A Plaintive Cuckoo in plain sight

View of the park  18 Dec'16

 It looks like a lazy Sunday.  At around 7 am I took a walk around the park to check out the greenery and nature.  The mix of leaves, branches and colour are a delight to my eyes, as I wander around the park to seek for surprises.  This year the month of December has been a let down.  It should be raining on daily basis but for about a week now the rainy monsoon left no down pours. The ground thus remain dry where ever I walked.  Have the global climatic changes elsewhere resulted in a drier monsoon for Bintulu? I am fortunate to be engulfed by massive structures of greenery as I walked underneath the canopy of tall trees of various species. This is the kind of living world that I seek, a silent walk in nature to help  re-collect my mind as often as possible.  The surrounding landscape makes me admire nature for the many stories it want to tell me. And today nature gives me a rare insight into one of its bird species.  For about an hour I was hearing the familiar call of the Plaintive Cuckoo, a bird more heard than seen in Bintulu.  In my mind it must have signaled me to hunt for the bird and perhaps photograph it.  I was camera ready when I saw the Plaintive cuckoo in plain sight.  It was perching on the branches of a dying Cempedak tree.  I took several shots of it from various angles to capture what was once a tremendous challenge for me.  This morning walk was well paid for with the capture of the bird and the music it made.  The Plaintive Cuckoos utters an ascending call which I hear every day in the morning and evening but fail to capture the origin until today.  The call sounds like " teet- teet- teet -teet ta ta tay".  In zooming the pictures, I noticed it has a grey head, neck and upper breast.  Its lower breast to under-tail coverts has a pastel orange colour.  Its feet yellow and has a black bill.  What strikes me was the position of its perching, as if it was sitting upright and  parrallel to the branch.  Indeed this morning walk was a moment of truth for me with the sighting of the Plaintive Cuckoo.

Plaintive Cuckoo seen at a distance 

Close-up of the Plaintive Cuckoo.
Location : Zone E

Early to walk, eager to work

Plantain squirrel scavenging for insects

Nimbled by squirrel

 Went about the park early.  The morning seemed cloudy and hopefully there'll be no rain, not before the harvesting of the fresh fruit bunches are done with.  A Plantain squirrel was busily hunting for insects at the very end of the branches.  On ground level some ripe fruits of the oil palm bore marks of being eaten by the squirrel.  The main produce of the park that helps to sustain its operation are these oil palm fruits.  Today is harvesting day and the ffb will need to be exported to the wholesale buyers or middlemen buyers later in the day.  At ramp price (i.e. the collecting/buying center) the price per ton is about RM 300 currently.  Before starting work  I stumbled upon a Blue Glassy Tiger when walking through the Botanic Island One....The day is gonna be a fruitful one...hopefully.

Close-up of the oil palm fruit

Blue Glassy Tiger

Walk in Botanic Island One

Oil palm fresh fruit bunches (ffb)

Early mornng rush

Plantain squirrel joins the early morning rush for ripe fruits..

Kantan - Torch Ginger

 It was a pleasant morning walk.  Despite the puasa or fasting  I seldom miss an early morning walk in the park.  There is always something invigorating watching the early morning birds twitter and dash for the early morning seeds.  Soon many other birds join in the early morning rush for insects, nectar and ripening fruits.  Today many plantain squirrels showed their natural skills,  effortlessly climbing tall huge trees, jumping from branch to branch and often nibbling vigorously at some ripe oil palm fruits to their hearts content.  At the start of day, the flowers of the Kantan (Etlingera elatior) shows its pink bracts, looking fresh in the early morning dew.  These sharply spicy-fragrant inflorescences are very much sought after by chefs in Malaysia in the making of the 'laksa' dish. The morning never fails to brighten up one's spirits.  The shining red colour of the common hibiscus called Bunga Raya in Malay start to bloom early every morning throughout the year.  This variety which was picked as the national flower of Malaysia in 1957  has single red and semi-pendulous flowers.  It is nice to see how nature tries to captivate one's attention in its early morning rush ..... 

Bunga Raya - national flower of Malaysia
Family : Malvaceae - Hibiscus family

Saturday morning walk

 It's a Saturday morning walk in the park with Mama Daisy.  We were trying to catch the early birds.  On top of the tree perches we saw a pair of bulbuls roosting and singing out loud.  Then met with another pair of bee-eaters taking a rest after swooping down below for some bees probably.  We took a short 30 minutes walk to allow for Daisy's extra fat fall off the scale.  Flushing in the park this morning were the light orange and yellowish green flushes of a jungle tree species   and the beautiful dark orange and red flushes of the  'Kasai' fruit tree or Pometia pinnata.

Flushes of a jungle tree species

Kasai or Pometia pinnata