2018 Favorite Photos

Prior to 2018, our last two trips were to Brazil and then Borneo.  But, we wanted to mix it up a bit in 2018 so we decided to go to...Borneo then Brazil.  How's that for "mixing it up"?

This did mean that we could continue our tradition of only visiting countries with six letter names beginning with the letter "B". So, that was nice.

In April, we had a mostly successful 2nd trip to Borneo.  We had some great wildlife encounters including Gibbons in Danum Valley but we struck out again on seeing a Tarsier despite trying everything we could.  We did get great looks at one of our favorite primates though, the Proboscis Monkey.  How could you not love this face?



In Deramakot, we took a 5 hour leech invested night hike looking for Tarsier and despite the efforts of Mike G. (the hardest working guide in the business) we came up empty.  But, the hike was still a highlight of the trip because we had two great encounters.  First up was this Malayan Porcupine that ambled really close to us before getting a whiff, fluffing up its quills, and scampering off in the other direction.



Next up was a tree climbing Banded Civet that hung around just long enough for me to get a decent picture.




At the Kinabatangan River, we were luck enough to see Bornean Pygmy Elephants again this year.  It's amazing how these large animals can disappear so quickly in the jungle.  But, a mother and baby did come out into the open and pose for us which was a thrilling encounter.




I keep telling myself that I am NOT a birder because I get bored quickly with Sparrows, Seagulls, and any other sort of LBJ.  But, Borneo is filled with exotic birds that will excite any wildlife junkie.  The Broadbills are a good example of this and we just happened to come across a pair of Red and Black Broadbills on the Kinabatangan River that resulted in another favorite photo of the year.



The final favorite from Borneo was a real treat.  Our super guide at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge (Azmil), took us off trail looking for a large male Orangutan that was known to be hanging out.  After a few hours, we finally managed to get a clear look at him and it is simply amazing how human like they actually are.  He was just chilling on a branch.




Living in Arizona means that we have great access to amazing reptiles and we love going out for hikes day and night to see what we can find.  In August, it was a reptile that found us that is the next highlight.  What would you do if you opened your door, reached for the lock on the outer screen door and just managed to catch yourself before touching this...?



It is a beautiful Lyre snake that surprised the heck out of my wife and she did really well not to scream bloody murder in my book.


Later in August, we took a trip to Brazil.  The main goal for me was to get a good look at a Giant Anteater.  Our one fleeting low light look on our previous trip was just not satisfactory.  So, this trip we spent 8 nights in the Southern Pantanal looking for Giant Anteater and any of the other fantastic wildlife found in the Pantanal.  What we didn't expect to see was a very cooperative Ferruginous Pygmy Owl that spent each morning sitting in the garden of our Fazenda.




The Pantanal is known for great sunsets and we saw our fair share this trip.  But, my favorite one was seen just after a boat trip in which I only brought a long lens and a point and shoot camera.  Rather than let the Sunset only remain in memories, I took a photo with the point and shoot camera and it turned into one of our trip favorites.



If you go to the Pantanal, you are guaranteed to see the world's largest rodent; the Capybara.  You don't realize how big they are until you see them in person.  You also don't realize just how cute their young are.  On this trip, we saw a couple mothers with young and one of those encounters turned into a favorite.




Since I am sharing pictures in chronological order, I am not saving the best for last.  As I mentioned, my trip goal was to have a good encounter with a Giant Anteater and we had many.  So, my trip was made on day 1 in the Pantanal actually.  But, later on at Barranco Alto, we had an amazing encounter with a female Giant Anteater and her pup.  Words can't describe how awesome it was to spend about an hour watching them as mama dug around hunting and eating ants.




Just like Borneo, Brazil has an amazing selection of birds and they are especially easy to see in the Pantanal where the forest is not as thick.  What is not easy is getting good shots of them in flight.  So, I was really happy with this photo I took of three Blue and Yellow Macaws as they flew past us.




We ended the trip to Brazil with a weekend in Rio.  The highlight of that weekend was probably getting a bit too "toasty" drinking Caipirinhas overlooking the famous Copacabana Beach.  Luckily, there are no pictures of that experience though.  So instead, my last favorite is of a species that was down to only about 200 individuals in the 70's before a very successful conservation effort was put in place to protect them.  Now, there are over 2000 Golden Lion Tamarins in the Atlantic forest of Brazil and we were lucky enough to see a small troop of them including this one that was as interested in us as were were in it.

