I used to find dogs in various countries recognise that, except maybe in places like the UK where all the dogs nowadays are so pampered and spoilt no-one ever throws stones at them!
I used to find dogs in various countries recognise that, except maybe in places like the UK where all the dogs nowadays are so pampered and spoilt no-one ever throws stones at them!
Day 9 – 23/4/17
A beautiful sunny morning today, in contrast to the previous day. I was up early enough to catch the sun rising over part of Kuala Belait and got a nice photo of it from the hotel. After breakfast I headed straight out to Kuala Balai Rd (KB Rd) and saw quite a bit more than the other afternoon. Firstly, while still in the residential area, I saw a pair of Oriental Pied Hornbills sitting in a palm tree in somebody’s front garden. They seemed quite relaxed and I got some quite good photos of them.
I drove the length of KB Rd and saw lots of birds, mostly of species I had seen before: lots of Zebra Doves, Chestnut and Dusky Munias, Glossy Starlings, Yellow-vented Bulbuls, White-breasted Woodswallows, Barn and Pacific Swallows, Collared Kingfishers, Spotted Doves, and a White-breasted Waterhen. I also two other lifers – Blue-eared Barbet and Finsch’s Bulbul.
Something else I saw – lots of people (well, about a dozen). They had all parked their cars by the road, each several hundred metres (or a couple of kilometres, apart) and would be wading in the swamp, or doing things in the back of their car and would sometimes try and hide or look nonchalant as I drove past, but I could see the thin lines extending up into the trees and I knew they were here for the birds, but not to watch or photograph them. It was Sunday, and apparently their religion didn’t object to them breaking the law on the Sabbath.
After around three hours it was approaching the middle of the day, it was getting very hot and the birds were taking shelter in the shade of the forest and were not as obvious, or as vocal. So I started to return to the hotel, but in the industrial area I saw eight macaques in bushes by the side of the road, including a couple climbing power poles, and while photographing them I saw a male Olive-backed Sunbird in a neighbouring bush, and not far away an Intermediate Egret.
In the afternoon, just before going out again, looking out my window on the 5th floor a Black-shouldered Kite glided past and was gone before I could get my camera! My destination in the afternoon was another road further away that also led through a swamp forest to the river, called Badas Rd. This road was about 8km in length, and is a very straight road for most of its length, running alongside a water pipeline. It ends at a pumping station at the river, and so the road is in a lot better condition than KB Rd, however the forest is quite a distance away, the vegetation having been cleared on both sides of the road – the east side under the pipelines was long grasses and the west side was small shrubs that grew densely in the peat swamp. Above the pipeline were powerlines with some impressive pylons along the length of the road to a small power station just before the pumping station.
I spent 50 minutes on this road before heading back but saw only 12 species of bird here, albeit some in large numbers. I counted 63 Chestnut Munias, 25 Barn Swallows, 17 Whitebreasted Woodswallows and 16 Blue-throated Bee-eaters. There also Spotted and Zebra Doves, Dollarbirds, Pacific Swallows, Bulbuls and Glossy Starlings. And at the pumping station there were Eurasian Tree Sparrows and Slender-billed Crows.
As it was getting dark – and I could see some very large fruitbats flying high over the forest - I returned to the hotel and after dinner went to the movies and saw Fast and Furious 8. It was one of the few that was in English, although it had Bahasa subtitles.
Hix
New Birds: Oriental Pied Hornbill, Blue-eared Barbet, Finsch’s Bulbul
Badas Rd: 4º 34’ 58.49 N 114º 23’ 34.73” E
A beautiful sunny morning today, in contrast to the previous day. I was up early enough to catch the sun rising over part of Kuala Belait and got a nice photo of it from the hotel. After breakfast I headed straight out to Kuala Balai Rd (KB Rd) and saw quite a bit more than the other afternoon. Firstly, while still in the residential area, I saw a pair of Oriental Pied Hornbills sitting in a palm tree in somebody’s front garden. They seemed quite relaxed and I got some quite good photos of them.
I drove the length of KB Rd and saw lots of birds, mostly of species I had seen before: lots of Zebra Doves, Chestnut and Dusky Munias, Glossy Starlings, Yellow-vented Bulbuls, White-breasted Woodswallows, Barn and Pacific Swallows, Collared Kingfishers, Spotted Doves, and a White-breasted Waterhen. I also two other lifers – Blue-eared Barbet and Finsch’s Bulbul.
Something else I saw – lots of people (well, about a dozen). They had all parked their cars by the road, each several hundred metres (or a couple of kilometres, apart) and would be wading in the swamp, or doing things in the back of their car and would sometimes try and hide or look nonchalant as I drove past, but I could see the thin lines extending up into the trees and I knew they were here for the birds, but not to watch or photograph them. It was Sunday, and apparently their religion didn’t object to them breaking the law on the Sabbath.
After around three hours it was approaching the middle of the day, it was getting very hot and the birds were taking shelter in the shade of the forest and were not as obvious, or as vocal. So I started to return to the hotel, but in the industrial area I saw eight macaques in bushes by the side of the road, including a couple climbing power poles, and while photographing them I saw a male Olive-backed Sunbird in a neighbouring bush, and not far away an Intermediate Egret.
In the afternoon, just before going out again, looking out my window on the 5th floor a Black-shouldered Kite glided past and was gone before I could get my camera! My destination in the afternoon was another road further away that also led through a swamp forest to the river, called Badas Rd. This road was about 8km in length, and is a very straight road for most of its length, running alongside a water pipeline. It ends at a pumping station at the river, and so the road is in a lot better condition than KB Rd, however the forest is quite a distance away, the vegetation having been cleared on both sides of the road – the east side under the pipelines was long grasses and the west side was small shrubs that grew densely in the peat swamp. Above the pipeline were powerlines with some impressive pylons along the length of the road to a small power station just before the pumping station.
