Blue Eyed Birder: Borneo for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 13

It dawned misty and close in the Danum Valley with almost none of the trees visible above those on the opposite bank of the river. The Lesser Fish Eagle was seen again briefly and an Oriental Darter looked a little incongruous sat up in a tree here while six Bushy Crested Hornbills flew silently across the valley. Our walk after breakfast was saw us on the track as the jungle came to life. The heat was oppressive and the weather apps said 36c – feels like 41c – never seen that before and the humidity was just shy of 100%. You stepped outside your room and watched your shirt change colour within a couple of minutes. It was a good job that we were all friends! I have never felt so sweaty and malodorous in my life and we all agreed that it was our bodies leeching out who knows what from our pores!

Bushy Crested Hornbills

Pacific Swallow

Stork-billed Kingfisher

A lot of those first four hours of the day was spent staring up into the canopy as we tracked roving mixed flocks and at this late stage I was at last getting my eye and to some degree my ear in. There were Barbets singing and we saw Red-throated and Black-eared and with some persistent searching a couple of fine Yellow-crowned which was new. An all green juvenile Red-bearded Bee-eater sat up on the wires and amongst the flocks of birds moving through we saw the ‘usual’ Bulbuls along with Yellow-bellied and Hairy-backed once again. There were Scarlet Minivets, Black & Yellow Broadbills, Velvet Fronted Nuthatches, Brown Fulvettas, Greater Green Leafbirds, Ventriloquial Orioles, Raffle’s Malkohas and even Sunda Crows. Large Wood-shrikes were seen for the first time since Poring Springs but Lesser Cuckoo-Shrike was a new addition. It was neck breaking work but the concrete slope up to the monstrous red and white telecom mast (apparently people complained about poor wifi at the Lodge…) helped reduced the angle somewhat and the best flocks were in that area too.

Down at ground level we repeated most of the Bulbuls (they are happy up or down) and there was plenty of Babbler action with Black-capped, Horsfield’s and Ferruginous seen and pesky Black-throated Wren-Babblers once again giving us the run around. The Striped Babbler was my favourite and on two occasions came right out onto the track to feed around us. One of my trip favourites along with his Black-capped buddy.

Striped Babbler

A short loop down to the river took us through our first leechy spot although we escaped unscathed. There were Babblers here too with good views of White-chested on the river bank and a brief look at Moustached on the way back out. A female Scarlet-rumped Trogon gave us the evil eye and Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher sung in the gloom. It was so dark under the trees and I do not really know what any of the tourist who get taken off the main track actually see?

Tiger Leech

Scarlet-rumped Trogon

You can't have too many Stork-billed Kingfishers

A Rufous-backed Dwarf Kingfisher was feeding a fledged youngster but the colours bled away with ease down there but we did see a Large Treeshrew fossicking in the leaf litter. The Blue-headed Pitta was not where we saw him yesterday but one was up by the main path and we saw him a couple of times. If he stood still it just faded away unlike the brazen White-capped Forktails that paraded up and down the track around us where Yellow-eared and Little Spiderhunters were zipping in and out of the Gingers once again.

It had gone dark and the air was so heavy but it was only 10am and rain is apparently meant to be an afternoon thing. Piece of advice; always take your poncho out with you regardless of the hour! The sky split asunder and a deluge of biblical proportions descended on us. There was just time to cover the gear and start walking but we were a good 20 minutes from the Lodge.

I am not sure we could have got any wetter. There was no point running or lurking under a Taro leaf. It pulsed, almost like a warm shower on power mode with a little air in the pipes. I back marked to make sure everyone was accounted for but you can’t turn off my birding ears and I heard a couple of raucous Woodpeckers coming in. They landed in the tree in front and I could see the white upper back and orangey lower telling me I had found Orange-backed Woodpeckers, the only bird seen by others and not me on the trip so far! As such I risked taking a couple of shots to prove my luck!

Orange-backed Woodpecker

I caught up a lagging Jane and we found the others sought of sheltering under a roofed display board but I was so wet by then that I said ta ta and kept going the Lodge a few hundred metres further on where we were met by dry staff with huge towels!

Roger was so far past wet...

There was just time to dry out back in the rooms before sloshing back for lunch but not before I had seen a Dwarf Kingfisher from my room fishing in the now flowing stream outside! I put my swimming shorts and vest and found a pair of flipflops and for the only time this trip actually looked like a tourist.

Rufous-backed Dwarf Kingfisher from my veranda

After food we all headed back to change in to more appropriate clothing and a small gaggle of people on my porch suggested something good and indeed there was with a young Orangutan slowly grazing in the trees above my room. She seemed quite content and was as happy sucking moss and lichen on the trunks as plucking leaves.

Orangutan

Afterwards, I walked back down to the river where Yvonne and Jane were chilling and watching the river, the flow of which had somewhat changed in the preceding couple of hours and was now at least a metre higher than in the morning and was a raging brown torrent.

The rain made itself felt

While Jane had some nice young bar man help her in the removal of a Brown Leech that was slowly working its way up her belly, I was trying to find a mystery calling bird and soon picked up a very smart Grey-bellied Bulbul in the riverside trees. An easy species to identify decked out in bright olive and grey with a sulphur yellow vent. A pair of Rufous-tailed Tailorbirds showed below us along with a stunning male Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker which put on quite a show. A glance to the right and the Lesser Fish Eagle was back but now sitting on a log and posing nicely. A fierce looking eagle and surprisingly slight compared to the very similar Grey-headed Fish-Eagle.

Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker

Grey-bellied Bulbul

Rufous-tailed Tailorbird

Lesser Fish Eagle

The Bold-striped Tit-Babblers were in the garden with some Charlotte’s Bulbuls and I found a very slender Brown Striped Bronze-back snake lounging across some lower branches. The rain had changed one thing – Leeches. Stripy Tiger Leeches were now everywhere and once we all reconvened there was a quick heads up about being even more aware of not brushing against trackside vegetation. They were questing off so many leaves!

Brown Striped Bronze-back

It was still trying to rain and I had left my camera behind to dry out and the ponchos were already on but it was so sweaty underneath! We started well with a wonderful display from the White-capped Forktails. The black disappeared but the white shone through. We spent more quality time searching flocks and got better views of the Yellow-bellied Bulbuls and added Cream-eyed too while associated Babblers gave us Sooty Capped and two new ones together – Rufous Crowned and Scaly Crowned.

The Barbets were still tocking away and we added Brown Barbet to the day tally which as usual were in a small group and a solitary Great Slaty Woodpecker bounded over and at the other end of the scale we again saw Rufous Piculet. An Indian Cuckoo was singing – another Sri Lankan ‘heard only’ and remained so and Blue-headed and Black-crowned Pittas were whistling as the evening wore on Sabah Partridges started up deep in the jungle. A pair of Rhinoceros Hornbills were heading off to roost switching from single calls when perching to double when in flight.

The sapping heat had dwindled our numbers somewhat and only Yvonne and Jane had made it to the end of the walk and thus only they were treated to the sight of two male and a female Bornean Crested Fireback appearing on the track in front of us. There was enough light to appreciate the petrol sheens, blue face, burgundy back and glowing orange upper tail feathers and they seemed quite unconcerned by our presence and slowly ambled ahead before heading off down one of the tracks and into the darkening jungle.

Bornean Crested Fireback - Mr Lee