Blog 68. 11 October. Kumai and Orangutang cont
Alcedo
David Batten
Mon 21 Oct 2019 11:11
King (or queen) of the swingers coming down to the feeding table
Definitely a king, a fairly mature male with the characteristic cheek extensions. He ate solidly for over an hour
One of the ladies with a reasonably mature baby. We did see a large number of females with babies at all 3 feeding stations. Masses of photographs, so these are just a sample
After Camp Leakey, which was the furthest point of our river cruise, it was down river as the sunset and a night walk in the jungle at the second feeding station to do some tarantula baiting, namely poking a stick into their holes to make them come out to attack it. Some of them pretty aggressively!
Very striking black and white tarantula with hairy legs, very unhappy at being poked with a very small twig.
We also saw other spiders, sleeping birds, a bat, a gecko and a flying squirrel. After the night walk, we went down river in the dark to find a spot to “anchor” and enjoy a really peaceful night in the jungle
Next morning, up at 05.30 for some birdwatching.
An obliging black hornbill which came and posed on an exposed branch....
..and some long tailed paraqueets, rather further away.
As you can imagine, we were not alone on the river. A queue of tripper boats lining up to drop passengers off at one of the feeding stations.
A walk to one of the feeding stations. The “jungle” at this point was dry, but they did have board walks from the river drop off points as they were low lying and under water during the wet season.
Still more to come in the next blog.
Alcedo
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