In OTHER Parts of AUSTRALASIA -

CENTRAL & WESTERN PNG,  25 July - 11 August, 2002; Central & Western. Up to 21 Birds of Paradise.
NEW BRITAIN EXTENSION,    11 - 15th August. Both parts $8410 ex Moresby or $8980 ex Cairns.

PAPUA NEW  GUINEA - Central & Western Itinerary 2, August 2 to 23, 2001

Th 25 July. Fly 0700 hrs, Cairns-Moresby . Pacific Uni. Grey-headed & Grand Munias. Night at Bluff Inn
Fr 26 Fly Tabubil.  Zoe Pigeon, Hook-billed Kingfisher, Carola’s Parotia.  Cloudlands Hotel
Sa 27 Orange-breasted Parrot, Vulturine Parrot, Grey-headed Goshawk. Cloudlands Hotel
Su 28 Pink-spotted & Dwarf Fruit Doves. Drive to Kiunga. Yellow-eyed Starling. Guest House
Mo 29 Boat up the Fly & Elavela Rivers. Southern Crowned Pigeon.  Sam’s Ekame Lodge

Tu 30  Little Paradise Kingfisher, White-bellied Pitohui, King BoP.  Ekame Lodge
We31  Palm Cockatoo, Purple-tailed Pigeon, Orange-bellied Dove. Kiunga Guest House
Th 1 Aug. Greater BoP, White-spotted Munia. 1200 Fly Moresby. Orangefronted Dove. Bluff Inn
Fr  2 Raggiana BoP, Blue-breasted and Hooded Pittas, Painted Quail-thrush.  Bluff Inn
Sa 3  Dwarf Cassowary, Chestnut-backed Jewel-babbler, Torrent Fly-robin. Bluff Inn
Su 4  Fly 0855 Tari. Gt Woodswallow, Mt Peltops, Short-tailed Paradigalla. Ambua Lodge
M  5  Black Sicklebill, Lawe’s Parotia, Brown Sicklebill, Ploughbill.  Ambua Lodge
T   6  Rufous-naped Whistler, King of Saxony BoP, Superb BoP, Loria’s BoP. Ambua
W 7 Blue BoP. Fly 1020 Moresby 1220. Fly 1205 Mt Hagen. Ornate Melidectes.  Kumul Lodge
Th 8 Island Thrush, White-winged Robin, Blue-capped Ifrita, Crested BoP.  Kumul Lodge
F   9 Crested Berrypecker, Archbold’s Bowerbird,  Ribbon-tailed & Stephanie’s Astrapias.
Sa10 Papuan Lorikeet, Madarasz’s Tiger Parrot, Belford’s Melidectes, Mt Firetail. Kumul L.
Su11 Fly 1020 to Moresby 1220, and1825 POM-CNS 1950. 17 days for A$7244 ex Cairns   OR
Su11                                             and 1510 to New Britain, 1615. Pied Coucal. Hoskins Hotel
M 12 Pokili Wildlife Area. Melanesian Scrubfowl, Violaceous Coucal, Bismarck Myna, Black-headed Paradise Kingfisher, Hoskins Hotel
T  13 Eclectus Parrot, Blue-eyed Cockatoo, White-cered Lory, White-backed Woodswallow.  Hoskins Hotel
W14 Nakanai Mts. Slaty-backed Goshawk,, Black Fruit Pigeon, Song Parrot. Hoskins Hotel
Th15 Pink-legged Rail?  Fly 1145 HKN-POM 1250. 1825 POM-CNS 1950.
      4 days for A$1656, 21 days for A$8980 ex Cairns.

CENTRAL PNG, 15 - 31 March, 2003; Up to 14 Birds of Paradise. $6300 ex Port Moresby.
BOUGAINVILLE EXTENSION,  1 - 7 April, 2003; $1360 ex Port Moresby.

TASTES OF PARADISE - short tours of 1 - 3 days (from A$700 - A$1100 per person ex Cairns), by arrangement.

                   OCEANIA

MICRONESIA, 10-29 Nov, 2003. Guam/Rota, Saipan/Tinian, Palau, Yap, Truk, Pohnpei.

