Sime Forest 15Nov07

From Con

Gim Cheong and I went to Sime Forest this morning after 2 previous attempts got rained out. Our mission was to photograph the Brown Hawk-Owl and the Short-tailed Babbler, photo and tape record for the record.

Brown Boobook showed up at the appointed hour 6:20 to 6:25am on the approved perch responding to playback. But very dark and hard to focus, so the picture is not very sharp.

Next the babbler. Starts calling at the correct time, 6:45am, but far away. Doesn't really respond to tape. Gim Cheong records a faint call as evidence. As time goes on, the babbler sounds nearer, so we walk further down the trail. Eventually we see movement in the bushes, and try to take pictures. Very difficult. Now it is starting to get lighter and lighter, and eventually the babbler sits on a perch for a few minutes preening itself, and we get plenty of pictures. Gim Cheong says hey this looks like a Short-tailed Babbler.

So there was a whole flock of about six or so Short-tailed Babblers, and they were very responsive to the correct MP3.

Brown Boobook

Short-tailed Babbler