Borneo, Day 3, 28 March 2016 - Mount Kinabalu NP & Kundasang

An early start to hit the trails in the park again but our plans were thwarted somewhat by closed trails. The biggest disappointment was not being allowed to go beyond the Timophon Gate. Day passes have been suspended indefinately which means unless you have paid mega wonga and want to climb the whole mountain over 2 days you can't access anything above the gate. Effectively this shuts out birders and means none of us are going to get Kinablu Friendly Warbler, Island Thrush, Mountain Blackeye etc.
In addition the upper part of the Bukit Ular trail is blocked by a landslide and even though the bottom end of the same trail is marked as closed it is easily accessible to those of us who like to ignore signs!

This map may help

 
Back to the birding - as our original plan had been thwarted we walked the Mempening, Pandanus, Silau and Klias View trails at various points during the day and early evening. On the drive up the Power Station Road we stopped at some birders scrutinising a small overhanging cliff by the road - it turned out it was a mega rare Bornean Swiftlet on a nest, bingo! Further up we stopped as the sun started to catch the trees and scored with Golden-naped Barbet, then another real stroke of luck - an Everett's Thrush briefly beside the road and on a roadside barrier before quickly disappearing. Also along the road were a Sunda Bush Warbler and around the trails we eventually winkled out 3 +Yellow-breasted Warblers, 3 Mountain Leaf Warblers, several Arctic Warblers, Mountain Wren-babbler, Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush, 2+ Bornean Whistlers, c5 Black-capped White-eyes, Ashy Drongo (here of the pale grey race), and 3 Bornean Treepies

Bornean Swiftlet

Golden-naped Barbet

Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush

Ashy Drongo

Mountain Leaf Warbler

Mountain Leaf Warbler

Bornean Whistler

  
Back in Kundasang during the day we had 2 Long-tailed Shrikes, c6 Olive-backed Sunbirds, White-breasted Woodswallow and both Dusky and Chestnut Munias.