June 21
After
a packed, standing-room-only train ride from Thetford to Stansted, a 7 hour
flight to Dubai followed by a 10 hour flight to Bali and then an hour and half
white-knuckle taxi ride through Denpasar, we arrived at Umasari Rice Terrace
Villa early evening absolutely shattered.
June
22
Awake
before light, the rice terraces are an excellent place for a wander to
acclimatise to Bali, having stayed here when we visited Bali on a shorter
stopover a couple of years ago. The rice terraces are full of Javan Pond Herons
and Eastern Cattle Egrets and lots of flocks of both Javan and Scaly-breasted
Munias and a brief Painted Snipe. A Black-winged Kite eating prey in a tree and
then hovering over the hillside, a couple of flyover Brown-backed Needletails
and 3 noisy Javan Kingfishers flying around bickering were a good way to get
over the jet lag.
The
main reason for staying at the Rice Terrace Villas apart from being a cheap and
very comfortable place to start the trip away from the noise and hustle and
bustle of Denpasar or Ubud was that we were able to organise a hire car to be
delivered to the hotel by Balico, who I would definitely recommend. This meant
we also didn't need to drive through any major cities, which with scooters
coming at you from all sides and the rule of who pushes the most wins is a much
more relaxing driving experience! The car was delivered at lunchtime (and
unlike last time, with a different company, this car was actually roadworthy!) and we set
off, with a plan of lunch and a bit of birding at the botanical gardens, about
an hour north. However when we got to the botanical gardens, paid to park and
get in, we found that the restaurant was closed, so we ended up having to give
up and press on and not do any birding other than seeing a Little Pied
Flycatcher by the entrance to speak of.
After
finding some food, an ATM and some petrol, we carried on north to the Menjangan
Resort, which lies just within the West Bali National Park. Entry to the
national park costs IDR200,000 each per day admission which you have to pay up front
on arrival, and as we found, they only take cash at the gate, which as we were
staying 5 days that pretty much cleaned us out of cash straight away, but luckily,
we had just taken out enough! With not much light left, we found our
accommodation at the Monsoon Lodges, seeing my first Green Junglefowl by the
incredibly rough track on our way in.
June
23
The
Menjangan Resort is a fantastic place to stay with 3 different sets of
accommodations and 2 restaurants spread out, so you really don't feel like you
are in a resort with other people since they just get the little safari bus top
and down the road rather than walking anywhere and unlike the main part of the
national park (more later), you can wander about freely without a guide, which
is how I spent most mornings.
I
always find birding in Indonesia a challenge until you get your eye in as many
birds spend their time up in the treetops and you see lots of birds bellies
rather than the nice profile views depicted in the field guides. Flocks of
Coppersmith Barbets sharing the trees with mixed groups of Orange-breasted and
Grey-cheeked Green Pigeons were the first birds I got a good look at. The
resort has a Bali Starling Sanctuary, where you can see birds in large aviaries
but they aren't very tickable, but thankfully as I walked back toward the
accommodation, 3 white birds on a treetop proved to be wild Bali Starlings,
much easier to find than I was expecting, and sorted on the first morning!
A short walk further along through track, a Green Junglefowl was busy scratting around for food, fairly unconcerned by my presence, and as it turned out they were very numerous and easy to see with double figure counts most mornings. Returning to the lodges, a Black Eagle circled overhead,
One
of the restaurants on the resort is up a tower which gives great views over the
forest and there's always lots of Cave Swiftlets and the odd Grey-rumped
Treeswift flying around.
Bali isn't home to a wide variety of mammals, with Plantain Squirrel and Long-tailed Macaques the most obvious ones you see. One speciality of Bali, and the Menjangan area in particular is a species of deer called the Javan Rusa, which are known to frequent the beach area, though we were surprised when as we left our lodge and headed to the car, a young stag was feeding unconcerned in the car park. Another feature we discovered, if you cut through the Menjangan stable block and look up, a small group of Lesser Short-nosed Fruit Bats peer down on you and Black Giant Squirrel (which I failed to find in Thailand last year) were fairly common.
Lesser Short-nosed Fruit Bats
We
left the resort (which seemed to surprise the guys in the gate) and had lunch
at a lovely little bakery in nearby Pemuteran where we went to book a
dolphin-watching boat for the next morning. While having lunch, a patch of
grass and bushes we overlooked had White-shouldered Triller and a few
Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters to keep us entertained.
June
24
A
very early start as we had a 45 minute drive to get to the dolphin watching
place for 6am, though when we got there the bloke (who we sat down and spoke to
and even shook hands with) wasn't expecting us, but thankfully he managed to
conjure up another captain to take us out on a small boat. The target here was
Spinner Dolphins and it wasn't too long before we saw some dolphins but we mostly
just saw dorsal fins as they were feeding, and so weren't being acrobatic. Looking
at the few photos we did manage, they turned out to be Pantropical Spotted
Dolphins, and despite racing around (aimlessly it seemed) for another hour, we didn't see the
Spinners were hoping for.
