Sabah trip, Day 10: 5th June, Kinabalu Park

The many moods of Mount Kinabalu: at night ...



At dawn ...




Mid-morning ...



Late afternoon.

I was up at dawn to do battle again with the horseflies on the BUT, which this time was even more birdless than yesterday. I tried walking both ways along it, and spent some time around the power station, adding Golden-naped Barbet, Sunda Laughingthrush and Bornean Whistler as new birds.


One of a group of Sunda Laughingthrushes.



The rats' place around the rubbish dump had been taken by numerous Bornean Ground Squirrels.

The Silau-Silau Trail was the same story as the BUT - almost completely birdless.

I decided to try lower down the mountain, and trekked up the Pandanus Trail, which was apparently built for the 15th World Mountain Running Trophy race, held in 1999. It was hard enough to walk up it, I just can't imagine running up it! It was a bit more birdy however, with good views obtained of Yellow-breasted Warblers, Black-capped White-eyes, a juv Indigo Flycatcher, an Eye-browed Jungle Flycatcher and several Mountain Leaf Warblers.



The best I could do of this tiny Yellow-breasted Warbler, reminiscent in both size and call of goldcrests in the UK.



A juvenile Indigo Flycatcher was characteristically confiding.



Black-capped is the common white-eye species on the mountain slopes.



Several Mountain Leaf Warblers were singing and holding territory. Birds here tend to be less yellow than the birds on the Peninsula. I was intrigued by the variation in lower mandible markings. This one has a prominent dark tip ...



...while this one appears to have an unmarked yellowish-orange lower mandible.



And how about this one? An almost completely dark lower mandible and a strong yellow suffusion overall. A juvenile bird perhaps, as it seems to be in pristine plumage. Note also the greyish-blue legs, compared to the others which have flesh pink legs. Obviously quite a variable species!

At lunchtime I met a couple of birders from Spain who were having a similar lack of success on the trails. They had seen neither of the partridges, none of the Whitehead's trio, nor any other of the biggies (such as the Fruithunter and Everett's Thrush). After lunch I decided to visit the Zoology Dept above the HQ to try to find someone who could give me some pointers. I spoke to a guy called David Simpongon, who's main speciality is snakes, but who seemed to know quite a bit about the birds too. He thought the lack of birdlife on the trails may be due to the lack of rain.

I spent a couple of hours photographing the swiftlets that nest all around the HQ buildings.



What's going on here then?! This is supposedly Glossy Swiftlet, 'Collocalia esculenta cyanoptila', the same race that occurs in Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, yet it is very different, with a far paler belly (gleaming white in fact!). I've photographed Glossy Swiftlets in Sarawak and on the Peninsula, and in both places, the belly is grey, noticeably paler than the glossy blue-black upperparts, but nothing like as pale as this. Check out the difference here. These birds seem chunkier and not so sharp-winged as 'normal' C.e.cyanoptila





The bluish gloss on the upperparts identifies this as a Glossy Swiftlet. Cave Swiftlet, which McKinnon notes as occurring on Mount Kinabalu, has a greenish gloss to the upperparts. Hmm ... still not fully convinced this is the same as C.e.cyanoptila that we see in other parts of the country.

In the late afternoon I tried the top of the Liwagu Trail, which follows the river Liwagu. I came across a Whitehead's Broadbill nest, which, unfortunately for me, was unattended by any birds.

In my notebook I summarised the day thus: 'Slogged trails from dawn till dusk with scant reward!' I had expected Danum Valley to be hard, but actually, it was easy compared to this.

Sabah trip, Day 9: 4th June, KK - Kinabalu Park

We set out for Kinabalu Park HQ at about 6am in a car we hired from John Nair. We were recommended to him by some other birders who'd used him, and indeed the car proved very good, and substantially cheaper than anyone else, RM120/day. John's main trade is a nature tour guide - we got a bit of gen from him about where to see certain birds in the Park, but he also does car hire as well. His contact is nair_john@yahoo.com.

