Niah NP Weekend

It's been a while since we overnighted at Niah NP, the weekend after the trip to the West country seemed ideal to recuperate from jetlag and just hang-out listening to the sounds of the rainforest. We booked a fan-cooled chalet at Niah Park and stayed for the long weekend.

It was a quiet weekend of just lounging about with windows open and ears perked up to listening to the incessant calls of barbet, broadbills, hornbills and numerous sunbirds that flit through the idyllic minimalist garden setting. With comfy chairs set up on the verandah facing flowering hibiscus, we savored the views of a pair of Brown-throated Sunbird that came to visit flowers on an hourly basis. Fleeting about the same path, beautifully painted butterflies came and went.


Male Brown-throated Sunbird.


Female, Brown-throated Sunbird.


Male, Purple Sunbird/Van Hasselt's Sunbird.


A beautifully marked male Golden Birdwing Troides Amphrysus.

Our chalet situated not far from the river afforded us unparalled views of the comings and goings of visitors to the park. The weekend being a three day weekend proved to be busy for the boatman and park staff. Visitors came and went at all hours from 7am till late in the afternoon. Outside of those hours we had the park to ourselves, it's akin to living in a simple manor surrounded by a large well tended garden.

We took our meals at Batu Niah rest-stop, 30minutes away by car. Reason being the canteen was rather sluggish with limited fare on offer. At the rest stop, food on offer ranged from chicken wings, roti canai, mee kolok and all sorts of other delectable local meals simply prepared.

Milky Way in the garden.

The drive out gave us a chance to scan the skies for some magical dark sky wonders. Being away from the brightly lit Miri City ie. less light pollution gave us clearer views of the surrounding nite skies. On one of those nights, perhaps only the 3rd such occasion in our umpteen years in Sarawak, we were blessed with a spectacular view of the Milky Way ... right from the front porch of our humble chalet.

The stay Niah NP gave us the quiet weekend we longed for, delectable little pleasures meant to be taken in small doses.

Information for visitors:-

Niah Caves NP offers a range of accomodation choices :

a) Fan-cooled dormitory rooms-4 rooms per house, 4 single beds per room with attached bathroom and shower and a huge common living area. Best value for money at $40/room.

2) Fan-cooled chalets-2 rooms per house, 4 single beds per room with attached bathroom and shower. Comes with a refrigerator, living and kitchen area. A steal at $159/house.

Also on offer are the air-conditioned VIP chalets and air-conditioned chalets. For enquiries, please call Niah Caves NP at 085-737450/737454 or fax 085-737918.

More information on the park can be found here.

Birdwatching out West

I took a few days off work for a long weekend break to go visit out West last week, to explore some birdwatching potential amongst others and for a general look and see. The bags were packed : laptop, camera and one lens, wide because it's smaller and lighter; and several changes of clothing. The biggest mistake ever had to be the decision not to lug along the 400mm.

Since there's a few sunny days still left over the summer ... there were still some birds around! The residents were aplenty, and I whacked myself bigtime for not bringing the long lens along for the ride. The 11-16mm wide lens was proven a good lens for birding dead birds at best, lousy for birds in flights or even a bit ways away. Even at 3 feet away, on file the House Sparrow came out only the size a large tick. And there were many birds that last few days of summer! Many!

I ticked several Common Coot, Tufted Duck, Grebes (not sure which since I didn't even pack a bino), Eider and more seagulls one can whack a stick at. Did I say Eider already?

The little lake facing my hotel room : Grebe, Tufted Duck, Common Coot, Mallard, Gulls.

The graceful swans which are part of the decor along the harbour; not pictured are more Gulls and three Eider.

The frenzy flight of seagulls towards the end of the day.

The few images more suited to the wide angle lens taken around the harbour during the last few hours of sunny Sunday.

Wooden white painted houses by the harbour.


Soaking in the sun at the waterfront watching the locals pass by with the not so good for birding wide-angle lens.

Note to self :
Make sure to pack at least a 400mm and a bino no matter where you go, leave the extra shirts behind. I've gone soft this past year or so ... the old me would've picked up a 150-500mm at KLIA upon departure if not at Amsterdam Duty Free for use during the few days lay-over. Extra shirts are for sissies ... or an older guy like yours truly.

Birds in Kudat II

Kudat isn't actually famous amongst birdwatchers as a birding haven, at least not to my knowledge. Most of Kudat is cultivated, I was told this was so all the way since the late 1800s initially with coconuts, later rubber and now palm oil.

Driving around the the area, we did noticed a few green "hutan simpan" labels along the roads we took, but that was all. Perhaps more birders needed to come around and do a bit more birdwatching in the said hutan simpan to prove that there'd indeed be hidden birding jewels amongst the greeneries that's left in and around Kudat.

