Borneo’s Deramakot Forest Reserve Naturetrek Tour Report 22 April - 6 May 2017 Sunda Clouded Leopard by Jackie Lover Bearded Pig by Martyn Sidwell Buffy Eagle Owl by Martyn Sidwell Binturong by Martyn Sidwell Report compiled by Nick Acheson Images courtesy of Martyn Sidwell & Jackie Lover Naturetrek Mingledown Barn Wolf's Lane Chawton Alton Hampshire GU34 3HJ UK T: +44 (0)1962 733051 E: [email protected] W: www.naturetrek.co.uk Tour Report Borneo’s Deramakot Forest Reserve Tour participants: Nick Acheson & Mike Gordon with eight Naturetrek clients Day 1 Saturday 22nd April In transit. Day 2 Sunday 23rd April Having flown overnight and through the morning, and then met the wonderful Mike and equally wonderful Siti at Sandakan Airport, this afternoon we visited the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre at Sepilok. The rescued Sun Bears delighted us, but we also saw much wild wildlife including Javan Mynas, Tree Sparrows and Yellow-vented Bulbuls on the short walk from our hotel and, around the Sun Bears’ natural forest enclosures, Large and Slender Treeshrews, Bornean (Plain) Pygmy Squirrel, Grey-and-buff Woodpecker and Raffles’s Malkoha. A fine start to what would turn out to be a very fine tour. Day 3 Monday 24th April Early this morning we walked along the road to Sepilok. In a fruiting fig tree in the hotel grounds there were Pink-necked and Thick-billed Green Pigeons, Black-eared (Blue-eared) Barbets and a large number of Asian Glossy Starlings. Along the road the Lagerstroemia trees were hardly in flower so there were rather few sunbirds and flowerpeckers. Nonetheless, two of the most dazzling species, Crimson Sunbird and Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, were easy to find. A colony of introduced Baya Weavers kept us entertained, as did loudly calling Collared Kingfishers. The stars of the show were four Ear-spot Squirrels (with Plantain Squirrels also on hand for ease of comparison). Later we visited the Orangutan Centre where, in addition to the Bornean Orangutans in the process of being taught to be Orangutans (consider it: only humans could be dumb enough to stop a species knowing how to be itself), we saw lots of Prevost’s Squirrels (what a squirrel!) and a sprinkling of Brown Barbets and Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers. In the afternoon we made our way to the exquisite Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort accompanied by our lodge naturalist Dean. Late in the afternoon, as the heat of the day began to consider abating, we took our first cruise on the Kinabatangan, seeing the three classic monkeys of this wonderful river: Proboscis, Silvered Langur and Long-tailed Macaque. Among the Silvered Langurs were at least three of the lovely apricot morph. There were also lots of Green Imperial Pigeons along the river, the odd Oriental Pied Hornbill and Grey-headed Fish Eagle and, as we turned back in the dusk, a Large Flying-fox. After dinner we went back to the river (our very first nocturnal activity, of many to come). Buffy Fish Owl was characteristically easy to see and to photograph, as were Blue-eared and Stork-billed Kingfishers at their roosts. The highlight however was a huge Saltwater Crocodile tearing chunks off the decomposing carcass of a Sambar. © Naturetrek May 17 1 Borneo’s Deramakot Forest Reserve Tour Report Day 4 Tuesday 25th April Early this morning we went by river to the oxbow lake. In riverine forest there were plenty more Silvered Langurs, Long-tailed Macaques and Proboscis Monkeys and overhead we saw Lesser Adjutant Storks and White- bellied Sea Eagles. Above the oxbow a pair of Jerdon’s Bazas was displaying and on top of trees at the water’s edge we saw gorgeous Blue-throated Bee-eaters. Late in the afternoon we went out again: more Silvered Langurs, Proboscis Monkeys and Long-tailed Macaques (all of them fantastic) plus a distant Storm’s Stork, a perched Wallace’s Hawk-Eagle, and a pair of Brown- throated Sunbirds fidgeting over a feeding family of Long-tailed Macaques, as Long-tailed Parakeets circled noisily overhead. Naturally we went back to the river in the night, seeing Buffy Fish Owls, a Barking Gecko and a superb Mangrove Snake coiled on the frond of a nipa palm. Day 5 Wednesday 26th April This morning we walked into the low-nutrient forest behind Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort. Several gorgeous Cinnamon-headed Green Pigeons were feeding in a tree here and a pair of White-chested Babblers was hopping around a pool. We also admired some spectacular Nepenthes ampullaria pitcher plants. As we returned to the lodge we saw a Mangrove Whistler (after considerable craning of necks) and a female Mangrove Blue Flycatcher. After breakfast we moved to Abai Jungle Lodge to explore a different