I spent 50 minutes on this road before heading back but saw only 12 species of bird here, albeit some in large numbers. I counted 63 Chestnut Munias, 25 Barn Swallows, 17 Whitebreasted Woodswallows and 16 Blue-throated Bee-eaters. There also Spotted and Zebra Doves, Dollarbirds, Pacific Swallows, Bulbuls and Glossy Starlings. And at the pumping station there were Eurasian Tree Sparrows and Slender-billed Crows.
As it was getting dark – and I could see some very large fruitbats flying high over the forest - I returned to the hotel and after dinner went to the movies and saw Fast and Furious 8. It was one of the few that was in English, although it had Bahasa subtitles.
Hix
New Birds: Oriental Pied Hornbill, Blue-eared Barbet, Finsch’s Bulbul
Badas Rd: 4º 34’ 58.49 N 114º 23’ 34.73” E
Day 10 – 24/4/17
Raining heavily in the morning so I didn’t get out until mid-morning. My destination was Labi Road, another location recommended in all the literature I’d read. Unfortunately I was not very lucky – the first location, a carpark with trails into the Andulau Forest, was devoid of birds, and the second location on Bukit Sawat Rd wasn’t much better. A kilometre or so along Bukit Sawat Rd, next to a nursery, the road was blocked by a large gate across it stating the road was closed (but not why). So I stopped here and had a look around. It was drizzly with overcast skies and the few birds were high in the trees. There were a couple of leafbirds, but I couldn’t tell which species, a pair of squirrels of unknown identity, a Lesser Coucal flushed from some vegetation by the road (and was my 900th Lifer), and a Raffles Malkoha. There was also something else calling periodically from a tall tree and although I spent half-an-hour looking for it, I never saw it. So after a little more than an hour I left.
I was heading back to the hotel but the weather seemed to clear on the way so I decided to try and find the Sungai Seria estuary again, and this time I found it fairly easily. It’s also next to a large monument on the beachfront, erected in 1991, celebrating the one billionth barrel of oil produced in Brunei (yes, that’s billion, not million).
There are plenty of lawns around the Billion Barrel Monument and I saw the usual suspects there – Cattle, Intermediate and Little Egrets, Common Sandpipers, Yellow-vented Bulbuls, Yellow Wagtails Paddyfield Pipts, Zebra Doves and Chestnut Munias. There were also Glossy Swiftlets flying low across the lawns, but a different subspecies to the ones I see every day on Christmas Island.
Following the lawns towards the Seria River where it meets the sea I found a lot of construction work where they appear to be widening the river and building up the banks. Cut off from the river and the ocean is a large circular pond, surrounded by some dense vegetation, and in the pond I saw a Purple Heron, Common Greenshanks, a Greater Sand Plover, a pair of White-breasted Waterhen, several Sanderlings and eight Wood Sandpipers. In the forest surrounding the pond I found Collared Kingfisher, Ashy Tailorbird, Common Iora, and a sunbird female I couldn’t identify. Returning to the carpark I tried to photograph the Chestnut Munias and while I was doing this another lifer, a Pied Triller, appeared.
After a couple of hours at Sungai Seria it looked like the rain was returning, so I went back to the hotel and shortly thereafter it began to bucket down once again.
Hix
NOTE: the Glossy Swiftlet complex has undergone revision since I was in Brunei, and many subspecies have been elevated to full species status, including the subspecies on Christmas Island – now known as the Christmas Island Swiftlet – and the one in Brunei, now called the Plume-toed Swiftlet.
New Birds: Lesser Coucal, Raffles’s Malkoha, Common Redshank, Plume-toed Swiftlet, Common Iora, Pied Triller.
Andulau Forest on Labi Rd: 4º 37’ 20.05” N 114º 30’ 35.97” E
Bukit Sawat Rd: 4º 34’ 28.03” N 114º 30’ 32.94” E
Billion Barrel Monument: 4º 37’ 00.24” N 114º 19’ 01.84” E
Raining heavily in the morning so I didn’t get out until mid-morning. My destination was Labi Road, another location recommended in all the literature I’d read. Unfortunately I was not very lucky – the first location, a carpark with trails into the Andulau Forest, was devoid of birds, and the second location on Bukit Sawat Rd wasn’t much better. A kilometre or so along Bukit Sawat Rd, next to a nursery, the road was blocked by a large gate across it stating the road was closed (but not why). So I stopped here and had a look around. It was drizzly with overcast skies and the few birds were high in the trees. There were a couple of leafbirds, but I couldn’t tell which species, a pair of squirrels of unknown identity, a Lesser Coucal flushed from some vegetation by the road (and was my 900th Lifer), and a Raffles Malkoha. There was also something else calling periodically from a tall tree and although I spent half-an-hour looking for it, I never saw it. So after a little more than an hour I left.
I was heading back to the hotel but the weather seemed to clear on the way so I decided to try and find the Sungai Seria estuary again, and this time I found it fairly easily. It’s also next to a large monument on the beachfront, erected in 1991, celebrating the one billionth barrel of oil produced in Brunei (yes, that’s billion, not million).
There are plenty of lawns around the Billion Barrel Monument and I saw the usual suspects there – Cattle, Intermediate and Little Egrets, Common Sandpipers, Yellow-vented Bulbuls, Yellow Wagtails Paddyfield Pipts, Zebra Doves and Chestnut Munias. There were also Glossy Swiftlets flying low across the lawns, but a different subspecies to the ones I see every day on Christmas Island.