Back to Borneo - Travel Days

BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP! 

Huh, what the heck...it's 3:30AM what the heck is that?...oh wait..it's the alarm...time to get up and head to the airport.

BORNEO BABY!!

I think it was about 1 second after leaving Borneo in 2017 that I hatched a plan to go back.  I just didn't feel that we saw everything that we could see. We were especially disappointed to miss seeing Gibbon and Tarsier.  Not to mention that our 3 days in Sepilok and some activities at other lodges were almost entirely rained out.

So, we once again contacted AA Borneo and after lots of back and forth we eventually settled on this itinerary:

3 Nights Sepilok - Forest Edge Resort
6 Nights Daramakot
3 Nights Kinabatangan - Sukau Rainforest Lodge
3 Nights Danum - Borneo Rainforest Lodge

Due to flight times, we ended up adding bookend nights at the Forest Edge Resort in Sepilok for a total of 17 nights in country.

The problem was that we needed someone to go with us to lower the costs.  So, we turned to the Internet and put calls out to the Mammalwatching.com community and SafariTalk.net community.  We had a fair amount of interest but got a commitment from a couple based in Australia.  After a bit of communication and some minor tweaks to the itinerary the trip was booked.  Joining us in Borneo would be Tim and Andrea who are big wildlife lovers just like us.

So, on April 14th at 3:30AM the dreaded alarm went off.  But somehow, waking up at 3:30AM to go on a vacation is a lot easier than waking up at 6:00AM to go to work.  Go figure!

I could spend a whole post talking about the "fun" we had traveling to Borneo but I think that would cause me to lose the 2 whole readers I actually have.  So, here is a summary:

• Tucson to SFO leg began with a screaming baby behind me kicking my seat
• Aborted landing at SFO right before touch down due to plane being on our runway
• All Nippon Air had great service and HORRIBLE food
• Checked bags could only go as far as Kaula Lumpur (KL) due to 12 hour layover there
• Couldn't make it to our booked hotel in the International terminal at KL because we had to leave the International terminal to pick up our bags and they wouldn't let us back in since we had a domestic transfer remaining
• 2am walk to airport hotel (Sama Sama) only to find them booked but the concierge there arranged for a nearby hotel to pick us up so we ended up spending about 9 hours at the Oren (Orange) Hotel in Kuala Lumpur
• Egg McMuffins for breakfast in KL since there was nothing else but they were super tasty
• Arrived late in Sandakan due to delays leaving KL

And those were the highlights!

But, we did make it to Borneo and so did all of our bags which is all that really matters.  Waiting for us at the Sandakan airport was our driver Eric who would be handling all our transfers for this trip.  At 3:30 PM local time we arrive at the Forest Edge Resort.  So, 45 hours after that alarm went off we finally arrived at our destination. 

We ended up staying in the same chalet at Forest Edge as last time; Bilit.  Not much had changed except for the bat guano warning sign that we could have used last time (Sorry shoes...):



After a little bit of unpacking, we headed off to meet Tim and Andrea to talk about the trip and we ended up wandering around the grounds a little bit on the way.

Spectacled Spiderhunter:


Gray and Buff Woodpecker:


We met Tim and Andrea in the restaurant and hit it off immediately.  But, the big shocker was that they were younger than us!  Usually, we are the "young pups" among the sea of older folks on all our vacations. But this time, we would need to play the role of the wise older couple.  I don't think we pulled that off though since I did at least one thing that wasn't very wise as you will soon see.

We had a couple snafus that first evening too including the resort not being notified that our meals were pre-paid and we found out the guide we requested for our time in Sepilok wasn't going to make it.  But, after a few emails to Nick at AA Borneo both items were taken care of.

In fact, a bit later Gary Albert walked up to us in the restaurant and introduced himself as our guide for the next two days in Sepilok.  He turned out to be a great guide and is highly recommended.

With all the logistics worked out we ended up having a great first dinner and I learned that Tim liked a cold beer as much as I did.  So, we took advantage of the happy hour special daily and enjoyed the famous Forest Edge ice bucket beer.   What more could you want?

BORNEO BABY!!

Sepilok - Day 1

The next morning I woke up surprisingly refreshed and went for a pre-breakfast walk around the grounds where I finally got a White-breasted Waterhen to stay still long enough for a decent photo:



Better yet, it was SUNNY!  I don't think we saw the sun in Sepilok the last trip.

