Whos keeping an eye on me....

Thursday 16 June 2011

Incoherently Rambling

Ladybower, Derwent Edge and Win Hill:

The forecast of rain was prominant from the off but we had agreed that at least a stretch of the legs would be a good idea before the inevitable heavy rain moved in..... so John, Gary, Peter and myself met at Ladybower Reservoir for our 13 mile circular ramble taking in the lovely high plataued moorlands of Derwent edge with a finishing peak of Win Hill.

Climbing Lead Hill
and looking down on Ladybower Reservoir with Win Hill opposite and Lose Hill far right


On the way up Lead Hill


Ladybower and the sullen skies


nearing the moorland of Derwent Edge


The 3 likely lads at the start of Derwent Edge
John, Gary, Peter


a rugged landscape... the Hurkling Stones


across the edge


Wheel Stones


Gritstone boulders, shaped by the elements


there is a face in there somewhere


where the Red Grouse call.... aswell as the Golden Plover, Skylark, Meadow Pipit and the beautiful Mountain Hares 

Leaving White Tor



and heading for the Salt Cellars


Gary making them look Big....


Gary making them look small ....


the peat landscape is very delicate in places and due to the traffic errosion slabs of stone have been helicoptered in to make pathways to save the areas most at risk


Dovestone Tor


even the sheep are taking shelter for the inevitable change in weather


trig point at Back Tor


yet another rocky outcrop high up on the moorlands


and yes another Trig Point is bagged by the Incoherent Ramblers


and just to make sure that I get in on the act... Bfb!


from Back Tor looking down to Lost Lad


Looking back up to Back Tor


Weather watch.... the clouds role in, however
it does make for a wonderful view.


the rain drove hard for the next 2 hours so a slow descent through the rolling counrtyside



and back down towards the reservoirs


while Win hill collected the rain clouds.... we figured that it could wait to be climbed on another day


Saturday 11 June 2011

Far out in the East: Week 2 Days 7 - 8

The journey had taken us North of the country to Malaysias national park...... Taman Negara. Since the original planning of the trip this was the bit I had really been looking forward to..... birding around parts of the worlds oldest rain-forest or is that jungle? anyway anticipation was high.

The first full days in the forest

I only had two expectations, one was to see the target bird..... Great Argus, the second was to enjoy countless new species of bird, mammal and insect in the wonderful rain forest environment.

The camp grounds provided the easiest birding: A handy fruiting tree close to the chalet provided some early morning entertainment..... although most of the action happened way up in the tree canopy some species gave good views
Asian Fairy Bluebird


while this pair of Chestnut Breasted Malkoha actually came lower down to check me out



Unsurprisingly we did well for woodpecker species, this Banded Woodpecker was one of a dozen or so seen on the trip


Not all the action happened under the canopy, this Brown Barbet had spotted a fruiting bush along one of the trails


The dappled light and dense vegatation always made photography hardwork, however the wonderful Black & Red Broadbill became quite a regular, we even had a sighting in the garden of our chalet



beakless..... and the only sighting I managed of this Banded Kingfisher


another species that popped up now and again were the Red Rumped Trogans


Plenty of other species were seen, but all too often gone in the blink of an eye, Great Iora, Eastern Crowned Warblers, White Rumped Sharma, a single Banded Pitta that took 3 of us 15 minutes to see while the fourth guy tried valiantly to point it out to us...... eventualy on hands and knees we spotted it through incredibly dense vegatation.... phew!!

Inbetween all this of course we were concious of the wereabouts of the Great Argus.... we past its favoured locations while walking a number of trails..... we even made 2 journies especially to see this species, sadely both days turned up nothing...... no problem we shall try again tomorrow.

of course it didnt stop us picking up more species, Raffles Malkoha, Asian Paradise Flycathers... including the incredible white morph, Black Thighed Falconette, Yellow & Black Broadbill, Striped Tit Babbler, Black naped Monarch, Olive backed Woodpeckers, Greater Coucal and plenty of Bulbul species.

Ashy Minivet


Chestnut winged Babbler