Sleepless in Borneo 2019

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks @pault yes that is very much how we felt, slowly slipping into a sleep-deprived madness.

 

Pretty much all the photos and videos of the wildlife were taken with my OM-D EM-1 MKII and Panasonic 100-400 lens.

 

The landscape shots were taken using my Huawei Mate 20 pro phone which I got on contract shortly before I left. This was a bit of a miss-step. I had wanted a new phone as my Samsung galaxy s5 was no longer holding the battery charge for more than a few hours. I had previously bought that phone outright and been on a sim only deal. 

 

I didn't think of it at the time but when I came to acquire a local sim card (since none of the lodges had any WiFi) I hadn't realised that I wouldn't be able to use it in this phone because being on contract it was locked to EE. I ended up having to ask Tomer to do me a portable hot-spot to get me by. 

[xelas]

9 hours ago, kittykat23uk said:

being on contract it was locked to EE.

EU laws has disbanned this awkward practise in Europe some time ago. It still exists in the UK?!

 

The Olympus and the Panny ... truly a match made for traveling. Excellent quality, however, you have had better weather than @shazdwn. I have many questions about Borneo ... but we will have plenty of time to discuss it, soon enough .

[kittykat23uk]

21 minutes ago, xelas said:

EU laws has disbanned this awkward practise in Europe some time ago. It still exists in the UK?!

 

The Olympus and the Panny ... truly a match made for traveling. Excellent quality, however, you have had better weather than @shazdwn. I have many questions about Borneo ... but we will have plenty of time to discuss it, soon enough .

 

It seems that way! I will need to check before Uganda and maybe bring a different phone for calls if I can't get it sorted out.

 

Yes I'm sure we will have plenty of time to chat about all sorts of things and maybe I might just get a bit more sleep on this next trip. It will certainly be refreshing to go somewhere where most of the wildlife is new to me, well certainly a lot of birds and primates! 

[offshorebirder]

You do well "running and gunning"  with that mirrorless camera @kittykat23uk.   It makes a good commercial for the technology, given the conditions.

 

[kittykat23uk]

Thank you @offshorebirder  Yes the conditions were quite tricky at times. Jens also brought along a heap of   Olympus M43 gear, some of which he had been lent including the 300 f4.0. He didn't seem to get on too well with the system though and  has now moved onto Sony. 

[kittykat23uk]

Deramakot 5/10/2019

 

Today was a bit different to most of our days in Deramakot because it would take time to sort out the second driver and vehicle. So this morning we were left to our own devices. So we collectively took a morning walk along the main road for about 4-5KM towards the entrance to the reserve. 

 

We saw a few birds and, I think we also saw gibbons, in fact I think there was only one or two days where we didn’t see gibbons- they seemed to be everywhere. Birds were mostly either of the Green Leafbird (Lesser and Greater) kind, or the brown bulbul/babbler kind. Although I did have a hell of a time trying to ID this Lesser Cuckooshrike. I also heard, but sadly couldn’t locate some raucous Bornean Bristleheads.

 

PA050073 (2) lesser cuckooshrike (Lalage fimbriata) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050345 lesser green leafbird (Chloropsis cyanopogon) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050372 Brown Fulvetta Alcippe brunneicauda by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050050 greater green leafbird (Chloropsis sonnerati) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050109 (2) greater green leafbird (Chloropsis sonnerati) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050235 (2) bronzed drongo (Dicrurus aeneus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050165 Rufous-winged Philentoma (Philentoma pyrhoptera) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

We also saw several squirrels, notably the Cream-coloured Giant Squirrel, Earspot Squirrel and Plantain Squirrel. We had a bit of excitement too, at one point along the road we heard a barking alarm call followed by something that sounded like it was in distress. Well I have to say that imaginations were running pretty wild then and there was a lot of hushed speculation as to whether there might have been a leopard not far off in the forest that had just caught it’s breakfast. We waited quietly by the side of the road for a while, in hopeful anticipation, but nothing unusual occurred and we eventually gave up the vigil as our pre-arranged driver picked us up for our return to the lodge for lunch.

