Birdies at Miri Marina Beach

Within the one hour slot when the kids were tied up with piano lessons, I sneaked out to Miri Marina Beach making my way through the bushes and storm drains behind the Park Everly Hotel.

Glad I did, pretty lively back there today:
1. Dusky Munia (2)
2. Chestnut Munia (6)
3. Common Tailorbird (1)
4. Common Sandpiper (5)
5. White-breasted Waterhen (4)
6. Yellow/Schrenck's Bittern (2)
7. Little Heron (6)
8. Pacific Reef Egret (both grey and white morph) (1 each)
9. Little Egret (2)
10. Chinese Egret (1)
11. Intermediate Egret (1)
12. Malaysian Plover (4)
13. Lesser/Greater Sandplover (30)
14. Kentish Plover (8)
15. Pacific Golden Plover (13)
16. Collared Kingfisher (2)
17. Zebra Dove (6)

Quite a promising site for some digiscoping work later ... no humans in the morning aside from pesky sandflies.

Lutong Beach Waders

In several ways Lutong beach is better than the expansive Kuala Baram mudflats for wader watching tough there aren't as many waders at Lutong Beach in terms of species and count. Especially at rising tide as the waders move in closer towards the sandy beach as the water slowly rises, affording greater close-ups than those possible in Kuala Baram. The morning sun also creates better front lit subjects. Though joggers, motorcyclists, pesky sandflies can be a bother once in a while. Half hour before work, an hour at lunch seems too good an opportunity to pass.

Greening the earth in Borneo, Malaysian style.

All photos taken 14th-16th November on our way to/from Bario, numerous other logging roads scarred the landscape except in Mulu NP and Brunei.

Daily lunch date at Kuala Baram

For high protein mid day intake of nutrients most waders flock to Kuala Baram, a non-descript hardly noticed piece of extensive mudflats whose other regulars are local small timer fishermen. And then there's the waders.

Most days they'd be Malaysian Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Greater Sand Plover, Kentish Plover and Sanderling. Also bigger shorebirds like the Great Egret, Intermediate Egret, Little Egret, Purple Heron, Grey Heron, Striated Heron. Not so regular are Chinese Egret and Pacific Reef Egret. Other non-wader birds by the shoreline Chestnut Munia, Striated Grassbird, Collared Kingfisher, Common Kingfisher, Brahminy Kite and others.

But we are talking waders here: other waders that have been seen here are Pacific Golden Plover, Long-toed Stint, Red-necked Stint, Wood Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Redshank, Terek Sandpiper, Red Knot and a few others waiting to be spotted.

Kuala Baram is packed with little crabs and polycheate worms, firm favorites of it's regulars. Just the other day a Grey-tailed Tatler had a hard time swallowing a little finger sized juvvy eel, it kept wiggling itself out of the tatler's throat several times before being swallowed full.

Sick of your regular lunch dates, pop over Kuala Baram and see these waders indulge in their daily protein feast. You can leave your napkins and cutlery behind.

Waders out, shoplots in ...

From the top (22nd Nov) : Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Pacific Golden Plover.

I betcha with all the concrete canals, shoplots, exlusive bungalow lots coming up in the area, very soon there won't be many waders stopping over this once fertile mudflats (huge healthy polycheate worms) of old Miri river. We might catch one or two Common Sandpiper though. No more PGPs, no more WSPs, no more LRPs, no more KPs, no more LTSs, no more RNSs, no more CRSs, no more GSs and the WBWs (15-20 observed around here back in Feb-April 2008) will have to find a new place to hang out! All the egrets too ... and the SHs.

Evictees list:

PGP Pacific Golden Plover

WSP Wood Sandpiper

KP Kentish Plover

LRP Little Ringed Plover

CRS Common Redshanks
GS Common Greenshanks

LTS Long toed Stint

RNS Red-necked Stint
WBW White-breasted Waterhen

SH Striated Heron

Miri City Waders

Old Miri River, Mudflat no more ...

22nd November 2008 1130 hrs.

The final act of reclaimation of the Old Miri River! No more mudflats, no more waders here. Another one bites the dust! Today, there were 2 Little Egret, 2 White-breasted Waterhen, 2 Common Sandpiper, 1 Pacific Golden Plover, 4 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Striated Heron.

Let's bet on what's coming up next over this spot over the next few months, anyone? Anyone?

Infamous Malaysian quotes on Oil Palm.

“The best way to improve your golf is to chop down the rainforest…We get too much rain in Sarawak… it stops me from playing golf.”

James Wong, Sarawak’s Minister of Environment and Tourism (and at the time logging concession holder) on deforestation and climate disruption at a meeting between Wong and an international mission on native rights and rainforests (1988).

“Our efforts towards sustainable forest management have been on-going for 100 years since 1901. Since then, our forests have been managed in a sustainable manner (…)”.

Plantation, Industries and Commodities Minister Peter Chin, 4 January 2005

“In Malaysia, the expansion of oil palm plantations over the last decade came from conversion of other economic crops, i.e. rubber, cocoa and coconut, while the balance came from logged-over forests of areas zoned for agriculture.”

Yusof Basiron, director Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 2006.

"By 1990 we have stopped approving new jungle areas to becovered under plantations.”

Yusof Basiron, director Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 19 May 2006.

“We are not cutting down forests. Most plantations are in their second or third planting cycle, so we are planting on the same plot of land.”

Michael Dosim Lunjew, Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities Secretary-General, 15 May 2007.

“We will not use virgin jungle and forest reserves for oil palm cultivation. So the issues written by the foreign press and non-government organizations on deforestation are not occurring in Malaysia.”

Peter Chin, Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, 28August 2007.

“The government will not allow the clearing of forest areas for any new oil palm plantations. We don’t have to reduce the protected forests to increase new oil palm plantations.”

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, 25 June 2008.

“Sarawak is not facing the destruction of its forests and ecosystem as a result of the cultivation of oil palm.”

Abdul Taib Mahmud, Sarawak’s Chief Minister, 26 June 2008.

Blatantly lifted from FOF Oil Palm 2008 Report.