Flores Clean-Up Part 2

We reached the Flores Monarch site at Puarlolo at daybreak, after another early, early start and following a nice picnic breakfast of banana pancakes and coffee walked into the forest. For once, it didn’t take us long to get the target bird when a cracking Flores Monarch flew right in above us and flitted about the canopy. In fact we had 3 birds in total and everyone had really nice views of them. As we were watching these a Chestnut-capped Thrush started singing and we walked deeper into the forest and began a game of cat-and-mouse with this bird over the next couple of hours. In the beginning all we were getting were flight views as it skipped around us repeatedly without settling. So we sat down in the leaf litter and waited and waited and in the end a few of us had brief perched views of this most-wanted species. Giving it up after what seemed a lifetime of trying we checked out another area and had a pair of Crested Dark-eyes which meant everyone had finally caught up with it. Leaving here we drove to a fine hotel in Labuanbajo, had a short rest and lunch before driving up into the hills. Another more obliging Chestnut-capped Thrush was found, along with Green Imperial-pigeons, Short-toed Eagle and other common birds. Quite excited tonight as we are off to Komodo tomorrow….