There's wasn't much about in the morning but I did hear Bornean Gibbons calling. I'm hoping to actually see them at Danum. I also got my first leech at Speilok. I haven't been wearing my leech socks at all and hadn't encountered any leeches up to this point but the rain may have brought them out now. I was expecting more really. I did find another not-nondescript (descript?) bulbul: Black-and-white Bulbul, as well as a fruiting tree filled with Black Hornbills. Most odd though was a way overhead flyover by two White-bellied Sea Eagles extremely high above the forest flying past. An odd species to see here but nothing else as far as I can see has that tail shape, no particular long beak, and that pattern of white and dark on wings and body. I ... read more

I started the morning with a slightly different approach and rather than going straight onto the canopy walkway, I decided to try birding the ground-level pathways because there were a couple of endemic babblers that I hadn't seen yet. It seemed to be a quieter birding morning anyway and I didn't find the babblers, but I did still find a few interesting things including a couple of endemics and Grey-headed Bulbuls which is a bird I've been looking at longingly in the field guide whenever I'm identifying nondescript brown bulbuls for something more interesting looking and they are nice birds. The field guide describes them as 'widespread but very scarce' anyway so that's good. It was already getting hot when I went for breakfast but I went out again afterwards anyway because it doesn't get really ... read more

It hadn't dawned on me (pun intended) how early sunrise was here until I checked on Google just before bed. It's still in the same time zone but because of how much further East it is, sunrise is more than an hour earlier. With it being so hot in the middle of the day and so dead bird-wise, I wanted to make sure I was in as early as possible. Unfortunately, the Rainforest Discovery Centre only opens at 8, but I got to the entrance at about 5:45. There are no gates and the guard seemed to be asleep so I just gave him a wide berth and went in. Having not been told anything explicitly about the morning opening times, I could claim ignorance which is going to be much more difficult at night now. ... read more

Not having a window, as is the case where I’m staying, is a bit disorienting for waking up. I’m going to avoid rooms without a window in future. I had a bit of a lie in and got up at a leisurely pace. I asked about a taxi direct to Zoo Negara and was told that it would be about RM35 which is too much, so following the advice of the zoo website I got an LRT train to Wangsa Maju station (two trains actually, with one change) which was easy enough and cost RM5.3 and from Wangsa Maju station I got a taxi to the zoo for just under RM7. There is a bus stop just outside the zoo so there is probably a way to get to the zoo by bus with some changes, ... read more

It was a foggy morning when I woke up, but still no rain though and the river is getting quite low. It’s much, much lower than it was when I first arrived and at the river swimming area, there’s now a huge sandy beach exposed that was entirely underwater when I got here. It was quite a quiet morning birding, although I did see a Lesser Mousedeer from the boardwalk and a nice view of a male fireback pheasant just sitting quietly on the boardwalk. I’ve still not managed any pictures of the mouse deer though, they just run away too quickly. The forest also seems to be overrun today with a mixture of Low’s and Slender Squirrels with large numbers that seem to just have appeared out of nowhere. I also got an unexpected fly ... read more