Some Trip Reports and Other Items

AUSTRALIA -

30-Oct-1998

Bird Racing in Tropical Queensland

    We used to go out to Georgetown, halfway to the Gulf of Carpentaria and driving over 700 kms during a Bird Race - and then having to drive 450 kms home after it had all finished! That's how tallies of 222, 223, 233 have been achieved in the last few years. As a trial run for the RAOU Birdathon on the 26/27th October and the QOSI Birdathon on the 2/3rd November, we decided to try a different, more sensible, route and do a Big Day (midnight to midnight) as a practice run.
    Our team this year was John Grant, Eric Sticklen, Glenn Holmes and myself and the results exceeded our expectations. We thought we would be lucky to get to 230 species, and we came home with 247 species identified by either sight or sound by a majority of the team. The distance driven was only 480 kms and the remarkable thing was that, by looking at a map afterwards, we discovered that all species were seen within a 45 km radius of the Tinaroo Dam. This is how it came together.

A Big Day for Australia

    As I arrived to pick up John at the Centre for Rainforest Studies, a private American school at 700m a.s.l. where students can get university credits in ecology, a Lesser Sooty Owl was calling from the rainforest behind. Like a falling bomb, typical of the Tyto genus. It was 0420,and still 40 minutes before dawn, on a balmy late Spring morning in North-east Australia. Unfortunately, that was the only call from that species we were to hear that day, for a majority of the team has to identify the bird, and we didn't join the other two members until 0445 hrs by the township of Atherton. As we drove up to where they were quietly waiting, a Bush Stone-curlew flushed from the road in front of us all, and a Willie Wagtail, one of the Australasian fantail flycatchers, sang beside us as we climbed from the car.
    We listened patiently for a few minutes for the "toc, toc" of the Large-tailed Nightjars which had been calling nearby for several days at this time. "Never mind!," said Glenn and Eric, "They'll call when we get back tonight!". (They didn't). We drove back to the Cathedral Fig (getting a half a Barn Owl on the way - 2 out of 4 of us saw it properly) and began counting in earnest as the day dawned.

    The dawn chorus of rainforest birds come thick and fast. Three pigeons - White-headed, Brown and Wompoo; four parrots - Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Rainbow Lorikeet, Fig Parrot and King Parrot;  White-throated Tree Creeper, Large-billed and Yellow-throated Scrubwrens, Brown Warbler, five honeyeaters - McLeay's, Lewin's, Bridled, White-throated and Scarlet; Pale Yellow andGrey-headed Robins, Chowchilla, Eastern Whipbird, two members of the whistler family - Golden Whistler and Little Shrike-thrush; Black-faced and Spectacled Monarchs, Grey Fantail and Spangled Drongo; Cicadabird, Figbird, Victoria's Riflebird, the local bird of paradise, and Spotted Catbird, one of five local bowerbirds.
    And from the forest edge, two tree kingfishers - a Kookaburra and a Forest Kingfisher, a hooting Pheasant Coucal, Red-backed Fairy Wren, Pied Currawong, and Silver-eye. From 2 to 40 in half an hour. A good start. Look! Topknot Pigeons flying over! And a Fan-tailed Cuckoo. "What Fan-tailed Cuckoo?". Incredulous looks from two of the younger members. "Can't you hear it?". We cupped our ears. "Yes!", cried one more of us with relief. Then they ALL looked at me. Alright you guys. You'll be over 50 years old one day.

    Lake Barrine failed to produce a Cassowary, but the Great Crested Grebes were there, and by the grace of God, an Azure Kingfisher sped low over the lake for all to see. Lake Eacham produced a calling Yellow-breasted Boatbill, Barred Cuckoo-shrike, and a very noisy Tooth-billed Bowerbird. Through Yungaburra and toward Atherton. And didn't the brakes go on as we turned into Mark's Lane! We tumbled out of the car and scoped some Little Whimbrels, Australian Pratincoles and Pacific Golden Plover. Raptors began their appearance - Black-shouldered, Black and Whistling Kites, Spotted Harrier, Brown Falcon and Nankeen Kestrel. Pipit and Singing Bushlark joined the rapidly growing score.
    "How many now?", from eagle-eyes in the front seat. How do I know? I'm looking for the birds instead of marking them off! But on the run to Nardello's Lagoon for Black Swan and Comb-crested Jacana, (What! The Sea Eagle isn't here! What'll we do now?), the score slowly emerges - 81. Now 84 with the Nardello's species added on and a small flock of Red-tailed Cockatoos plaintively crying their way past. It's 0720 and we're ahead of schedule.

