Explorations of an Ecologist: Borneo - Part 2 (Day 1 on Mount Kinabalu)

Introduction
October 3, 2017 - Day 1 on Mount Kinabalu
October 4, 2017 - Day 2 on Mount Kinabalu
October 5, 2017 - Poring Hot Springs
October 6, 2017 - Day 3 on Mount Kinabalu
October 7, 2017 - Day 1 at the Crocker Range
October 8, 2017 - Day 2 at the Crocker Range, Kota Kinabalu
October 9, 2017 - Klias Peatswamp Forest Reserve
October 10, 2017 - Arrival at Sepilok
October 11, 2017 - Sepilok
October 12, 2017 - Sepilok, travel up the Kinabatangan River
October 13, 2017 - Kinabatangan River
October 14, 2017 - Gomantong Caves, travel to the Danum Valley
October 15, 2017 - Day 1 at the Danum Valley
October 15, 2017 - Night Hiking in the Danum Valley

October 16, 2017 - Day 2 at the Danum Valley

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October 2, 2017

After nearly 36 hours in transit it felt great to touch down in Kota Kinabalu, located on the western coast of Sabah province in northern Borneo. The sun had set an hour earlier and a heavy downpour had soaked the landscape as we taxied to our gate. I had no issues dealing with the usual baggage and customs formalities at the airport, bought a local SIM card for my unlocked phone, and walked over to the kiosk for the rental agency I had prebooked with. I was soon on the road, feeling tired but certainly alert given the concentration required to navigate the busy streets during the heavy rain, while also driving on the left side of the road. The SIM card for my phone was a great idea and I used Google Maps to direct me across the city and onto the road leading up into the mountains. It took over two hours of driving and certainly would have taken longer if not for my frequent passing of trucks as they slowly chugged up the mountain. By 9:00 PM I pulled into the Kinabalu Pines Resort which I had hastily booked a couple of days earlier, checked in, and had a delicious dinner in the restaurant before heading to my room for the night. While the Kinabalu Pines Resort was quite overpriced compared to other accommodations in Kundasang, it was easily found off the main road, had good reviews, and allowed me to book four nights ahead of time online. Partly due to the decline in the value of the Malaysian Ringgit, the price was still quite palatable for a Canadian.

I was exhausted by this point and so neglected the temptation to explore the surroundings with my headlamp. I had an early start planned for the morning, as Mount Kinabalu beckoned. On the map below, Mount Kinabalu is depicted at #1.

Western Sabah province

October 3, 2017

My alarm went off at 5:30 and though I was tired I was pretty excited to get started. As I prepared for the day the dawn chorus outside my room was provided by a cacophony of roosters - the universal sound of dawn, throughout tropical regions worldwide.

Since I had not purchased food the previous evening and because my meals were included in the price of my accommodations, I waited until 6:30 AM when the restaurant opened to begin serving breakfast. It would delay my arrival into Kinabalu Park but after all of the time in transit I was open to the idea of sleeping in to 5:30 AM, having breakfast at the lodge, and then driving into Kinabalu Park. By 5:50 it was light enough to bird around the resort and my first few birds of the trip included Plume-toed Swiftlet, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Cattle Egret and Yellow-vented Bulbul.

Mount Kinabalu, as seen from my front porch - Kinabalu Pines Resort, Sabah, Malaysia

I packed up half of my remaining omelette from breakfast, jumped in the car and made the short 15 minute drive to the entrance gates of Kinabalu Park. After paying my day-use ticket I drove on the narrow paved road through much of the park, utilizing the hand-drawn maps depicting the trails that several trip reports had provided, and which I had saved as pdfs on my phone. I parked near the upper Silau-Silau trail, located about 2/3 of the way between the entrance gate and the Timpohon gate, which is the farthest that one can travel by vehicle.

The first portion of the Silau-Silau trail ran beside a stream, its waters raging because of the heavy rain the previous evening. It took a good 15 minutes before I encountered the first birds of the trip, a Yellow-breasted Warbler and a Snowy-browed Flycatcher.

