Islands hold a particular mystique, they capture our imagination and hold it prisoner, filling our heads with romantic notions of shipwreck, isolation, escape and abandon. Who hasn’t entertained the notion of being able to own an island, be master of your own domain and sever ties with the everyday world? Well, some lucky people can... The post A Norfolk Island appeared first on WingSearch2020 ..read more

We’re now at the end of an all too brief visit to Honolulu, a 5 hour leap from Japan, rendering our body clocks somewhat confused. No sleep on the flight from Tokyo, too much spicy airline food, together with the aforesaid time differential initially resulted in feelings of nausea, lack of balance and general malaise.  However, all seems well now as I sit here with windows of our room open, allowing the rhythmic crashing of the waves on Waikiki Beach to create a soporific effect over this carcass of mine. I can look out at the bright blue Pacific, complete with its raft of surfers, and se ..read more

By way of change I’m writing this blog from the comfort of a fast moving train, the Shinkansen, better known as the bullet train. We’ve spent the past few days in Japan, firstly Kyoto and, until 30 minutes ago, Hiroshima. Tokyo beckons – we head that way at 200mph. This is the cultural section of the tour, and we’ve certainly taken in a lot of that; temples, shrines, palaces, castles as well as Japanese customs and general way of life. We’ve both been very favourably impressed with all. This is a well ordered, clean and decidedly efficient society, based on respect, politeness and a willingne ..read more

We have left Sabah and are arrowing through a very cloudy sky on a B737-800 back towards Kuala Lumpur where we spend a night before moving further east to Manila, so its bye bye, Borneo. There has been so much to see and record that it would take hours to set it all down, but I feel I should tie up a few loose ends. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know by now that I have a fetish (the only one I’m admitting to), about Bee-eaters, Rollers and Kingfishers. Indeed, there have been a couple of blogs dedicated to the quest to see some of these delights. The target in Borneo was t ..read more

Hornbills are large, impressive birds with some serious adornments to their thick decurved bills. There are eight species of hornbill in Borneo and the blurb of travel websites and brochures teasingly speculate that you might stand a chance of seeing them all. It’s good PR, but my friends, we know its not that easy. Nothing relating to nature ever is. However, whilst sweating around the Rainforest Discovery Centre at Sepilok for 3 hours or more at the beginning of the Bornean leg of this epic trek clockwise around the globe, we did find a solitary Black Hornbill croaking away at the top of a t ..read more

In the grounds of Tabin Wildlife Lodge, in fact dominating the entrance to the communal dining area, is a fruit laden tree. It is positively alive with wildlife of all kinds. This morning at 6am (we’re getting used to these early starts), twenty Rhinoceros Hornbills were feasting on the bounty, flipping the small red fruits into the air to deftly catch them with their enormously impressive bill. Around them a horde of bulbuls and bluebirds fed, gulping down the acorn sized fruit whole. A gibbon swung by, to secure his breakfast, and a black squirrel scurries up and down the branches to pick th ..read more

It’s a strange fact that there are parallels all around the world. In a past life when I worked at Ranworth in the midst of Broadland, I could look out on usually murky water and watch the swallows hawk insects for their young, swirling round twittering pleasantly as they did so. Here I am 15 years later looking out over the murky water of the Kinabatangan river in Borneo watching Pacific Swallows do just the same. They even look similar, sans tail streamers, and twitter happily in much the same way as do our prized spring visitors. What chiefly differentiates these scenes is the heat, here it ..read more

The loose target for Sri Lanka as far as bird sightings go, was a trio of Bee-eaters and Indian Roller. We got two bee-eaters, but the third, the Blue-tailed, have migrated north to breed so could not be seen. No matter, since two out of three ain’t bad (that would make a good song title). This left the problem of the Indian Roller, where sadly my research proved to be somewhat less that thorough. I thought they were common around Yala, but the look on the face of the local guide when I set him this challenge dented my confidence. It seems they are quite difficult to locate and although word s ..read more

‘STOP!’ A necessarily shouted command to our driver who is only able to hear us through a small window in the back of his cab. We come to a halt and there perched on a small twig a mere 3 yards away is a gorgeous little bee-eater, an Asian Green Bee-eater in fact. Small yet perfectly formed with its stunning, almost fluorescent, greens and blues reflecting the rays of a late afternoon sun that glints from its fiery red eye. The golden hour showing the rainbow coloured gem to perfection. That intimate acquaintance with a small, sleek bird is why we are here, at least it’s one of the prime reaso ..read more

Everywhere you go on this small island there are noddies, no little car, tinkling bell or Big Ears  though. These noddies are a form of tern that squawk at you from their intricately woven nests as you pass beneath, fly directly toward you and jink to one side within inches of your face, gather on the grass or white sandy beach in mixed groups and shuffle to one side as you gingerly step around them, or sit nonchalantly on fenceposts, steps, rooftops and branches totally oblivious to your presence. One decided to sit on our verandah within a couple of feet of us where it proceeding to pr ..read more