2007 December 19

This afternoon we take a boat (the green little boat on the left) from Batu Putih village.
Metres from the beach, Frigatebirds fly above us.

The water is very choppy. I feel quite sick and unsafe without any safety equipment.

On the return journey it rained.

Highlight: Sulawesi Masked Owl in a cave at Pintu, and Great-billed Kingfisher at Sampirang village.

2007 December 18

Our nice and clean semi-detached house.

A double bed with mosquito netting and a single bed without netting. The floor is tiled. There is a fan mounted on the wall.

The bathroom is tiled from floor to wall. Can flush toilet! Still shower from a pail because the water pressure is very low.

2007 December 17

This is our chalet on the first night. A kitten likes to rest on the staircase.

Bed with mosquito netting, but somehow still get bitten.

Toilet has no flushing system. The yellow pail is used for showers.

Indonesia - Tangkoko

2007 December 17 till 21 - Tangkoko Nature Reserve

Our guide, Mr Semuel Baware (Untu).

The place where we stayed.

Semi-detached house on the left, chalets on the right.

On the first night at the dining hall I was bitten by mosquitoes. 6 bites on the left leg and 1 on the right ankle.
On the third night, I was bitten on the right leg. A cluster of 4 bites within an inch diameter.

Lisa and Daisy, daugthers of the cook.

2007 December 2 - Some Winter Visitors

Contributed by Doreen Ang.

This is an edited version.

AH and I birded on Sun, 2 Dec. As usual, we covered more than one site. First stop was the Venus Drive car park. We took the 'Rubber Plantation' trail. Lousy birding, we learnt the hard way - rubber trees = more hard nuts and squirrels than birds. Too bad because it was such a beautiful trail with gushing clear stream, leave-strewn path and hardly any people. This trail ended at the open field passage behind the private estate. Here we saw a Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, two Asian Brown Flycatchers, 3 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters and ...

At 0920hrs, we were standing outside house No. 83, Jupiter Road when AH exclaimed, "Big Birds!". We saw two raptors, not too high up in the sky, as if circling up the thermals. The birds changed course and decided to glide on outstretched wings in a straight path overhead us. (Both of us observed only the second bird, sorry.) It was bigger than a Brahminy Kite but smaller than a White-bellied Sea Eagle. From below, the overall colour of the bird was 2-tone: rufous underbody and underwing coverts, and whitish everywhere else, finely barred. Its distinct black cap stood out, like a peregrine falcon's, but without the 'teardrop'. The tail was spread out like a triangular fan, also thinly barred.

We think it was an adult Rufous-bellied Eagle (a lifer for AH) because (1) it bore a strong resemblance to the illustration in Craig Robson's field guide which we used after the birds left (2) it had a black hood and (3) its overall rufous and white colouration.

After a celebratory vegetarian hor-fun, our second stop at 1250hrs was Lorong Halus. Soon as we got out of the car, we caught a glimpse of another flying raptor! It was such a waste because we couldn't identify it. Anyway, noteworthy sightings here included 4 Black Bazas, 1 Chinese Pond Heron and 1 Brown Shrike. There was only one Little Grebe in the pond. On our way back c. 1345hrs, we made an obligatory stop by the river (at the kennels) and scoped a motley group of 2 Common Sandpipers (seen sitting snugly in the hot sand but not for long), 3 Great Egrets, 8 Little Egrets, 2 Pacific Golden Plovers, 1 Marsh Sandpiper, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Chinese Pond Heron and 1 Ruddy-breasted Crake.