 

PA050115 (2)  cream-coloured giant squirrel or pale giant squirrel (Ratufa affinis) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050333 (2) plantain squirrel, oriental squirrel or tricoloured squirrel (Callosciurus notatus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050322 (2) plantain squirrel, oriental squirrel or tricoloured squirrel (Callosciurus notatus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050284 plantain squirrel, oriental squirrel or tricoloured squirrel (Callosciurus notatus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050184 ear-spot squirrel (Callosciurus adamsi) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191005_152033 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050072 (2) black-headed bulbul (Pycnonotus atriceps) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050088 Oriental Magpie Robin Copsychus saularis by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

Eutropis multifasciata, commonly known as the East Indian brown mabuya, many-lined sun skink, many-striped skink, common sun skink by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050123 (2)  white-chested babbler (Trichastoma rostratum) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

We also had an earlier start in the afternoon for our drive. On the drive into Deramakot on our arrival day I had been in the vehicle behind Tomer, Jens and Jason and at one point they had stopped quite suddenly. It transpired that a Yellow-throated Marten had scurried across the road and they stopped to see if they could relocate it. This would have been a lifer mammal for me and so I was really disappointed to hear that I had missed a chance to see one. But I needn’t have been concerned as on this drive I was to get a second chance! There was a beautiful but deadly Yellow-throated Marten perched up in a bare tree! Wow! What a gorgeous little creature! We had about a minute to appreciate it as it scampered down the tree, pausing only briefly to stare at these intruders that were ogling it, before deciding to make like a tree and get out of there…

 

PA050175 (3)  yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050149 (2) (2) yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

We then headed back for dinner. A lot of insects seemed to make it into the restaurant that day, including some impressive Praying Mantis and Katydids. One thing I like about the Panny 100-400 is it's a pretty good lens for insects as well as birds.

 

PA050233 Praying mantis by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050246 Katyid by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050236 Praying mantis by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

I believe it then rained for a while as we were not back out on the road until later that night, out first cool sighting was another (or perhaps the same) Banded Palm Civet, this time I managed to get a few shots, but it was constantly on the move, in and out of the tall grassy vegetation, and we kept moving in the vehicle to follow it, so I just couldn’t seem to get my timing quite right.  Strangely, we didn't see this species again on the trip, only our first two nights. 

 

PA050251 (3) banded palm civet (Hemigalus derbyanus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050252 (3) banded palm civet (Hemigalus derbyanus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050260 (3) banded palm civet (Hemigalus derbyanus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA050276 (2) banded palm civet (Hemigalus derbyanus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

Also I should mention one of the major frustrations of wildlife spotting by truck, especially in Borneo, is the propensity to keep the engine running constantly unless you specifically ask them to switch the engine off. I guess the reasoning here is that often the animal is in the road and on the move, so it can be helpful to keep rolling, but these big trucks seem to have quite a lot of vibration and so I do wish they would be more alert to the opportunity to cut the engine more quickly when the animal is close, or in a tree, or moving more slowly. 

 

Tomer found more Colugos with the thermal, including one out in the open, hanging upside down on a horizontal branch. We also came across Malay Civets on a few occasions, a Diademed Leaf-nosed Bat and of course a few of the usual flying squirrels and palm civets.     

 

PA050420 (2) Sunda flying lemur, Galeopterus variegatus (Colugo) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060477 Malayan civet (Viverra tangalunga) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060484 (2) Diademed Leaf-nosed (or Roundleaf) Bat Hipposideros diadema by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060490 (3) red giant flying squirrel or common giant flying squirrel (Petaurista petaurista) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060495 (2) red giant flying squirrel or common giant flying squirrel (Petaurista petaurista) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

 

[janzin]

oh I like that Banded Palm Civet. And all those squirrels. Some nice mammals (aside from the monkeys lol.) Interest in Borneo is returning

 

 

[shazdwn]

That marten is just gorgeous

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks @janzin ,  @shazdwn, @Zubbie15, @michael-ibk, @Thursday's Child, @Galago, @Chakra @Wildship , @pault and everyone else for following along! I am glad you are all enjoying the report!

[kittykat23uk]

Deramakot 6/10/2019

 

This morning we were out at 05.30 with our new driver and vehicle. We headed down towards the river but we didn’t go all the way down there this morning. Dawn broke around 05:40, we stopped to take a few scenic shots.

