Getting Blue on the Tapan Road

Another couple of days on the Tapan Road, one of which was predominantly a rainy affair but we still had nice views of a lot of previously seen species, plus Red-headed Trogon, Gold-whiskered and Blue-eared Barbets, Long-tailed Broadbill, Scaly-breasted and Grey-bellied Bulbuls, Brown Fulvetta, Large Niltava, Spectacled Spiderhunter and Purple-naped Sunbird. Failed to get any photos today as couldn’t be bothered carrying the camera around in the rain!

Black Laughingthrush

Our last morning resulted in another view of Bronze-tailed Peacock-pheasant but it was just too shy to allow for any photos. We spent the rest of our time here on the upper sections failing to get a decent look at Blue-masked Leafbird, our one failure at this site. But there were outstanding views of Blue Nuthatch and Blyth’s Shrike-babbler, a Waterfall Swift at last flew over the ridge above us, and we saw both Orange-spotted and Sumatran Bulbuls – and all this in sunshine as well.

Blue Nuthatch

Blyth's Shrike-babbler

We left after lunch and drove back to the homestay, arriving mid-afternoon and it was kind of nice to relax and stare up at the volcano one last time. The weather here has a mind all of its own, and even when the sun is shining everywhere else, every cloud for miles around seems to get sucked up to cloak the volcano. But as we sat and watched the cloud began to break up and a vague outline of the volcano could be seen, so with that in mind we decided to attempt a little night-birding. This resulted in a Salvadori’s Nightjar coming in to inspect us just after sunset, but Sumatran Frogmouth kept its distance and just called back from afar. Oh well, will be back for that one later…..

Gunung Kerinci

 And that was it and the following day we left at 3am and drove to Padang and our flight to Jakarta. Had to overnight in a hotel before the tedious flight back to the UK via Dubai….