    Chewko Road starts around the corner. "What are we going to see here that we can't see somewhere else?". Is this the start of a mutiny? Better nip it in the bud. "Stop here. At the top of that tree there's a bird." Rebellion gives way to delight as we all recognise a large Great Bowerbird in commanding position above his bower, crying out his love for anything that passes. I know a few birders like that. Then two Pale-headed Rosellas and three of the newly-lumped Artamids (Currawong Family) in a row - White-breasted Woodswallow, Pied Butcherbird, and Australian Magpie. A Blue-winged Kookaburra calls out, Noisy and Little Friarbirds and a Yellow-faced Honeyeater. Blue-faced Honeyeaters fly by to poke their sticky beaks into some body else's business and we all finally get to see a Torresian Crow.
    Into Mareeba for Pacific Baza, Galah, Bar-shouldered Dove, Brush, Little, and Channel-billed Cuckoos, Rainbow Bee-eater, Dollarbird, Striated Pardalote, Fairy Warbler, Brown and Dusky Honeyeaters, White-browed Robin in one of the many new places; Leaden Flycatcher, Magpie Lark and Rufous Fantail; Black-faced and White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike and Varied Triller; Olive-backed Oriole, Double-barred Finch, Yellow-bellied Sunbird and Mistletoe Bird. On the outskirts of Mareeba, Tinaroo Creek Road has long been a birder's destination. Famous for Squatter Pigeon, Red-winged Parrot, Brown Treecreeper and Black-throated Finch. We got them all in the time allotted - just. And on the way out to the main road again, saw both Masked and Banded Lapwings. 137 species so far and it's nearly 0900 hrs. Not bad for the first 4 hours. It's going to be a cracker of a day!

    But we're 15 minutes behind schedule so we simply leave Kuranda out and arrive at Mckenzies Pocket on Black Mountain Road on time. Grey Goshawk floating over! A pair! Red-necked Crake calling! What luck! Two flukes in a row. A Shining Bronze Cuckoo calling once. But where are the area's specialities, Noisy Pitta and Northern Fantail? Neither a "walk to work" nor a "toot,toot,toot" anywhere. We move nearly 100 metres from the vehicle, as far as we had been from it so far, and there's the Fantail, typically sallying from a bare twig about 3 metres up. No Pitta though. Maybe they don't go to work on a Sunday. Mckenzies Pocket is one of our local birding hotspots. Good for Yellow-spotted, Graceful and Dusky Honeyeaters, and we hear all three.
    Then we zoomed down the hill and onto the lowlands just north of Cairns. Crimson Finch straight away. And Chestnut-breasted Munia. Fairy Martins around their nesting culvert. Golden-headed Cisticolas in the longer grass beside the waterhole. Isn't it easy when you don't have to even get out of the car? We all see the Metallic Starlings at their nesting colony as we drive along. The Mangrove Boardwalk by the airport is different though. We have to walk 200 metres AND back! Very fast. Collared Kingfisher, Large-billed Warbler, Shining Flycatcher, and - wait for it - there it is! - Mangrove Robin. All on calls alone.
    The Red Arrow walk to Mt Whitfield is next, for Torresian Pigeon, and Lovely Fairy Wren. The second is neither seen nor heard, the first heard only and then by just three of the four of us. Which is astonishing because there are hundreds flying and feeding and breeding around Cairns. But that's birding for you. Magpie Geese are lounging by the freshwater pond at Centenary Lakes, and a Striated Heron in the saltwater pond. The Little Kingfisher is not evident here today, but the Brown-backed Honeyeaters, Yellow Orioles, and Black Butcherbirds are. It's midday, the score is 160, and the tension is still with us.