 

PA060499 scenic deramakot sunrise by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

We focused on covering a lot of ground for the first three and a bit hours, scanning the road ahead and the trees all around. It was initially very quiet, well, it must have been as, although I don’t recall, I seemed to have photographed absolutely nothing until around 0900 when we then encountered a couple of Crested Serpent Eagles. Then later a troop of Maroon Langurs entertained us for a while. We had them in view off and on for about 30 minutes.  In with the langurs, we spotted a stunning Wrinkled Hornbill, but very high up in the trees making it very difficult to get a decent shot.  

 

PA060555 adj  crested serpent eagle (Spilornis cheela) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060587  crested serpent eagle (Spilornis cheela) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060668 maroon langur, maroon leaf monkey, or red leaf monkey (Presbytis rubicunda) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060723 wrinkled hornbill or Sunda wrinkled hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus corrugatus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

We then spotted some gibbons at around 09:40 close to the langurs and watched them leaping about the trees. I have to say I found it pretty much impossible to get any decent shots of the gibbons swinging through the trees. Dark grey gibbons moving rapidly through thick forest on a rather overcast morning was a bit too much for my combination of camera and lens.  I either missed focus, failed to track effectively, or just didn’t use a fast enough shutter speed (1/250 I think I had it on Aperture priority when I should have had it on Shutter priority) as all my shots were blurry. They also only hung around for about eight minutes or so. 

 

PA060868 Müeller's gibbon (Hylobates muelleri), AKA grey gibbon by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

More Crested Serpent Eagles were up next, one was having a particularly bad hair day. I didn’t keep a bird list- when did I have time to write any notes?! So I am probably missing off things that we saw but didn’t photograph, however, we tried to cover as much ground as possible, so we didn’t really stop often for birds, as we were always so focused on trying to cover the road.  We did get nearly as far as the river but thought we’d better turn back, as it was getting on for mid morning, if we had known how close we were to the river at that stage we probably would have carried on. 

 

PA061004 (2)  crested serpent eagle (Spilornis cheela) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

As it happened the drive back was mostly uneventful, with only a large monitor seen until we got close to the lodge. Here we found a pair of Rhinoceros Hornbills right out in the open in really good light seemingly feeding on something on a dead trunk, this was around 10:15. 

 

PA061042 (2) Asian water monitor (Varanus salvator) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA061145 rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA061186 rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

After this, I didn’t take any further photos until around 16:50, so during that time we would have had our brunch, and I probably went and had a nap. It also rained I think; the days kind of all melt into one after a while, and it’s a bit difficult to keep track of what we did when, except through the photos! 

 

In the afternoon, Jens let me borrow the 300 mm F4 that he’d been lent by his Olympus rep. I took a little walk out to Domingo’s trail to see what I could find. I’d be interested to know if anyone here can notice a major difference in these next few shots compared to the rest of my photos. My walk along the trail was not especially productive, I did have a glimpse of a Treeshrew of some kind. I believe, based on it’s behaviour and size that this was Large Treeshrew, but it was too quick for a photo. I spent a helluva lot of time looking for Black-crowned Pittas that were calling, but without success, whenever I had the chance to get out on my own up this trail.  

 

The one bird I found to photograph was a White-crowned Forktail and also some Whiskered Tree-swifts- although I got better shots later on. 

 

PA060050 white-crowned forktail (Enicurus leschenaulti) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

Mike had arranged for us to have dinner at 1700 and we were out at 1800 for our night drive. I still had Jen’s lens. I thought he was bringing along his Nikon gear, but unbeknown to me he had brought his EM1.2 and my Panasonic 100-400. An Island Palm Civet scampered off into the grass by the side of the road. We stopped initially for a sticky frog - Mike seemed quite enthused about this frog, and we all got out and took pictures. Now one thing I noticed was how much further away I needed to be from it to take it’s picture compared to my Panny. But the result is quite pleasing.

 

PA060153 Sticky Frog by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060188 Sticky Frog by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

We had a couple of distant Thomas’s Flying Squirrels. Then around 1910 we were just heading up the Peacot road, it has an overgrown earthmover at the entrance, right after the 10km marker. Mike suddenly calls the driver to a halt Hurriedly whispering  “Marbled Cat!!”

 

“Where, where?!” we all demanded, straining into the dark where he was shining his torch. Well, quite far away as it turned out, we could just about make out a little feline head poking out from behind a tree trunk. I still had Jen’s lens and he seemed to have a hard time getting anything decent with mine. Well, I’m not surprised as I could barely get anything decent with the combo I had! This picture is cropped a fair bit.

