Planning in itinerary to pick up at 5.30 AM, so I arrived at Santika Premiere Hayam Wuruk Hotel few minutes before 5 o`clock to make sure I wait for clients. Not vice versa. By 5.16 AM, I saw Tom and Patricia were coming to receptionist and I was greeting them first. Smiling face seems like a lucky charm.
Not waste any time, soon after they done with the receptionist, we off to go! We came earlier to the boat, before 6 AM. But had to wait for the boatman who is ranger of Muara Angke Nature Reserve. He arrived at 6.06 AM after signing up to the office.
Start birding by boat in river. Got 2 Purple Heron among dozens of Grey Heron and Black-crowned Night Heron. Also dozens of Javan Pond Heron, Little Egret, and Striated Heron for welcoming us on that gloomy morning. Unexpectedly, 1 Milky Stork showed up on top of mangrove quite far! But with my binoculars, Tom`s camera, and Patricia`s binoculars – it was clear one of main targets.
Boat kept sailing, we were heading to big ships abandoned with dozens of Sunda Teal hangout on top of ship`s strings. At estuary, we saw 1 Great Egret among dozens of Little Egret. More sunda teals swimming and taking bath on shallow water. 5 Pied Stilt enjoy the shallow water as well.
Continue heading to Muara Angke Nature Reserve North Section, we got a super pleasing moment of Cerulean Kingfisher preening for quite some times on an open branch, eye level, at “trash” river bank. While focusing Cerulean Kingfisher, there was a female of Pied Triller too. Unfortunately, when Tom was trying to look at the Triller, another Cerulean Kingfisher coming to shoo away the Triller. But Tom and Patricia were hypnotized by the awesome colours of this tiny and national endemic kingfisher.
Then Little Black Cormorant, Asian Glossy Starling, Pink-necked Green Pigeon, Javan Munia, Scaly-breasted Munia, Small Minivet and others bagged as well! Unfortunately mega target bird, the Sunda Coucal, not showed up. Even a call, no heard at all.
Black-backed Swamphen couldn’t be found because no mudflat comes up due to high tide. Even White-breasted Waterhen only 2, seen only while they were walking quickly on top of bushes.
Before leaving the boat, we tried our luck on “trash” island. Yup, 4 more Milky Stork standing on the island! Dozens of Pied Stilt. About 20 Javan Plover. Tricky, but well spotted among trash, 5 Pacific Golden Plover in breeding plumage! 8 Oriental Darter saying good bye to us. Finished boat trip earlier than in itinerary because no need to be waiting game on tide. No mudflat, no new birds will be bagged. As discussed, we started heading to mangrove of Taman Wisata Alam Kapuk.
10.20 AM we started birding by walking in mangrove. Pied Fantail welcome us nicely. Racket-tailed Treepie showed up well in front of us. 3 Indonesian Honey-eater were tricky, kept coming to and flying away from the same tree for several times. Hard for Tom to take a nice shot, so we spent more time on it to finally they perched on main trunk. Not only those birds, we also bagged the Freckle-breasted Woodpecker and Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker.
Closing trip by having lunch in a well-known Indonesian restaurant: Sate Khas Senayan. It really made Tom and Patricia day! They were so happy taste the Indonesian cuisines and beverages. They said: outstanding lunch, the best meal they had in Indonesia! Thank God. Day really came to an end, they requested to buy wine. So we sent them to wine store, they bought themself wine they used to drink and local wine as well. On the way back to their hotel, we saw 2 Blue-tailed Bee Eater flying calmly in the sky above traffic. At 3 o`clock PM we arrived safely in their hotel. Again, earlier than as should in itinerary – but they said enough and they`re already super happy. What a pleasure for me to have such a lovely birders like them. Hopefully you guys who reading this, are gonna sign up for your future trip with us too 🤗
We have several tour packages and are open to customizing them based on your needs!