stretch of the river and its wildlife (though it would be remiss of us to leave KWR without mentioning the charming Bearded Pigs which frequently trotted under the boardwalks here). Our first walk at AJL , with our new lodge naturalist Junior, was on the trail reaching into the forest behind the lodge. In addition to three hugely amenable Dusky Broadbills, we saw a Black-and-red Broadbill, a Raffles’s Malkoha, two very noisy Low’s Squirrels and a Bornean Pygmy Squirrel watching them. Splendid stuff! In the afternoon we were thrilled to visit mother and infant Bornean Orangutans in trees along the river and we saw a family of Red Langurs glowing in very nice light. Hornbills (which had been hard work until now) were represented by a few Rhinoceros, four Wreathed in a tree (unusual to see them out of the hills) and a flying Wrinkled. We cruised back to the lodge in the dark, seeing a Great-billed Heron perched on a tree, a very attractively-patterned Saltwater Crocodile on the silt and two glints of eye-shine which saw us searching for rare mammals. They were a bottle and a reflective sticker, respectively. It would have been rude not to have gone out by night so we walked the excellent boardwalk behind AJL. A Bornean Striped Palm Civet (the artist formerly known as Small-toothed Palm Civet) was feeding in a fig tree right behind our rooms and in the forest we found tiny scorpions shining under UV light, four puffed-up Rufous-tailed Tailorbirds, a roosting Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher (definitely a highlight) and a Buff-necked Woodpecker poking its head out of a dead sapling right by the path. 2 © Naturetrek May 17 Borneo’s Deramakot Forest Reserve Tour Report Days 6 - 12 Thursday 27th April – Wednesday 3rd May Early this morning we returned to the oxbow lake and were met, in the riverine forest at its mouth, by an inquisitive family of Small-clawed Otters, with a White-crowed Shama singing above them (for added atmosphere). At breakfast, on a forest platform behind the lodge, we were joined by a ridiculously tame (and greedy) Bearded Pig known as Junior and a band of marauding Long-tailed Macaques. After breakfast we left for Sukau, seeing Changeable Hawk-Eagle, Crested Serpent Eagle and Grey-headed Fish Eagle along the river as we went. At Sukau we were met by the minibuses which would transfer us to Gomantong Caves and on to Telupid. Gomantong was, as always, remarkable, thronged with Glossy, Black-nest and Mossy-nest Swiftlets, crawling with cockroaches and centipedes and dripping with guano. Along the boardwalk to the cave we saw both a languid family of Red Langurs and the only Lesser Mouse-Deer of the tour. We had lunch in a local restaurant in Telupid (air conditioning and wifi, no less) and felt very adventurous climbing into four-wheel-drive vehicles for the journey into Deramakot Forest Reserve. Our rooms in Deramakot were much better than advertised: clean, immaculately decorated and crisply air conditioned and, throughout our stay, we were superbly cared for by Mike and Siti, by drivers Lang and Romeo and by Gidi’s team in the kitchen. In their hands it is a great place to stay. We went out every night of our seven nights in Deramakot for long, long drives, sometimes starting before dusk (for dinner by the river or in the forest) and just once getting up after a break in the night and driving pre-dawn. Because what we did each night was essentially the same (a drive from dusk until dinner, a drive after dinner until around midnight, and a drive after midnight often until the wee small hours) and we saw many species again and again (notably Bornean Striped Palm Civet, Malay Civet, Thomas’s Flying Squirrel, Sambar, Buffy Fish Owl and Philippine Slow Loris) I will not write a repetitive account of each night. Rather (below) I will write an account of the key species we saw, when and how. A full list of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians is also included below. Day 13 Thursday 4th May All remarkable things must come to an end and today, after a last night in the wonderful forest of Deramakot, we left, heading uphill to the west towards Kota Kinabalu. Our destination was Kinabalu Park, the World Heritage site which includes Mount Kinabalu. As soon as you had checked in we went for a lovely walk through the montane forest towards the park entrance. Splendid decision, for here we saw plenty of wildlife which was new to us including Bornean Treepie, Bornean Green Magpie, Sunda and Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrushes, Chestnut-crested Yuhina and now fewer than four new mammals: Mountain Treeshrew, Bornean Black-banded Squirrel, Jentink’s Squirrel and the utterly adorable Whitehead’s Pygmy Squirrel. Day 14 Friday 5th May Again a good decision.