After a month or so of procrastinating, I finally managed to drag my concrete fingers to start blogging again. So here goes, from the days after my trip to the plantation in Perak.

Landscape of Oil Palms!

John & K. Chye at work

John at work

Small Pond in Plantation

The Mini Bar!

Bird Spying .

The trip to the oil palm estate in Sandakan, Sabah, was a much interesting experience for us all. We had a little change in the team members for this trip. Badri couldn’t make it for this trip and was supposed to be replaced by another guy but he couldn’t make it as well during the last minute. We were also joined by Sze Ning who would be coming along to do social assessments with the social team.

A Group Photo

Kat at Work

Superstar at Work

Jeep Ride! .

A Small Pond

One Drop .

We started our journey on the 26^th Feb with a long flight delay due to a missing co-pilot who called in sick. Bad start. Because of this flight delay, we almost missed the boat which would be taking us across the Sandakan Bay into the plantation. It was already quite late by the time we landed in Sandakan and reach the jetty, with all the managers and drivers waiting for us all.

Dragonfly Cratilla metallica

A Sea of Oil Palms!

Down the Tower

Lotus Flower .

A Lotus Pond

Lake In Plantation

The girls we put up in the plantations club house, which is pretty luxurious I must say. It was equipped with a pool table, home theatre system and even mini bar! No swimming pool around however. The guys on the other hand stayed over in the managers and assistants house. While the birders got to stay with one of the estate managers, I got to stay with a cheerful assistant manager by the name of Alegrandran.

Stairway to Lake

Out Birding .

Kim Chye at Work

We Got STUCK!

Webs in the Sun

Oil Palm Trees

The next day we started off our work with a short opening meeting before surveying the area. The estate in Sandakan covers a huge area and it would take quite a while to get from one end to the other. Terrible road conditions like extremely muddy roads and steep hills made the ride seem even longer. As usual, the group was split into 3 teams, the aquatic, bird and social teams. It didn’t take us long to finish up our sampling work and within 3 days, my partner and I managed to finish the job. I guess its faster this time as we now know what we are after plus getting useful knowledge from the guides provided to us. For the rest of the days, we joined the bird team going out doing bird surveys and night spotting.

Help From A Tractor

A Metallic Beetle

Hmm.. Whats in the drain?

Dragonfly Agrionoptera insignis

Road by the Lawn

A Mangrove River

After seeming much of the plantation, I would say this plantation would be a much better plantation compared to the previous one I visited since there are pockets of forest within it which allows some wild animals to dwell. We saw quite a mixed diversity of habitats, ranging from lowland dipterocarp forest to the mangrove forest. Highlights of our spotting would include the endangered or near threatened species such as the storms stork, oriental darter, Chinese egret, proboscis monkeys and some raptors. Although there were reports of orang utan sighting within the plantation, we saw none, but only old nests of these primates.

Discussing Plans .

Walkway On Water

Experts in Action!

. Legs .

Sze Ning in Action!

John Photographing Dragonfly

Our night watches weren’t as exciting however. We encountered several problems during our first few nights of night spotting sessions. On the first night, it was pouring really heavily so we had to call it off. On the second night, the lights on both our spotting lamps blew up no long after we started. On the third night, all went well for a while before the lights on both lamps blew up again. For the whole night survey, we didn’t see much except for the spotting of Samba deer, a family of wild boars and a couple of small owls.

Dragonfly Cratilla lineata

And I saw this and that..

The Great White Egret

The Closing Meeting

John During Presentation

Hmm.. And you are saying?

We managed to finish our work fast enough to earn ourselves an extra day off. We used the day off to visit Sukau, a small settlement located next to the Kinabatangan river where there are plenty of proboscis monkeys the ride which would have only lasted 45 mins took us about an hour or so to reach there due to the terrible road conditions because of an on going construction. The road was so bumpy, I could have snapped my neck on my way there. Of course, it was also impossible to get any sleep in the jeep during the ride there.

Group At Sukau

Evening Boat Ride

The Mangroves .

John & I

Cat Snake In The Tree

Sunset From Mangroves

Upon reaching a lodge in Sukau with aching butts, we got ourselves a room to pack for the evening boat ride along the river. After an hour of dilly dallying we left off for the boat safari hoping to spot some animals along the river. We didn’t see much until we entered a small river flowing through a mangrove swamp. It is here where we saw plenty of wildlife; proboscis monkeys, pig tail macaques, cat snakes and even a crocodile.

As darkness approached, we headed back to the lodge for dinner before heading out again for another boat ride in the darkness. It must have been the full moon or something that we didn’t see any big mammals coming out to the river side. However, we still got to see plenty of birds which were roosting in the trees which grow along the river. For some reason, none of us were able to spot the any wildlife here, even with the experience from our night spotting outings. Only the local guides knew where to look for the birds. It seemed that they have marked specific trees where it is known that the bird would go back to roost. Throughout the night, the birds we saw were the buffy fish owl, night heron, a variety of king fishers and even the rhinoceros hornbill! The boatman would get us so close to the roosting bird that you could probably stretch out your hand and grab it while it was sleeping.

Dinner! . .

Another Group Photo

Big Snake! .

The Crocodile in Sukau!

Buffy Fish Owl posing

Some Kingfisher .

We returned back to the estate late at night, tired but contented with our little holiday. Once back, we got our things packed ready for the early morning departure back to the Sandakan airport back to KL. Once back, there would be a lot of work to do before our next assessment trip in a weeks time.

The Oriental Darter

The Proboscis Monkey

The Storms Stork

Some Hornbill .

Some Raptors At Nest

Cat Snake .