Before leaving, we asked the way to the Park, and were told, in typical 'Chinese English', so I thought, to follow the 'Tamparuli Road'. I assumed this meant ' the temporary road' until I looked at the map and found there was indeed a place called Tamparuli!

The trip to the park is about 88km and took us a leisurely 2 hours or so. Just before arriving at the Park entrance, we spotted a serpent eagle soaring in a valley off to our left. It wasn't a good place to pull the car over so we drove on, so we missed a potential Mountain Serpent Eagle. It was the only raptor we saw on this part of the trip!



A view of the peak from the south. The top of the impressive Kedamaian waterfall is visible at the centre of the picture.

Mount Kinabalu has a phenomenal level of endemism - species that occur nowhere else in the world. For example, there are 50 species of fern found only here, as well as 13 species of Nepenthes - the spectacular tropical pitcher plants. No bird species are endemic to the mountain, but the Park holds 17 bird species endemic to Borneo. I decided my top four target birds were the Whitehead's trio - Whitehead's Trogon, Whitehead's Broadbill and Whitehead's Spiderhunter - and the stunning Crimson-headed Partridge.

After arriving about 8.15am, I spent the morning walking the Bukit Ular trail, which is the highest trail accessible without a permit, finishing just below the power station, at 6,000ft. It is a hotspot apparently for many of the endemic species, but was incredibly silent and birdless that morning! I managed to see a flock of Bare-headed Laughingthrushes (recently split from Black Laughingthrush), a Maroon Woodpecker, a pair of Bornean Whistling Thrushes (another recent split from Sunda Whistling Thrush), and a frustrating glimpse of a single dark partridge. One unique and annoying feature of the Bukit Ular Trail (or BUT for short!) is the presence of hordes of attentive horseflies. I couldn't decide which was more annoying - their buzzing or their bite! They weren't very sprightly, and had a habit of getting entangled in my hair, which only increased the annoyance factor! Insect repellent seemed to have no effect on them. In the end the only effective strategy I could come up with was to sit down for 5 minutes and kill every horsefly around. That would then ensure 10 minutes or so of relative peace, but by then, my arm waving and the sound of me slapping various parts of my body had probably driven most birds deep into the jungle!

The Silai-Silau trail was mercifully freer of horseflies, but similarly birdless. I added only 2 species to my list - White-throated Fantail and the ubiquitous Grey-throated Babbler.



Nice bird, shame about the leaf! A Grey-throated Babbler.

Around lunchtime I gave up on the trails and met up with my family at the plush Liwagu Restaurant. From the balcony we overlooked a fruiting Kerosene Tree. The oil inside the bright orange fruits is flammable, and used to be used for lamp oil by local people. It was proving to be a magnet for butterflies and birds, with Temminck's Sunbirds being particularly numerous.







This is more like it! Birding from the comfort of the restaurant balcony! There seemed to be ten or more of these Temminck's Sunbirds in this one tree.



Territorial disputes, or fights over females, were numerous. The males had a habit of flattening their crown feathers while puffing out the nape.



A Chestnut-crested Yuhina at a Kerosene fruit. These Yuhinas were the most prominent species in the Park, travelling in highly active, noisy flocks.

Although the views were spectacular, we decided the menu was a bit on the pricey side, so we moved to the Balsam Cafe near the Park Gate for lunch. This proved a good move, as we were able to get brilliant views of a number of Black-sided Flowerpeckers which were coming down to feed on the Kinabalu Nutmeg plants alongside the entrance path, just feet away from oblivious passers-by!



This male Black-sided Flowerpecker waited patiently for an opportunity to fly down to the berries...



Patience rewarded!



Juveniles seemed to be sexable from an early age.
This is obviously a young male.



A slightly older male, with a dark bill and less of a gape flange.



This is presumably a juvenile female. Oddly, I didn't see any adult females.

