Timor

It was actually 4 hours sleep in the end and at 4am bags were outside the rooms and we left soon after for the hour or so drive to Camplong. It was a long, slow, hot day where we had to work for every single bird and dig them out one by one – certainly the toughest day I can remember in a long while. When we reached our hotel at Soe at the end of the day, everyone was totally knackered. 

Anyway, we began with a flock of Ashy-bellied White-eyes not long after walking into the forest. It was then a slog along an old dry stream-bed in search of Orange-sided Thrush, not a Zoothera any more but a Geokichla, which eventually turned up trumps but not for everyone I’m afraid. We walked a little way into the dry forest and found it to be some of the toughest birding imaginable with very little reward for maximum effort for most of the day. Yet a few Rose-crowned Fruit-doves showed a few times, and we also had Brown Goshawk, Red-chested Flowerpecker, Sunda Bush-warbler, Common Cicadabird, Greater Wallacean Drongo, Arafura Fantail, White-bellied Chat and Plain Gerygone. We’d been hearing Buff-banded Thicketbird several times but we were always on the hunt for something else when they were calling, but eventually after a protracted effort everyone had very good views of this distinctive and totally unusual looking species. Shortly after we’d all seen this a Timor Stubtail put on a good show for most of the group as well. The best birding of the day was late in the morning when we were stood underneath a canopy of huge trees and had Streak-breasted, Yellow-eared and Indonesian Honeyeaters, Helmeted Friarbird and Flame-breasted Sunbird all in a very short space of time. And as we were walking back to the bus a Gould’s Bronze Cuckoo was seen.

The afternoon was even slower as we walked to a few clearings where we had Tree Martins flying over, a pair of Timor Figbirds and Timor Oriole. In the forest there was a group of Spot-breasted Dark-eyes that took a little getting on, but we did eventually and it’s a potentially tricky bird to find at the best of times. The walk also gave us Spectacled Monarch, Fawn-breasted Whistler, and more Rose-crowned Fruit-doves before we arrived back at the bus at dusk. No photos today as the birding was so tough.....