Borneo; Day 3 - Mount Kinabalu

   Today would be the first of three full days that we would spend in the Kinabalu Park. Armed with our birders pass and a whole bunch of new species to find, we set off early morning to work our what we could find. We arrived at the main entrance gate at 05:45 and began to work out what the craic was. We assumed that the gate to the substation road up the mountain would also be open at that time, but apparently it only opened at 07:00, and since we knew these early hours were when we needed to find the rare Everett’s Thrush, we were at a bit of a loss. We spent the next 90 minutes birding around the lodges not seeing too much, but hearing plenty. It was not in vain however, as we were able to find our first Bornean Forktail.

  Once the gate was open we drove up the substation road to the Timpohon Gate, which is as far up the mountain we could go. From here we birded and slowly walked down the mountain for the duration of the morning, sticking to the main road rather than birding any of the trails. Near the top we had a lively group of Sunda Laughingthrushes, as well as Sunda Bush Warbler, Sunda Cuckooshrike and our first Mountain Leaf Warbler. Talking to a birding group, we just missed a Whiteheads Spiderhunter, which would have been a great species to see.

  As we continued down the road, passing the Kiau Gap Viewpoint, it became apparent just how difficult birding here could be, as we saw very little throughout the morning. As we descended the only target we managed to add was a Bornean Whistling Thrush, although we also added another Bornean Forktail. Otherwise the only new species we added was a smart Checker-throated Woodpecker.

  We retuned to the bottom of the road at 11:00, but since we couldn’t have lunch at the Liwagu Restaurant until 12:00 we spent an hour birding around the lodge. Here we encountered a surprising number of species, although mostly common species. That said, we added Yellow-breasted Warbler and Black-capped White-eye to our list of targets seen, and had our best views yet of Black-sided Flowerpiercer.

  After lunch, we decided to return up the mountain and bird along the Mempening Trail. It was already drizzling when we set off, but decided to make the most of it and we had the best part of an hour before the heavens truly opened. During this time we found the train quite lively, with several mixed-species flocks passing through, albeit with species seen earlier in the day. It was not until our final mixed species flock when we struck a key target when we spotted a Bornean Green Magpie in tow. It never showed well, but it was great to see this rare species! Additionally, we saw the rare Kinabalu Squirrel, an unexpected bonus for our afternoon walk in the rain.

  As mentioned, at 14:30 the heavens truly opened, so we beat a hasty retreat to our hotel to see what would happen. It carried on raining is what happened, so we spent the evening relaxing and recovering from our jetlag!