Thanks to the midnight or so departure from the Tanimbar Islands on the previous night, we arrived off the coast of the Eastern end of Babar Island in time for some bonus late afternoon Birding. Had we left the Tanimbar Islands as originally planned, we would not have arrived till after dark. We were keen to get ashore for some land Birding. The Tanimbar Islands are not regularly visited by independent Birders visiting Indonesia. However, with an airport they have been visited by a few more adventurous independent Birders in recent years.
The same cannot be said about any of the other islands we were to visit on the Banda Sea Cruise. There are no airfields on any of these islands & the only way to visit them is by boat. It would be time-consuming to try arranging transport on the occasional ships that supply those islands. Chartering a local boat would be an expensive & difficult option for a group of independent Birders. Therefore, the Banda Sea Cruise stands out as a very unique way to access these rarely visited islands.
Bird Tour Asia have over a decade of experience of visiting these islands since their first Banda Sea Cruise in 2011. Any Birder tempted by a Banda Sea Cruise after reading this Blog should be looking to book with Bird Tour Asia: rather than with an alternative company that has managed to work out enough of where Bird Tour Asia visit to start running their own trip. Why travel with a more expensive newcomer, when you can go with the experts on these islands?
Like most of our Banda Sea landings, it was a beach landing. The trick was to get to the front of the boat & either step off or jump off the boat on a dropping wave, to avoid wet feet. We had to be equally carefully to get the timing right when getting back into the boats at the end of the Birding, but I always managed to keep my feet dry. The one exception was late on in the trip, when we had a fifty metre wade ashore due to one very shallow bay. But we were aware of that & I had my flip-flops for the landing & carried the shoes for the land.
We were quickly ashore to find there was a drivable dirt track just behind the first line of trees. This would allow us to easily see the trees. Sadly, we also found one or two patches of trees that had been cleared to allow for Bananas to be planted in the future. We saw a good selection of Babar's birdlife that afternoon, albeit there wasn't a lot of opportunity to get photos. Some of the highlights included Pacific Emerald Dove, Timor Zebra Dove (AKA Barred Dove), Rose-crowned Fruit-dove, Little Bronze-cuckoo, Banda Honeyeater, White-shouldered Triller, Wallacean Whistler, Cinnamon-tailed Fantail, a potential future split from the Australian Arafura Fantail (which the Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago call Supertramp Fantail), Island Monarch, the lovely Orange-banded Thrush & Red-chested Flowerpecker.
All too quickly the light started to go. We couldn't leave yet as we wanted to look for the local subspecies of Southern Boobook. Boobook Owls have long been a potential area for splits as studies look at their vocalisations and other differences. The Boobooks on Babar as currently considered to be the cinnamomina subspecies of Southern Boobook. Whether that will still be the case in another decade is something we will have to wait & see. Everybody was keen to look for one, just in case. One was heard calling as it got dark & Wilbur found a small forest track heading in for a couple of hundred metres. After a short wait, it responded to his recording & it was sitting above our heads.
We had enjoyed some successful bonus Birding on Babar in the afternoon and evening. We had also avoided having to get up in the wee small hours of the following morning to look for Southern Boobook. Albeit, we still were up before dawn for breakfast prior to a dawn landing.
It was time to signal to the boats to return to the shore to collect us. Once we had eaten, the Lady Denok started sailing to our next destination at the Western end of Babar.