 

PA060272 marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

Uncropped shot:

 

PA060279 marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

Everyone got to appreciate the cat for just under 10 minutes before it shimmied head first down the tree. We asked Mike when last he’d seen a marbled cat and he told us he’d not seen one since March. It’s funny how things go, two trips to Deramakot and I have been lucky to see Marbled Cat both times. My enjoyment of this sighting was somewhat tempered by the fact that my previous sighting had been far better, closer, clearer and we saw the whole of the cat in better detail- check out my last trip report for pictures! Well after that, Jens wanted to swap lenses back so we stopped and did that before moving on.

 

Soon after, not more than ten minutes later we came across a Leopard Cat, in a bush close to the track, but it leapt off into cover as soon as we approached it, I didn’t get anything other than a few blurry shots of that one. 

 

Around 20:00 we had a really nice sighting of a family of Small-toothed Palm Civets, in a way for me this was a more entertaining sighting as the two youngsters were playing, grooming and cavorting with their mum. We were able to enjoy them for about ten minutes before we needed to keep moving forward to find this elusive leopard.

 

PA060364 small-toothed palm civet (Arctogalidia trivirgata), AKA Bornean three-striped palm civet, by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

We did stop for a Thomas’s Flying Squirrel that was in a reasonably good spot for filming at around 21:20. Then Tomer found a Large Sunda Tree Mouse, unfortunately we really could only see it’s spiny tail for most of the time it was in view and we were scratching our heads about what it was for quite a while. Later, around 23:45 we had another scoped find of a mother Colugo with a fairly big youngster.  

 

PA060480_2 Thomas's flying squirrel (Aeromys thomasi) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060494 (2) Sunda flying lemur, Galeopterus variegatus by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA060520 (2) Sunda flying lemur, Galeopterus variegatus by Jo Dale, on Flickr
 

Our last sighting of the night came in the form of a confiding Malay Civet that posed very nicely for photos.

 

PA070613 (2) Malayan civet (Viverra tangalunga) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

[Atdahl]

Wow Jo, you had some really good sightings and great pictures to boot.  Martin, gibbons, marbled cat, civets galore.  But, you had to keep up a pace that must have been unsustainable.  I know I couldn't function on only a few hours sleep more than a night or maybe two.  The quest for the elusive leopard continues...

[Towlersonsafari]

Really enjoying your report @kittykat23uk the martens are lovely as are the Preying mantis shots-as a fellow panasconic 100-400 user i have also found it is good for insects! it is wonderful the different species you have seen 

[Zim Girl]

Just read this through, great report.  You are seeing a really interesting range of wildlife.  Particularly loving all the frogs and the Proboscis monkeys.

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks @Atdahl Yes the pace was punishing! I often felt that I was drifting around in a disassociated state. 

 

Thank you @Towlersonsafari I am quite loathe to use anything else on my EM1.2 but the 300 F4 is alluring, I'm not sure if I can see a massive difference but I would love to have been able to try it for more than a couple of hours!

 

@Zim Girl Glad you are enjoying it. Yes we were seeing a few good critters and a lot of common stuff but there are some  classic Bornean mammals that have been conspicuous in their absence so far have there not?

Edited January 7, 2020 by kittykat23uk

[kittykat23uk]

Deramakot 7/10/2019

 

Up out at 0530 again but nothing was photographed for the first half an hour until we found a Red-bearded Bee-eater, one of my favourite Bornean birds. I got better shots of them on a later day though. Then we saw the gibbons again, at around 06:45. It was a very misty morning actually and they were swinging through the trees, it made for quite an atmospheric shot. We kept pressing forward, stopping only for a Prevost’s Squirrel. By 09:00 we had made it to the river. We came down here a few times, but we mostly came at night….mostly…

 

IMG_20191007_063104 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA070646 Gibbon in the mist by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191007_073444 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191007_084405 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

At the river there are some buildings used by the park staff a couple of dogs and some cats hang out there. But we didn’t see much else there this morning (no otters or elephants as was the hope).