Returning
to the resort, I had a wander around while Toni recovered from the early start.
A small mixed group of 3 Small and 1 female Scarlet Minivet were entertaining
and a Freckle-breasted Woodpecker eventually gave itself up, and as the rain
started to fall, a Black-naped Monarch, Black-winged Flycatcher-Shrike,
White-shouldered Triller and several Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters completed the
walk.
In
the evening we drove the couple of kilometers (which given how rough the track is, feels a lot further) down to the other restaurant that overlooks the sea where
a few Little Terns were fishing just offshore and a Cerulean Kingfisher flashed
past and we looked longingly at the Beach Villas...
June
25
Pittas are always highly sought after with birders and having failed to see one on previous trips to Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia I was keen to try to see a Javan Banded Pitta while in Bali, though in such a large national park, I didn't know where to look! Having done a quick bit of revision on their call the previous evening, on another early start and after only a short walk from the lodge I heard the distinctive song of a male Pitta, sounding not unlike a yapping Little Owl from back home. What seemed like an eternity, the call seemed to be moving closer, but there was still a lot of cover between me and the sound, but finding a small clearing and sitting quietly, the sound got louder and suddenly there it was, a stunning male Javan Banded Pitta with gleaming yellow and black head markings as he strut around the clearing and perched up on a low stump for a few seconds, allowing me to get some photos before he carried on moving around and into more scrub.
After
breakfast we left the resort and drove the short distance round to the main body of the West Bali National Park to try
to see the Javan Langurs. Having read various conflicting accounts about access
to the park, some saying you need a guide, other saying you can just drive
straight in without a guide and then some talk of locals who set up a scam of
charging a large amount even though the unsuspecting tourist ten gets charged
again by officials within then park. Unfortunately, the stories were true and
although there is a restaurant and reputable tour companies along the main road
in the park, we encountered a barrier where some distinctly unofficial looking
lads said we could go no further, even though we had already paid for access by
staying at the Menjangan, so frustratedly, we had to give up. We later
discovered from another couple staying in the resort that the Menjangan would
have organised a guide to take us to see the Langurs and bypassed the issues we
had accessing the main park, oh well, it's just a good excuse to have to come back another day!
Having had some noisy neighbours move in next door to our lodge who insisted on winding their shrieking children up when most parents would be trying to get them to settle down for the night, we made the very difficult decision to upgrade our room to one of the beach villas. Having a late afternoon wander from here, I was able to explore a different part of the resort on foot that we had previously only driven through on our way to the restaurant and saw another Bali Starling along with Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker, Brown-throated Sunbird and a confiding Little Heron.
In the evening at low tide, a couple of Javan Rusa walked along the beach past the villa, again, completely unconcerned by us.
June
26
Another
pre-breakfast walk around the northern end of the resort was very productive,
with a minimum of 10 Green Junglefowl along the edges of the tracks, another
calling Javan Banded Pitta, a flock of 5 Bali Starlings, Racket-tailed Treepie,
a stunning Long-tailed Shrike and confiding Olive-backed Tailorbirds.
Olive-backed Tailorbird
Bali Starlings
In none of the information we had seen for the resort had there been any mention of an observation tower, and so it was a surprise when I came across a sign to a tower and on a short look from here, a Black-thighed Falconet was perched on a treetop, not a bird I was expecting to see, while a Collared Kingfisher perched on the support cable briefly.
We
made a return visit to the tower late afternoon though it was much quieter, but
a couple of small groups of Small Minivets flew over as did a House Swift.
June
27
Our
final morning in the resort and I was awake ridiculously early and so made my
way to the tower by torchlight and sat on top of the tower drinking a cup of
tea while listening to a Sunda Scops Owl and Large-tailed Nightjar calling from
the darkness, a very pleasant way to start the day!
As
it got light, the forest started to come to life, and as expected the Green
Junglefowl started the dawn chorus. Flocks of Green Pigeons and another Bali
Starling flew over while Linneated and Coppersmith Barbets topped the trees.
With a fresh breeze blowing, it started becoming quite chilly up on the tower,
so I went for a wander around the immediate area, the highlights being 3
Black-thighed Falconets perched together and the Long-tailed Shrike again and
showing much better than yesterday.
After
breakfast it was time to say goodbye to the Menjangan and having noticed on
Google Maps a Bali Starling feeding site just down the road by the ferry to
Menjangan Island, we had a quick stop and sure enough several Bali Starlings,
some bearing colour rings were coming to feed, and showed much better than the
birds within the park itself.
With
a car to return and a plane to Australia to catch the next day, we decided to do
the long drive and returned the Umasari Rice Terrace Villas for the night.
June
28
A
final morning walk around the rice terraces again had the usual Javan Pond
Herons, Eastern Cattle Egrets, the Black-winged Kite again hovering over the
hillside and a Plain Prinia.
In total,
after a week of some fairly relaxed birding on Bali, I saw 69 species but these
did include the Junglefowl, starling and not forgetting the Pitta which I had
wanted to see before arriving, and unusually for me, I even found time to sit
around and chill too!
