First day in Miri... Did I mention our amazing views...?



But no time for sitting around... Things to do...

Miri is incredibly fortunate to have a little colony of hornbills living and breeding at Piasau Nature Reserve, within easy reach of the city. We met some of the birds -- and a photographer who has been minutely documenting their progress for many years -- on our first visit. Through him, we kept track of what was happening over succeeding years, and checked in on them again last time.

Jimmy and his third mate, Valentine, had taken a while to successfully breed, but just a few weeks ago, baby Skye appeared on the scene, so we made Piasau our first objective for this trip, in the hopes of seeing the youngster.

It's a beautiful park, filled with birdsong and colour:





We arrived at the nesting spot, and soon caught sight of Jimmy, surveying his surroundings from a tree-top vantage-point:


And then, suddenly, there was Skye, perched on the wires right above us:



And, a bit later, s/he appeared again (we don't know the gender yet), artistically inhabiting a palm tree:



This would have been pretty wonderful in itself (people who come regularly to Piasau often don't see the juvenile, so to spot him/her first off was a really lucky break).

But if there's one thing that can make hornbill-spotting even better, it's meeting friends and eating cake...





This was a really special morning. Seeing precious wildlife, hearing the sounds of nature, meeting up again with kind people, and enjoying delicious food... Hard to beat.