To some of my followers here who have visited and birded along the canal at Cenang breakwater, this is the current update.
My heart and soul was leaping in joy when I received news that for some reason, the golf course developer has abandoned the largest reeds site on Langkawi. We are not sure if they leave for good.
My last visit in February 2024 was devastating to watch the entire canal dried up after they pumped the water out. They even took down some Avicennia and Rhizophora trees that were growing well in the canal.
I had to check this site again when I heard the good news. I was so surprised to see the water return. This canal is intertidal and at low tide there will be some water but it will not go completely dry.
As we were walking, the locals on motorcycles were smiling as they were happy to be back on the Breakwater bridge for fishing. The cows and buffaloes were seen chilling out on the field across the canal.
Our wish is to see migratory birds return and the flocks of Black-Winged Stilts back in action. And a Common Redshank flew above me today! This made my day!
Rainforest Gem
Guess who's inside? π
I recently had a chance to explore the rainforest at night within Saujana Private Villas which is located at the end of the Datai Road. It has been a long time since I got a chance to enter beyond the big iron gate. All thanks to my guest, Mr Rahul from India who booked me for 3 sessions of private wildlife tour.
The weather was super with clear sky and we watched the moon rising on the first night. I almost stepped on a stick insect which I think it may belong to Lonchodidae family. I am happy to be corrected if any of you may know the exact species.
On the second night, we headed out to a different part of the island and the weather changed. Absolutely no calls of any owls on the drizzly night. At least, we had good sightings of mammals such as Small-Toothed Palm Civet (Arctogalidia trivirgata), Common Palm Civet, Red Giant Flying-Squirrel and a Slow Loris. The rain came down hard on our drive back to the Saujana Villas close to midnight and it was thrilling driving down the narrow steep road to the villa. Thank you to the Villa Manager, Mr Raid who offered me coffee to keep me awake for another hour drive home past midnight.
Check out the end of the video and you can see how Saujana Villas look like.
Snippets of my night walk with friends of Marecet @marecet . A Sunda Colugo glided over before we headed into the forest and it was indeed a good start. As we bid farewell, a Sunda Colugo showed up again to wrap up our productive creepy crawlies walk.
There is so much more to discover and to learn about the species around us. Just like how the camera "eats" first before we eat the food, we snap photos of any species we encounter and then identify them later. With brilliant technology these days, it is easier and fun to learn about the critters.
All photos were taken with my Oppo phone.
Thank you for the extra pair of eyes in spotting the stick insects @fahmiradzi_
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#langkawi
#langkawibiodiversity
#langkawigeopark
#wendynatureguide
#barkscorpion
#heteropoda
#huntsmanspider
#stickinsect
#colugo
#litterfrog
#gianttoad
#trilobitebeetle
#langkawinatureguide
#oppo
Clinging onto our Langkawi's oldest carbonate formation in Malaysia, this family of an ancient marine mollusc has a good fossil record dated as far back to the Cambrian period which is about 500 million years ago.
Chitons or also known as sea cradles or suck-rocks live within the intertidal zone on or under hard rocks. They feed on algae, bacteria, diatoms, barnacles by scraping on the rock surfaces with their radulas. When they sensed nearby predators, they will cling onto the rocks as tight as clinging on their dear life. Hence the name as suck-rocks.
This species found on Langkawi is Jewelled Chiton (Acanthopleura gemmata) and I was fortunate to have Nga and Felix who stayed at this small resort that I can access to their beach. That area was once my nature playground and now it has been taken over. I am so glad to see them again clinging onto the same rocky area. Nga and Felix wanted a tour that was off the beaten path. I curated a nature excursion for them as an introduction to our Langkawi's natural wonder. Thank you Nga and Felix π
I like to honour our Chitons to celebrate the international Day for Biological Diversity as they formed an important part in our marine food chain.
It is locally known as Siput Tenggiling in Malay. Siput means snail or mollusc. Tenggiling means Pangolin. Chitons will curl up when being attacked or harassed by predators just like how Pangolins would behave to protect themselves.
These ancient molluscs are harvested as delicacies by scraping off the rocks with knives.
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#langkawi
#chiton
#langkawinatureguide
#langkawinature
#langkawibiodiversity
#langkawigeopark
#privateguide
#ecotourism
#marinewonders
When one of my most enthusiastic guests showed up on an unofficial nature tour.