    Now the big one. The world-famous Cairns Esplanade, possibly the best shorebird-watching in the world. The tide is going out; we're perhaps an hour from the optimum time when we would have been able to see them all less than 40 metres away. But you can't complain because within 20 minutes we have four Egret/Herons and a Rufous Night one roosting in a tree; an Australian White Ibis and a Royal Spoonbill, an Osprey, Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits, Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew, Common Greenshank, Terek Sandpiper, Grey-tailed Tattler, Great Knot, and Red-necked Stint. Sharp-tailed, Curlew, and Broad-billed Sandpipers, Black-winged Stilt, and several Plovers - Pacific Golden, Large Sand, Mongolian, and Red-capped. The only Gulls we have up here are Silver; they were
with the Caspian, Gull-billed, Greater Crested and Little Terns. Peaceful Doves, Helmeted Friarbirds, Varied and Yellow Honeyeaters, are some of the new land birds to the list.

    The next bird will be number 200. At the southern sewage treatment plant, we peer through the fence. There it is! Pied Heron! Wow! What a neat little bird. And an unexpected Rajah Shelduck. There's only one about and it's come back here especially for today. We really are having a lucky day. Thompson Road is the next stop. Still no Lovely Fairy Wren and no chance in the time allotted to go further in for another chance at the Little Kingfisher. But there is a much-needed Bar-shouldered Dove beside the road on the way around to the first turf farm. Nothing there either. (Two days later I was to photograph a Pectoral Sandpiper at the other end of this farm! If we'd driven a few hundred yards further ---??). Around again, to the second turf farm. The Yellow Wagtails aren't in yet - keep going.

    Now, the Cairns Crocodile Farm. Extraordinarily good habitat for crakes and rails. And there they are, wandering around in the middle of the day as usual, the little darlings. White-browed and Buff-banded. It's a big place, so we put on the pace to walk around it. This is not like us! This walk must be nearly a mile! But we're Little Kingfisher-less and this is the last chance for it. We all stop to scope some now-forgotten object through a gap in the trees. But there's the Little Kingfisher! Sitting very quietly right in front of us! It was so close we nearly missed it. Exalted, we walked quickly to the car and sped up the Gillies Highway toward the Southern Tablelands again. Near the bottom of the long climb from sea level to 700 metres a.s.l. we stopped briefly for a Rufous Whistler, then further up for a Spotted Pardalote and the last chance for the Noisy Pitta. Nope. Simply not noisy today. At the top, we stop a
little longer. Time is still on our side. Can we hang about in this patch of rainforest long enough to hear a White-eared Monarch? Ten minutes goes by. Yes! That's its call! And off we go again.
    We've driven in a large circle around Lake Tinaroo and confident now of a big score, we tried Lake Barrine again for the elusive Cassowary. Well, we tried. He must be having his afternoon nap. On, to the penninsula of Tinaburra Waters. Waterfowl galore. This is where we came up to seven of the eight duck species in the area by adding Plumed and Wandering Whistling Duck, Australian Wood Duck, Cotton Pygmy Goose and Pink-eared Duck. An up-to-now elusive Sea Eagle soared over the lake as we turned to leave.

    A private farm near Malanda, mostly used for cattle breeding and fattening, has two or three large ponds on it and patches of adjacent swamp. The owner is a bird-watcher. We politely asked if we could come in for a `casual' look. After a moment’s hesitation, the caretaker agreed. We sighed with relief. It's a bonny place. One of us heard a Little Grassbird, about the northern extremity of their range, two-only made a call for Pallid Cuckoo, and three of us saw a Clamorous Reed Warbler. We all saw the lovely Red-kneed and Black-fronted Dotterels, Wood and Marsh Sandpipers, and Latham's Snipe. Spotless Crake "purred" in response to man-made noises and a Baillon's Crake flew quickly into a clump of grass for the same reason. Great Cormorant filled out the local tally of three cormorants and one lone Green Pygmy Goose helped us clean up on all of the local ducks. Two Glossy Ibis were a bonus.
    We were now sitting on 222, John Grant's record. He was so happy to be with us to help break it. And what with? A Brolga, scoped in the distance of Bromfield Swamp. We already had Sarus Crane, and were well pleased for the Sarus are displacing the Brolga from the Atherton Tablelands. At Mt. Hypipamee, the Crater, we added Satin Flycatcher last year but this year must have been a little early. In fact we added nothing at all, not even a Satin Bowerbird called. Still higher we drove, up to nearly 1000 metres a.s.l. on the main road to Ravenshoe. Just before we entered the rain forest again a Wedge-tailed Eagle was seen soaring high above the road.

