PPLH Seloliman 7-9 Feb 2008

A loss turned out to be a gain. After the Baluran NP trip was shelved on the advice of well-meaning people around me on the wisdom of travelling alone, I retreated to the hill resort-like PPLH Seloliman (literally 'elephant rock'), an NGO centre devoted to promoting environmental awareness through its programmes on alternative energy, organic farming, etc.

The bait that lured me there was the opportunity to birdwatch (Finally! In bird-rich Indonesia) at the forest of 1650m-high Mt Penanggungan, sacred 'Seat of the Gods' with Hindu shrines erected reverently around it. While the number of lifers were not what I had hoped for, the quality of the experience more than compensates for it and the abundance of rain which rendered the skies grey and reduced birds to even greyer silhouettes. Satisfactory too since it's my virgin attempt at making a bird list:

Sooty-headed bulbuls (countless on the fig tree in front of my bungalow)
Olive-backed sunbird (male & female)
Purple-throated sunbird (star find, as promised in brochures, birding guides for this place)
Brown-throated sunbird
Flamebreasted sunbird
Common tailorbird
Starlings
Black eagle
Flycatcher (undetermined: black head, beige neck and rump, yellow belly, dark olive wings)
Fulvous breasted woodpecker (female)
Chestnut-headed beeeater
Collared kingfisher (sadly not the Javan)
Common iora (heard)
Shrike (undetermined)
Little minivet (male & female)

Like what 'Birding Indonesia' (P. Jepson) & Lonely Planet promised, it's a cinch eyeballing the fluorescent, kaleidoscopic feathers of the sunbirds at close range from the restaurant. The rain proved to be as much a boon as a bane for it forced me to bird from the comfort of my bungalow. Out of staring at a usual flock of noisy starlings, I identified the fulvous-breasted woodpecker (before the affable education officer Joko dug out for me the bird list a Hawaiian guy, Tom Coles, had collated in '06). Guess the lack of tv, internet and other worldly distractions in my solar-powered room had worked wonders for my bird knowledge - there's more time to read and actually remember stuff from my reference guides (Birds of Indonesia by M. Strange and 'Field Guide to the Birds of Java & Bali' by John Mackinnon from the well-stocked library) - a feat I'm not known for....

But the 'Bird of the Trip' must be the little minivets.... yielded from a steep 3-hour trek to Candi Jolotundo, one hour of which was in the heavy rain with only a banana leaf my kind guide Joko broke off for me as a brolly. This trilling vision of vermillion on the breast & primaries set against an austere black head, taking shelter on a follicularly-challenged tree, offered more than adequate consolation for the one without shelter underneath ....