Day 53: First Full Day in Bali, Indonesia

Friday 7 March 2014 87 °F

Today my family and I spent the majority of our lazy day around the villa, swimming, resting, playing games, etc. It was an extremely relaxing and reviving day after an intense travel day yesterday. The weather was pleasant, also, with temps topping out at about 87 degrees and mainly clear skies throughout the day.

I got thirteen life birds today, which was very nice after having an extended hiatus from gaining any life birds.

The main event of the day was a mini driving tour where our personal driver took us to a stop to see nesting egrets.

At the egret rookery I saw three species nesting including CATTLE EGRETS as well as my life birds LITTLE and PLUMED EGRETS. Here are the photos:

Since egrets are typically birds of treeless wetlands, it was surprising to see so many of them in so many trees. Our driver had us walk down a certain suburban street and every single tree had anywhere from five to fifty five egrets nesting in it. It was amazing!

CATTLE EGRET:

LITTLE EGRET chicks:

PLUMED EGRET (non-breeding plumage):

Immature CATTLE EGRET:

LITTLE EGRET with the typical Indonesian scene of rice patties in the background:

Our next and final stop at a cosmopolitan restaurant for dinner was nice and I managed to do a little birding in the marshy areas around the restaurant. I saw the bird-of-the-day WHITE-BREASTED WATERHEN in a Lilly-pad wetland close buy, which I sadly didn't manage to photograph. The waterhen is a shy, small black-and-white marsh bird in the same family as rails and coots.

I managed to get the last flock of egrets for the day captured in a photo with the stunning Balinese sunset during dinner: