Flores August – September 2014, Kisol

Kisol is The spot in Flores to visit lowland and hill forests, as these appear hard to find at other sites, at least in West Flores. The tiny village of Kisol lies at trans-Flores road and is therefore easy to reach from either Ende (five hours) or Ruteng (three hours). There seems to be only one option for accommodation in this village, which is the catholic seminary. Everybody knows the seminary; including taxi and bus drivers and they will definitely be able to drop you off here. We got there by private transport from Ruteng, for which we paid 500.000 IDR. Normally the seminary has some sort of small homestay were guest can stay, but the owner was away so we stayed at the seminary itself. When staying here you could join the three communal meals (at 06:30, 13:00 and 19:00), which we did and the food as well as the company of the teachers and priests was excellent. However the eating times don’t really match with the schedules of a birder so we skipped one or two. It would be better if the seminary is contacted before arriving as at first the teachers and priests didn’t really know what to do with us, but nobody could give me any phone numbers, so perhaps asking a driver or hotel owner if they could give you a phone number of the seminary might be a good idea. There are no fixed prices for the stay at the seminary, but you will be asked to pay a donation for your stay. We donated Morten Strange’s bird book (it’s a shitty bird book anyways) and 300.000 IDR, which we found more than fair for two nights and several meals. Furthermore, unmarried couples should consider sleeping in separate rooms here.

The birding site at Kisol can easily be reached on foot (45 minutes), but most people choose to take an ojek. If you choose to walk, these are the directions when leaving the seminary behind you, go to the right on the main road (Trans-Flores road) and cross a small bridge. The next road head to the South (left). Follow this road and take the first large track to the right after the football field. Follow this track for some time through plantations and after a Teak plantation the good quality forest starts (see sketch) where we found most specialities of the area. I think this is the area where most people go birding here, but I am not sure.

We birded the area three times, one afternoon, one morning and one evening and this yielded most of the interesting birds of the area. The first afternoon was mainly dedicated to finding the way to the good forests around Bukit Pacandeki (the hill you can see to the South-west from the seminary). In the end we found the way using the directions from Burung Nusantara and by asking for the way to the “hutan alam”. Once there Helmeted Friarbird proved to be abundant and  Elegant Pitta’s and White-rumped Kingfishers where calling everywhere, but both remained out of sight as did the sneaky Thick-billed White-eye. However we got some good views of two Flores Crows, pumping their rather longish tails while calling. We saw some pigeons too, but only Black-naped Fruit-doves and Green Imperial Pigeons.

A sketch of the Kisol/Bukit Pacandeki area. It is not to scale

Flores Crow (Corvus florensis) flying a little to soon of its perch

The next morning we were back on the track around 7:00 (we started at 6:00 from the seminary) and got some brilliant views of an Elegant Pitta of the concinna subspecies in which the supercilium turns bluish behind the eye. Alas the White-rumped Kingfishers, although calling fanatically, managed to stay out of sight again… Several Flores Crows were calling in the area we had seen them the day before, as well as quite a lot of Orange-footed Scrubfowl and a single Green Junglefowl. Around 08:00 we saw a raptor flying over, which turned out to be an Oriental Honey-buzzard, but still we hasted us to a spot where we could view the southern slopes of Bukit Pacandeki properly. As soon as we were in position we noticed a raptor flying above the slopes and it turned out to be a Flores Hawk-eagle! I had expected to wait for hours for this species, but no it showed up immediately! We stayed an hour more, as this rare raptor flew rather quickly out of sight and during this hour we saw another Oriental Honey-buzzard, a Variable/Brown Goshawk as a very distant raptor that might have been a second Flores Hawk-eagle. After this success we made our way back to the seminary.

Elegant Pitta (Pitta elegans concinna)

A very distant raptor flying above the slopes of Bukit Pacandeki, which could have been a Flores Hawk-eagle (Spizaetus floris)

In the evening we returned to the forest for some owling. We left the seminary at 17:00 and arrived 17:45 at the forest edge and Mees’s Nightjars showed up immediately and set down three meters in front of us calling and allowing absolutely stunning views. Why did I leave my camera at the seminary? Moluccan Scops-owls started calling as well and in no-time we had good flight views of two individuals. The next two hours were spent searching for Wallace’s Scops-owl, which we missed in the Ruteng area. We had a little more luck here as we heard two individuals responding from a distance to the tape, but they never came close. The next morning we left Kisol by simply standing next to the Trans-Flores road and boarding the first car that stopped.

We enjoyed birding at Kisol a lot, especially because it was nice to be able to walk to a birding spot, which was also not located along a busy road. A nice contrast to the birding spots in the Ruteng area! We also enjoyed our stay at the seminary, but if you do not feel comfortable staying here, Borong, the next village towards Ruteng, provides more accommodation, but it also means that Bukit Pacandeki is further away and an ojek will be necessary to get you there.