Little Spiderhunter

Well, this was not first. There were already few occasions where birds particularly got lost and ended up in the office. This time in the meeting room. It took quite some time to direct it to exit but i guess it got intimidated by us so the poor one kept hitting walls and sometimes desperately searching for a branch to hang on to but the flourescent lamp was the best option available.


Notice the bleed at the end of the long bill


Also at the forehead

After much struggling, finally it was able to fly freely in the open space.

With over 200 bird species recorded in the Park plus existing and upcoming infrastructures in the Headquarters, unfortunately there is possibility for such incident to occur again.

Shall we put up warning signage for fellow Avifauna? Anybody fluent in bird language?If only the Beast Master exists in reality...

Bornean Groundcuckoo or Beach Thick-knee?

A member of our Suai recce team claimed to have spotted something that looked like a largish tall chicken by the estuary of Sg Suai back in October 2008. Of course in situation like these, there's never any cameras involved, no one took videos or images. It was just a quick look resulting in vague and sketchy descriptions from a non-specialist doing his best to describe something he's never seen before in his entire life.

Our friend knew it was "like a chicken" but confidently confirmed that it's not a chicken. And he knew what a junglefowl looks like.

Imaginations ran wild: Beach-thicknee and Bornean Groundcuckoo made the shortlist. Pictures and sketches went back and forth, we still couldn't decide on either one. Both seemed likely. Habitat wise, the coastal settings seems to suggest a thick knee or even one of the larger waders. But it's not exactly a bird common in these parts. Groundcuckoo was equally unlikely, what is it doing on a sandy beach near an estuary?

Not having seen either birds, we started building up expectations to find them. Either one would be a major tick. Both have never been sighted in the vicinity of our shores.

Bornean Groundcuckoo:


Photograph by (c) James Eaton from www.birdforum.net and www.birdtourasia.com

"Records of the Bornean Ground Cuckoo show it to be or to have been widely and evenly distributed across the island of Borneo, with a total of 49 localities, 10 in Sabah, 15 in Sarawak, four in Brunei, and 11 in East, four in Central and five in West Kalimantan.

Although it is normally characterised as a rare species, evidence is accumulating that it is better considered a generally highly secretive but in fact moderately common bird. However, its habitat is clearly mainly primary forest, and it probably favours level areas near rivers, mainly but not exclusively in the lowlands.

Rates of loss of such habitat probably cancel any positive effects on its Near Threatened status stemming from improved knowledge of its range and numbers. It subsists chiefly on forest-floor invertebrates, sometimes following bearded pigs Sus barbatus or sun bears Helarctos malayanus, but its combination of apparent pheasant mimicry and unpalatability is puzzling.

Its breeding remains unknown, but the various reports of its vocalisations sort into at least five calls, a deep thook-torr, a monotone koo, a rolling torrmmm, a snarling ark or heh in alarm, and a bizarre bleating in breeding-related behaviour."

Local names : kruai manang, manuk babui

Description of Bornean Groundcuckoo above from "Distribution, status and natural history of the Bornean Ground Cuckoo Carpococcyx radiatus" A. J. Long and N. J. Collar, FORKTAIL 18 (2002): 111-119

Beach Thick-knee:


Photograph by (c) Hans and Judy Beste on http://www.mangoverde.com/

"The beach thick-knee is the largest species of thick-knee and ranges from 21 to 22.5 inches (53 to 57 centimeters) in length. It has thick yellow legs, a long, strong, bill, and yellow eyes. The beach thick-knee is gray-brown on the back and pale on the belly. The shoulder is black above a thin white line. The head is mostly black, with a white stripe through the eye. The bill is black except for a yellow base. There is a rust-colored patch under the tail.

The beach thick-knee is found on seashore beach habitats. These include sand, shingle, rock, and mud beaches.