A Black-giant Squirrel (Ratufa bicolour) can be seen at parks and not just the edge of forests or plantations. Cute agile fella with their remarkable long black tail that most people love watching. As I have observed, their favourite feeding trees would be Strangling Fig and Acacia.
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#langkawinatureguide
#langkawi
#langkawibiodiversity
#blackgiantsquirrel
Coming from Seattle, Washington, USA to our little island of Langkawi, we finally got to meet up after following each other's social media for some years now. It was such a good treat for me to have an opportunity to show Roniq our Langkawi's birds and wildlife.
Roniq Bartanen is a dedicated bird guide in Washington state since 3 years ago although she has been doing birdwatching for 12 years now. Like myself, I started birdwatching on Langkawi as a hobby too. Most of Roniq's guests are new to birdwatching and they come from other states of the USA and some from foreign countries. Their birding season is from April to November which is the opposite of ours here. The month of April is towards the end of our birds migratory season in Langkawi and that marks the non-peak birdwatching season.
We explored different habitats from reeds to mangrove before moving to the forest. While we were at the mangrove, Roniq was excited to see our mudskippers before the rising tide covered the mudflat.
Langkawi is now experiencing heatwave and Roniq braved the sweltering heat of 36β°C on that day (it felt like 40β°C). We managed to spend more than 1.5 hours on the hill forest watching and photographing a few Great Hornbills having their feeding dramas on a fruiting strangling fig tree. Wreathed and Oriental Pied Hornbills joined the party too with the Thick-billed Green-Pigeons and Black Giant Squirrel. Roniq came at the right time to savour the moment with these majestic birds. In a way, the fig tree waited for her to show up!
Thank you Roniq for your gifts and a bag of dog food for the strays. While showing Roniq our birds of Langkawi, we shared views and opinions about our guiding experiences in this industry. Together with @bryonyangell they are passionate in recognising and promoting female bird guides around the world in which we are thankful for.
If you are planning to visit Seattle and like to check out the interesting birds there, do contact Roniq via Instagram accoun
From the tide chart, 13th March 2024 may be the last sandbar walk for 2024. I had a day off on this day and made myself up early for this morning walk.
This would be my first walk to Pulau Rebak Kechil from Pantai Cenang. The sand bar walk at Tanjung Rhu has gone viral and I prefer a much quieter spot.
Even though Tanjung Rhu sandbar is more diverse, I'm happy to see some marine life along the way such as tube worms, soft corals, hermit crabs, Eight-arm Luida Sea star, sea cucumbers, scallops, etc.
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#langkawi
#langkawimoment
#langkawisandbar
#wendynatureguide
#marinelife
#langkawibiodiversity
#langkawinatureguide
The grand finale of Langkawi's Wildlife and nature before the beginning of new year 2024.
Farewell 2023 and Welcome 2024.
Happy New Year to everyone here.
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#langkawi
#langkawinatureguide
#langkawimoment
#birdwatching
#langkawibiodiversity
One of the best weather today for mangrove kayaking, the light rain and cool temperature in this dry season.
Bliss!
I was thinking about this sunbird recently and thought that this species may have vanished from Langkawi until I stumbled upon this tree, Yellow Flame Tree (Peltophorum pterocarpum).
Van Hasselt's Sunbird (Leptocoma brasiliana) or previously known as Purple-throated Sunbird is considered a rare species of sunbird for Langkawi. Probably not a rare sunbird on Peninsular Malaysia.
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#langkawi
#vanhasseltssunbird
#birdwatching
#langkawibiodiversity
#birdsoflangkawi
#langkawinature
#langkawinatureguide
#langkawimoment
I was watching this troupe of Dusky Langurs on the tree top at Seven Wells Waterfall. Some of them got bolder and came down to feed while ignoring the weekend crowd below.
Have a beautiful weekend everyone.
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#langkawi
#duskylangur
#langkawimoment
#telaga7
#sevenwellswaterfall
For the past few days, the island has been cloudy, overcast and lovely cool weather. I spotted this Siamese Peninsula Pit Viper (Trimeresurus fucatus) crossing the road while driving. βKodak momentβ first and then I gently moved it to the forest edge before any vehicle runs over it.
