Kinabalu Wetland Centre.. Final Year Project Started!!

When you saw this picture, you might wonder... 

what is this girl looking at ah?

Yup! That's me doing my Final Year Project (FYP)..

I'm looking at birds actually~

As I mention before I working on Urban birds diversity for my thesis..

However, when others know about their title, their first reaction were:

"Birds? Looking at bird for what?"

The situation get worst when I brought my binoculars to my neighborhood's park to look for birds..

People are looking at my as a weirdo and laugh at me.... T.T

May be public are not familiar with bird watching yet...

But if you go to Tanjung Aru beach or KK wetland, then you may meet with some bird watcher and birds photographer looking for birds too~

So, if you saw me walking and looking around with a binocular..

Chill la.... I doing my thesis on birds la....

Actually I'm comparing the bird diversity in KK wetlands, Tanjung aru beach, Bukit Padang park and Kingfisher park~

So, my first stop will be KK wetlands~ 

I think many UMS students don't even know where is KK wetlands ba..

Actually it is very near to UMS...

It was located near the Likas Stadium~

So this is the office where you need to buy your tickets to enter the wetland.

For Malaysian student, the fee is RM3 only~ 

and you need to give a deposit of RM2 for the entree pass.. (They will give it back to you when you return the pass)

Cheap right? It is for the conservation fee~

It was a super sunny morning when I arrived there around 8.30am.. 

We were the first visitor of the day!!!

This is the list of birds that you can find in KK wetland..

But don't expect that you manage to watch them all just in one visit..

Birds are good in hiding themselves..

So, be quite when you are there~

KK wetlands is one of the mangrove forest that is located in Kota Kinabalu..

It is also a tourist destination in Kota Kinabalu.

This is a spot for Ergret (bangau)  and heron nesting sites~

If you think beaches like Tanjung Aru is too crowded,

KK wetland will be an ideal place for you to have a short run away as it is very near and quite too~

Special thanks to Wei Ping for wake up SUPER early in the morning and accompany me to do my FYP~

Besides that, also special thanks to my course mates, Hidayah, Florina and Rafiq for coming to KK wetland during noon too~

Us pretending as tourist~

KK wetland is not only a great place for bird watching, they also organize Environment education program

 such as tree planting and tour for students and visitor too..

They also have exhibition room in their office too~

If you are planning to visit the KK wetland, there are some tips for you:

This is a sign board of what can't be done here...

No high heels definiently... If you love your high heel..

Or else your heel will be stuck in the gap or mud...

Sport shoe is the best~

Wear a long pants and long sleeve if you don't wan kisses from the "lovely" mosquito ~

And this is the consequences of wearing a shorts here...

Pity for Wei ping's leg~

Don't wear colourful clothes if you wan to watch birds here..

As vivid colour will scare them away..

Wear something that can blend in the environment well~

And no perfume too...

Birds can smell actually~ 

You can rent a binocular from the counter for RM5 from the counter..

So that you can see the colour and the uniqueness of every birds clearly~

For bird watching, besides a binocular,

you also need to have at least one guide book so that you know what is the bird that you found.

For Sabah or Borneo area, you can use Phillip's guide of Birds of Borneo ( the white book).

For Malaysia and Singapore, you can use A Naturalist's Guide to Birds of Malaysia and Singapore ( the green book).

For me, I use both of them for my references of FYP~
For photography session, I recommend to visit KK wetland around 8am in the morning as the lighting is good for photography..
To search for birds, you can visit here for 2 times which is 8am in the morning and after 4pm in the noon as birds come out during morning and before sunset.
Here are some updates of some photography by me in KK wetland.

Great Egret ( Yellow Beak) and Little Egret ( Black Beak)

Do you see the love? 

Little Heron

The ant saying Hi to the Butterfly~~

With all the tips, hope you can enjoy the view and nature of KK wetland~ 

Visiting Hours
Tuesday - Sunday: 8am - 6pm
Closed on Mondays except public holidays

Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre
Off Jalan Bukit Bendera Upper,
88400 Likas, Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia.

Tel: 6088 246 955 Fax: 6088 247 955

You can see the Map here~

Borneo Bird Festival 2012 @ Kinabalu Park

During the weekends of 5-7 October 2012, Borneo Bird Festival was held in Kinabalu Park.

P/s: It's my first time to be in Kinabalu Park!!!

This year, I joined this great event as a volunteer for the Malaysia Nature Society (MNS).

I'm helping my supervisor to look after her booth as she is the adviser of the MNS.

Well, my job was selling T-shirts, Suara Enggang magazine (its all bout birds), and asking people to join the membership of MNS~

Borneo Bird Festival (BBF) is an annual event for birds lover to gather and share their experiences in Bird watching and photography.

This event also expose the public to the importance of the avifauna (birds) in the ecosystem.

They organized lots of program for this BBF event such as Bird talks, Guided bird walks, Bird race (identify bird species), Birds photography competition, children drawing contest, Youth Bird camps and Birds sound mimicry contest.

The main reason I was here is actually I'm coming for the bird talk as I'm taking bird diversity as my thesis title..

I attended few really great talks especially from Mr. Dave Backwell.

He is the bird specialist of Malaysia Nature Society Bird committee.

He gave interesting topics about the rarity of birds and the migratory birds~

A picture with Mr Dave~

He is actually the editor of Suara Enggang which I was selling in my booth~

Besides MNS , there were many booth exhibition from different NGO in Malaysia such as  WWF, Danum Valley, Tabin Wild Life Reserve, Sunbear Conservation, Kinabalu Avian Club and many more.

 Malaysia Nature Society

 Borneo Eco Tour of Danum Valley

WWF

 Kinabalu Avian Club

 They were exhibiting beautiful photo snapped by their members.

This is one of my favourite photo from their booth~

 They also exhibiting their 'Bazuka' camera in the booth~

The total cost for all the equipment need to take a bird photography which includes the camera, the 'bazuka' lens and the tripod stand is around RM40k!!!!!!

P/s: That's why most of the bird photographer shown up were uncle.... 

as only them are able to afford those EXPENSIVE gadget!!

The photos that won in different category in bird photography.

Tatoo artist were also invited during that event~

Say hi to Mr. Tatoo~ xp

 I'm getting myself a temporay tatoo too~

Too bad that the tatoo fade after two days...

:/

Love  my bird tatoo~

Say hi to Mr clown~
He is hilarious and funny.
P/s: the photo of me getting a tatoo was taken by him~

Mr.  Clown magic show~

 He also made me a flower balloon for my GF5~
So cute~

Suria Radio crew was there too to give away all the goodies~

 Bird sound mimicry competition~
The grand prize was Canon Tripod stand!!!
The contestants were super funny with their "bird" act while making bird sound~

Another main event here was the guided bird walk~
Professional bird photographer brought us to explore the secret hide out of birds~
I'm so regretted that I din't brought my binocular there.. :/

Feel so tired as it was quite some time that I din't go hiking...
LOw stamina...
Need to jog more!!!

 Trails of Kinabalu park~

I brought souvenirs too~
They are O'BON news paper pencil~
Eco-friendly and wood free hand made pencil~
I love their design so much!!!

And at last some photo of me~

Look like a tourist?

Many thinks that I was a foreigner~

Hahahaha~

They were shock when I speak Malay with them~

I'm a Malaysian ba~

 Interested in Bird watching?

Just look around your neighborhood ~

You might found out that there are actually many different species of birds just around you~

P/s: Special thanks to Florina as she accompany me to stay in Kinabalu park for 3 days 2 night~