Borneo, Day 1, 26 March 2016 - Tanjung Aru Beach and Klias Wetlands

Our first day dawned hot and hazy but luckily Tanjung Aru Beach was just a 20 minute walk away from our small guesthouse. After a strange breakfast of cakes and coffee in the cafe below our rooms we strolled towards the beach picking up a few of the common birds en-route - Chestnut Munia, the endemic Dusky Munia, Brown-throated and Olive-backed Sunbirds, an Intermediate Egret on a grass verge (!), Cattle Egrets, Spotted Dove, Zebra Dove, Common Sandpiper and the ubiquitous Tree Sparrows and Yellow-vented Bulbuls.

Brown-throated Sunbird

Intermediate Egret

Down at the beach and Prince Phillip Park which is just behind the beach I managed to find 3 of the resident Blue-naped Parrots plus a few Dollarbirds, 2 Collared Kingfishers, Crested Mynas, Pacific Swallows, White-breasted Woodswallows, 2 Pacific Reef Egrets, 3 Little Egrets and then back at the beach carpark the only Common Ioras of the whole trip.

Blue-naped Parrot

Dollarbird

Common Iora

For the afternoon and evening we'd arranged a trip south to the Klias Wetlands with Borneo Dream. This included 2 boat trips along the mangrove-lined Klias River and dinner in between. We were picked up on cue at 14.15 and 2 hours later were on the boat. This trip is supposed to be for Proboscis Monkey but in that was quite disappointing as we only found a single female. Several Long-tailed Macaques and Silvered Langur were also seen.  Birds included an obliging Stork-billed Kingfisher, Hill Myna, Ashy Tailorbird, 4 Common Sandpipers and 2 Long-tailed Parakeets. The 2nd boat trip was after dark to see Fireflies which were superb!

Proboscis Monkey

     Stork-billed Kingfisher