The birds around the hotel were interesting, but could be quite limited, so I took a morning walk through the local village, taking a left fork in the road away from the usual exit track. This also eventually leads to the main road, but this part of the village found many of the houses to be either surrounded by water, or are adjacent to marsh. This and the surrounding vegetation made ideal birding habitat, as opposed to the much drier gardens along the other fork. New birds started to appear almost as soon as I took the left fork, initiated by a stunning Common Flameback, which obliged by landing on a bare tree to the other side of a small marsh. It sat and preened here for some time. Following a skulking Pied Fantail, a subadult Cinnamon Bittern paraded across one of the smallholdings. This was immediately following by a juvenile Plaintive Cuckoo posing well on a low bush, before hopping a little closer and flying off. Continuing down this lane stirred up water birds from the marshes, including Pintail Snipe and Wood Sandpiper, and a family of White-breasted Waterhens. The dog leg to the right near the end of the lane was a particularly good spot for bird activity. A singing bird in the distance proved to be Striated Grassbird, which was quite a surprise for this area, even more so when a second individual appeared closer to. 2-3 Lesser Coucals were discovered here, the first sunning itself in the open and revealing its dull black (and diagnostic) head. Also at this spot was a group of 3 young Nutmeg Mannikins, another species I hadn’t expected to find in Borneo – the question of a feral population may have arisen. Now heading towards the main road, I took a diversion across the marshes to the left, and found a very large Great-billed Heron amongst the Great Egrets, which were only seen in flight, and where the size difference was apparent. Back on the road again, and some difficult to pin down, if not noisy, passerines turned out to be Striped Tit-babblers, these seeming to have the slight yellowish caste on the upper breast of the northern Borneo population. I was about to turn around here and head back, when I approached a much closer singing Striated Grassbird among the numerous Spotted Doves on the wires. The land had now become farmland interspersed by small dwellings. Heading back towards the hotel was largely uneventful, but did add Brown Shrike, Pied Triller, and superb views of Collared Kingfisher, which was perched for some time on a fence post between houses.