    At the Longlands Gap State Forest sign we turned off the road and parked; and walked ANOTHER 300 metres! To the most famous of the Golden Bower Bird bowers. Will the owner be home? We waited impatiently. Not a sign, not a peep. Four days later, I was there again and the beautifully golden owner perched nearly above us - very photogenic. But he wasn't there on the day and wasn't counted. Nearly all the higher altitude endemics that we hadn't seen were there though. Fernwren, Mountain Thornbill, and Bower's Shrikethrush. Another brief stop at a likely place finally produced a female-plumaged Satin Bowerbird.
    North-east Queensland tropical rainforests give way to a band of wet schlerophyll, mainly Eucalyptus- Casuarina forest, at these higher altitudes. Here, to the west of Longlands Gap, we picked up Koel, Sacred Kingfisher, Buff-rumped and Yellow Thornbills, Noisy Miner; Fuscous, White-naped, White-cheeked, and Banded Honeyeaters; Jacky Winter, Grey Shrike-thrush, Grey Butcherbird, Red-browed Finch, and just on dusk, a White-throated Nightjar sailing above us on long pointed wings. Shortly afterwards a Savanna Owlet-nightjar called, bringing our total to well over 240.

    Nightbird time. We already have two or three. Back in the rainforest we listened for Rufous Owl. Two claimed a distant `hoo', but two refused to acknowledge any bird sound at all. We went back to Atherton to listen again for the nightjar that wouldn't call this morning. It still wouldn't. But a Barking Owl barked - just the once - and a Barn Owl was spotted at the nest. Time for a meal and a tally-up. 245. Really! Yes, really. Well then, lets try for 250! We drove several miles across the Atherton Tablelands and began a long search with a spotlight. There! Back up a little! Tawny Frogmouth! We ended up at John's place, tiring quickly. Three or four Southern Boobooks called; number 247. The Lesser Sooty should call any moment. Or the Large-tailed Nightjar. We waited, had another coffee, and strained our ears. Nothing. Midnight came and that was that.

    But some of the exuberance stayed with me as I left the others for the one and a half hour drive home down that horribly long hill back to Cairns. A new Australian Big Day record, and now up in the top six countries in the world, in front of South Africa by one but behind Panama by seven.
    This bird racing can be exhilarating when you have extra luck and a good tail wind! But, can we do better? Can you do better? Look out Panama!

A copy of a letter to Birding Aus on 5th July 1997 about the threat against, and possible action to
ensure retention of, part of this important estuarine habitat.