Yellow-breasted Warbler - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

Snowy-browed Flycatcher - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

It was a strange feeling hearing the occasional bird and not having any two clues about what species it was, and I have to admit I felt a little anxious in that first hour as few birds revealed themselves. Would the whole trip be like this? At least the scenery was gorgeous...

Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

I should not have worried because things picked up quickly. First was a gregarious group of laughingthrushes which included both common species - Sunda Laughingthrush and Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush (E) - the latter being my first Bornean endemic of the trip. I also heard a White-browed Shortwing sing along the river, a species that for some reason I knew the song to. Some things must have stuck after several hours of listening to bird songs on my flights to Borneo!

My first decent mixed flock was exciting as I picked off the species one by one. While birding a new continent can be a little intimidating, Mount Kinabalu is a good place to start since the avian diversity here is much lower than in lowland areas, making it easy to get accustomed to most of the expected species. In my first mixed flock I encountered several Bornean Whistlers (E), White-throated Fantails, Ochraceous Bulbuls, Hair-crested Drongos, Blyth's Shrike-Babblers and Mountain Leaf-Warblers. At times the flurry of activity made it difficult to get on every bird, but I think I did well getting most birds in my binoculars.

Bornean Whistler - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

Ochraceous Bulbul - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

Hair-crested Drongo - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

Wait, what was that bird that landed on a branch, deep within the vegetation? A view with my binoculars confirmed that it was a Whitehead's Spiderhunter (E)! One of the famed "Whitehead's trio" of endemic birds discovered by John Whitehead, an English explorer from the 1800s, the Whitehead's Spiderhunter can be scarce and difficult to encounter at Kinabalu Park. I was hoping to see maybe two of the three Whitehead's birds if I was lucky since all three can be difficult and easily missed in a short trip, so it was great fortune that my first mixed flock only an hour into my first morning in Borneo contained a Whitehead's Spiderhunter (E)! It would be the only one I would see all trip. Just as quickly as it arrived it vanished and I was a little bummed out that I did not take a photo. But fortunately it reappeared a little further down the slope, giving me some redemption and a second shot at the bird. While I was shooting through thick vegetation and was forced to manual focus with my lens, I at least managed a few "record shots". This was my first ever spiderhunter, and it was a lot bigger than I was expecting!

Whitehead's Spiderhunter - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

The Mountain Leaf Warblers at Mount Kinabalu are an endemic sub-species only found in these mountains including the Crocker Range to the south. While other subspecies are quite yellowish, the Mount Kinabalu birds are more monochrome.

Mountain Leaf Warbler - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

The excitement continued when I first heard and then observed several impressive Bornean Treepies (E) as they traveled in a small group through the trees along the ridge which I was standing. Several Crimson-headed Partridges (E) also called from the hillside across the valley.

Bornean Treepie - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

At one point I checked my phone and was surprised to see that I had full bars, despite the fact that I was watching Bornean endemics on a ridge in Kinabalu Park. I gave Laura a phone call via Skype and it was crystal clear; so much so that she could hear the Bornean Treepies making a racket above me! While I was on the phone with her I spotted a gorgeous Golden-naped Barbet (E), and a roving group of Jentink's Squirrels passed through, moving quickly through the branches and superficially appearing like a foraging group of birds.

Jentink's Squirrel - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

I made my way down the trails towards the park headquarters, taking the long Mempening Trail. Due to the frequent rains, washouts and landslides are common problems and at any given point several of the trails are closed because of landslides. This landslide below only delayed me by about two minutes, fortunately.

landslide on the Mempening Trail - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

The birding slowed during the late morning but I still added birds here and there. The incredibly high-pitched notes of a Bornean Stubtail (E) caught my attention, but it remained out of sight. Upon reaching the bottom of the Mempening trail the topography leveled out some and I decided to explore alongside a larger stream. I first noticed this impressive beetle as it flew above the creek, before crash landing in the nearby low vegetation. In flight it was reminiscent of a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth from back home.

unknown beetle - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

Some tasty animal dung on a mid-river rock had attracted several butterflies, making use of the dung to obtain nutrients and minerals.

