Author Archives: Rob & Helen

Lesser Sundas [2025]

Posted on by


Finally back to Indonesia! Our last trip to Indonesia was in 2018 (Sumatra and West Papua) so this was long overdue. This was our third trip to Indonesia. We had three weeks in which we birded the Lesser Sundas and since Denpasar was a logical hub for the trip, we added a week in Bali and East Java. The last week we were joined by friends Vivian Jacobs and Marten Hornsveld (after which they continued to West Java & Sumatra) – our last week is included in their report (which follows later). This trip report focuses on the 3-weeks in the Lesser Sundas islands of Lombok, Sumba, Alor, Rote, Timor, Flores and Komodo. Excellent birding, great food, great people. Indonesia is still at the top of countries with most new lifers, so we will back soon!

Tripreport Lesser Sundas
Some photos
GPS

Uzbekistan & Kazakhstan [2025]

Posted on by


We visited Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in a two-week trip. The three main reasons for this trip were: to see our first Ground Jay, to see Ibisbill and to finally see some birds we have been looking at in our field guide since we were kids (e.g. Black Lark, White-winged Lark & Pallas Sandgrouse) in which we mostly succeeded. Robs parents joined us for the whole trip and we added a few hours of city sightseeing in Bukhara, Samarkand, Almaty and Astana.

Tripreport Uzbekistan & Kazakhstan
Some photos
GPS

Cyprus [2025]

Posted on by


To catch some spring migration and target a few remaining lifers we decided on a long weekend trip to Cyprus during the Easter weekend. Rob had visiting Cyprus back in 2007 but the owl had not been split at that point, therefore the main targets where Cyprus Scops Owl (new for both of us), Cyprus Warbler and Cyprus Wheatear (new for Helen). Additionally, a Lesser Moorhen turned up 2 weeks before our trip and luckily stayed long enough to see it which was a bonus lifer.

Some notes
Some photos

Senegal & The Gambia [2025]

Posted on by


Quail-plover had been high on our wish list for a few years and we decided to plan a two-week trip to Senegal and The Gambia. Inspired by the trip report of Matheve et al (2023) we drafted a similar itinerary, with a car + driver, starting in Dakar (Senegal) and flying out of Banjul (The Gambia) 2 weeks later. After a not so smooth start (the car broke down on the first day) we went to the known birding spots of St Louis, Djoudj and Richard Toll in the north of Senegal. We then drove south, found the Quail-plover at the location near Tip before driving further towards Kaolack from where we visited the Saloum Delta. Next destination was Wassadou camp and from there on to Kedougou and Dindefelo. Most trips turn back towards Dakar from there, but we followed the same route as Hans Matheve et al, also visiting the southwest corner of Senegal for Turati Boubou and Capuchin Babbler. We finished the trip with 2 days in The Gambia for some remaining targets and flew out of Banjul.

Tripreport Senegal & The Gambia
Some photos
GPS

Costa Rica [2024/2025]

Posted on by


This was our second trip to Costa Rica. The first time (back in 2009) almost every bird had been a lifer. Now, almost 16 years later we had a very selective target lists of birds that were still new. Therefore, our itinerary was a bit different from other trips since we purely focused on our targets birds. In 2 weeks we mainly did a loop to the Southeast of the country with at the end some additional sites around San Jose. It was wonderful to see how much bigger the birding tourism in Costa Rica has become with so many (local) reserves, and an increasing number of birders that enjoy la pura vida. In total we saw 418 species of which 50 were lifers.

Notes Costa Rica
Some photos

Bougainville & Louisiades [2024]

Posted on by


In September 2024 we joined the Ornis trip to Bougainville and The Louisiades, and before the main tour started we were also part of the scouting team on Bougainville to look for several lost birds. We have been to remote places for birds before on our trips, but this trip was a whole new adventure!

We arrived 10 days before the start of the tour with Joshua and John with the main goal to find Bougainville Moustached Kingfisher and then also try for other lost birds such as Bougainville Thicketbird, Bougainville (Black-backed) Thrush and the Bougainville race of Black-faced Pitta. The first 7 days we chased many stories of possible sightings and had many crazy adventures but with zero positive results. That all changed however in the days that followed: on day 8 while we had split up searching for the Kingfisher before dawn on a ridge Josh heard a sounds that was possibly the soft churring call of the kingfisher. We had chased sounds up to that points (many turned out to be frogs) so we left our bags on the ridge and climbed down the steep slopes. At first there was no response, but then 5 minutes later and more down the slope suddenly the loud song of the Moustached Kingfisher started our adrenaline rush and a moment later the bird flew into view. An unforgettable moment: a mythical big kingfisher, with streaking yellow and blue and a red bill that will be forever in our memory.

Luckily in the days that follows also photos were taken and the bird was eventually seen by everyone on the tour. To make our scouting pre-tour even better Josh also (re)discovered the Bougainville Thicketbird on day 9 while the Bougainville Island Thrush that Rob and I found turned out to be relatively common at higher altitudes.

The second part of the trip was by boat the remote Louisiade Archipelago, a very remote corner of PNG. The birding was very successful with highlights such as Louisiade Pitta, Rossel Paradise Kingfisher, Tagula Butcherbird, Tagula White-eye and Tagula Manucode. We even had time left to do some amazing snorkelling.

[Top photo of Moustached Kingfisher by Julien Mazenauer]

Tripreport Bougainville & Lousiades (by Ornis)

Some photos

Borneo [2024]

Posted on by


Already 11 years ago we made our first trip to Borneo. Since then, a lot has changed, especially post-covid some previously mythical species have become accessible in hides (Bulwer’s Pheasant and Bornean Peacock Pheasant) and Sarawak is more easily visited. The first week we visited Sarawak (Ba’kelalan and Paya Maga) and the second week several places in Sabah (Klias, Trus Madi hide, BPP hide, Mount Kinabalu).

Tripreport Borneo
Some photos
GPS

Morocco [2024]

Posted on by


Although we visited the Western Sahara in 2017 we hadn’t visited the rest of Morocco. We finally made it there and devised an itinerary to search for our missing lifers. We skipped a few sites visited by WP-birders and really focusses on our possible new species. We really enjoyed our time birding in Morocco, excellent varied landscapes, terrific foods, nice hotels and good roads. Since a lot more complete tripreports exist (e.g. McCloskey, Westra) and the amount of info online for Morocco is immense, we decided not to write a full report but just this limited note with our annotated triplist since we didn’t have much to add to existing info.

Some notes
Some photos

Japan [2024]

Posted on by


A Japan winter trip had been on our ‘short’-list for quite a while. Rob’s parents were also eager to join due to the nature of the trip and Japan being a special country and we had a very nice trip with the 4 of us. The 2-week itinerary consisted of quite complicated logistics with lots of trains, ferry’s, plane and a rental car but in the end it worked out very well. Japan is a wonderful destination for birds, food and culture. Now we need to return in spring and visit some more islands!

Tripreport Japan
Some photos
GPS

Oman & UAE [2023]

Posted on by


In our quest to complete the bird families of the world, and since we were looking for a relaxing trip over Christmas we chose Oman. This country has a nice combination of the mountainous north, desert birding with Hypocolius (our family target) and even a pelagic opportunity. We really enjoyed the birding: a mix of African and Asian species plus some specialties that can only be found on the Arabian peninsula. Overall it is a country that is very easy to travel around and it offers great food. Since we flew via Abu Dhabi we chose to add 2 days of birding in the Emirates as well.

Tripreport Oman
Some photos
GPS