The beach thick-knee eats crabs primarily, but also eats other crustaceans. Large crabs are torn into small pieces before they are swallowed. It generally follows its prey quietly, and then suddenly lunges and grabs. Sometimes, beach thick-knees also search in mud and sand for prey."

Local names : kedidi malam

Descriptions of Beach Thick-knee from http://animals.jrank.org/pages/690/Thick-Knees-Burhinidae-BEACH-THICK-KNEE-Esacus-magnirostris-SPECIES-ACCOUNT.html#ixzz0VYPBXCGK

We came back in January from our 70kms coastal walk from Bungai Beach (26/12) to Similajau National Park (31/12) passing through Suai, endless sandy beaches and countless river estuaries over 5 days empty handed. The largest bird we saw was White-bellied Sea Eagle and a Chestnut-breasted Malkoha. Clearly, both did not fit the "largish chicken" descriptions, they werent anywhere near the ground.

We didn't see a single groundcuckoo nor a shadow of the thick-knee. We did however stumbled upon a family of breeding Malaysian Plover with chicks near a secluded coralline sandy beach exactly at the tip of Tanjong Payung promontory.

We are building high hopes for the groundcuckoo having recently seen published accounts of it's sighting last in Similajau National Park. In all honesty, no, the sighting was not on the beach but close enough. And we can drive to Similajau NP.


Google map (Image 2001). Mark the spot "M" for Bornean Groundcuckoo, as reported by Duckworth et al (1996), sighting made Sep 1995. Degraded area on the right showing conversions to oil palm plantation bordering the forested areas of the park.

FOS, Nov 2009

Mammal

Recent routine patrol along the coast by the Park staff led to a sweet finding!

A malnutrition looking Muntiacus seen wondering at the edge of the forest close to the beach, about 500m from Kuala Similajau.

The poor looking Deer

Wildlife surveys conducted back in 1982 and 1986 resulted to at least 34 mammal species occur in the Park, Muntiacus being one of them.

Although it's a common mammal species, we are all delighted to know it's still surviving despite present as well as upcoming threats in its surrounding.

Night Excursions

Apart from the popular River Cruise package along Likau river for reptile spotting, one may also try Jungle Trekking for better chances to see mammals like the Wild Boar, Mousedeer or tiny, little creatures like spiders, crab and others. Or just Night Walk around the Park Headquarters for some interesting nocturnal birds.

Some of the possible sightings includes the following;


Stork Billed Kingfisher


Blue Eared Kingfisher


Brown Wood Owl


A hatchling of Crocodylus porosus


Another hatchling of similar species

Waders in the Park

Probably i was ignorant before, but that day 6th October was the first time I've seen waders here, other than the Common Sandpiper. A Sanderling and a Greater Sand Plover seen together feeding at the beach in front of the Park Headquarters.

7th October- Photos not clear therefore unable to identify which Plover species but they were 3 of them.

8th October - A Sanderling and a Kentish Plover.


Sanderling wondering who...


It wasn't ready to fly, just flapping the wings


Kentish Plover


Greater Sand Plover


Greater Sand Plover, Sanderling


Footprints of Sanderling

GOLDEN BEACH TREK FOR RAYA 21st SEPTEMBER 2009

This Hari Raya weekend, I put on my hiking shoes and trekked the longest trail in Similajau National Park to Golden Beach.

Seven of us left the Park HQ around 7:30am with the sounds of Black Hornbills calling overhead. We hiked through the forest, bypassing countless streams, streams that came in different sizes, widths, depths and colours. Fringed by lush vegetation, all of them ran happily towards the sea, as if they couldn’t wait to go home.

Some streams were shallow and clear, filled with boulders and fallen logs. Some went a little bit deeper and therefore cloudier so we couldn’t see all the way to the bottom. Some had white sandy beds, the water was crystal clear but had the colour of tea. Some were decorated in green mossy rocks; others were narrow, bubbling along and covered with abundant river ferns.