Following the lawns towards the Seria River where it meets the sea I found a lot of construction work where they appear to be widening the river and building up the banks. Cut off from the river and the ocean is a large circular pond, surrounded by some dense vegetation, and in the pond I saw a Purple Heron, Common Greenshanks, a Greater Sand Plover, a pair of White-breasted Waterhen, several Sanderlings and eight Wood Sandpipers. In the forest surrounding the pond I found Collared Kingfisher, Ashy Tailorbird, Common Iora, and a sunbird female I couldn’t identify. Returning to the carpark I tried to photograph the Chestnut Munias and while I was doing this another lifer, a Pied Triller, appeared.
After a couple of hours at Sungai Seria it looked like the rain was returning, so I went back to the hotel and shortly thereafter it began to bucket down once again.
Hix
NOTE: the Glossy Swiftlet complex has undergone revision since I was in Brunei, and many subspecies have been elevated to full species status, including the subspecies on Christmas Island – now known as the Christmas Island Swiftlet – and the one in Brunei, now called the Plume-toed Swiftlet.
New Birds: Lesser Coucal, Raffles’s Malkoha, Common Redshank, Plume-toed Swiftlet, Common Iora, Pied Triller.
Andulau Forest on Labi Rd: 4º 37’ 20.05” N 114º 30’ 35.97” E
Bukit Sawat Rd: 4º 34’ 28.03” N 114º 30’ 32.94” E
Billion Barrel Monument: 4º 37’ 00.24” N 114º 19’ 01.84” E
Day 11 – 25/4/17
This was my last day in Kuala Belait so I was up early and arrived at KB Rd around 6:00am. Despite the fact there had been clear skies in town, the road and the forests were shrouded in early morning mists, and driving through the residential/industrial section I could occasionally spy the plump shape of a pigeon silhouetted against the gray swirling clouds of moisture. Useless for photography, unfortunately, but I guess you have to expect that in a peat swamp forest.
I drove the length of the road, turned around at the river and drove away again as the dogs were running about chasing each other. They stopped their antics and bounded over to the car when I arrived, and although they were wagging their tails and still looking friendly, I wasn’t taking any chances.
Driving back up the road the mists were lifting and I managed a photo of some of the pigeons – Little Green Pigeons. Around the middle of KB Road the forest is quite dense and close to the edge of the road. At one point here I stopped the car, got out and just started walking slowly up the road with my camera. This proved to be profitable as very shortly I started seeing bulbuls and then a few lifers – a Banded Woodpecker, a pair of Black-winged Flycatcher Shrikes, an Arctic Warbler and three Thick-billed Pigeons. Even the non-descript bulbuls (which I had to ID later) were lifers: Yellow-bellied, Black-headed and Buff-vented.
After an hour or so I got back in the car, drove several hundred metres up the road, stopped again and spent the next hour or so wandering a hundred metres or so up and down the road, following bird calls and trying to photograph anything that moved.
A Stork-billed Kingfisher lived in this area, I had glimpsed him flying from the forest on one side of the road to the other when I was here earlier in the week, and again earlier this morning when I drove through in the mists. They had only been glimpses for a split second before he had disappeared into the vegetation, and not worthy of a life tick (I had similar occurrence with this species in Ulu Temburong – they are very quick!). While here I did eventually get to see him better, although still too far away for a photo.
A very vocal Yellow-bellied Prinia was not perturbed by my presence, so much so that it didn’t even want to face me and I spent a lot of time trying to get a decent shot! Blue-eared Barbets, a pair of Whiskered Tree-Swifts and a male Van Hasselt’s Sunbird were also seen. A call high above me prompted me to look up and flying high overhead were a trio of Long-tailed Parrots, another Lifer.
After another hour I moved a couple of kilometres up the road again and repeated the process, but only saw the usual suspects, common along this road – Waterhen, Crow, Munia and Zebra Dove. I waited a while and saw an Emerald Dove, another Prinia, a pair of Crimson Sunbirds, and a pair of Prevost’s Squirrels. By now it was 11:15 and the birds were all quieting down and it was getting rather hot – it was brilliantly sunny all day - so I headed back to the hotel for lunch. Driving out I caught sight of a pair of Oriental Pied Hornbills and about ten Long-tailed Macaques.
After lunch I went for a drive through Kuala Belait again, stopping at Taman Jubli Perak for 15 minutes and saw the same birds I’d seen on my previous visit – Cattle Egret, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Eurasian Tree Sparrows, Pacific Swallows, White-breasted Woodswallows, Feral Pigeons and Zebra Doves – with two additions, a Pied Triller and a Common Iora. Afterwards I went for a drive through Seria and Panaga again – lots of Cattle Egrets (and I mean hundreds!) and quite a few Chestnut Munias.
I was back at KB Road at 4:30pm and drove straight down to the tall forested section and spent the next two hours there, walking back and forth up a short stretch of road. I saw Macaques, and I also saw the Silvered Langurs again, but they were obscured by vegetation and I couldn’t get any photos of them. In a fruiting fig tree was a Blue-eared Barbet and fifteen Thick-billed Pigeons and though the barbet didn’t stick around, many of the pigeons did and a got some nice pictures.
At one point I heard heavy wing-beats above me and looking up saw a Wrinkled Hornbill flying over the road. The light was failing now but I managed to get one half-decent photo of the bird in flight.