The video says it all. A good treat for the Horner family treat.
Thank you for showing at the right time for them.
It's one of those lazy days today. Past 9:30am and I suddenly have this urge to cycle because the weather today is so cool and cloudy. Love it! And so I headed out.
Enjoy this virtual ride with me via the rice field.
#langkawi
#langkawimoment
#bikeride
Warning : The scream (Not me)
It is the season now and we can't escape from them.
Leech check station on our jungle trek. Leeches are harmless as compared to ticks and mosquitoes. Yet they are still annoying π
You wouldn't believe how ironic our mangrove boat tour today turned out to be.
At the beginning of our mangrove tour, our Four Seasons guest asked me if there are sea turtles in Langkawi. I explained that sea turtles are around, however, it is difficult to find them especially coming up to the sandy beaches to lay their eggs. From the stories of the local people here, sea turtles have laid their eggs on Pantai Cenang half a century ago. Not anymore with the rapid development, noise and lights pollution. My sightings of sea turtles here were the carcasses. Two or three years ago, there was a social media post on rescuing a live Hawksbill Turtle trapped in a ghost net on Pantai Cenang. Another live sea turtle was sighted on the beach near the airport years ago.
On our way back to the Four Seasons Resort, I requested our boatman to turn into Gua Dedap for some landscape photos. Shortly, our hawkeye boatman Yat spotted something. I can't believe how ironic when Zahra asked about our sea turtles earlier.
I am so thankful for our boatman Yat for his attention and his amazing keen hawkeye. Terima kasih Yat. Semoga lebih rezeki dicurahkan kepada Yat.
Also to mention Azimi Azmin for helping me with the turtles id. Thank you Azimi for allowing me to βkacauβ you from time to time.
Many thanks to the guest, Zahra for sharing this memorable video.
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#langkawi
#langkawimoment
#seaturtle
#natureguide
#langkawibiodiversity
#langkawigeopark
You can believe that luck may turn around when we allow the process to flow.
Sina and Chris from Germany are now on their long Asian travel and Langkawi is their last destination to see our awe-inspiring Great Hornbills. They were unable to spot any hornbills when they were in Chiangmai, Thailand.
The rain caught up with us when we arrived at the base of Gunung Raya. Thankfully the rain wasn't that heavy and I can continue to drive up slowly while looking for any hornbills. When we reached one quarter of the mountain, the rain got heavier and we decided to turn around. Yet there was not a single call or any signs of a hornbill. With a slow descend, the rain was also slowing easing away.
Not too long after, I picked up a squeaky call. An Oriental Pied Hornbill!! That brought a big smile on their faces.
As the sun was quickly dipping into the horizon, I made a last stop to feed the strays and that's when I picked up the honking call. Just when we turned around, the big bird flew out above the rainforest canopy. Not just one but nearly a dozen of them came out to play after the rain. Woo-hoo!! It felt like magic.
At the same time, we saw a flock of almost 50 Large Green-Pigeons coming together to roost high up on the canopy. I couldn't get any photo and all of them left that area when the Great Hornbills showed up.
I managed to video these playful Great Hornbills high up on a tree thru the scope before sunset.
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#langkawi
#greathornbill
#langkawibirds
This is their highlight bird on our Birdwatching tour recently with my return guests from Singapore, SuLin and Fadzuli.
They are easy going birdwatchers who simply enjoy watching birds in any areas that I took them.
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#langkawi
#mangrovepitta
#birdwatching
#langkawinatureguide
#privatenaturetour
Dung beetle rolling π© - Part 3
Finale video of this dung beetle with it's prized poo π©
Critters and insects receive less attention from the general people and not as popular compared to their larger neighbors such as birds and mammals. Some of these critters are pests to us such as mosquitoes, cockroaches, ticks and house termites. While there are other critters that play critical roles in sustaining the natural ecosystem which the larger animals are dependent on. These forest-dwelling critters are recyclers, cleaners and food providers to the ever popular animals.
I have enjoyed my observation time with this dung beetle and as well as editting the videos.
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#langkawi
#dungbeetle
#langkawibeetle
#scarab
#insectsoflangkawi
#langkawinatureguide
#langkawibiodiversity
#natureguide
