Indonesia Trip 2017 Day 12

Indonesia Trip Day 12 - Wednesday 2nd August 2017

Sulawesi with Mike Nelson from Bird Tour Asia.

The first part of our 6 week Indonesian trip was birding the island of Sulawesi. Today we were in northern Sulawesi.

On the morning of Wednesday 2nd August 2017 we left the Patra Jasa Hotel in Kotamobagu at 4.00 am driving an hour and a half to bird at Tarout from 5.30 am to 10.30 am. Here we had to get a raft over the the river to the birding site. The raft was on the other side of a river, so our local guides stripped down to their underpants to go and retrieve it. I had to look the other way! The forest habitat at the site has been reduced, so much that if it continues within a year or two nothing will be left. There was a large research station here that has fallen into disrepair which was a shame. 

Our best birds from the morning were Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher, Pied Cuckoo-Shrike, Minhasa Racket-tail, Blue-backed Parrot, White-faced Cuckoo Dove, Grey-cheeked and Pinked. Necked Green Pigeons and I saw a Great-billed Kingfisher that Mum and Dad missed.

We then drove half an hour for lunch and a rest in a local basic hotel again, where we had rooms we could use. I got a good hour of sleep. On trips like this, I survive from one nap to another.

In the afternoon we left our lunch spot at 3 on before driving the hour to bird Tower Marsh 4.00 pm to 5.30 pm.  It is a small area of water and paddy field. The habitat here has been destroyed so again there also won't be any decent birding here within a short time. The target here was White-browed Crake.

Mum was feeling sick after lunch and ended up being sick from the car on the way to the birding site but still insisted on carrying on birding so she didn't miss any birds. It must have been too much sun as she perked up pretty quickly.

We managed to get really great views of White-Browed Crake and Dusky Scrubfowl, Dusky Moorhen and White-breasted Waterhen.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 15-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She is an Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day, See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her third Camp Avalon camp in 2017. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Black Asian Minority Ethnic people. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.