It was 6:30pm and the light had almost gone. Looking back down the road, about two hundred metres behind the car, something was sitting in the middle of the road doing nothing. In my binoculars I couldn’t make out what it was, but it seemed likely to be a macaque, although in the dim light it appeared brownish in colour. Or maybe a dog. It was going to be difficult to turn the car around to go back and see what it was, and it would obviously move off as the car approached, so I considered walking the distance but figured that would give the same result. And this was a time when the light diminished rapidly with every minute – by the time I had to walked it, or turned the car around and driven down, the light would be too dim for photography. So I took a photo of the brown blob in the road from where I was, got in the car, turned on the headlights, and left. Five minutes later it was pitch black and I was carefully negotiating the potholes in KB Road.
[A few days later, back in Christmas Island, I looked at my photos on my computer and enlarged the brown blob – a bad photo and I can’t tell what species but it is clearly not a monkey or a dog, but a large owl.]
After dinner I started packing, as this had been my last day in Kuala Belait, and tomorrow I was returning to Bandar Seri Begawan for a couple of days before flying back home.
Hix
[Note: Since leaving Brunei the Buff-vented Bulbul has also been split and the species I saw is now known as Charlotte’s Bulbul.]
New Birds: Little Green Pigeon, Thick-billed Green pigeon, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Banded Woodpecker, Long-tailed Parakeet, Black-winged Flycatcher Shrike, Black-headed Bulbul, Yellow-bellied Bulbul, Charlotte’s Bulbul, Arctic Warbler, Yellow-bellied Prinia, Van Hasselt’s Sunbird, Wrinkled Hornbill.
This was my last day in Kuala Belait so I was up early and arrived at KB Rd around 6:00am. Despite the fact there had been clear skies in town, the road and the forests were shrouded in early morning mists, and driving through the residential/industrial section I could occasionally spy the plump shape of a pigeon silhouetted against the gray swirling clouds of moisture. Useless for photography, unfortunately, but I guess you have to expect that in a peat swamp forest.
I drove the length of the road, turned around at the river and drove away again as the dogs were running about chasing each other. They stopped their antics and bounded over to the car when I arrived, and although they were wagging their tails and still looking friendly, I wasn’t taking any chances.
Driving back up the road the mists were lifting and I managed a photo of some of the pigeons – Little Green Pigeons. Around the middle of KB Road the forest is quite dense and close to the edge of the road. At one point here I stopped the car, got out and just started walking slowly up the road with my camera. This proved to be profitable as very shortly I started seeing bulbuls and then a few lifers – a Banded Woodpecker, a pair of Black-winged Flycatcher Shrikes, an Arctic Warbler and three Thick-billed Pigeons. Even the non-descript bulbuls (which I had to ID later) were lifers: Yellow-bellied, Black-headed and Buff-vented.
After an hour or so I got back in the car, drove several hundred metres up the road, stopped again and spent the next hour or so wandering a hundred metres or so up and down the road, following bird calls and trying to photograph anything that moved.
A Stork-billed Kingfisher lived in this area, I had glimpsed him flying from the forest on one side of the road to the other when I was here earlier in the week, and again earlier this morning when I drove through in the mists. They had only been glimpses for a split second before he had disappeared into the vegetation, and not worthy of a life tick (I had similar occurrence with this species in Ulu Temburong – they are very quick!). While here I did eventually get to see him better, although still too far away for a photo.
A very vocal Yellow-bellied Prinia was not perturbed by my presence, so much so that it didn’t even want to face me and I spent a lot of time trying to get a decent shot! Blue-eared Barbets, a pair of Whiskered Tree-Swifts and a male Van Hasselt’s Sunbird were also seen. A call high above me prompted me to look up and flying high overhead were a trio of Long-tailed Parrots, another Lifer.
After another hour I moved a couple of kilometres up the road again and repeated the process, but only saw the usual suspects, common along this road – Waterhen, Crow, Munia and Zebra Dove. I waited a while and saw an Emerald Dove, another Prinia, a pair of Crimson Sunbirds, and a pair of Prevost’s Squirrels. By now it was 11:15 and the birds were all quieting down and it was getting rather hot – it was brilliantly sunny all day - so I headed back to the hotel for lunch. Driving out I caught sight of a pair of Oriental Pied Hornbills and about ten Long-tailed Macaques.
After lunch I went for a drive through Kuala Belait again, stopping at Taman Jubli Perak for 15 minutes and saw the same birds I’d seen on my previous visit – Cattle Egret, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Eurasian Tree Sparrows, Pacific Swallows, White-breasted Woodswallows, Feral Pigeons and Zebra Doves – with two additions, a Pied Triller and a Common Iora. Afterwards I went for a drive through Seria and Panaga again – lots of Cattle Egrets (and I mean hundreds!) and quite a few Chestnut Munias.
I was back at KB Road at 4:30pm and drove straight down to the tall forested section and spent the next two hours there, walking back and forth up a short stretch of road. I saw Macaques, and I also saw the Silvered Langurs again, but they were obscured by vegetation and I couldn’t get any photos of them. In a fruiting fig tree was a Blue-eared Barbet and fifteen Thick-billed Pigeons and though the barbet didn’t stick around, many of the pigeons did and a got some nice pictures.
At one point I heard heavy wing-beats above me and looking up saw a Wrinkled Hornbill flying over the road. The light was failing now but I managed to get one half-decent photo of the bird in flight.
It was 6:30pm and the light had almost gone. Looking back down the road, about two hundred metres behind the car, something was sitting in the middle of the road doing nothing. In my binoculars I couldn’t make out what it was, but it seemed likely to be a macaque, although in the dim light it appeared brownish in colour. Or maybe a dog. It was going to be difficult to turn the car around to go back and see what it was, and it would obviously move off as the car approached, so I considered walking the distance but figured that would give the same result. And this was a time when the light diminished rapidly with every minute – by the time I had to walked it, or turned the car around and driven down, the light would be too dim for photography. So I took a photo of the brown blob in the road from where I was, got in the car, turned on the headlights, and left. Five minutes later it was pitch black and I was carefully negotiating the potholes in KB Road.
