We got up at 4 o'clock in the morning. One of the hotel staff occupied in the most upper cottage at the hotel site and he kept a Java Sparrow which crashed into his cottage's window. The bird cage was suspended at the cottage and when we were there to search bats with a torch the bird sometimes woke up with a sleepy look. But on that night we didn't see the bird on the perch and we worryed if the bird starved to death as we hadn't see the staff for recent one or two days because he went back to see his family. But later we found the bird was OK so on that night the bird might be smart enough to sleep on the cage floor to avoid our flash light. The Java Sparrow is native to only Jawa Island. Probably they are introduced as pets on this island and now they are corn pests. Some large flying foxes came to the trees behind our cottage but they were hard to spot as same as yesterday.
The lightening flashed many times in the afternoon but it didn't rain. We went to the second bat cave again. This time we found more than ten Celebes Rousettus and three Gould Leaf-nosed Bats.
After we enjoyed tea time we went to the banana flower that we saw bats yesterday. This day and the previous day, the three white dogs stayed our cottage terrace almost all day and sometimes one of them occupied a chair on the terrace. Or sometimes on of them rest on a door mat and when I opened the door it jumped away. Unfortunately two of the dogs followed us and chased a free-ranged pig eating fallen mangos and jackfruits around us. We felt uneasy as we noticed a villager watched us and the dogs. Around the time of sunset Long-billed Crows Corvus validus flew croaking cat like call.
At dinner table, one of the guest said that one of the pair of dispenser on her table which should have contained balsamic vinegar had soy sauce. The owner apologized and changed the dispenser but it turned out that the changed dispenser also had soy sauce and in the end we found the dispensers on the all the dinner table had soy sauce instead of balsamic vinegar. The owner felt sorry and was absolutely furious about her cook. For Indonesian staff either is same, I guess. And we admitted my husband and I even had felt nothing strange although we seasoned soy sauce along with olive oil on salad as we were used to Japanese taste dressing.
After dinner we got back to the banana flower and took a lot of pictures of Long-tongued Nectar Bats. Sometime we heard flying foxes' calls.
December 9th.
Bunaken Cha Cha Resort Hotel faces the sea. There is no house and shop nearby and no access by cars. So everything they need from daily commodities to fuel had to be brought by boats from Sulawesi Island, about 1hr cruse away. Everyday a lot of commodities, food, gas cylinders, fuel or so are brought along with hotel guests. As there is no pier all the stuff must be discharged by people walking in a shallow water. Today they ferried a lot of lumbers as the hotel had been partly being renovated. It was a high tide and the boat was anchored close to the hotel. One of the men on the boat throwed lumbers in the sea one after another and other men picked and moved them to the coast. But their works didn't match. Some lumbers almost washed away by waves and the men in the sea had to swim to pick them.
The male banana inflorescence usually turns out one bract every night and
exposures two rows of stamens and a lot of nectar. But today the banana
flower opened two bracts. Perhaps, this was why the flower attracted two
Long-tongued Nectar Bats. They were very active chasing each other. Two
Celebes Rousettus also came to the flower.Rousettus bats were much smaller than flying foxes we saw in Japan and other countries and flew lightly and agilely but the Long-tongued Nectar Bat is the world smallest Pteropodidae bat. So compared to the Long-tongued Nectar Bat, The rousettus bat flies rather awkwardly with flip-flap and lands on the banana flower with a thunk. It reminded us of "Pata-pata koumori", a battery-operated bat shaped toy.