The first item on the agenda today would be visiting the Orangutan Sanctuary.  There was no guarantee we would see wild Orangutans this trip so it was a must visit location for Tim and Andrea and we came along because you never know what else you might see.

As it turns out, no Orangutans showed up for the morning feeding (but crowds of people did).  We ended up getting semi-decent views of 3 orangutans in the trees nearby, distant views of some Red-leaf Monkeys, and good views of both Pig-tailed and Long-tailed Macaques.


"Here comes my dismount"..


But, the most entertaining thing we saw were the young Orangutans at the nursery playing.  It's hard not to fall in love with these great apes at first site. But, pictures through the glass aren't easy.



One of the best things about the Orangutan nursery is that one of the two viewing rooms is air conditioned.  That's a real luxury in the heat and humidity of Borneo. Mmmmm...air conditioning...

Tim and Andrea went back to the Orangutan Sanctuary for the afternoon feeding while we caught up on some sleep and just relaxed around the lodge which has great grounds full of wildlife.

Rufous-backed Kingfisher:


Many-lined Sun Skink:


Dollar Bird:


The evening activity was a night walk at the Orangutan Sanctuary.  Apparently, it was a good place to look for Tarsier which was a priority this trip for me.  It was also a good place for lots of other critters.  Before we even entered there was a Red-tailed Racer snake above us in the tree.  But, it was curled up and hiding.  We found plenty of other animals that weren't hiding:

Dark-eared Tree Frog:


Giant Bent-toed Gecko



We also saw 3 Bornean Keeled Pit Vipers.  All three were up high and not much more than a white outline but I did manage to get a decent photo of one that shows the arrowhead shape of the head:


Anyone want to see a Huntsman Spider the size of a man's hand?



Too bad...I posted it anyway!

File-eared Frog:


As we were exiting the Sanctuary, the word got out that a Slow Loris was close.   By the time I got there the only view I had was of its backside.  Pretty cute still...right?


Over all, it was a nice walk at the Sanctuary but we struck out on Tarsier which I hoped wasn't becoming my nemesis animal.

After another good meal back at Forest Edge we did a walk on their grounds and found a few more night critters including more frogs, a huge snail, and this Painted Bronzeback:



So, it was a pretty good day and best of all we had good weather and beer in an ice bucket to end the day.

Sepilok - Day 2

Well, Mother Nature finally caught up to us after a day and a half of sun.  It rained most of the night and we had a huge thunder storm at 4AM which woke us up.

The day before we had decided to go to the Rainforest Discovery Center early.  So, despite the continued off and on rain, we were out at 6AM and headed to the RDC.  We got rained out for every trip to the RDC last year and it appeared our luck would be no better this year.  By 7:30AM the rain showed no signs of stopping so we left the RDC all wet...again.

Back at Forest Edge, we hung out in the covered dining room area for the rest of the morning watching a few birds brave the rain:

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker:


Luckily, the rain subsided around lunch time and wasn't an issue the rest of the day.

For the afternoon, we had arranged for Gary to take us to the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey sanctuary.  At first, none of us really wanted to go because morally this sanctuary is a bit of a gray area.  The sanctuary is owned and operated by a palm oil company.  It only exists because this company found the monkeys while tearing down all of the surrounding habitat.  Luckily, someone at the company took pity on these monkeys and preserved some jungle/mangroves for them.

But, did we really want to give money to a palm oil company to see these monkeys that we assumed were really only semi-wild since they lived on a forest "island" in the middle of a palm oil plantation?

After talking it over and reading more about the sanctuary online, we decided to go since Proboscis monkeys were likely but not guaranteed at the river later in the trip.  Gary ended up dispelling our fears a bit by letting us know that the monkeys were not land-locked and could actually leave the sanctuary because all the mangroves for miles were connected and protected. So, the monkeys were wild (although fed daily in the sanctuary to supplement their wild diets) after all and we also had the chance to see Mudskippers at the mangroves.

That last part sealed my "yes" vote since the Mudskipper was on my target list for this trip.  The others were on board too and we ended up having a great time at the sanctuary.