After lunch we travelled to Mesilau Nature Resort, which is about half an hour from the HQ. We had booked into the Bishop's Head hostel here. Upon arrival we had a good view of an extraordinary ferret-like animal - bright orange with a creamy tip to its bushy tail - a Malay Weasel. That sighting alone made our visit worthwhile, but sadly the hostel was in a very bad state of repair - showers and some lights not working, the verandah rotted away, and we immediately saked to be transfered back to accommodation at the HQ. Our request was accommodated without any problems, and while reloading the car, I had a good view of a Flavescent Bulbul, which proved to be the only one of the trip.




The highlights on this one got rather blown out by my flash.

We arrived back at the HQ before dusk and settled into the Peak Lodge for 2 nights - MUCH better!

A night drive upto the Tempohon Gate produced a possible calling Reddish Scops Owl (a high pitched scops owl type call), and a delightful Kinabalu Horned Toad, and, behind the rubbish dump, a number of Kinabalu Giant Long-tailed Rats, which even my daughters admitted, were cute!



A Kinabalu Horned Toad doing its best to be a dead leaf!



Have you noticed how people never seem to see 'normal-sized' rats? They always seem to be 'as big as a cat' or bigger! But these guys really are big! They also have extremely long tails (hence the name), but with their chestnut fur, white belly and big round ears, neither my wife nor daughters screamed; in fact they seemed to quite enjoy seeing them!

Sabah trip, Day 8: 3rd June, KK, Manukan Island

We stayed at Planet Kinabalu Backpacker's Lodge for our 2 nights in KK this time. Cheap and cheerful, we got an air-con room that sleeps 6 people and breakfast for all 4 of us for RM35 per night. Not bad! Charles the owner, insisted on making us breakfast whatever time we got up, including 4am on the day we left, and offered to drive us anywhere for no charge if it was under 10km. He also offers Astro and DIY laundry facilities, the latter of which was very useful!



We woke up on Sunday morning to find ourselves overlooking the colourful Sunday market.

We walked to Jesselton Jetty after breakfast to catch a ferry to Pulau Manukan, one of the five islands making up the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park just offshore. We found we had to pay a fee for stepping onto the jetty, another for the boat, and yet another for landing on the island, which seemed a bit much! At first they wanted to charge me RM10 for the landing fee, but after I asked in Bahasa Malaysia how much I would have to pay if I were a local, they let me on for RM3!



The jetty was a wonderful place to watch shoals of colourful fish, which were being fed chunks of bread by the newly arrived tourists.



This garfish didn't seem to be after the bread; perhaps it was more interested in the fish that came for the bread!

I took a walk along the jogging track that runs along one side of the island, hoping to see Tabon Scrubfowl, which is apparently active mostly in the early morning. I drew a blank with the scrubfowl, and with Mangrove Blue Flycatcher, though I did hear a number of blue flycatchers singing. Mangrove Whistlers, however, were common and easily seen.



I did see a couple of colourful skinks,this one, Mabuya rudis ...



...and even better, this one, Mabuya indeprensa

After drawing a blank on the scrubfowl, it was time to join the family on the beach!

Sabah Trip. Day 6-7: 1st -2nd June, Danum Valley Field Centre - Lahad Datu

Our last morning at this wonderful place. Spent a short time around the centre adding a few species to our list. We ended with a reasonable total (considering it was outside the migration season)of 117 if I remember correctly.



Green Imperial Pigeons were the common pigeon around the centre.



Being outside the forest in the early morning meant I got to see this spectacular sight - the sun's rays coming through the Binturong tree.

Just before getting in the van, we got a phone call from Lahad Datu airport to tell us that they'd brought Roger's flight forward - pretty efficient we thought - especially as he hadn't told them where he was going! Sadly, they also informed us that our flight had been cancelled, which meant we had the dubious pleasure of spending almost 24 hours in Lahad Datu!



What can we say about Lahad Datu? We spent some hours wandering around it; the highlights were this street magician, and a shop called 'Wangly Electrical Supplies'.

