For our first full day on the Kinabatangan River with Romzi we had a good selection of species that we wanted to target, both birds and mammals. Fortunately we were in good hands, as instead of a general wildlife cruise offered by most of the lodges and companies, we had a private bird specialist and a boat all to ourselves.
We started the morning by heading downriver,
before checking out a few tributaries. Late morning we headed back upriver a
little before checking out a final tributary and being back at the hotel for
10:00. The birding was excellent, with several targets seen on this first
morning, notably the rare Storm’s Stork and the Bornean Swamp Babbler.
Additionally I had new species with Malaysian Blue Flycatcher, Black-headed
Bulbul, Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike, Brown Barbet and White-bellied Sea Eagle. It
was quite the selection to kickstart our birding along the river.
Mammals were also on the agenda, and we had
three species of primate which were new for me ands the trip. The highlight of
these was obviously the Proboscis Monkey, which looks fantastic with its odd
shaped nose. Sadly we only saw one male with a full nose, and he was quickly
off before I could manage a photo. We saw plenty of females and a few babies
however. The Silvered Leaf Monkey was also common and a good species to see.
Finally there was Long-tailed Macaque, which was another species of Macaque and
not much else to say.
After a rest and lunch, at 15:00 we headed
out with Romzi again. This time our main target was Bornean Pygmy Elephant, and
we assumed it would be an easy task. We did a little birding first but it was
too hot, and we saw little, so raced downriver to an area of Palm Oil
plantation where two elephants had been seen. We could just about see them, but
dozens of boats soon arrived and the animals moved off, meaning we were a
little disappointed with our encounter.
Still, the afternoon continued and after two
encounters with Saltwater Crocodiles, one of which was probably 2.5 metres
long, we again raced off upstream to find a group of 10 Elephants bathing in
the river, with babies in tow. It was a fantastic encounter, probably my best
ever elephant experience. And to wrap it off, a bull elephant was walking in
the forest behind us, although he never came out into the open. Very happy with
this, we headed back to the hotel for 18:30 where we had 90 minutes to prepare
for our night excursion.
Our night excursion did not bring the mega
mammal rarity that we hoped for, despite spending just over two hours
searching. There were two mammals that we found which were not rats, but both
of them were Common Palm Civet. Still it was enjoyable if not a little slow. We
got back to bed at 10:30, ready for the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment