Lesser Sundas Part 1

This was a private trip arranged by Neil Bowman through Yovie Jehabut (rimbaranaka@gmail.com). Flights from UK & back booked by Sacha Barbato (sacha.barbato@travelcounsellors.com).

Thursday September 19^th

Only a slightly earlier start to the day than usual giving me ample time to take the Tube & Elizabeth Line to Heathrow T4. After a quick check-in I had time for a leisurely coffee and cake before boarding the 11AM Malaysian Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur, a distance of 11,469 Kms.

Friday 20^th

Eleven hours and 21 minutes later we landed at KL. I had a bit of a wait before the next flight at 12.05 to Denpasar on Bali. Three hours later and another 2100 Kms covered we landed in Indonesia. Arrival procedures had changed a lot since my last visit and although I’d saved time by getting the visa on arrival in advance there were two other forms to complete which had to be done online. The first was a health declaration which they wanted to see before they’d even allow you to enter the arrivals hall. The poor wifi made filling this out extremely difficult. Next up was immigration with three separate queues and no one to tell you which to join. I eventually found a sign which enabled me to jump all the queues and use the eticket gates as I had the evisa.

I collected my bag quickly enough, then it was the customs declaration and there was no manual bypass. The wifi didn’t work at this end of the hall so we queued to use a handful of laptops that were set up. Abso-bloody-lute shambles!

I got a cab to the hotel which had been booked for us and chilled for a while. Towards dusk, thousands of munias streamed over to roost and a couple of Yellow-vented Bulbuls landed on a nearby balcony. After a rest I went down to the restaurant for dinner and a much-needed Bintang.

Later on Neil arrived as his KLM flight landed about four hours later than mine. We organised breakfast and transfer to the airport for the next morning.

Saturday 21^st

The alarm went off at 6.30 and we packed up and headed downstairs for a buffet breakfast. This would be our only leisurely breakfast eaten in a hotel for a while. We went to the airport and checked in for our domestic flight to Tambolaka. The flight was delayed for an hour as the military jets used the runways for taking off on their way to a military air show. This flight and all our domestic flights were booked by Jovie as was the hotel in Bali.

We landed on Sumba island at 12.30 where it was about 35 degrees. Once we’d collected our bags we met up with our guide, Yovie, and driver and loaded up the SUV. We only went a short distance and had lunch in a local restaurant and then went to our hotel. We had time to sort ourselves out for an afternoon’s birding and went out at 3.30 to the forest.

As we’d discover over the next few days, it’s quite slow birding on Sumba with very few birds seen and often they weren’t obliging. Our first Lesser Sundas endemic was a spectacular Tengarra Paradise-Flycatcher – all white apart from a black head and with a really long ribbon-like tail. Rainbow Bee-eaters were more familiar to anyone who’s been to Australia and we would frequently encounter small flocks of them during our trip. Tengarra Swiftlet was a recent split from the Glossy complex and were the commonest bird on the island.

It was time for more endemics and we encountered Ruddy Cuckoo-dove, Apricot-breasted Sunbird (a fruit tick!), Wallacean Drongo and then great views of a bird we kept hearing – Elegant Pitta. It was bouncing around inside the forest and each view added another colour until we could make out the whole bird. A distant Sumba Hornbill sat up in a large tree. 

Sumba Hornbill

We waited around for it to get dark and just before sunset a Sumba Boobook flew in and landed close by. We had superb views of this owl as it hung around, making short flights across the track and back. It could be quite hard to find at times with a thermal imager if it was back on as the added layer of its folded wings meant no heat escaped. However it was very obvious when facing us as it glowed in the dark.

Sumba Boobook

On the walk back to the car we also found a Mees’s Nightjar which showed well, albeit fairly briefly. It was a good introduction to the birds of the Lesser Sundas and we’d successfully connected with many of the Sumba endemics. We drove to a restaurant for dinner and celebrated with a large beer. A powercut didn’t disrail us or the kitchen staff and we enjoyed a nice meal.