1 Nov 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 6 - Back On Babar

We awoke for breakfast prior to our first light landing at the Western end of Babar. However, having seen the Southern Boobook on the previous evening, at least we didn't have to get up really early for a couple of hours before dawn Southern Boobook search.

First light in Western Babar

The crew heading back to the Lady Denok: The boat crew all had other jobs on the ship to attend to

A typical coastal scene in Indonesia: Plastic bottles thrown into the sea as they just haven't heard the problems of plastic pollution

Early morning in the village: It didn't have the closely laid houses as many other Indonesian villages

Another village scene

We had to wait for our transport to arrive, which gave us the chance to have a look around some of the gardens as we walked through the village. There were a number of large weedy gardens around the edge of the village, which allowed a few photos in the early morning light.

Uniform Swiftlet: The subspecies that is thought to occur on Babar & Tanimbar is moluccarum

Banda Myzomela: This is the nominate boiei subspecies. We had already seen the annabellae subspecies on Tanimbar

Pacific Swallow: A freshly fledged individual

Pied Bushchat: This is the cognatus subspecies which is endemic to Babar

Tricoloured Parrotfinch: This is a Lesser Sundas endemic which occurs on Timor, Wetar, Babar, Damar, Romang & Tanimbar. I had seen my first Tricoloured Parrotfinches on Tanimbar a few days earlier, but the views were too short to allow photos

The weedy plot where the Tricoloured Parrotfinches were feeding

The rest of the group by the weedy field

Indonesia has some lovely looking local cattle

There seems to be a lot of food around the village for the local pigs

As the transport hadn't arrived yet, we carried on to explore the scrubby forest & coconut plantations on the edge of the village.

Scrubby vegetation and plantations on the edge of the village

Cinnamon-banded Kingfisher: This is the dammerianus subspecies which occurs on Moa, Leti, Babar and Damar. Two other subspecies occur elsewhere in The Lesser Sundas

Arafura Fantail: It sounds like the taxonomy of Arafura Fantails needs more investigation. Clements has grouped the Indonesian and New Guinea subspecies of Arafura Fantails as Supertramp Fantails and puts the nominate Northern Australian Arafura Fantail in a group on its own: but all are within Arafura Fantail. The Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago states that while the nominate Arafura Fantail looks similar to some the Western Indonesian subspecies, these differences become successively different in the closer Supertramp Fantail subspecies. Also, the Supertramp Fantails have more complex songs than the nominate subspecies

Cinnamon-tailed Fantail: This monotypic species is restricted to Babar and the Tanimbar Islands

It was a regular sight to see small groups of graves, often with tiled coverings, around the Banda Sea villages

Cashew Nuts were a regular crop on the Banda Sea islands

I will cover the rest of the morning on Babar in the next Post.

19 Nov 14 - An Audience With Tahiti Royalty

We had one final day on Tahiti & we still had two Tahiti endemics to see: Tahiti Monarch & Tahiti Swift. On the first afternoon of the trip, we saw three of the Five Tahiti endemics: Grey-green Fruit-dove, Tahiti Kingfisher & Tahiti Reed Warbler. So, this morning we were off to the Papahue Valley reserve. This is the main site for the Critically Endangered Tahiti Monarch which has a world population of around fifty individuals. The Tahiti Monarchs are well protected. There is active work to help trap introduced Rats within the reserve. Additionally, while we were there, we saw one of the warden's looking for introduced Red-vented Bulbuls in the forest to shoot, as they are known to predate & out-compete Tahiti Monarchs. It was good to see this proactive protection for the Tahiti Monarchs.

The forest in the valley looked good

It wasn't an early arrival as there is one slow coastal road around the island & we had to travelling for about an hour to meet our reserve guide. The guide wasn't there when we arrived at the meeting point & we had another half hour wait, until he finally turned up. Then we turned around & drove back to reached the Papahue Valley. It would have been a lot easier to get the guide to meet us at the reserve entrance. He works at the reserve on most days studying the Tahiti Monarchs. We had a fifty seater coach for fourteen of us & it was no surprise that the coach couldn't get all the way up the road. So, we ended up walking the last half mile to the reserve entrance. But our guide told us not to worry. There were two active nests by the main trail within the reserve & we would be allowed to visit one of them, as the Tahiti Monarchs were not disturbed by quiet visiting Birders.

Swamp Harrier: An introduced species from Australia & the South West Pacific

Tahiti Swiftlet: We saw our first & only Tahiti Swiftlets flying over the valley

The entrance to the reserve

The forest was dense once we got onto the small trail through it

We followed our guide into the forest for about a half mile. After crossing a stream & a further walk, he pointed out a nest above the path. We could see the tail sticking out, but not much more. After a while, there was a change of parents at the nest. The freshly relieved individual started to feed by the track & allowed a few photographs to be taken. Once it moved on, I didn't want to follow it, as I didn't want to disturb it. I had got some record photos & I would rather not disturb a really rare Bird to try to get better photos.

Tahiti Monarch: Adult sitting on the nest

Tahiti Monarch: Many are colour-ringed to allow them to be easily identified & monitored

Tahiti Monarch: One of the rarest Birds in the world

The light had been grim & it finally started to rain lightly as we were leaving the park. But the rain wasn't too bad & we had seen our final two Tahiti endemics, so we were happy.

Pacific Swallow: This is the nominate tahitica which occurs in Tahiti & Moorea

We saw a number of the introduced species as we walked past the houses & their well vegetated gardens on the way back to the bus.

Silver-eye: A commonly introduced Australian species

Waxbill introduced from Africa: With Silver-eye & Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

Chestnut-breasted Mannikin: Another common introduced Australian species

Crimson-backed Tanager: Another introduced species, but from Panama, Colombia or Venezuela this time

It was back to the hotel to chill out for the final few hours of the trip to chill out.

The skies put on a superb sunset to end the trip

We had kept a shared room to hold all the bags & so we could have a final shower etc before heading off to the airport mid-evening for the night flight to the US. The other Brits were heading for the UK, whereas I had a couple of days stopover in California.

22 Dec 13 - A Cracking Flowerpecker

Back to Gandhi Park hoping that the Daurian Starlings might be feeding in the park, but looks like the park is only a roost site. But more opportunities for bird photography of non forest species.

Vernal Hanging-parrot: Checking he has still got his 4 toes. A Sparrow sized Parrot with a lot of character

White-bellied Swiftlet: A widespread Asian species also known as Glossy Swiftlet

Blue-tailed Bee-eater: I'm always happy to watch Bee-eaters

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

 Pacific Swallow: Smaller & more compact than Swallows without the bluish lower throat band

Brown Shrike: 'Philippine Shrike' lucionensis race

Small Minivet

Red-whiskered Bulbul: A common successful species found throughout the main island, except in the best forests

 Common Myna: A widespread species that has successfully been introduced to many countries

Brown Flycatcher: This would be great to see on Portland

Brown Flycatcher

Finally, the first endemic photographed: Andaman Flowerpecker. Flowerpeckers are predominately an Asian Family and most are barely bigger than a Wren. To make them harder to see well, a number like to feed around the tops of flowering trees. Therefore, it was great to find that there is only 1 species on the Andamans, so no problems with identification & also they were often feeding in low scrubby trees. Flowerpeckers have a lot of character for such a small bird, so it's great to see them well.

Andaman Flowerpecker

Andaman Flowerpecker: Enjoying breakfast

Andaman Flowerpecker: Checking what else is going on

Finally, it was time to head back to the hotel & wait for Brian Field to arrive, along with the bird guide, Vivek, & driver, Gophal.