Lombok

LOMBOK TRIP REPORT September 1995

We made a short trip to Lombok after a three week trip to Irian Jaya. A total of 71 species of bird and two species of mammal were observed. Lombok is a small island in Indonesia belonging to the Nusa Tenggara group otherwise known as the Lesser Sundas. It is populated by the indigenous Sasak people, who practice a mild form of Islam while vigorously maintaining their own animistic beliefs. In the past Lombok was controlled by the Balinese who remain the elite of Lombok society. It is a volcanic island dominated by Gunung Rinjani and lies a short distance across the sea from Bali. However due to the fact that Wallace’s Line falls in between Bali and Lombok the avifauna is markedly different to Bali’s.

References:

We used Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali by John MacKinnon which was very useful although limited due to the fact that it does not cover the Lesser Sundas, of which Lombok is a part. On top of this we used The Birds of Wallacea: An Annotated Checklist (1991) by C.M.N. White and M. D. Bruce.

Itinerary:

We flew from Bali to Lombok on Merpati. We bought the tickets at Denpasar Airport thus saving quite a bit of money; there are a number of flights per day so it is not really necessary to prebook in Australia. When we arrived in the main city on Lombok, Mataram, it was easy to catch a taxi to a car hire company, where we hired a small car. We then drove directly to Gunung Rinjani National Park, stopping along the way to bird at a number of interesting spots along the coast and rice paddies. At the base of Gunung Rinjani in a village called Batu Koq there are a number of comfortable losmen that are cheap with great food. We stayed at one called Puncak Senaru, the food was excellent and the view over Sendang Gila waterfall offered great opportunities to observe birds and monkeys, apart from being spectacular.

25^th September	Arrived in Lombok, hired a car and drove to Gunung Rinjani via the west coast, stopping to buy some vittals in Sengiggi. Got a bit lost on the way but found the village with the help of directions from locals. Birded in the area around our losmen in the PM.
26^th September	Hired a guide and birded in lower section of Gunung Rinjani trail.
27^th September	Climbed Gunung Rinjani, birded lowland and highland forest; didn’t use a guide (he was much more of a hindrance than help!)
28^th September	Birded the area around Sendang Gila, PM drove to Tetebatu, via the north-west coast spending time birding at Belanting.
29^th September	Birded the area around the so-called monkey forest (where are the monkeys???where are the trees?) near Tetebatu, PM drove back to Mataram, flew back to Denpasar.

West coast:

On the drive to Gunung Rinjani we birded at a number of spots mainly in coastal palm plantations and rice paddies. Most, if not all, of the areas we passed through have been converted to agricultural land, mainly rice paddies and palm plantations. Given this, there was a surprising diversity of avifauna.

Birding highlights were:

Great & Lesser Frigatebirds, Brahminy Kite, Cave Swiftlet Edible-nest Swiftlet, Asian Palm-swift, Rainbow Bee-eater, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, White-winged Triller, White-breasted Woodswallow, Long-tailed Shrike, Indonesian Honeyeater, Scaly-breasted Munia

Gunung Rinjani National Park:

photo by Stuart Dashper

This is the only national park on Lombok and encompasses a large area of the island. Gunung Rinjani is actually a very large, active volcano. Most people who visit the area stay at either Batu Koq or Senaru (which is a couple more kilometres up from Batu Koq). The climb to the top of the mountain is made annually by many of the locals for religious reasons and also by lots of backpackers. The backpackers usually do the walk over three days with a porter. We did the walk in one day stopping short of the rim, however I would not recommend this as it was very hard work! (Although it’s worrying to note that Lonely Planet recommends people collect firewood at one of the base camps. Given the large numbers of people climbing the mountain each year, I would have thought this should be discouraged. It would be far more environmentally sensitive to do the walk in one day if you can, alternatively go without a fire). The walk to the crater rim is about 25km and starts off through grassland, entering the lowland rainforest after c3km walk. The trail is pretty well uphill the whole way, eventually you enter cloud forest where rhododendron and oak predominate. At about 2500 metres the forest becomes more open, gradually turning into low montane scrub. Chris and I gave up at this stage (in order to get in more birding on the way down); Stuart continued on to the rim of the crater lake and caught us up further down the trail.

Birding highlights were:

In grassland Blue-breasted Quail, Lesser Coucal, Grey-rumped Treeswift, Pied Bushchat, Olive-backed Tailorbird, Zitting Cisticola, Javan Munia, Five-coloured Munia

In lowland rainforest Red Junglefowl, Green Junglefowl, Metallic Pigeon (the race on Lombok lacks the white chin), Ruddy Cuckoo-dove, Black-backed Fruit-dove, Dark-backed Imperial-pigeon, Red-cheeked Parrot, White-rumped Kingfisher, Sunda Woodpecker, Elegant Pitta, Ashy Drongo, Wallacean Drongo, Great Tit, Lesser Shortwing, Chestnut-backed thrush, Scaly Thrush, Sunda Bush-warbler, Black-naped Monarch, Yellow-bellied White-eye

In submontane forest Arctic Warbler, Mountain Leaf-warbler, Snowy-browed Flycatcher, Rufous-chested Flycatcher, Little Pied Flycatcher, Mountain White-eye, Red Avadavat

Belanting:

From Gunung Rinjani we drove to a village called Tetebatu via the north-west coast, birding along the way. One particular spot near the small village of Belanting was very productive. This is an area dominated by rice paddies and birdlife was prolific. The rice had been recently cut which could explain the high numbers of birds.

Birding highlights were:

Purple Heron, Javan Pond-heron, Woolly-necked Stork, Short-toed Eagle, Spotted Kestrel, Barn Swallow, Yellow Wagtail, Oriental Pipit

Tetebatu:

We chose to go to this area because it is on the southern slope of Gunung Rinjani and we were under the impression that the birding was good. However, we found it very disappointing, seeing nothing new. In retrospect we should have stayed an extra day at Gunung Rinjani. We visited a nearby waterfall and the so-called monkey forest, we saw few birds and no monkeys. We did however see a constant stream of people carrying firewood on their heads.

Bird & Mammal List