Common Mapwing (Cyrestis maenalis) - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

While photographing the butterflies three young travelers from Austria and Belgium passed me on the trail, the first people I had encountered all morning. We chatted for quite a while, as they were interested in the wildlife I was seeing and I was curious to hear more about their trip, which had began in western Asia three months earlier. I gave them some pointers of some interesting places to visit in Borneo as they were keen to see the rainforest and some of the species found here.

Blue Jay (Graphium evemon) - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

The bird life had quieted down by late morning and I was not having much luck finding mixed species flocks. However, I stopped dead in my tracks though when a distinctive croaking sound emanated from the surrounding forest. It was a Whitehead's Broadbill (E)! Try as I might I could not find the emerald bird among the various greens and dappled light of the forest. The sound appeared to have been quite a ways off of the trail anyways.

Another big highlight was watching a pair of Grey-chinned Minivets resting quietly in a treetop before taking to the wing. The colour on the male was just spectacular and I was not disappointed! Despite the lulls in bird activity, every now and then something such as these minivets would appear, providing reinforcement that I should be hyper-aware of my surroundings at all times, to minimize the number of birds that I miss.

Gray-chinned Minivet - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

I debated taking the afternoon off as exhaustion was starting to hit me pretty hard, but I pressed on. I am glad that I did since I had a number of interesting sightings along the Kiau View and Pandanus trails, even as the clouds descended and swallowed the mountain, reducing visibility and hinting at the inevitable rain showers that would appear later in the afternoon.

Kiau View Trail - Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia

I heard my first Red-breasted Partridges (E) and found a few more mixed flocks which contained new species for me including Chestnut-crested Yuhina (E), Maroon Woodpecker, and Mountain Tailorbird. Another big flock of laughingthrushes appeared and I made sure to get some decent recordings of their wide range of vocalizations. Like my flock from earlier in the morning, both Sunda Laughingthrush and Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush (E) were present, though I could not turn any of them into the scarce Bare-headed Laughingthrush (E).

Eventually I made my way back to the main road and continued walking uphill to reach my car. Along the way I met a nice couple from San Francisco who were in the midst of their Borneo trip, so we exchanged stories and sightings and hung out for a little while. The birding had really slowed by this point but I picked out my first Eyebrowed Jungle-Flycatcher (E). I made sure to drive the main park road very slowly on my way out, just in case an Everett's Thrush (E) would be sitting on the road. Everett's Thrush is perhaps the most difficult of the endemics found on Mount Kinabalu, with no good stakeouts for the species other than a section of trail which was currently inaccessible due to landslides. They are occasionally seen on the road at dusk and dawn, as thrushes are known to do. While I could not find any on my drive back out, I did see my first Bornean Whistling-Thrush (E), my last new endemic bird of the day. Just as I was leaving the skies opened up and the rain started. I could not have asked for better timing.

That evening I enjoyed another delicious dinner before calling it a night. I did not realize this when I booked at Kinabalu Pines Resort online, but apparently my package included dinners and breakfasts for two people. This turned out to be fortuitous since I usually packed up the extra dinner to have as lunch the following day. I also arranged to have my breakfast packed up and given to me at dinnertime since I could not afford to wait around until 6:30 AM when breakfast was served in the restaurant.

My first full day in Borneo had been challenging but exhilarating, and I had caught up with a good variety of the endemic bird species found in these mountains, while also observing a nice selection of amphibians, insects and a few mammals. By the end of the day I was already feeling somewhat confident with a lot of the bird identifications and I was excited for what the next day would bring! I think I fell asleep before 9:00 PM, with my alarm set for 4:30 the following morning.

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October 16, 2017 - Day 2 at the Danum Valley

Wednesday, 3 January 2018

Borneo - Part 2 (Day 1 on Mount Kinabalu)

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