September--October 2015

The period…September to mid October in Penang is not usually the most buoyant time. September and October are the wettest months and the prevailing South-West monsoon brings smoke from the many forest-clearing fires in Indonesia. Nature photographic opportunities are almost nil as the local birds take shelter from smoke and rain. The haze this year was the worst it has been since 1997.  Singapore is closer to the hotspots and they have instigated legal proceedings against some of the major companies whose land is involved. Penang is usually at the northern limits of the smoke cloud and differential wind usually moves the menace away in a day or two. This year was different and at one point Phuket Airport…considerably north of us was closed down.

Nick Baker and I did however venture to Fraser’s Hill for 5 nights….hoping that it was generally above the smoke level. It was mostly but did also suffer. We spent 5 nights with Stephen Hogg and his family. They are in a location that if you are patient the wildlife will pass by. I did try the grounds of the derelict Jelai Resort that has continued to decline since closing. There is still some action there but the once productive gardens are becoming overgrown. One of the highlights staying at Stephen’s place is the nightly visit of ‘Bob’ the Masked Palm Civet. He had not been in for several nights and Stephen was worried. He did make appearances on all the nights that we were there. You realize staying in the middle of the rainforest what diversity is all around us….each morning there are hundreds of species of moths around the front door, varieties of spiders make homes in the moss-covered banks along the adjacent road, a Sultan tit flies through and perches a while. Black throated Sunbirds and Spiderhunters constantly taunt the photographer while noisily seeking nectar on the shrubs adjacent to the house. Wild boar can come onto the lawn at night…..and dig holes. Stephen has thwarted them by encircling the lawn with electric wires at night. Nick stated on the way up the hill that there was one species of squirrel that he had not photographed at Fraser’s Hill….one of the species ran around the lawn and trees most nights.

White-thighed Langur and baby

'Bob' the Masked Palm Civet 

Stephen setting up a camera trap to capture 'Bob'

There were two shots I was happy to get....the pair of Grey-chinned Minivets. The Male is on the left and female on the right. They are small and while not uncommon are quite elusive,

In the other shot I thought I had captured a type of rat until discussion revealed it to be a Short-tailed Gymnure. Interestingly Stephen was trying to capture one with a camera trap in another location. The nearest relative this species is the hedgehog. If you could imagine this character with spines you would be close in appearance to a hedgehog.

Other things happened in September….Eve and Craig in London welcomed Noah on the scene. Dani visited them a few weeks later and met the little man. The rugby world cup also dominated this period. It was well covered on local TV although the times of the matches were about as bad as they could be. I watched the nail-biting semi-final with NZ and South Africa from my hotel room in Tweed heads and Glen and I enjoyed the final at his place.

Past mid October I left for 3 weeks in Southern Queensland….it was a relief to leave the choking atmosphere behind

Southern Queensland October-November 2015

It was an honour to be asked to speak to the annual convention of the Australian Photographic Association.  I spent 3 weeks in Australia to maximise the trip. The first stop was a long weekend was with Glen and Debbie and the family. It is a very busy family these days; Glen is doing well as a mining consultant and works closely with two others in a similar situation. He spends quite a lot of time in the week on-site in more southern states. Debbie is working either night shifts or day shift in a surgical recovery ward, Nathan mixes school work with coaching and playing basketball and working at Hungry Jack’s, Hayley had a night sleeping in a cardboard box as a Guides project, Phoebe swims with Murphy, the chocolate brown Labrador and is constantly on the go. There is also a female Chinese student from Macau in the mix as she attends the local school.

After the first of my two spells with the family I hired a rental car and drove down to Tweed Heads. I was not given a lot of information on where I was staying but that was soon sorted out. The venue was the Twin Cities Club that is on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. This is quite confusing as the latter state has daylight saving but Queensland does not. It was agreed that all times of talks etc were to be on Queensland time. The beach was not far from my room and I spent most mornings photographing the surfers and the sunrises.  The rugby world cup was coming to a conclusion and I almost ate half of my duvet as the All Blacks clung to a narrow win over the Springboks in the middle of the Queensland /NSW night. I decided you needed someone around to appreciate the swearing.

