And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him, In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wonderous glory of the everlasting stars.

Banjo Paterson (1889)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Niah Caves



One of the places I always like to visit when in Miri are the Niah Caves, a great birding area about an hour's drive from Miri.

The walk to the caves has some good birding, especially along some of the muddy side tracks, but beware of the concrete sections of the path to the caves, as it's damp most of the time and on any small slope it's like trying to walk on ice! I'm sure every day a lot of visitors must end up falling on their bum!









A beautiful carved pole with traditional Sarawaks designs at the start of the walk


















You must pay the ferryman! To get into the park, you must get the little boat across the Sungai Niah.




The Sungai Niah is a fairly major river. It was interesting to see a number of Wood Sandpipers feeding along the grassy river edges in the rainforest.




Steve and Liz on the 3km path and boardwalk to the caves.




One of the many small rainforest creeks that cross the path. Excellent spots to spend an hour and see what birds turn up.




An interesting fleshy Jew's Ear fungus.




One of the many rainforest millipede species, a species of Tractor Millipede.




A very colourful species of Assassin Bug. A nice big black proboscis for suck out the body juices of other insects.




A Trilobite Beetle, but this was a black one. Most of the other ones I've seen in Bornean rainforests have been coloured black and orange.








Beautiful big orange millipedes can be found along the walkway to the caves.




While it's still damp in the early morning, a few species of rainforest snails are on the move after last nights feeding.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Miri City Fan

I have a few days to relax and also do some more work around our house, before the next big fauna survey, this time near Perth. The Woodie Woodie fauna survey was hard work, as the extreme hot temperatures there were around 40 degrees, every day of the 14 days!

Here are some more Borneo pictures of the Miri City Fan, a wonderful garden park right in the centre of Miri. It's a place I like to go to every time we visit Miri, a great place to relax in and see a few of the more common Sarawak birds.



The City Fan with it's big amphitheatre (called the Garden of Vision) is only minutes from the city centre.




The musical fountian in the Garden of Vision.




Some of the images from the gardens. I didn't have too much time there this visit, as a huge thunderstorm was developing in the late morning and I had to leg it back to the hotel before getting soaked to the bone!




























Wood carvings at the gardens are typical Sarawak designs.




Some of the great murals depicting the wildlife and history of the Miri area.










The view from the Grand Imperial Hotel near the centre of Miri.




Always try and end with a sunset. One of the wonderful sunsets at Miri.


For more information about Miri see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miri