The sanctuary is home to other wild primates including these Silver Leaf Monkeys:




It wasn't long before we spotted a Mudskipper and they were fantastic.  This is a Blue-spotted Mudskipper:


The Mudskipper is a fish that lives on land. It uses its pectoral fins to walk around and it can breathe on land as well (although not like we do).  It's quite an evolutionary marvel and pretty cool looking too.  Its eyes stick out above its head and can move independently of each other:



Once my infatuation with the Mudskippers subsided, we headed to the main platform and soon the staff was putting out some food for the Proboscis Monkeys.  They get a combination of vegetables and non-sweet pancakes.  Because these monkeys are "baited" they are used to people and the photo opportunities are outstanding.  So, be prepared for Proboscis Monkey overload:














One of the things that makes the Proboscis Monkey so endearing is how human like they seem.  This is a standard sitting position.  All you need is a La-Z-Boy chair and remote and it could be any one of us...



There were two separate troops of Proboscis Monkeys on separate feeding platforms when we were there. Our large viewing deck was in between them.  The dominate male of one of the troops was paying great attention to the male from the other troop and was staring intently at him.  As luck would have it, we were just about right in between the males so it appeared like the first male was staring at us.  He was eating and barking out calls at the other male.  As a matter of fact, he had no problem "talking" with his mouth full and showing us everything he was chewing.

Trust me, that wasn't ALL he was showing us either.  See, male Proboscis monkeys like to show off their junk.  There I said it.  They have a bright red penis and ink black balls and they aren't ashamed of them AT ALL.  In fact, this male took a couple swipes at his erect penis to intimidate the other male.  I wonder if that would work in meetings at work that aren't going my way...probably not.

All of a sudden he leaped down from the platform and on to our viewing deck.  He charged past us on all fours slapping the ground to make a great commotion as he went past.  I couldn't believe how fast and powerful he was as he scampered past us to chase off the other male.  He then came back to our viewing deck to take a quick look around on top of a sign and returned to his troop.  He moved way too fast to get a photo until he stopped on that sign to take his final look around.



At first, the sign seemed difficult to interpret.  Luckily with the help of the pictures I think I understand it now:
1 - Don't let the monkeys hand you their poop (seems an obvious one)
2 - Monkeys don't like "talking to the hand" (neither does my wife)
3 - Pacman isn't allowed to talk to the monkeys (Rumor has it that Ms Pacman does all the talking in that family though)
4 - No ice skating (Sorry Scott Hamilton)
5 - Tank tops aren't allowed (good thing I didn't wear my leopard tank top belly shirt...phew)
6 &7 - It is OK to trade your two kids and buggy for one monkey (It's a deal!)


When the dominant male returned to his troop he got a little grooming reward:


But, that session was interrupted when he spotted the other male again and started to display his displeasure sans junk:




He was literally sending a message to the other male that "Oh No", he wasn't coming any closer.  Tim captured this behavior well in this animated GIF he put together:

As you can see, there were a couple mothers with babies in the troop and they were great fun to watch.  Here's one final Proboscis pic (Spoiler alert: the rated R Proboscis pics are coming later):



We had a blast watching all this interaction and hearing all the communication sounds between the monkeys.  It's much harder to see and hear all that in the wild along the river.  One thing we were surprised about is that when a couple Long-tailed Macaques came to get some food, all the Proboscis monkeys left. Even the big males were easily chased off.  The Macaques are kings of this jungle.

Also at the reserve we saw some new raptors, a Dog-faced Water Snake, and some unidentified rats. So, despite a few sprinkles it was a great afternoon and seeing all the wonderful Proboscis behavior was a highlight of the trip for us.

After leaving Labuk Bay, we headed for the RDC where we actually had no rain!  A first at the RDC for us.  So, we were finally able to explore and look for wildlife.  We found lots of it.

Eastern Crimson Sunbird:


Interesting vine:


Our first looks at Rhinoceros Hornbill this trip:


Low's Squirrel:


As we were climbing up one of the towers, Andrea found a snake that was really well camouflaged.  It was another Red-tailed Racer (not sure why they call them that when every one we saw had a gray tail).




At dusk, Gary positioned us on one of the canopy walkways to see the flying squirrels leave their nest and hopefully glide to a nearby tree.  We didn't have to wait long before one emerged and glided effortlessly to another tree.  It's so cool to watch.  Too bad it was pretty dark out.

Just after dark we made our way out of the RDC but not before we saw this large Asian Toad:


Dinner consisted of Pizza (Yes, Forest Edge does a pretty darn good pizza) and happy hour ice cold beer.  Even though the morning got rained out the rest of the day was really good today.  This was Gary's last day with us.  He will be missed.  He told us that our guide for the day tomorrow would be Gomi (not his real name) and that he did not know him.  Well, he can't be too bad...right?