Avian Naturescapes

Photo Safari (#KG-DAY) Kuala Gula Day trip

Tuesday, 29, March 2011

Kuala Gula Day Trip - ex Penang

(Guiding fees, all transportation, 1 boat ride to the mangrove waterways for bird watching & photography, no meals, pick up & drop off anywhere in Penang,)

Includes the following :

-Comfortable & safe 4WD transport to Kuala Gula from Penang and back.
-1 private photo safari boat ride lasting about 4 hours
-guided photographic walking tour of Kuala Gula village and surrounding mangrove trails

Trip Highlights :

- private boat ride out to the mangrove waterways to see & photograph birds and other wildlife and to learn about the importance of the mangrove ecosystem.

- a visit to a floating soft shell crab farm with explanations on farming methods and also see how blood cockles are farmed & harvested.

- a visit to a charcoal kiln to see how it is still made in traditional dome shaped kilns.

Itinerary

Early morning departure from Penang at 0600hrs. We will arrive in the small fishing village of Kuala Gula in Perak by 0800hrs for the boat ride out to the mangrove waterways for bird watching and photography. From the boat, you will have easy access to the bird life of the area.

Kuala Gula is classified as an Important Birding Area (IBA) by Bird Life International and is one of the most important migratory bird stopovers in Peninsula Malaysia. The extensive tidal mudflats offer a tremendous food resource for the migrating birds in terms of crabs, fish and various crustaceans and the birds must stop here to rest and feed before proceeding on their journey south each northern autumn and winter. During the boat ride, you may expect to see a wide variety of birds (resident and migratory) including up to 5 species of kingfishers and 2 species of endangered storks. Depending on the timing of the bird migratory season, you may also expect to see thousands of shorebirds from the northern hemisphere mixed with egrets and herons.

You may expect to see 4 species of Egrets (Little, Intermediate, Great and Cattle Egrets), 3 or more species of Herons (Purple, Grey and Striated Herons), a variety of Kingfishers (Collared, White Throated, Stork Billed, Common and Black Capped Kingfishers) and 2 species of Storks (Milky Stork and the Lesser Adjutant). There will also be migratory shorebirds such as Common Sandpipers, Common Redshanks, Greenshanks, Wood Sandpipers, Marsh Sandpipers, Terek Sandpipers, Whimbrels, Godwits, Lesser & Greater Sand Plovers, Little Ringed Plovers and Pacific Golden Plovers. Raptors are also common with resident Brahminy Kites, White Bellied Sea Eagles and Crested Serpent Eagles start coming out as the air gets warmer in the later morning. Occasionally migrating Black Bazas and Oriental Honey Buzzards can be seen circling in the late morning thermals.

Mammal and other animal life are also abundant along the mangrove banks and you can see long tailed macaques, dusky leaf monkeys and water monitor lizards. Also on the boat ride, you will see the floating fish farms and experience how cockles are harvested from the rich cockle beds of the area. The importance of the mangrove ecosystem as a nursery of all seafood and as a rich tidal zone will also be explained.

Guided Instructional Photo Safaris by Choo Tse Chien

(if you have a group of 5 or more persons up to a maximum of 10 persons, please contact me for group rates)

-Validity from immediate to 31st October 2011 only
-Prices are valid for a fixed validity period and subject to revision whenever possible to allow for savings from off-peak periods and new promotions by the hotel.
-Trip is subject to a minimum of only 1 confirmed place.

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Notes

This is only a sample itinerary, and the routes and timing may change according to local weather & environmental conditions, but the content of the trip will remain essentially the same as stated above.

The guiding for all my Guided Nature Photo Safaris are not outsourced. Be assured that I, myself will be personally leading each and every one of the tours offered on this website.

This is a Instructional Guided Photo Safari.

Have no concerns if you are a beginner bird photographer as there will be full on-hand instructions & tips on site on actual shooting techniques so that you can learn to take great pictures on the fly. I will be there to guide you on proper camera metering, WB and exposure settings, proper handling techniques for your setup and also advice on the compositional and creative aspects of bird photography. Tips on techniques & tools used in post capture image editing will also be available after hours.

The peak hours for bird activity in Kuala Gula is from 0700hrs to 1100hrs and again from 1530hrs to 1700hrs.

All trips are available all year round, but prices may be adjusted for peak periods (school & public holidays).

Advance booking is required for adequate forward planning. Kindly allow minimum of 5 days prior to tour date.

Personal Travel Insurance

We strongly recommend that you purchase relevant & adequate travel insurance to cover your entire stay in Malaysia that includes this trip. Be assured that there is no high risk activity offered in this itinerary that is not covered by a standard travel insurance policy.

We can purchase travel insurance for you if you are not covered at an additional charge of MYR 70.00 per person.

Payment :

- Full payment can be made at pick up on the morning of the trip. Sorry, no personal cheques accepted.

Alternatively, advance payment can be made via fund transfer to any of the following bank accounts :

- Maybank (MBB) Account Number : 107152135075

- CIMB Bank Account Number : 07140006886059

(note - all under account holder name ”CHOO TSE CHIEN”)

Contact me at tsechien@me.com or by calling +60124748354 if you are interested in booking a place.

Upon arriving back on shore at about noon, we will proceed to have a seafood lunch in Kuala Gula village. We will depart Kuala Gula at about 1500hrs and aim to be back in Penang by 1700hrs.

En route back, we will make a visit to a traditional charcoal making brick kiln, one of the last dying trades in Malaysia where mangrove wood is slowly turned to high quality charcoal over a period of a month. Charcoal making has all but died out in the rest of Malaysia but this still is an important economic activity in this particular area.

You will quite likely see all these 5 species of kingfishers on the boat trips

Migratory shorebirds such as these pictured above are found in the mudflats around Kuala Gula making it a very important stop-over on their winter & spring migration runs.

Things to pack :

-a wide brimmed hat
-sunblock & mossie repellent
-a camera (with your longest lens for wildlife)
-a pair of binoculars
-and rain gear just in case....

Prices :

Visit one of the last remaining charcoal kilns in the country and see how charcoal is made.

As a gauge, MYR 3.00 is equivalent to roughly USD 1.00