Another early start saw us bid farewell to our wonderful
hosts and spend a little time back up on the ridge, which gave us further views
of all the usual species. Then we drove to Manado and took the 45 minute flight
to the island of Ternate where we hopped into some taxis which took us down to
the seafront. Here we boarded a speedboat and set off across the channel that
separates Sulawesi from Halmahera. I was really looking forward to the crossing and hoped for a few seabirds but the whole channel was very quiet and all we had was a single Great Crested Tern, several Lesser
Frigatebirds and a few Red-necked Phalaropes. As we approached Halmahera the
boat slowed down and cruised close to the Mangroves where we found at least 4
Beach Kingfishers before reaching the tiny harbour at Sidangoli. Upon landing
we were aware of many locals congregating to take a look at these strange
visitors before driving just a few minutes away and our accommodation for the
next few nights.
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| Black-chinned Golden Whistler |
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| Moluccan Scops-owl |
After a siesta we drove into the hills and scored with our
first endemics on this new island with Moluccan Goshawk, Grey-faced Fruit-dove,
White Cockatoo and Black-chinned Golden Whistler. Numerous Blyth’s Hornbills
were seen and giving some impressively close flybys and one male was even seen
visiting its nesting hole and feeding the female walled up inside. A pair of
Eclectus Parrots showed well from our viewpoint and were seen mobbing a White
Cockatoo at one stage. As dusk fell we managed to finally call in an owl quite
quickly, when a Moluccan Scops-owl was spotlighted beside the road.
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