 

PA070760 (2) domestic moggy by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191007_090435 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA070740 streaked bulbul (Ixos malaccensis), or green-backed bulbul by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA070748 (2) Striped Borneo Tree Skink (Apterygodon vittatus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191007_093337 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

You can tell it’s a slow morning when I take more landscape shots than wildlife, and this was a very slow morning, except, I did get a lifer mammal on the way back! A Short-tailed Mongoose darted across the road - only Jens and I saw it at that time but another one was seen later by Jason on the ecology trail while he was hiking alone. The only other things of note were the occasional sounders of Bearded Pigs crossing the road. 

 

I also photographed this impressive mengaris tree, if you look closely you can see a ladder has been fashioned to one side of the trunk, people apparently harvest honey from bees’ nests in the crown of the tree. Better them than me!

 

IMG_20191007_110459 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

After having brunch and a rest, I was up around 1600 and took a walk along the road where I had a better sighting of a family of Bearded Pigs. Still determined to find a pitta of any kind I tried Domingo’s trail again, without success. I just don’t think they are as territorial as they are earlier in the year- they were calling but not showing at all. As I headed back it started to rain.

 

PA070029 (2) Bornean bearded pig (Sus barbatus) sows and piglets by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191007_173907 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

 

Dinner, which was always a buffet style here, was served at 1700 and we were on the road again by 1800. Our first sighting of note was another Leopard Cat  at around 1900 sitting in the leaf litter. The sighting only lasted a couple of minutes before it got spooked and ran off. 

 

PA070127 (2) Sunda leopard cat (Prionailurus javanensis) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA070145 (2) Sunda leopard cat (Prionailurus javanensis) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

I think we had quite a bit of rain on that night, off and on. We didn’t see anything else of note until about 2300 when we stopped for a close Island Palm Civet and then at 0015 we had a very confused Lesser Mouse Deer that seemed to want to hang out by our car in the rain. Finally we also spotted a close Small-toothed Palm Civet which I filmed. I’ll do a compilation of footage towards the end of the Deramakot section. 

 

PA070196  Asian (Island) palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080284 (2) lesser mouse-deer or kanchil (Tragulus kanchil) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080302 (2) lesser mouse-deer or kanchil (Tragulus kanchil) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

So that was it for this night, pretty slow, pretty wet, still no leopard. Every day when I checked my phone I would get a message from my friend Stuart. He kept asking me if we’d seen it yet, obviously I kept responding in the negative. He kept encouraging me, “You’ll see it, you’ll see it”,  he was coming out to Deramakot and our last day was to overlap with his first. He’s already seen the leopard before, he was in need of marbled cat and sunda skunk amongst other things. We kept hoping...

[Galago]

Love that mouse deer licking its nose. So interesting to see all these mammals and reptiles, most of which are new to me. 

[jeffb]

Love the small cat sightings you've had so far. But following with bated breath, waiting for the clouded leopard to appear....

[Zubbie15]

Some really lovely sightings, although as mentioned quite a punishing schedule! I'm sure I couldn't do it... I think I remember you writing somewhere else whether you got the leopard or not, we'll see if my memory is correct. With all this effort you certainly deserve it! 

[Zim Girl]

14 hours ago, kittykat23uk said:

We came down here a few times, but we mostly came at night….mostly…

Nice!

[michael-ibk]

Some seriously cool animals! I´m really impressed with the photo Quality, I know how tricky forest and night drive stuff is - you make it look easy!

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks @Galago, @jeffb, @Zubbie15 and  @michael-ibk and I'm glad someone got the reference @Zim Girl 

[Alexander33]

What a trip so far. You are more of a trooper than I.
 

I love those rhinoceros hornbill shots. Crazy tongue that mouse deer has. 

 

Looking forward to more. 

[kittykat23uk]

Deramakot 8/10/2019

 

A purple dawn broke as we departed on our morning drive. Red-bearded Bee-eaters were again our first sighting at 0610, this time in better light as well as some Asian Fairy Bluebirds.  I believe we headed in the direction towards the entrance this morning because another group had seen elephants on the way into Deramakot and we’d had no luck with them so far on this trip. We stopped at some pretty ponds by the side of the road and drove as far as the logged area, but with no luck. It was a pretty quiet and unproductive drive.

