Monday 20 April 2020

Lockdown Birding in Bali - Nocturnal Birding...

A couple of bonus birds this evening added two species to my lockdown birding list in Ubud, Bali. These were:

24. Black-crowned Night Heron
25. Savanna Nightjar

First time I think I've recorded the Black-crowned Night-Heron in Bali, maybe. The Savanna Nightjar was less of a surprise as I have had them from several restaurants in the town, but these were the first ones from the actual villa.

Today was the #BirdTheFeckAtHome BIG (Sun) DAY with the Eastern Hemisphere competing against the Western Hemisphere in a lockdown bird race of sorts. I was able to add the following 5 species to the Eastern Hemisphere list from my spot in Ubud.

1. Javan Kingfisher
2. Javan Munia
3. Javan Pond Heron
4. Cave Swiftlet
5. Black-crowned Night Heron

All good fun! 

Saturday 18 April 2020

Lockdown Birding in Bali - NEW SPECIES UPDATE

Had a big bonus today when a Black-naped Fruit Dove flew over the garden into the nearby fruiting tree, that is lockdown number...

23. Black-naped Fruit Dove.

I finally also got round to checking out the #BirdTheFeckAtHome Facebook group and added this species and one other (Striated Swallow) to their cumulative bird list from all of the people reporting sightings from their places of lockdown around the world...

Amazingly my record of Black-naped Fruit Dove was the 2,270th species logged on the site!

Friday 17 April 2020

Lockdown Birding Bali Style

Well like most of the rest of the world I'm currently in lockdown and self-isolating due to Coronavirus (Covid-19). Hope you're all staying safe and well at these difficult times.

I'm taking a little (forced) break from birding at the moment. I should have just completed a 3 week trip in the United States of America looking for Grouse and Chickens etc (birding in Colorado, Nebraska, and South Dakota) and should have just started a 2 week Vietnam trip. I know also that my spring birding trip to the United States (for Biggest Week in American Birding) and a subsequent trip to Colombia and Ecuador is also off (as is the British Bird Fair in the UK in August). Sad but will catch up with those all next year I hope. No decisions as yet on my Sulawesi, Halmahera, West Papua, and Australia tours for later in the year thus far....

So currently I'm in Bali, not really birding as I said, doing lots of computer work improving itineraries etc to come back stronger after this is all over. However I am a birder of course so I'm always noting the birds that are around my villa, which is right in the town center of Ubud, so not necessarily the best place for birdwatching... but here's what I've had so far in no particular order...

  1. Javan Kingfisher
  2. Spotted Dove
  3. Zebra Dove
  4. Plaintive Cuckoo
  5. Yellow-vented Bulbul
  6. Javan Munia
  7. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
  8. Cave Swiftlet
  9. Intermediate Egret
  10. Eastern Cattle Egret
  11. Javan Pond Heron
  12. Pacific Swallow
  13. Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon
  14. Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
  15. Olive-backed Sunbird
  16. Pied Bush Chat
  17. White-nest Swiftlet
  18. Striated Swallow
  19. Scaly-breasted Munia
  20. Chinese Sparrowhawk
  21. Large-billed Crow
  22. Collared Kingfisher

I wonder if I'll get anything else while I'm here?... keep tuned!

Javan Munia

Tuesday 7 April 2020

eBird Update

I've been adding a lot of data to my eBird account: https://ebird.org/profile/NjE1MzA1/world, all of my photos from my time in Thailand and Indonesia in 2020 are now online!

So if you're interested please take a look! (Lots of other information on there too!).