South Bali

I had a really enjoyable day yesterday, birding along South Bali as well as taking in some tourist stuff. I think Karen quickly rumbled that there was an ulterior motive as to why I was really enthusiastic about visiting the sea temple at Ulu Watu. And, within 10 minutes of admiring the clifftop view, there was a cracking White-tailed Tropicbird in view. In the end this majestic bird flew to eye level - much better views that I'd anticipated of a quality bird. Two birds were present and it was interesting to note an obvious golden wash to the mantle and uppertail of one of the birds in particular.

White-tailed Tropicbird

Padang Padang beach at Ulu Watu

No trip is complete though without the obligatory trip to a sewage works, and this wasn't an exception. However, believe it or not, Nusa Dua sewage works were probably the cleanest and least offensively smelling I'd been to. There were a fair few birds around too - many of which I'd not seen previously on my Balinese trip - with Wandering Whistling Duck, Little Pied and Little Cormorants, Blue-tailed Bee-eater and quite a lot of Sunda Teal the main draws. Herons floated about too, with Purple, Black-crowned Night and Striated along with loads of Great. Little and Cattle Egrets.

Little Pied and Little Cormorants sizing each other up

The final stop of the day was just across the causeway on Pulau Serangan. Hery, the senior ranger at Bali Barat, had guaranteed that if I visited this site then I'd see Great-billed Heron. He wasn't wrong, although they played hard ball with me - or much more than I'd envisaged. They were pretty skittish, though the turning tide may not have helped things. Nevertheless this site was packed full of quality birds with loads of Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers, Red-necked Stints, Terek Sandpipers roosting up while large numbers of both Little and Crested Terns were around. I also managed to flush up a roosting Savannah Nightjar in broad daylight. So all in all, another really enjoyable day.

Crested Tern