| These are images from videos taken during a trip to the Bala part of
the Hala-Bala Wildlife Research Station in south Thailand. The station
is about 30 km from the border town of Kolok. The area has a rich diversity
of birdlife (about 325 species) and many species of mammals. Eight of us
took a five-and-half hours drive from Ipoh to reach the station. A juvenile
male Wreathed Hornbill provided lots of excitement for us who are used
to seeing hornbills only in a glimpse when they fly across the sky in Malaysia.
In Bala, this juvenile was nursed by Yusoff (a station staff) since young and was around the station most of the time.
Its childish, playful behaviour and flying about the station is a joy to
look at. We logged 115 bird species, including the wreathed, rhinoceros,
white-crowned, helmeted, bushy-crested and black hornbills. The sight of
the helmeted hornbills gliding through the valley below on the first day
was especially memorable, although they were very far away.
Banded broadbills were calling practically everywhere and were seen
by most although somehow they always escaped my bins and camcorder lens.
A Chestnut-naped Forktail was around the station. Other highlights included
a pair of nesting Bat Hawk at the station, Violet Cuckoo (at several locations), Dark-throated
Oriole, Banded Kingfisher and several species of barbets. Aun Tiah saw
a green broadbill late one evening. A family of Great and a lone Wreathed Hornbill preening after rain were also observed.
Noisy tree frogs in the pond outside the visitor center provided us photographers with some action
at night. These included a few beautiful green species. However, our night
walk were otherwise unfruitful. Except for an East Asian Porcupine (found
behind the worker's kitchen, where else), we could not see the vocal Brown
Hawk Owl or the Collared Scops owl around the station. We even fail to find
the Javan Frogmouth (although the call was heard) which is supposed to
be around the station most of the time.
On the second day, we went to recce the Princess Sirithorn Peat Swamp
Forest (Phru Toa Daeng Peat Swamp Forest area)near Kolok. Not much action there except for a Black-and-red broadbill and a Common Kingfisher. The bird list compiled from notes taken by Lim Aun Tiah, Sharon and other trip members includes 106 species from Bala and another 8 from the Phru Toa Daeng Peat Swamp Forest area.
Admittedly, the still picture quality in some cases are not as best as I could wish for as the lighting was poor. Nonetheless, I have put them here as some species are rather difficult to video. I did not try to use progressive scan or the photo mode of the camcorder to obtain better stills.
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