river nearby and I was amused to see half a dozen otters sneaking away from the fish farm in the post-dawn period recently.

With David and Lyn we have dined at several local restaurants and enjoyed the pub quiz at Healy Mac’s. We got a great start in the quiz winning the first round then fell in a hole for 3 rounds before winning the last round. We finished 3^rd but need to brush up on images of ancient and obscure pop groups and the intricacies of nursery rhymes. David and Lyn are holidaying in Koh Samui before heading home to Auckland.

We are in the grips of an El Nino weather pattern that will bring higher temperatures, dry conditions and smoke haze. Today (29^th) has been a bit of a maverick day in that it has rained all day……the garden appreciated it.

May 2014

Another month has slipped by and life goes on in Penang. May seemed to be a woodpecker month.

After the heart by-pass patient left we had another four people including a dog for 2 nights. They consisted of a young couple and their respective mothers. The dog was a teacup poodle which is the size below Coco. If anything the poodle was half an inch taller….so someone has been sold a pup. A few days later we had four young university students who were well behaved. There has been nothing since. It is currently the local school holidays.

Helen has been pretty steady with teaching and now has 12 students. Life is made a little difficult because two of them have the same name. Both Helen and Coco became a year older during the month. We went to an Indian restaurant for Helen’s birthday….the food was nice but the place was rather like a hawker centre or Indian Railway station.

The photography has proceeded steadily as it is still in the busy season. I have had a few Sunday excursions with a keen young local lawyer. His knowledge of birds is extensive. On one occasion we went to a place called Ulu Paip which consists of a forest surrounding a small fast flowing river. There are three elusive species that are pursued there. We sat in hides for an hour trying to lure one of them in but to no avail. We wandered down the road and my friend called in a Rufous Collared Kingfisher by mimicking the call himself. It sat around for a while and at one time a small ray of sunlight lit it beautifully. 

The most recent expedition was a 1.5 hour trip up towards the Thai border. The target was a nesting Bushy-crested Hornbill family. Unfortunately they fledged sometime during the prior week. We did get 4 fairly rare Checker-throated woodpeckers hang around in the vicinity for over 30 minutes. They even inspected the empty hornbill nest. Photography in a sunlit forest is difficult because of the dappled light and large differential in exposure values between light and shade. They do pause in reasonable places at times.

The Bee-eaters continue their nesting program at the Motocross track. Most nests are being fed now with a supply of dragonflies disappearing into cavities. 

My other current favourite place, Air Hitam Dalam is quite active too at the moment. I have said hello to the Barn Owl on several mornings before he goes to bed for the day and a pair of Blue-winged Pittas are an attraction there. One had a big tug-of-war with an earthworm. There is also a pair of Common Flameback Woodpeckers that appear to be nesting. They are not feeding the nest at the moment but are spending quite a long time in and around the nest. The male appears to do most sitting and was quite concerned when a squirrel got too close …..chasing him for some time around the trees.

Male Common Flameback Woodpecker (female below)

Male Streak-breasted Woodpecker

Hitam Dalam also has a variety of other birds....with various migrants through the season. The following are; a Black-naped oriole, a Black and Red Broadbill, an Asian Paradise Flycatcher (male) and a Squirrel gathering nesting material.

We have even had a bird performing locally at the end of the estate. A Red-billed Blue Magpie was seen performing mating flights. This species is not normally found in Malaysia. The nearest location would be Vietnam. It could be a vagrant or an escapee. Naturally his mating flights were a little fruitless with the nearest female in a cage or in the Indian sub-continent.

Helen and I went to a quiz last Friday night at a Mexican restaurant. There were four in our team with one passenger but we managed to get second.

Coco, now two, is doing well and enjoys her long walks and especially a run off the leash. The shot below was her first time at home

Dani has finished her year in Spain and goes back to the UK to work until the final academic year starts. Nikki will be with us for a couple of weeks at the end of June and we look forward to that. David and Lyn will also be here for some of that time. Finally someone will understand what I am swearing about during rugby matches,

Lastly we send our congratulations to David's granddaughter Holly for her great result in the World Yoga event in London and to the rest of the family and friends for their support.