MALAYSIAN WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

Taman Negara is the largest park in Peninsular Malaysia and sprawls over three states. Taman Negara has several entrance points with Kuala Tahan being the best known. Taman Negara Merapoh or Taman Negara Sungai Relau is the least well known. GPS reference;  4° 40’50.18” 102 ° 03’25.00 Parks such as Taman Negara should be treated with reverence and a departing glimpse of how the natural world was bearing in mind the uninhibited logging and spreading contagion of palm oil plantations over much of the country. Getting there Merapoh is located along Federal Route 8, around 27 kilometers from Gua Musang, Kelantan. A 7 km road, which has a rather cryptic entrance, from Merapoh undulates through palm plantations to Sungai Relai.  From the Sungai Relau settlement a narrow sealed road crosses a bridge over the Relau River and connects to Kuala Juram. This 14km long road was built during the late 1980s by the Malaysian army. Most people visiting Sungai Relau do so for the pu

Good bird photography requires a number of elements to be in place: 1.      Interesting species 2.      Good directional light 3.      Tidy perches that have a ‘clean’ background 4.      An ability to get the subject within lens range 5.      Good photographic equipment #4 can be achieved by increasing the lens size, using a hide or having cooperative birds. Byram circa early 2012 and before had the entire elements in the list above. The confluence of different elements: the rubbish dump, the effluent ponds, semi-submerged skeletal trees, a mangrove estuary and coastal location conspired to bring a number of species to a small area. On my first visits in my SUV in late 2011 and early 2012 I was overwhelmed by the perched and swimming species that were boosted by Northern migrants enjoying a warmer climate. Blue-tailed Bee-eaters tossed insects in bushes adjacent to the road, Little Grebes chugged around the ponds and ran across the water when frighten