Borneo; Day 13 - Lahad Datu & Danum Valley

   Although the plan for the day was to travel to the famous Danum Valley, we had a bit of time before breakfast, so I took the opportunity to visit a couple of places around Lahad Datu to try and find the Nankeen Night Heron. My first location, a channel flanked by mangroves but opposite a harbour was incredibly busy and with the high tide, I decided not worth the effort. So I travelled to the other side of town, where there is a heronry. Here I was able to find an adult Nankeen Night Heron on a nest, as well as a juvenile. However, the area felt a little sketchy, so I did not linger too long once was mission was completed.

  At the hotel we packed and had breakfast, before heading to the offices of Danum Valley. We arrived a little early, but since we were the only clients going to the field station today we were able to set off at 09:00, as opposed to the originally scheduled 09:30. It took two-and-a-half hours to reach the field centre, and once there we had a good few hours to unwind before our first activity in the afternoon at 15:30. The only thing we saw of any note was a rare Asian Forest Tortoise, sat in the road as we headed to Danum. 

  In the afternoon we met our guide Jonathan and we set off into the forest on our first trail. The target for the afternoon was Blue-headed Pitta, although we did not find it. Instead we found two other great targets, the first being the iconic Bornean Bristlehead, which gave us the run around in the canopy before we got good views. The second gave us an even bigger run around; the Black-throated Wren-Babbler. Despite singing seemingly right in front of us, even with the thermal it remained out of sight, until a great eyes-only view of the bird as it emerged in front of us, before it once again flew away.

   The backup cast was not bad either, with a new mammal for us with Red Leaf Monkey, and a smattering of other new birds. First was White-crowned Forktail, the local subspecies of which is in-line for a split. We then added Thick-billed Spiderhunter, Olive-backed Woodpecker and Fluffy-backed Tit-Babbler. On our way back to the lodge we added Buff-necked Woodpecker and had nice views of the White-fronted Falconet again. 

  At night we did a night drive along the forest road. This involved getting into the back of a wagon, which had been fitted with seats, and then driving for about 90 minutes. The spotlighting was done by a member of the site team, although we positioned ourselves right behind the spotter, from where I was able to use the thermal to see things.

  And it was a great success. We enjoyed two fantastic mammals, with a Malay Civet running in the road, but also a surprise Sunda Leopard Cat! For the cat, we had already stopped to look at some sleeping Black-and-red Broadbills, when it walked across the road in front of us. Additionally, we saw Sambar deer, as well as Brown Wood Owl and a sleeping Malay Fireback.