[A few days later, back in Christmas Island, I looked at my photos on my computer and enlarged the brown blob – a bad photo and I can’t tell what species but it is clearly not a monkey or a dog, but a large owl.]
After dinner I started packing, as this had been my last day in Kuala Belait, and tomorrow I was returning to Bandar Seri Begawan for a couple of days before flying back home.
Hix
[Note: Since leaving Brunei the Buff-vented Bulbul has also been split and the species I saw is now known as Charlotte’s Bulbul.]
New Birds: Little Green Pigeon, Thick-billed Green pigeon, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Banded Woodpecker, Long-tailed Parakeet, Black-winged Flycatcher Shrike, Black-headed Bulbul, Yellow-bellied Bulbul, Charlotte’s Bulbul, Arctic Warbler, Yellow-bellied Prinia, Van Hasselt’s Sunbird, Wrinkled Hornbill.
DAY 12 – 26/4/17
Another lovely sunny day, all day. And also quite hot at times too. I was heading back to the capital today, another few hours driving, but there were a few places Io wanted to visit along the way. So I ate a hurried breakfast and left the hotel by 7:00am.
First stop was Badas Rd again. I drove it’s 8km length again and saw pretty much what I’d seen there a few days before – swallows, woodswallows, bee-eaters, dollarbirds, coucals, munias and doves. At the pumping station I turned around and on the way back I saw something new. Perched on a pylon for powerlines was a large, very dark raptor. It remained there while I took some photos, and was still there when I left. It was a Changeable Hawk-eagle, very dark/black being one of the variations (they also come in a paler morph).
A couple of hours later I was at the Wasan Rice fields, a commercial enterprise covering around 5 square kilometres. Lots of different growers have their own plots/fields, and many have accommodation onsite ranging from very nice houses to crappy little shacks made of spare pieces of timber or tree branches. It was very hot here, and I only got out of the car when I needed to. Many of the roads between the fields were very narrow and only just enough room for two cars to pass each other, driving slowly. The roads were dirt and elevated, but if you drifted to far to one side you could easily end up sliding into a rice field.
Only about half the fields were growing rice at this time, the other fields were just mud or muddy water, some fields were being ploughed, others had rice being harvested. Those with tractors driving through them had hundreds of egrets following them – mainly Little and Cattle but also Intermediates and Greats.
The egrets were found throughout the Rice Fields but there were other birds there too. Munias – Chestnut and Scalybreasted – form large flocks and hit the fields where the crop is well developed and they can feed on the grain, and pretty much all the ponds have empty soft drink cans suspended on ropes or wires, and someone would spend the day in a little shack nearby and would periodically jerk on the wires/string to make the cans rattle and scare the birds away. Rather ineffectual as the effect lasted only a few seconds and then the birds would return. Driving around I also saw a Yellow Wagtail, a White-breasted Waterhen, some Zebra and Spotted Doves and eight Tree Sparrows.
The borders of the fields had taller vegetation, trees and shrubs, so I drove around the perimeter and at one place I stopped to photograph a Yellow-vented Bulbul. I noticed a shadow on the ground move past me fairly rapidly and looking up I saw a raptor, fairly high. I took a number of photos but still haven’t got it positively identified. I think it was a Wallace’s Hawk-Eagle.
After about an hour I decided it was time to go, and after photographing a lizard sitting on a small shrub, I left and continued on to Bangar Seri Begawan (BSB), arriving in the early afternoon at the Radisson.
At 2:00 o’clock I headed a short distance up the road from the hotel to a place called Tasek Lama Recreational Park. I had seen it on the map, and on Google Earth, and had also read reviews of it online. I could see it had lots of forest, lots of trails through the forest, a dam creating a small lake – and I was hoping to see some waterbirds – and a scenic waterfall that everyone seemed to rage about online. It turned out not to be the tranquil bird haven I thought it would be.
Firstly, although I spent a couple of hours there, the only birds I saw were some swift’s/swallows high in the air and I couldn’t tell what they were. I heard a few birds, but I was damned if I could find them. Admittedly, 2:00pm is not the ideal time to be looking for birds: it was particularly hot and very humid that day.
I followed a path up a hill that led to the dam and after finally getting there (having shed a couple of litres of sweat into my clothes), I finally arrived and found a security fence preventing access to the water. There was an observation tower nearby, however, so I went up that and saw some macaques in some neighbouring trees. I also scanned the water from the tower as far as I could see and saw no birds whatsoever.
I followed another path down towards the waterfall, which was scenic but not that impressive, and decided to head back to the exit. Along the way I found a Long-tailed Macaque raiding a garbage bin, and later a few more on the ground and in the trees feeding on small fruits. So I spent about twenty minutes photographing them.
Had I been early in the morning, or had the time to follow some of the longer trails into the forest (some are a few kilometres long) I would have definitely seen some birds. But arriving at 2pm on a hot afternoon was pointless.
Something else I noticed was that this was a recreational park that was very popular with the locals. When I arrived I had no problem finding a park, but when I left at 4pm the carpark was completely packed and overflowing. It seems a large number of locals come here after work for an hour or so of exercise. I had seen the outdoor gym equipment when I arrived, but when I left it was being used. And as the afternoon had progressed I had seen a lot more people arriving in the park, many of them overweight, power walking around the paths and up the hills in their shorts or sweatpants. I can only imagine what it’s like on weekends.
So after a couple of hours in Tasek Lama I drove back to the Radisson, returned my car to Avis, and walked into town to have dinner at a KFC.