Sabah Trip. Day 5: 31st May, Danum Valley Field Centre

Our last full day at DVFC. We decided to try the Grid again, hoping for a repeat performance by the Black-and-Crimson Pitta, and perhaps another sought-after bird, Bornean Bristlehead.

Even before crossing the river, we were entertained by brilliant views of a pair of Rhinoceros Hornbills and then a pair of Wrinkled Hornbills, the latter our 6th species of hornbill.



The male Rhino Hornbill flies across the river in the early morning sun. His red eye distinguishes him from the female, which has a white eye.



This subadult Oriental Darter was one of several plying the river for fishing spots.

On the Grid, Roger had another brief view of the female Blue-headed Pitta, but there was no sight or sound of the Black-and-Crimson. A Giant Pitta called for some time too, but we never got anywhere near it, and it soon stopped.

Highlight of the morning was two separate sightings of Bornean Bristleheads, both times high in the canopy, and both times picked out by their peculiar wheezy calls. The first was a single bird which we watching bashing a caterpillar against a branch. The second was a group of about 6 birds which had us straining our necks yet again looking straight up into the tops of the trees. They were never in view long enough to get even a poor photo, so look here if you want to know what we saw!



While chasing the Bristleheads, I came across this Bornean Black Magpie. Quite different from the Black Magpie in the Peninsula, this one is all black apart from some brown on the nape and paler tips to the underside of the tail feathers. The tail also seems much shorter than on the Peninsula form.

We were both feeling pretty drained after 4 days hard slog in the forest, so we returned to the road in the early afternoon.



Me next to some rather magnificent buttress roots.Photo courtesy of R Jaensch






















I stopped to photograph a couple of stunning dragonflies on our way out of the forest. This one is, I think, Neurobasis longipes.



And this one I am pretty sure is Rhinagrion elopurae - quite a colour scheme!



Another beastie that stopped us in our tracks was this enormous pill bug. It must have been at least 2.5 inches long!



A female Black-and-Yellow Broadbill was a welcome roadside diversion on the walk back to the Centre.

In the early afternoon we had a fairly heavy rain shower. Fortunately we were already back at the restaurant by then. With the rain came the swiftlets. Most were Glossy Swiflets, but they were joined by a number of much larger, darker swiftlets, which we identified as Waterfall Swifts. These were approximately House Swift-sized, long-winged and sooty-blackish. The tail wasn't really forked , more notched, but the heavy rain may have had some influence on shape.



The best I could get of Waterfall Swift in difficult light.

I spent the late afternoon trying to photograph Silver-rumped Needletails from the bridge, once the rain had cleared.







I love swifts, and Silver-rumped Needletails are one of my favourites (just in case you hadn't guessed already!)

At dusk I went back to the huge fruiting fig outside our rest house, and once again the Binturong was on show. Binturongs are members of the civet family. They're mainly black, and have a long prehensile tail which they sometimes use to suspend themselves with when trying to reach fruit. This is one animal I've wanted to see in the wild for a very long time, but never really thought I would.



An old name for Binturong is Bear-cat, and it's not to difficult to see the resemblance to both these animals.



Those are pretty fearsome looking teeth, but the main item on the Binturong's menu is fruit.






















He finally spotted me, and spent about 5 minutes just gazing down at me from his perch, occasionally scratching behind one ear as if trying to work out what I was doing there! It was a magical moment, he was clearly aware of my presence but seemed completely unafraid. Eventually he roused himself and ambled off along the branch in search of more fruit.

Our night walk was more productive in terms of mammals tonight.

First we came across a pair of Colugos (often erroneously referred to as Flying Lemurs).



We wondered whether the difference in colouration and marking was just individual variation, or an indication of either gender or maturity.






















The tree they were on had deeply grooved bark, which they appeared to be licking with gusto. We couldn't see any insects on the bark, so presumed they were after the sap.



They were also curious to see what we were up to!

Apart from the Colugos we came across several Sambar deer, but sadly, no sign of the Brown Wood or Buffy Fish Owls that are seen quite regularly here.