Sabah, here I come!

Hired a car last Thursday and drove to Portland where I stayed with friends Dunc and Mish, Dunc took me to Lodmoor where I got excellent views of a Savi's Warbler. The bird could be heard 'reeling' (sounding like a fishing-reel being wound-in) as we got out of the car. He also managed to find at least 4 'reeling' Eurasian Nightjars, though I didn't have much luck with photographing them.

From there I visited some relatives in Wantage and long-lost friends near Wallingford who were attending a weekend-long Beerfest at their local. Bev and Phil live near the Chiltern Hills and have Red Kites flying over their house almost constantly.

Denham House

 Glenn, Phil and Bev

 Bev and Jim

From Bev's I drove on to West Wycombe and had a great evening with Alan and Wendy, Shelly, Jim and Sharron, we went out for dinner at an incredibly nice pub (Claiming to be the oldest freehouse in England) called the 'Royal Standard of England'  at Beaconsfield

Finally I made it to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah and today Marie and I headed out to Manukan and Sapi Islands in search of the very rare Tabon Scrubfowl and a spot of snorkelling,

 Marie

Giant Monitor Lizard

Female Mangrove Blue Flycatcher

 

Male Mangrove Blue Flycatcher

Cream-vented Bulbul?

The day went well but at 3.45pm we still hadn't seen the famous fowl and the boat returning us to KK was supposed to pick us up at 4!

 Then I saw a small babbler near the spot where Marie saw the fowls a couple of days earlier and directly in front of it, there was my first! (yee-haa!)

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