Hix
New Birds: Changeable Hawk-Eagle
Wasan Rice Fields: 4º 47’ 23.67” N 114º 48’ 49.45” E
Tasek Lama: 4º 54’ 02.56” N 114º 56’ 40.13” E
Another lovely sunny day, all day. And also quite hot at times too. I was heading back to the capital today, another few hours driving, but there were a few places Io wanted to visit along the way. So I ate a hurried breakfast and left the hotel by 7:00am.
First stop was Badas Rd again. I drove it’s 8km length again and saw pretty much what I’d seen there a few days before – swallows, woodswallows, bee-eaters, dollarbirds, coucals, munias and doves. At the pumping station I turned around and on the way back I saw something new. Perched on a pylon for powerlines was a large, very dark raptor. It remained there while I took some photos, and was still there when I left. It was a Changeable Hawk-eagle, very dark/black being one of the variations (they also come in a paler morph).
A couple of hours later I was at the Wasan Rice fields, a commercial enterprise covering around 5 square kilometres. Lots of different growers have their own plots/fields, and many have accommodation onsite ranging from very nice houses to crappy little shacks made of spare pieces of timber or tree branches. It was very hot here, and I only got out of the car when I needed to. Many of the roads between the fields were very narrow and only just enough room for two cars to pass each other, driving slowly. The roads were dirt and elevated, but if you drifted to far to one side you could easily end up sliding into a rice field.
Only about half the fields were growing rice at this time, the other fields were just mud or muddy water, some fields were being ploughed, others had rice being harvested. Those with tractors driving through them had hundreds of egrets following them – mainly Little and Cattle but also Intermediates and Greats.
The egrets were found throughout the Rice Fields but there were other birds there too. Munias – Chestnut and Scalybreasted – form large flocks and hit the fields where the crop is well developed and they can feed on the grain, and pretty much all the ponds have empty soft drink cans suspended on ropes or wires, and someone would spend the day in a little shack nearby and would periodically jerk on the wires/string to make the cans rattle and scare the birds away. Rather ineffectual as the effect lasted only a few seconds and then the birds would return. Driving around I also saw a Yellow Wagtail, a White-breasted Waterhen, some Zebra and Spotted Doves and eight Tree Sparrows.
The borders of the fields had taller vegetation, trees and shrubs, so I drove around the perimeter and at one place I stopped to photograph a Yellow-vented Bulbul. I noticed a shadow on the ground move past me fairly rapidly and looking up I saw a raptor, fairly high. I took a number of photos but still haven’t got it positively identified. I think it was a Wallace’s Hawk-Eagle.
After about an hour I decided it was time to go, and after photographing a lizard sitting on a small shrub, I left and continued on to Bangar Seri Begawan (BSB), arriving in the early afternoon at the Radisson.
At 2:00 o’clock I headed a short distance up the road from the hotel to a place called Tasek Lama Recreational Park. I had seen it on the map, and on Google Earth, and had also read reviews of it online. I could see it had lots of forest, lots of trails through the forest, a dam creating a small lake – and I was hoping to see some waterbirds – and a scenic waterfall that everyone seemed to rage about online. It turned out not to be the tranquil bird haven I thought it would be.
Firstly, although I spent a couple of hours there, the only birds I saw were some swift’s/swallows high in the air and I couldn’t tell what they were. I heard a few birds, but I was damned if I could find them. Admittedly, 2:00pm is not the ideal time to be looking for birds: it was particularly hot and very humid that day.
I followed a path up a hill that led to the dam and after finally getting there (having shed a couple of litres of sweat into my clothes), I finally arrived and found a security fence preventing access to the water. There was an observation tower nearby, however, so I went up that and saw some macaques in some neighbouring trees. I also scanned the water from the tower as far as I could see and saw no birds whatsoever.
I followed another path down towards the waterfall, which was scenic but not that impressive, and decided to head back to the exit. Along the way I found a Long-tailed Macaque raiding a garbage bin, and later a few more on the ground and in the trees feeding on small fruits. So I spent about twenty minutes photographing them.
Had I been early in the morning, or had the time to follow some of the longer trails into the forest (some are a few kilometres long) I would have definitely seen some birds. But arriving at 2pm on a hot afternoon was pointless.
Something else I noticed was that this was a recreational park that was very popular with the locals. When I arrived I had no problem finding a park, but when I left at 4pm the carpark was completely packed and overflowing. It seems a large number of locals come here after work for an hour or so of exercise. I had seen the outdoor gym equipment when I arrived, but when I left it was being used. And as the afternoon had progressed I had seen a lot more people arriving in the park, many of them overweight, power walking around the paths and up the hills in their shorts or sweatpants. I can only imagine what it’s like on weekends.
So after a couple of hours in Tasek Lama I drove back to the Radisson, returned my car to Avis, and walked into town to have dinner at a KFC.
Hix
New Birds: Changeable Hawk-Eagle
Wasan Rice Fields: 4º 47’ 23.67” N 114º 48’ 49.45” E
Tasek Lama: 4º 54’ 02.56” N 114º 56’ 40.13” E
Day 13 – 27/4/17
My last full day in Brunei was cloudy and a little drizzly. I was up early and at 6:45am I was picked up by Richard, another guide from Sunshine Borneo Tours, and in ten minutes we were down at the waterfront getting into another boat, this one a deeper, wider-bodied speedboat than the longboats. There I met Lina, a new guide in training, and Sam who owned the boat and didn’t speak English. We headed westwards on the Brunei River, admiring the Kampong Ayer from another perspective, and within a few minutes we were in the mangroves. There weren’t too many other boats around at this hour so we didn’t have to worry about anyone else scaring away the birds.
