Wed, Mar 12 - to Mt.Kinabalu

We managed to get up at 4:15, brought our suitcases downstairs and went to the hotel restaurant where there was a wide variety of rolls and fruit. Bob selected a good looking fried egg which turned out to be stone cold! Not very appetizing. We assembled at 5:30, boarded a new bus. Last night’s was very spacious, but several people complained of a high pitched hum which drove them crazy, so now we have a brand new bus but much smaller with only 14 seats so with our birding hand luggage it is very cramped.

We drove east out of the city for about an hour and into the mountains of the Crocker Range National Park and parked on the side of a busy two-lane highway. The birding was terrific with all sorts of highland species flying in. We saw the Indigo Flycatcher, an azure-blue little bird with a pale belly and a Chestnut-crested Yuhina, a tiny bird with a wide chestnut crest and black, grey, and white body. We also saw a really cute squirrel: Whitehead’s Pygmy Squirrel. It is about 6” long, dark brown and has long white tufts on its ears!

It was great to be up in the less humid and cooler mountains and easier to keep birding for a long time. The birds seem to be higher up in the trees and more active, so photographing them is pretty difficult for me unfortunately. We have some really good photographers along; Randy and Peggy, hauling their huge and very heavy lenses, are able to focus on birds and are getting amazing shots! Bob got about 19 life birds today and is well on his way to achieving his goal of 150 new birds for this trip!

Our Chinese restaurant

Cigarettes with very graphic
anti-smoking pictures on them!

We stopped by a small roadside Chinese restaurant and ordered up some platters of food and drove to a nearby forestry station to bird while it was being cooked. A very friendly marmalade cat joined us for about ¼ mile meowing constantly and rubbing against us. It was great to have a cat fix!

Our birding companion

Lunch

Glossy or Cave Swiftlets?

We returned for lunch and gobbled up platters of fried rice with chicken and fish, bowls of eggplant and mixed veggies. Then we squeezed back onto the bus and made the several hours drive up to the foot of Mt. Kinabalu. We could see the granite mountain with its jagged nearly 14,000’ high top as the clouds swirled around it. We entered the National Park and registered.

Mt. Kinabalu

We are staying at Hill Lodge in some chalets which we were told are very basic, but are really very pleasant and spacious, and even have amenities such as a hair dryer! We have an attractive hexagonal room with a magnificent view of the mountain. Our van took us back to the entrance of the park to the Kinabalu Balsam restaurant for dinner and had a good buffet and beer.

Hill Lodge