Sarawak 2011-2012 Christmas letter

Dear friends,                             Sarawak 2011-2012

It’s near 2012 and time really flies and before we realize another year is gone. This year we did a few exiting things and first went to Taman

Negara National Park in West Malaysia while waiting for our new passport instead of busy Kuala Lumpur. Accommodation is good and the trip to the park fun. You can take the bus from KL and that takes 2 hours. A longboat to the park takes 3 hours over the Tembeling River and then there are nice Chalets in the park and a good restaurant.

We made several walks but the most exiting place in the park is the Canopy walkway and since there is no time limit to stay up there we left after breakfast with our packed lunch and coffee and stayed up at least 3 hours to look for birds. It’s the longest walkway (500m) in Malaysia and in Asia and at some parts you are standing at least 40 meters above the ground which gave spectacular views of the canopy and of the wildlife that you can see only at this level of the forest. We saw a number of beautiful Minivets, very colorful birds so near that we could almost touch them.

In March we were Volunteers for the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) to count migrating raptors coming from Sumatra and on their way to Northern Russia and Japan. At Port Dickson (Tanjung Tuan) there is a spectacular viewpoint some 120 m above the Straits of Malacca looking straight to the island of Sumatra. I was a bit worried as I was still a beginner and at that time I couldn’t see the difference between an Oriental Honey Buzzard (OHB) and a Black Baza (BB). Glad we had some experts with us and we helped them for 5 days. Every hour from 9am-5pm we had to check wind speed, temperature, wind direction, cloud cover, visibility and precipitation. The raptors start from an island called Pulau Rupat on the east coast of Sumatra and have to cross 38 km-wide Straits of Melaka before they reach coast of the Malay Peninsula near the lighthouse at Tanjung Tuan, the place we were standing. The birds wait for a hot day with strongly rising air above the land. They use these so-called thermals while soaring in circles to gain height. Then they glide and flap across the 38 km of open sea. Sometimes the weaker ones cannot make it to the shore, fall into the water and drown.

Those that reach Tanjung Tuan sometimes come in very low above the water, while cooling themselves with an open beak. Others come in high and gain further height as soon as they are above the land for their onward journey.

The raptor migration lasts from half Feb. until the beginning of April. The MNS experts were saying that in the beginning only a few birds and than bigger flocks, up to 10.000 birds per day come in but its depending on the weather too. With rain you wont see birds since they need the hot, rising air to make enough height to be able to cross the wide open sea and fly to their next stop.

On one of these days around 3.30 pm we saw the biggest flock of Black Baza coming towards us and where so overwhelmed that we first didn’t know how to count such big group and of course you don’t have to catch them one by one to count but divide them in groups and we counted more than 2000! We had also a day that there was none since the weather was bad at the Indonesian side.

I went also for the first time to Java jazz festival with friends to see Santana and I must say it was a great concert he gave. It took almost 2 hours. The venue is huge and many places where you could catch someone playing.  Another favorite of me was Zap Mama a group from Belgium. I was also impressed with the way they keep the place clean and had permanent staff keeping the toilets clean. That was a big difference with what you see here in Sarawak during the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) that takes place in July.

This year I was asked to help as volunteer with taking care of a music group for at least a week. I stopped helping at the Craft bazaar at the same venue but this was more fun. I had the pleasure to get a Mexican group (Victor Valdes trio) and it was a lot of fun with them. The three guys  (from Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico) were very nice and easy to handle and they looked superb in their costume on stage. The festival takes 3 days and had 22 groups from various countries. I became friends with the groups from Dominica, USA and the Irish.

We had also a short photo holiday with friends at Sepilok in Sabah what’s not only famous to see Orang Utans but also for spotting birds. Every morning we left at 6 and photographed Black Hornbills on our way to the park. Just inside the park a woodpecker couple were hammering a dead tree looking for grubs. We were hoping to see the famous Borneo Bristol Head, a beautiful bird but hard to find and the trees are so high but one of our friends managed to photograph it while we were at the canopy walkway. Many birders from all over the world try to spot this species. This walkway is superb to spot animals since you can sit at 2 watchtowers around 40 mt above the ground and higher than the trees around. I used my 100-400 mm lens that I got for my birthday and it’s a superb lens. We knew that there were flying squirrels in the park and at 5.30 pm we set up our cameras and just waited. Luckily one came out before it was too dark and we took some nice shots before it jumped and glided away. Another couple told us about another nice spot where they saw at least 4 flying squirrels and the next day we set up our cameras there and suddenly around 6 pm we saw one sitting so near us in a tree, while the last sunlight shone on its fur and I took a superb shot while it just took its time to clean its fur, eating a bit and than glided into the distance. Indeed more where flying around and it is so spectacular seeing them.

Barcelona

We went in August to Holland and had decided to rent out our place and had a very busy time arranging a mover and send our personal items to Sarawak. It was a lot more work to sort out everything, packing and also we are renting it out furnished and it took us 3 months. In the meantime I had a short trip planned with my cousin to go to Barcelona and had a great time in this beautiful city and we loved the Tapas.

Our publisher is at last finalizing the Danum Valley book.

We hope you all are fine and in good health and we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012.

Hans & Cynthia