One afternoon the migrating Sperm whales were close offshore and there was a festival of tail-smacking. The surf patrol were a little anxious at one point because one female and her calf were only 50 metres offshore. So great to see.

After a slightly indifferent start the convention was well run and very enjoyable. I gave a workshop and two talks, all of which seemed to go very well. The social evenings and local scenic trip, including local farms in the shadows of Mount Warning, were also well organised.

The following map shows where I stayed during my trip....excluding Brisbane.

After the convention ended I drove back to Brisbane and picked up the Jucy van that would be my home for the next few weeks. My first stop was O’Reilly’s in the Lamington Ranges. (yellow arrow) I stayed three nights in an adjacent camping ground and then one night at O’Reilly’s to charge my equipment as the camping ground did not have much more than chemical toilets. There were other folk there from the convention so it was good socially as well. Somewhat controversially O’Reilly’s feed the birds and most are looking for free handouts. This is somewhat against Government rules but they are a major tourist destination and rules are bent…….which can be useful for photographers. One of my prime interests was to get more shots of a different bowerbird at his bower and one Satin Bowerbird obliged nicely. This species prefer blue objects and they were well represented around the bachelor's pad; ice-cream spoons, bottle tops, straws, wire, cigarette lighters, and Mentos wrappers. The weather was mostly quite indifferent during most of my assigned photographic period.

I stayed the next night at Canungra (purple arrow) while trying to locate somewhere I could watch the Rugby World Cup final. Others seemingly had similar ideas. I decided in the end that Glen needed company so I headed back to Brisbane and spent another 2 nights there. Needless to say we were happy campers at the end of the night….or the start of the next day. I also watched Nathan play basketball and we celebrated Phoebe’s upcoming birthday. The kids plied the neighbourhood looking for calorific loot on Halloween night.

I was back in Canungra for the Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November. I watched the race in the local pub with many colourful, tattooed locals. I had done well in picking winners for the famous race in the past but did not consider the rank outsider Prince of Penzance. The pub was silent when the winner was declared. It is a story though tailor-made for a film…..the female jockey…one of 10 who was raised by a widowed father and suffered career-threatening injuries in pursuit of equality and opportunity. The horse also overcame bad injuries and even the trainer was not convinced the horse was a prospect. My horse finished a creditable 4^th in a race that lacked early pace. The camping ground had a babbling,  adjacent stream where even the ducklings arranged themselves in the arrow-head haka formation while the Water-dragons looked on from wooden perches.

Several dollars down I headed for Binna Burra that was, like O’Reilly’s in the Lamington Range (green arrow). It was entirely different however in that feeding birds was banned and species that sat on your should in other parts of the ranges could only be seen 500 metres away. I stayed for one night only and headed to a property further inland on the slopes of Mt Clunie  (blue arrow). 

The main feature of this location was a large garden in which many native species had been planted and nurtured. There was a good choice of nectar feeders and I spent two days in the vicinity. Again sullen weather interfered with shooting plans. One night the wind was so violent I thought the van may take off....fortunately this did not eventuate.

At this point I had two days left. I travelled south to the Granite Belt and stayed  two nights near Girraween (orange arrow). The area looked likely as kangaroos grazed in nearly fields but it was in essence ......quite dry in photographic terms. I was given a location of nesting Turquoise Parrots and this was useful. I spent the last evening in a cabin so I could sort and pack my gear for the flights back to Penang.

Overall I was very pleased with the trip; plusses were the success at the convention and catching up with Glen’s family. Photographically I did not have the same success as last year and this was due to indifferent weather and insufficient local information. I did have a guide lined up for a morning but he pulled out late due to other work commitments. I had information from a birders guidebook…but bird spotting and bird photography are as different as the current French and All Black rugby teams.

Here are two comments on my FB posting regarding the conference from senior members of APS

I am a firm believer in getting the best local knowledge when in an unfamiliar location.

Very soon after arriving back home I flew to Singapore to give a talk about Australian wildlife.