 

IMG_20191008_054449 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080430 (2)adj copy red-bearded bee-eater (Nyctyornis amictus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080469 adj copy red-bearded bee-eater (Nyctyornis amictus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080545 Asian fairy-bluebird (Irena puella) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191008_064117 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191008_080642 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191008_080645_BURST002 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191008_080859 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

IMG_20191008_085447 by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

In the afternoon I walked the road and Domingo’s trail. I tried again for pittas of course but also photographed some nice insects. Whiskered Tree-Swifts perched in better light on the telegraph wires and a few bulbuls and babblers were also seen along the road. A Cream-Coloured Giant Squirrel was barking at something in the trees at the head of the trail as I passed along, though I couldn’t see anything other than myself that might have been it’s cause of alarm.   

 

PA080012 Clipper butterfly Parthenos sylvia by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080037 (Eurema sari) Chocolate Grass Yellow butterfly by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080056 Damselfly by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080099 (2) (Erites angularis) Angled Cyclops by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080121 whiskered treeswift (Hemiprocne comata) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080140 whiskered treeswift (Hemiprocne comata) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080357 Lesser Green Leafbird (Chloropsis cyanopogon) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080402 cream-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus simplex) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

PA080426  cream-coloured giant squirrel or pale giant squirrel (Ratufa affinis) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

We didn’t go out until quite late this evening and the first critter we stopped for was a much sought-after one, an Otter Civet, that Mike found close to the vehicle with the spotlight at about 1900 around KM 6. We got a quick view of it’s face but it was in some thick vegetation and quickly turned away from us and scrambled off. 

 

PA080499 moon by Jo Dale, on Flickr

An Island Palm Civet was our next sighting around 2020. At this stage of the game we were already ignoring most squirrels and distant civets up in trees. 

 

PA080483 Asian (Island) palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

On our way back around 11:30-ish, on KM15 right where the loggers park their tractors we miraculously had a second Otter Civet sighting. It was a wonderful sighting, we had clearly caught it drinking from a puddle in front of the logging vehicles and then it just sauntered away nonchalantly out in the open, climbing a fallen trunk at one point giving us crippling views! I took a bit of footage, these are the best shots from that. 

 

Otter Civet. Cynogale bennettii. by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

Otter Civet. Cynogale bennettii. by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

Otter Civet. Cynogale bennettii. by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

Tomer kept up his nightly vigil with the thermal scope but had determined not to call out sleeping birds, monkeys or anything that was obviously squirrel/civet shaped unless it was close. 

 

What he did get onto with the thermal was a large stationary blob up in the bough of a tree at around 0020. It was well hidden to begin with and there was a bit of hushed speculation that it might have been a sun bear, so we kept looking, hoping that the creature would shift position and reveal itself to us. Our patience paid off as a little head suddenly peaked out and stared sleepily at us, revealing it to be a young Bornean Orangutan, disturbed from it’s slumber with its mother hidden behind the trunk of the tree. We were all delighted to have finally seen at least one orangutan. To be honest I hadn't even contemplated the possibility that we might not actually see any on this trip, having had excellent views of one individual last trip and several (not counting the rehabilitation centre at Sepilok) the first time I came but they really did seem to be in short supply this time around, we were told that this was due to a glut of fruit in the bornean forests, a result of a "mass masting" event in the region. This meant that the Orangutans were much more widely dispersed across the forest and away from the roads and tracks.  We agreed not to further disturb this diurnal primate and marked the trail in the hope that we would be able to get a better view of the pair in the morning. 

 

PA090558 Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) by Jo Dale, on Flickr

 

 

[Galago]

Some great facial expressions. The bee-eater (2nd pic) looks wonderfully sheepish, like it's just been caught out and the tree-swift's look is priceless. Talk about righteous indignation! 

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks @Galago a point of note about the images, those ones starting with a prefix of "P" are photos taken with my olympus kit. If they have a number in brackets, after the main file ref, this means I processed the raw file. If they have "copy" or "adj" added to the file name they have been processed, either cropped, shadow/highlight control, levels adjustment, denoise or sharpening or some combination thereof. Those without any suffix are straight out of camera jpegs. I try to keep the file name intact and add the caption to that so that I know exactly which shot I've uploaded.

 

The ones that look to be in "ide scree" (sorry, "wide screen") format are usually stills taken from video and those with the IMG prefix, mostly landscape and macro, are taken with my new Huawei mate 20 pro phone.