Spending the previous night in Grik, Ah Lak and I drove to our destination early in the morning. On the way, we had a beautiful view of the East-West highway and the forest basked in the morning sun. We reached the workers quarters area at about 8.30 am. Most workers were away for the long weekend but those who stayed back were just about to have their breakfast. After a short rest, we proceeded to bird our way into the hut area at the third bridge.

With high hopes, we stopped at the parking bay where we saw the Red-naped Trogon and waited. No luck, there were only some bulbuls and treeswifts. No sign or calls of any trogon around this time.

Further down, we found a fruiting tree where many Asian Fairly Bluebirds, bulbuls and barbets came and fed. However, the tree was too tall and we had to look into the midday sun and so did not stay long. Later, we learnt from one of the workers that hornbills had been seen feeding at this part of the track.

As we went on,  we found a Black-and-yellow Broadbill hiding inside a tree. While Ah Lak was trying to digiscope it, he whispered 'hornbills, hornbills' because his acute sense of hearing had picked up the wing flaps of flying birds. A pair of White-crowned Hornbills were flying quite low gracefully from our right to the left. Although I had a good view of the birds through the bins, they did not stop and so we were not able to attempt any shots. Another pair of Wreathed Hornbills also flew along the same path later. We suspect this area lies within the flight path of hornbills.

Reaching the hut, it was around 1 pm, and so we prepared lunch and ate. I went into the river and found that the water was pristine, but the water very cold even at 2 pm in the afternoon. I knew I would not be able to take my bath in the evening, so I immediately had my bath. After that, the sky was overcast and it's just nice for an afternoon nap for both of us. By the time we woke up, the rain had come and gone, and the sky was clear again. Kanda and company had also arrived and were getting settled down.

Ah Lak and I packed our digiscoping and birding gears into my Jimny and we explored the ungraveled part of the track beyond the hut. It was quite steep and slippery. I found a place to park the vehicle and we got down to walk up. I was reluctant to take out all my video gears because of the slippery road. Fortunately and unfortunately, a family of Orange-backed Woodpeckers was found only about fifty meter above the area where I parked. Ah Lak was too close to them to have a good view. I was further back to be in a better position to see the fieldmarkes of the male. Later, we saw the same family near the area when Ah Lak had a better look at the females. However, they were again too fast for any photos.

On coming down, we had to be contented with a cooperative Grey-headed Flycatchers which allowed us to photo at close range.Good photos and videos despite the bad light.

We prepared dinner, ate and rested. By about 9 pm, both Ah Lak and I were already restless and itching to see what we could find at night. I drove my jeep slowing along the track, heading back towards the worker's quarters. On the way, we found several flying squirrels, all of which were too shy for any digiscoping. On also spotted one entirely black squirrel and this too was shy and left the tree before we could setup our digiscoping. On the way back to the hut, we finally found two squirrels which appeared to be more cooperative. In the same tree, a big pale shadow was vaguely seen perched quitely. We were both very excited. "It must be an owl!" When we had all our lights one the bird and looked through our digicam and videos, I then realized that it was a Blyth's Hawkeagle.

The following morning, we birded along the same track towards the workers quarters. Just before crossing the third bridge, Ah Lak saw a Chestnut-naped Forktail but it was very shy. Immediately after the bridge, I heard a whistling call from the valley below the road. I had heard similar calls at Taman Negara Sg Relau before and it was either the Malayan Rail Babbler or the Garnet's Pitta. After waiting for about 45 minutes, the bird refused to come out into the open so we did not know what it was.

We went back to the Asian Fairly Bluebird tree and as expected, found similar species of birds busily feeding in it. In addition, I saw an Asian Paradise Flycatcher, rufous, long-tailed morph but could not take a shot at it.

We then went to the Trogon area again. It was similarly quite as the day before but a few Grey-bellied Bulbuls gave us some decent shots. Soon, we had to head for home as it was already past noon and light drizzle began to make birding more and more difficult.

(Report by Dr Chan Kai Soon)