The bigger and deeper streams on the other hand had the colour of milky tea, they flowed slowly, almost still, making one wondered whether there were crocodiles lurking beneath, hmmmm . . . . . worry not though, the Park has put up footbridges which provided safe passages over these water channels so there's very hardly any need to wade across murky waters.

Even when a bridge was taken down by a fallen tree in one particularly heavy storm about a week ago, the Park quickly intstalled a temporary log bridge for hikers. We found out later that we were the first group of tourists testing out this bridge. A rope had been fastened from one end to the other to assist the hikers, but wow, crossing log bridge definitely counted as the most exciting part of our hike, requiring a huge dose of courage, concentration and balancing act from all of us!

The 9.8km forest trail to Golden Beach followed the coastline closely. The sounds of the crashing waves accompanied us most of the way. Sometimes through the dense vegetation we could catch a glimpse or two of the lovely coastlines and sandy beaches. The temptation to stop and explore these places was great but we had to press on.

The forest along the trail was mainly lowland mixed dipterocarp dotted with pockets of kerangas trees. Selunsur trees were sighted lining some of the river banks. They were easily recognisable from the others by their smooth and orange coloured tree trunks. Fungi were abundant too. One of our greatest finds must be the dramatic looking stinkhorn fungus (Phallus indusiatus) with veil-like netting hanging down its hollow stem.

En route to Golden Beach, we stopped by the 2 turtle beaches at KM6 and KM7. There were reports of Green Turtles nesting on these beaches. We couldn’t find any turtle tracks, perhaps the nesting season was well over.

We reached Golden Beach, another 3km hike further on after 1pm. The beach is so named because of its golden sand, which appeared to have a high content of small and transparent quartz crystals that sparkled under sunrays. Unfortunately, most of the rocky shoreline was submerged under high water, so we didn’t get to explore that part of the scenic rock formation here. That we have to leave it for another day. Nevertheless we did check out section of the sandstone cliff by the beach and found a small cave full of bats!

Despite the gently undulating terrains, Golden Beach was still a demanding trek due to the distance and dense roots which we had to step over, concentrating on not tripping over. As dusk approached, the last of the group members finally crossed the suspension bridge over Likau River, and limped into Park HQ. We were mighty glad to make it back to Park HQ just before nightfall.

Congratulations to all for another great hike and looking forward to another outing to Similajau National Park!


Delicate moves across murky waters.


In the midst of living giants.


A row of selunsur along the banks of a meandering stream.


Subdued looking Golden Beach at high-tide, the beach here has a high ratio of silica content in its coarse grain sands. The rocky crags hides an amazing array of life of the intertidal zones.

Write-up and pictures by Sara Wong, MNS Miri Branch, Sep 2009

Batu Anchau Trail

There's plenty one can do here.Depending on needs and interest, there's bird to watch, also other wildlife to check out such as the salt water crocodiles, the shy long tailed macaques, dolphin and more. Common outings include swimming, picnicking and barbequing (these are popular among locals), sea or river cruising, or those adventurous may opt for jungle trekking.

Jungle trekking is made easy as the trails are quite well established. There's a total of ten trails heading to different forest types, beaches, rapids and a pool.

The trails are as follows; Mangrove Plank Walk, Education Trail, Circular Trail, View Point, Batu Anchau Trail, Selunsur Rapid, Turtle Beach I, Turtle Beach II, Golden Beach and Sebubong Pool. All trails are accessible by foot except for Sebubong Pool. The only way to get there is by boat.

What's interesting about Batu Anchau? It is actually a bare rock surface located about 1.35 km from Park head quarters, about 60 minutes walk. Just close to the rock, those observant ones should be able to find Nepenthes ampullaria.


Batu Anchau


The rock surface


Nepenthes ampullaria, a type of pitcher plant

And below are just some of the interesting plants found along the trail


A seriously tiny fungi


Edible young root of Pantu Pipit, a type of palm species


Another fungi growing on soil


And another fungi growing on a log