The first thing we saw was a Saltwater Crocodile, and we ended up seeing four of them over the next couple of hours. Intermediate and Little Egrets were common and, being bright white, were easy to see from a distance. Harder to see but almost as common were the Common Sandpipers, taking advantage of the lower tide and poking around in the mud. A raptor flew out of a tree before we saw it, and was gone before we could identify it.
Rounding a bend and heading up a narrow waterway we saw a Chinese Pond Heron sitting on a mangrove route, but when we got closer it too flew away. Not so shy was a Stork-billed Kingfisher that gave us good views perched on a dead branch overhanging the river. This was the third Storkbilled I had seen, but the only one that let us get close enough for a photo (the others had been at Ulu Ulu and Kuala Balai Rd and both would fly off as soon as we appeared). Another not-so-shy bird was a Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker, pecking at the top of a dead tree stump before then poking his head in a nesthole halfway down.
On one of the mudflats an Asian Water Monitor, covered in dry mud, stood out conspicuously as the dry mud had turned white. The monitor was also not bothered by out r presence but was more intent on finding something to eat than posing for photographs. And he was not the last monitor we would see on this boat ride.
In some of these backwaters there were terns flying over the river, and though I tried to photograph the pics weren’t too good as the birds were fast and the boat rocked a little. I know I saw two Whiskered Terns, but the others I think were either juvenile or non-breeding adult White-winged Terns.
But it wasn’t birds or lizards or crocs I was here to see – the primary objective was Proboscis Monkeys. Sam knew where they could be frequently found but we had been to four of these sites without success in the first 45 minutes, however at the fifth site we were lucky and saw a group of about a dozen. They were in trees near the river, but those near the ground moved back into the mangroves away from the boat. It wasn’t a mad rush like smaller primates do, but more of a dignified withdrawal. Those in the trees either stayed put or moved back at a more leisurely pace. There was a dominant male, a couple of young males and several females, and four or five young of varying sizes. Sam positioned the prow of the boat on the mudflat which steadied the boat enough for me to stand up to try and get some photos of the monkeys further back in the amongst the trees. While doing this another heron – this one a Striated Heron – stalked out onto the mudflat right in front of me, looked at me while I took some shots of it, and then continued on its way. I wished the monkeys had been as obliging.
Over the remainder of the boat ride we found another four groups of monkeys, all of them just as shy as the first group, but surprisingly close to houses. I didn’t get the great photos I wanted, but I did get some half-decent ones and I got a good look at several individuals, even if only their backs and bums!
After two hours the boatride was over and at 9:00 we were back at our starting point in town. The last bird I saw, flying over Kampong Ayer, was a Brahminy Kite. As well as the birds already mentioned we also saw a pair of Little Green Pigeons, a juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron, a single Cattle Egret, and a Collared Kingfisher that I identified before I saw it – their call is very raucous and distinctive. We had also seen a total of four Saltwater Crocodiles, three Asian Water Monitors, a Bengal Monitor, a Plaintain Squirrel that we couldn’t ID, and we’d seen about 50 individual Proboscis Monkeys.
I was dropped back at my hotel where, using my tablet, I went online for a few hours. At midday I walked into town for lunch, arriving back at the Radisson at 1:30 just before the rain started bucketing down, which it continued to do for the rest of the afternoon. Luckily, I had no plans to go out in the afternoon as I had to pack (and repack) for my flight the next morning.
Hix
New Birds: Chinese Pond Heron
New Mammal: Proboscis Monkey
New Reptile: Bengal Monitor
My last full day in Brunei was cloudy and a little drizzly. I was up early and at 6:45am I was picked up by Richard, another guide from Sunshine Borneo Tours, and in ten minutes we were down at the waterfront getting into another boat, this one a deeper, wider-bodied speedboat than the longboats. There I met Lina, a new guide in training, and Sam who owned the boat and didn’t speak English. We headed westwards on the Brunei River, admiring the Kampong Ayer from another perspective, and within a few minutes we were in the mangroves. There weren’t too many other boats around at this hour so we didn’t have to worry about anyone else scaring away the birds.
The first thing we saw was a Saltwater Crocodile, and we ended up seeing four of them over the next couple of hours. Intermediate and Little Egrets were common and, being bright white, were easy to see from a distance. Harder to see but almost as common were the Common Sandpipers, taking advantage of the lower tide and poking around in the mud. A raptor flew out of a tree before we saw it, and was gone before we could identify it.
Rounding a bend and heading up a narrow waterway we saw a Chinese Pond Heron sitting on a mangrove route, but when we got closer it too flew away. Not so shy was a Stork-billed Kingfisher that gave us good views perched on a dead branch overhanging the river. This was the third Storkbilled I had seen, but the only one that let us get close enough for a photo (the others had been at Ulu Ulu and Kuala Balai Rd and both would fly off as soon as we appeared). Another not-so-shy bird was a Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker, pecking at the top of a dead tree stump before then poking his head in a nesthole halfway down.
On one of the mudflats an Asian Water Monitor, covered in dry mud, stood out conspicuously as the dry mud had turned white. The monitor was also not bothered by out r presence but was more intent on finding something to eat than posing for photographs. And he was not the last monitor we would see on this boat ride.
In some of these backwaters there were terns flying over the river, and though I tried to photograph the pics weren’t too good as the birds were fast and the boat rocked a little. I know I saw two Whiskered Terns, but the others I think were either juvenile or non-breeding adult White-winged Terns.
