Borneo; Day 10 - Kinabatangan River & Gomantong Caves

   Laura stayed in bed this morning, so Romzi and I went out alone to try and track down some of the birds around the river that we had not yet found. There were several rare targets, top among these was Helmeted Hornbill and Bornean Ground Cuckoo. We headed downriver to try to find these, departing by 06:00 and by 06:30 we had heard them both responding within the same stretch of river.

   We started with the Ground Cuckoo, since it sounded close. The bird came after some effort and we saw it fly up within the understorey, but sadly it then immediately flew back down and despite our best efforts we could not get it to return, not for lack of trying. Our frustrations were quickly relieved however, as a couple of hundred metres further down the river we heard another individual, and this one did the right thing and sat for us to admire for an extended period. Although always obscured by some form of vegetation, we did get great views of the bird singing. Mission success.

  Next we returned to the Helmeted Hornbill, which was singing from a forested hillside. We did manage to spot the bird but it was extremely distant, although even at this range we could appreciate its size. Satisfied the bird was not coming closer, we switched our attention to finding Sabah Partridge, which we ultimately failed despite hearing a couple of birds that sounded close. The best of the rest for the morning were nice views of both Lesser Fish Eagle and Grey-headed Eagle.

  Once the morning boat trip had finished, we headed back to the Gomantong Caves, this time armed with a torch, to try find the swifts we had missed before. With the torch we could see the nests of the swifts, and found many Black Nest Swiftlets, and a few Mossy Nest Swiftlets, but I could not find any Edible Nest Swiftlets, despite my best efforts. Chatting to Romzi afterwards, it sounds like I did not dedicate enough effort in the correct place. Outside the cave, I had another new species with Scaly-crowned Babbler.

  After lunch and a quick nap, we headed out with Romzi again. Our main target for the afternoon was once again Sabah Partridge, and it did not take long at another site to track down a responsive bird that showed excellently. With the targets now all but wrapped up, we spent the rest of the afternoon looking for Hornbills, and managed the same Helmeted Hornbill still at a distance, as well as great views of White-crowned Hornbill that flew over us at the end of the afternoon. We also enjoyed fantastic views of several male Proboscis Monkeys, including a group of bachelor males, finally getting the encounter with these animals that I had hoped for.

  At night we spent the best part of three hours searching upstream for mammals, with some results. In the end we found three different Sunda Slow Loris, including one that was very low down in some reedbeds. Additionally, we encountered a Malayan Civet and a good number of Saltwater Crocodiles. It was not bad for a night cruise.