By Ian Hall Rounding a bend in the trail I spotted something large, blue and pitta-like bouncing away from me. Boing! boing! boing! and it was gone. I knew immediately what it was even though I had never seen one before. Damn! Damn! Damn! I cursed. There was no question that that was a Giant Pitta but in the arcane world of bird watching this could only be described as an un-tickable sighting. I needed to get another look. I tiptoed forward, pausing I scanned the forest floor and half imagined that I saw something blue....

Text and photos by Ian Hall Trogon photos by John & Jemi Holmes Not every day is a trogon day but sometimes when you head into the forest there is a feeling of expectation that you’ll see a trogon. Of course in those circumstances you never see one and it’s when you least expect it that they put in an appearance. This trogon day started out like any other. I packed up my laptop at 4pm as usual and got ready for a walk in the forest. There is usually a little motivational inertia to overcome before going out, but today...

Plain-pouched Hornbills in flight photo by Jasmin & John Steed Other photos and text by Ian Hall 19th August 2008 It was five o clock in the evening and all the day’s heat was pouring out of the red earth of the bola sepak pitch. I had my umbrella to provide shade from the sun but it was awkward to hold binoculars and monitor a telescope with only one free hand. Luckily the evening hornbill flight does not really get going until 6pm but we had to be there at five to ensure that the count included the early...

Text by Peter Stevens Photos by Ian Hall INTRODUCTION From November 7th to 15th 2005, I had the opportunity to trek and bird watch in the Maliau Basin Conservation Area, Sabah, Malaysia. I was accompanied on the trip by Ian Hall, who at that time was working with Yayasan Sabah as a volunteer architect to identify and design ecologically-friendly visitor and research facilities within the conservation area. He has spent many weeks in all of the Yayasan Sabah-run forest reserves (Danum, Imbak, Maliau) and is an observant,...

I had heard of the Save Belum-Temengor Postcard Campaign but had no idea where Belum-Temengor was. An invitation to join the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Bird Group trip to Belum was a great incentive to find out more. The sum of my knowledge was that MNS had successfully motivated the Malaysian public to lobby the government on an issue of environmental conservation. The cessation of logging in Temengor and the gazettement of Royal Belum as a State Park are remarkable achievements and a source of optimism for protection...