guyznewz: 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.