23th. Jan 2010
Time 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm.
Air temperature 29.6 ° Centigrade. Warm cloudless clear day.
Sara, Mieke, Nazeri and Musa.
Track of this afternoon's foray.
Our bird watching started along the old Kuala Baram to Kuala Belait Road.
When we reached the junction to the prawn farm we saw people setting up crab traps. As we went in we saw a Whimbrel among the Pacific Golden Plovers. This lone whimbrel is found to have half of its right leg missing , probably evidence to a small crocodile's unsuccessful attempt at lunch. Not far from them are a mixed flock of egrets.
The lucky Whimbrel. Photo by Nazeri Abghani
The serious business of watching birds.
There are many huge mud-skippers seen in the river.
As we went into the prawn farm we saw kingfishers and many plovers and sandpipers among in the mudflat, the area was littered with with dead tree stumps.
Black-winged Kite
We could not enter the prawn farm as the gate was locked shut. So we steered away using a dirt road to a little village instead, veered left to the rivermouth all the while maneuvering skillfully on jettisoned logs .
Catching fish by the marshy swamp.
The river mouth was chock-filled with scattered logs that were pushed into the rivermouth by the mightry Sourh China Seas at high tide. We negotiated the logs crossing the river to the other side masterfully not unlike the nimbleness one sees in Chinese kungfu flicks. There was no collateral damage, we successfully made our way to the beach in the end.
There were a reasonable number waders on the beach. We set up scope and counted some 60 waders of mixed flock. About 10 are Sanderling and the rest are Kentish Plovers and Lesser Sandplovers. Our presence sppoked them, and they flew away. Only a handful of manic Sanderling stayed behind to continue feeding at the surf.
Intermediate Egret
Soon before the sunset we move back to avoid difficulty of negotiating the log in the dark. When we are back to the junction where we put our cars. We are lucky to watch about sixty Pied Triller roosting in a verdant tree by the side of the road. As we pack our equipment we also saw a Striated Grassbird. We drove off toward the Asian bridge around 6:30 in the evening. We passed by 3 dollarbird just before the toll.
Bird list this afternoon:
White-breasted Woodswallow 12
Whimbrel 1
Pacific Golden Plover 21
Marsh Sandpiper 7
Great Egret 2
Little Egret 57
Grey-tailed Tattler 2
Black-winged Kite 1
Common Sandpiper 9
Intermediate Egret 11
Common Greenshank 3
Lesser Sandplover 2
Yellow-vented Bulbul 7
Little Ringed Plover 13
Long-toed Stint 5
Tricoloured Munia 70
Striated Heron 2
Collared Kingfisher 6
Kentish Plover 46
Sanderling 13
Pied Triller 60
Straited Grassbird 1
Dollarbird 3
Clogged up rivermouth, choc-full of logs.
A beautiful afternoon at the beach. Photo by Nazeri Abghani
Musa Musbah, Jan 2010
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