When birds flock to a Bornean Bay

The tide comes in quickly. “You have to move, move, move,” says Rose Au.

“Within a few minutes, it’s up to your knees!” Coupled with the dangers of getting stuck in the mud or encountering a crocodile, the business of counting birds has never sounded more thrilling.

Au and the other amateur birders of the Malaysian Nature Society Kuching Branch (MNS) in Sarawak have been braving these dangers and more for the last 16 years.

Their aim - to count the thousands of shorebirds which come to Sarawak every year en route south from their breeding grounds in Siberia.

Their site of choice is Bako-Buntal Bay, the core area of which...