It didn't take us too long to stumble upon Top Victory Zoo near Parapat, along the main road to Kudat. It was actually a privately owned oil palm plantation; with kept animals as a side attraction. There were many caged birds, some in steel wire cages clearly too small for them and a few with injuries requiring urgent attention.

On first impression, it looked like a personal menagerie gone bigger than it ever should have. A private zoo gone awry. A private collector gone mad. There were rare birds and raptors; leopard cats, civets, crocodiles, binturongs ... all seemed out of place in someone's backyard on the side of a hill surrounded by palm oil. Visitors are charged $5 (Malaysian) and $10 (non-Malaysian), there were no proper parking facilities. Vehicles are requested to park along side the main road. There were a couple of tour buses the day we visited.

There were no professional care givers, only a couple Indonesian workers tending to the oil palm, the machinery and tasked with feeding the animals and cleaning the cages. A sad place to be to say the least, especially if you are on the inside of a steel cage.

Who looks after places such as this? Is there a minimum requirement for proper operation such that the welfare of the caged animals are well looked after? We left the place saddened by the thought of wild birds caged up in tiny little spaces; and the beautifully marked leopard cats cowering in wooden crates inside their cage.

Do we need places like these?

More pictures of caged subject at this link on Flicker.

Birds in Kudat I

I had brought along the big lens anticipating a couple of days shooting images of birds at Gunung Alab Resort near The Crocker Range National Park. Little did I realised that it's a fair distance away from Kudat, our chosen base this time around. It would have taken us 6hrs for the Kudat-KK-Kudat leg, perhaps another 6hrs or more for the KK-Gunung Alab-KK leg; which would definitely entailed an overnite stay at the resort. That idea was quickly abandoned after a brief feedback session with the children.

So the big lens sat in our hotel room securely locked up in a suitcase the whole time we were in Kudat. Instead, armed with only the 11-16mm and 400mm, we explored Kudat. We saw much in terms of casuarina lined beaches, white sands and secluded idyllic coves with little or virtually no human presence. However, in terms of bird-life, we saw only the usual suspects.

We had a nice encounter with a Black-shouldered Kite at Simpang Mengayau. The little raptor was surfing the sea breeze hunting for a meal. We managed to shoot it at eye-level. There were several other kites seen at Sikuati, and a few of the other beaches. We saw Crested Serpent Eagle, Changeable Hawk Eagle near Parapat soaring above the highway; and a couple of White-bellied Sea Eagle as we were approcahing Limau-limauan on one of our excursions.

In general, Asian Glossy Starlings dominated the town area together with Yellow-vented Bulbuls. At the waterfront, we saw Brahminy Kites, Little Egret, Great Egret, Little Heron, Pacific Reef Egret, Black-naped Tern and possibly a Great Crested Tern (need to check).

While at Pantai Bak-bak we stumbled upon a whole colony of nesting starlings as well as several Collared Kingfisher. Many of the beach gazebos were left under utilised, some completely abandoned, these became perfect nesting sites for the starlings. There was also a small birdwave consisting of Common Iora with sub-adult, Dark-necked Tailorbird, Brown-throated Sunbird and Olive-backed Sunbird the time we were there.

One site that would've been nice to explore was the Waterworks station along Jalan Lau San on the way to Tg Simpang Mengayau. It's along an uphill road fringed by a forest reserve. It was unfortunately a restricted area, we should've taken the time to enter the compound and ask for permission to birdwatch there.

We did however stumbled on a more disturbing place for birds. We made a pit-stop at Top Victory Zoo near Parapat to check out what's in store, what we saw was rather disturbing!

( ... to be continued in the next entry ... Birds in Kudat II)

Terns at Kudat Banggi ferrypoint hunting for bait-fish amongst the fishing boat. A Brahminy Kite was also spotted near the same area.



Black-shouldered Kite cruising at Tg Simpang Mengayau.



Iora looking for breakfast at Pantai Bak-Bak.

Milky Way ever so faintly

Still hot on the trails of Milky Way from Kudat and Tg Simpang Mengayau, we decided to wander over to Tusan Cliff and see how dark the skies were over this side. With the moon almost quarter full up in the skies, it wasn't all too dark for a perfect shot of our galaxy.

Kudat city lights proved too bright for our Milky Way, this shot was made at the Kudat Municipal padang by evading the streetlights as best we can ... still too bright.

A small break in the skies revealed a spattering of bright stars at Tg Simpang Mengayau hidden by the evening clouds. The place was perfect for dark skies if only the nite wasn't so cloudy.