But it wasn’t birds or lizards or crocs I was here to see – the primary objective was Proboscis Monkeys. Sam knew where they could be frequently found but we had been to four of these sites without success in the first 45 minutes, however at the fifth site we were lucky and saw a group of about a dozen. They were in trees near the river, but those near the ground moved back into the mangroves away from the boat. It wasn’t a mad rush like smaller primates do, but more of a dignified withdrawal. Those in the trees either stayed put or moved back at a more leisurely pace. There was a dominant male, a couple of young males and several females, and four or five young of varying sizes. Sam positioned the prow of the boat on the mudflat which steadied the boat enough for me to stand up to try and get some photos of the monkeys further back in the amongst the trees. While doing this another heron – this one a Striated Heron – stalked out onto the mudflat right in front of me, looked at me while I took some shots of it, and then continued on its way. I wished the monkeys had been as obliging.
Over the remainder of the boat ride we found another four groups of monkeys, all of them just as shy as the first group, but surprisingly close to houses. I didn’t get the great photos I wanted, but I did get some half-decent ones and I got a good look at several individuals, even if only their backs and bums!
After two hours the boatride was over and at 9:00 we were back at our starting point in town. The last bird I saw, flying over Kampong Ayer, was a Brahminy Kite. As well as the birds already mentioned we also saw a pair of Little Green Pigeons, a juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron, a single Cattle Egret, and a Collared Kingfisher that I identified before I saw it – their call is very raucous and distinctive. We had also seen a total of four Saltwater Crocodiles, three Asian Water Monitors, a Bengal Monitor, a Plaintain Squirrel that we couldn’t ID, and we’d seen about 50 individual Proboscis Monkeys.
I was dropped back at my hotel where, using my tablet, I went online for a few hours. At midday I walked into town for lunch, arriving back at the Radisson at 1:30 just before the rain started bucketing down, which it continued to do for the rest of the afternoon. Luckily, I had no plans to go out in the afternoon as I had to pack (and repack) for my flight the next morning.
Hix
New Birds: Chinese Pond Heron
New Mammal: Proboscis Monkey
New Reptile: Bengal Monitor
I didn't visit Panaga Beach, but I visited the beach in Kuala Belait that is adjacent to Taman Jubli Perak. Completely empty of people. So was the beach behind the Billion Barrel Monument. I was pretty surprised that the beaches, and beachfront property, was so underutilised.
As for expats, apart from the ones I saw when I got lost and ended up in the shell industrial area, I only saw them in shopping centres; not so much Garden Sentral but a much larger one in Panaga/Seria itself.
Tourists I saw at the Radisson, and of course the Chinese and Korean tour groups out at Ulu Ulu Resort, and the group of four Russians. There was also a dutch girl who came to the fish spa with her guide - they weren't staying at the resort but were glamping about a kilometre further downstream.
Hix
As for expats, apart from the ones I saw when I got lost and ended up in the shell industrial area, I only saw them in shopping centres; not so much Garden Sentral but a much larger one in Panaga/Seria itself.
Tourists I saw at the Radisson, and of course the Chinese and Korean tour groups out at Ulu Ulu Resort, and the group of four Russians. There was also a dutch girl who came to the fish spa with her guide - they weren't staying at the resort but were glamping about a kilometre further downstream.
Hix
Days 14 & 15 – 28/4/17 & 29/4/17
My last morning in Brunei and the weather was warm and sunny again. At Brunei Airport I saw nothing more exciting than a pair of White Egrets and a pair of Eurasian Tree Sparrows. My flight left at 11:00 am, arriving in Jakarta around 1:00pm.
It was a hot afternoon in Jakarta, so I didn’t wander around the hotel until around4:30, and then for only half an hour. And all I saw was the usual species I saw previously: White & Little Egrets, Javan Pond Herons, Pacific Swallows, Zebra & Spotted Pigeons, and Sooty-headed Bulbuls.
Quiet night watching television.
The following morning I went for a quick bit of birding at 7:30 but with nothing much exciting to see apart from the male Freckle-breasted Woodpecker. After 30 minutes I returned to my room to pack my cameras away and make my way to the airport. A few hours later I was back at home on Christmas Island.
Postscript
After uploading all my observations into eBird I can report I saw 87 species of bird in Brunei and 14 species in Jakarta, of which 63 were lifers. This was a bit less than I expected for fifteen days, but the rain appeared to be a causal factor.
I also saw ten new mammal species and nine new reptiles, although positive IDs still need to be made on some of the lizards.
Hix
My last morning in Brunei and the weather was warm and sunny again. At Brunei Airport I saw nothing more exciting than a pair of White Egrets and a pair of Eurasian Tree Sparrows. My flight left at 11:00 am, arriving in Jakarta around 1:00pm.
It was a hot afternoon in Jakarta, so I didn’t wander around the hotel until around4:30, and then for only half an hour. And all I saw was the usual species I saw previously: White & Little Egrets, Javan Pond Herons, Pacific Swallows, Zebra & Spotted Pigeons, and Sooty-headed Bulbuls.
Quiet night watching television.
The following morning I went for a quick bit of birding at 7:30 but with nothing much exciting to see apart from the male Freckle-breasted Woodpecker. After 30 minutes I returned to my room to pack my cameras away and make my way to the airport. A few hours later I was back at home on Christmas Island.
Postscript
After uploading all my observations into eBird I can report I saw 87 species of bird in Brunei and 14 species in Jakarta, of which 63 were lifers. This was a bit less than I expected for fifteen days, but the rain appeared to be a causal factor.
I also saw ten new mammal species and nine new reptiles, although positive IDs still need to be made on some of the lizards.
Hix
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Very enjoyable report. Since you did not see a bay cat, I don't have to hate you. 
Thanks! I'm glad it was of interest to some people.
Ummm........ I just didn't report seeing a Bay Cat.......
Hix
Since you did not see a bay cat, I don't have to hate you.
Ummm........ I just didn't report seeing a Bay Cat.......
Hix