The view north from our boat towards landmass while navigating the shallows just before the day's lowest tidemark.
We were in Lawas the weekend before Valentine's Day to check-out the birds of Trusan-Sundar Bay together with our SWS (Sarawak Waterbird Survey for Waterbirds and Wetland Habitats Survey for the Sarawak Coast) team Daniel and Rose as well as MNS Miri birding stalwarts Anura, Sara, Bor Seng, Musa, Majelah and Remli.
Our biggest set-back (if you were to look at it negatively) was the Lawas Festival! We didn't know it was taking place over the same weekend, so we weren't prepared with any advance room bookings, up till then comfortable with the assumption ("falsely" I might add) : "how many people could there be in Lawas?"
We ended up frantically searching for a place to sleep the first night and finally ended up on the porch of Kuala Lawas Field Station operated by Sarawak Forestry Corporation, sleeping on the hard cement (thanks to sleeping bags), constant humming of mozzies and aircond compressor unit as well as sharing bathroom facilities with probably close to 15 other SFC people who were also in town that weekend. Lucky we even had that, otherwise we'd probably all end up cramped at the back of Anura's 4WD.
The birding was great though. Together with Daniel and Rose, we scoured the Sundar-Trusan Bay from our boatman Ismail Ahmad's house at Pulau Sari in two boats. The birds at the coast of Lawas to this date have received scant attention if any. SFC has been conducting sea grass, turtle, dolphins and dugong studies in the area over many years. Fisheries Department also has a firm presence. Not many has done bird work there since NWPO commissioned work back in the mid 80s and MNS IBA work in the early part of this decade.
On a previous trip here Feb 2010 during AWC, we counted 20+ Chinese Egret, Godwits, Far Eastern Curlew, Eurasian Curlew, Whimbrel and 2 Lesser Adjutant in the same vicinity. AWC work by UBD and PNHS over the adjacent Brunei Bay yielded similar high number of migrants over the years.
The highlight on this trip had to be the three Black-headed Gull we recorded on a sandbar located 5 meters away from a marked border of the sovereign state of Brunei. Other birds seen were White-bellied Sea Eagle, Long-tailed Parakeet, Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, Brahminy Kite, Great Egret, Godwits, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Plovers, Eurasian Curlew, Whiskered Tern, Great Crested Tern, Lesser Crested Tern, Gull-billed Terns. An undisturbed sandbar towards the middle of the bay formed a perfect roosting haven for the waders.
A proboscis monkey was also seen lurking around near the bay, but it was too fast and too far to photograph.
Our survey was cut short when we aborted an attempt to continue our survey of the Bengkulit area in the north (Kuala Lawas, north of Pulau Sari) due to high seas. We made it back safely to Ismail Ahmad's house just in time for a late lunch and a bit of catching up with the SFC-UMS-UMT team involved in a turtle study in the area.
The second night, we decided to hang in Lawas town exploring the myriad (170 in total) booths set-up specifically for the Lawas crowd that weekend. We visited probably all the booths, Anura even managed a duet of "Awan Biru by Amy Search" with an obliging Immigration officer at one of the booths.
We visited a Recoda's SCORE booth with graphic images of the Sarawak Dams in progress; NREB booth's asking about Peter Sawal's fate post "Sg Sarawak heavily polluted" front pager; DID booth to engage them on their flood mitigation efforts "via clearing the banks of rivers of vegetation" and a few others. Did you know that we have an "Integrity Institute Malaysia", interesting to know who goes there.
We wasted the rest of the evening people watching at Hotel Sri Malaysia coffee house and enjoying the hustle bustle in it's lobby. There were many fasionable, colorful and infuential folks in town that weekend including our CM; and they were all mostly based out of Hotel Sri Malaysia. Who's who in Lawas and afield went through the same lobby we did.
The most expensive room in the hotel were reserved for the VVIPs, so when we finally secured a room, we ended up only in a run of the mill room. It was already 10pm then and all four of us (Musa, Majelah and Remli left earlier by car) crashed in one room, the softies got the bed.
Our Lawas birding trip turned out to be more than just a birding trip thankfuly. Not having been a regular in Lawas, only passing through most times either through the airport or the border crossing, we found Lawas to be a charming small town with big ambitions. Like all small towns in Sarawak, the slower pace, friendly folks, chaotic set-up, added significantly to it's draw. Hopefully when the town gets bigger, it'll retain some of it's small town quaint-ness.
We left Lawas via MASWINGS the next day on the last fight to Miri.
Birds :
Birds of a feather perched all together on wires in Lawas city center ... they were all over the place, and very chirpy too.
More bird images from Lawas can be viewed at Miri Birding.
Folks in Lawas:
Twins, two of Ismail Ahmad's sons, photo taken at the front porch. The kids have got Kuala Lawas as their backyard, Bukit Sari on the side, raptors and otters a daily sight.
Another one of Ismail Ahmad's boys (right) with his visiting cousin from Merapok. That weekend there we 24 people in the stilted house over the water and one bathroom, couldn't be worst than our one nite stay at the field station.
Nor Akhalily, one of Ismail Ahmad's two daughters. Lily is less shy compared to her elder sister who was much more elusive on the morning of our visit.
A refined front desk personality always make check-in a breeze.
An attractively accessoried statuesque lass sulking one late evening at the lobby of our hotel.
An out of town gentleman attending the Lawas Festival that weekend whiling the morning away after breakfast. All the government officers seemed to be stationed at the newly opened Hotel Sri Malaysia walking distance from the center of town.
A stylish young lady waiting for mommy for breakfast at the hotel.
Our warm and friendly hostess at the Coffee House at breakfast. It's amazing how cheery one be so early in the morning, she must be a morning person. Wait a minute, she's also cheery the previous evening at tea.
A distinguished gentleman reviewing the day's images at the lobby, must an amusing photo he's looking at.
The gentleman whose pictures are being reviewed by the distinguished gentleman.
Others:
The spectators at the Lawas longboat race, part of the main event at Lawas Festival.
Two winning boats dashing to the finishing line. Brute force definitely a requirmenet in this sport, they were quite a number of burly males on the boat.
A little lass amusing herself under the shade, filling up the water container with mommy's long-beans.
Datuk Amar Awang Tengah riling up the crowd close to the conclusion of the 30 man long-boat race.
Two gentlemen who are a part of Datuk Amar's VIP entourage over the weekend.
Groupie in the VIP tent, high fashion has cometh Lawas. Paris-New York-Tokyo-Los Angeles-Lawas ... one day! We couldn't get in our first try but managed to slither ourselves past the uniformed sentry while the crowd was pre-occupied with the speech.
Images and Words by Nazeri Abghani
If you are offended with your pictures being presented here, please leave us a comment so that we can take the images down.
No comments:
Post a Comment