    Cairns BOCA, almost on its own and lacking significant support from either RAOU and AWSG, has been active for nearly two years in trying to have these mudflats from being destroyed. We have a multi-pronged campaign plan, consisting of peruasion and education of local people, tourists, Cairns City Council, Cairns Port Authority and Queensland State Government; funding of an educational structure; and occasional direct attack on the Mayor and City Council.
    Probably half of any western civilation population doesn't care about the environment and the people of Cairns are no exception. They dislike estuarine mud and don't care if half of us like it or not. The majority of people aspiring to councils are of this persuasion. In Cairns, for most of this century, nearly all City Councils have tried to fill the mudflats in. And they are slowly succeeding. But at least two grandiose plans to get rid of the entire flats by fill or flood, backed by the council of the day, have been thwarted by the local people. A strong local conservation group wants the mangroves to be allowed to grow back again right along the front. It can be seen that the public opinion situation is a little complicated, but we worry away at other points of view and hope we can wear them down to
agreeing with us.
    Because these flats are "owned" by the Cairns Port Authority (State legislation), and have been weeded of mangroves every year for over 100 years, they cannot be protected by any normal conservation measures. One of our plans is to have them declared a Ramsar site on two grounds. One
is as a public education facility; the other, which we pushed very hard, was on the basis of over 1000 Whimbrels overwintering here. Unfortunately, everyone else across the State has their own agenda for
Ramsar sites. Our case never even got past the State Government departments in Brisbane to the Ramsar coference there last year. And until our proposal has hefty outside-the-State support from the RAOU and the AWSG it will remain in the pigeonhole behind the Moreton Bay and Gulf of Carpentaria
proposals.
    Successive Queensland Governments, including the past Labour one, are powerfully lobbied by Cairns Port Authority and City Council to be allowed to "develop" these mudflats and by law, the Port Authority can do what it likes to them. We have tried to counter this influence by our own lobbying.
The latest is this. The local federal member for Leichardt, Warren Ench, has written to the Federal Minister of the Environment, who has in turn written to the Queensland Minister of the Environment, Brian Littleproud, emphasising the importance of the mudflats, and asking him to consider Ramsar listing.
    So we are working from the top as well as the bottom, where we continually ask tourists to write to the Mayor and the local paper. We regard the paper to hold a position to the right of Gengis Khan, but they do often publish these letters; one appeard today. The Mayor and his Council are well aware of the situation. Shortly after their attaining office, we invited the Mayor and the councillor from the
Esplanade area, to front up to three TV news crews and the local paper, on the Esplanade, to have explained to them and all news watchers and readers, the importance of the high mud along the Esplanade wall.
    The publicity was excellent. The elected officials listened to our well-put case attentively. The Mayor then acknowledged the importance of the mudflats for wildlife and as a wildlife-watching area. He said that it was ideal for marrying the rainforest and the reef together.
"But if the Council wants to fill it in for street widening, you'll be the first to know".
    Since then, he has announced that the Council wants a 30-40 metre strip right along the wall, and most of the S.E. corner. For street widening and more parkland for tourists, and a swimming pool and artificial beach for the locals. We are hoping he will be voted out next election, but it might be too late.
    In conclusion we ask, that if you write, write to the RAOU and AWSG in particular, and to BOCA and QOS, to put pressure from on high to the Queensland State Government. We locals can handle local pressure points but we need extra pressure from the Brisbane area and from national bodies,
based further south. From listing as a Ramsar site (not enough in itself to save it), we hope to have the State Government conserve the "Esplanade mud" with special legislation.  The State Government is the key.
    As one international birder was told by a annoyed city councillor,
"These mudflats would have been filled long ago, if it wasn't for you bird watchers."

Andy Anderson
Cairns.

    The Queensland State Government, run by the right wing National Party, agreed to give the Cairns City Council the first A$7 million, of a total of A$23 million to begin the filling over of the Trinity Bay estuary beside the Esplanade. The plan, which has had considerable local input, is to fill in the south-west corner to start with and then to put a swimming pool and sound shell on it. This second stage is being completd right now with a further A$9 from the next Queensland Government, this time run by the supposedly left wing Labour Party.
    On the face of it, both major parties in Queensland don't seem to give a damn about conserving the natural environment and this is re-enforced by the State policy on clearing woodlands at the rate of over 4000 square km each year. Only at half the rate of Brazil but Queensland is only one fifth the size and most of the state hasn't any woodlands; it's a very serious attack on our environment.
    The degree of Cairns Esplanade enroachment on the exposed mudflats is similar but on a much smaller scale and fortunately with minimal imact on wildlife, thanks to a couple of local birders who just happened to be in on the planning stages and were able to influence the planners even though the politicians haven't changed their views.
    So now we have some more of the mudflat filled in, the least productive corner by far. We think it is OK. The next step will be to protect that with a substantial new seawall stretching diagonally across the south east corner, but allowing the tide to ebb and flow through it. This will be topped with a walkway to soften the visual impact of all those big rocks and so we can all walk across and be closer to the birds. The reaction of the birds will be very interesting.
    In conjunction with this seawall, another row of rocks is to be put along the outside of the existing concrete wall bordering the Esplanade, for re-enforcement, and a walkway to be put on top of that, again to hide the rocks. Two small wildlife observation and interpretation buildings will be placed along the new walkway. Again, the birds may react warily and not come in quite so close.
    We think that the final 'development' will be quite a good compromise between the two opinions and with the large amount of money needed to add all this protective superstucture along the sea-side will mean that the State Government will not readily destroy it to fill in more mudflats in the future.
    We hope that all this will give the high mud beside the Cairns Esplanade some of the protection we have been seeking for it and that this estuarine destruction will be the last.
 

PAPUA NEW GUINEA -

Ambua Lodge in June

    Bird-wise, New Guinea is nearly a mirror image of Queensland’s Wet Tropics. Some of the species are the same (birds in brackets), and most other PNG species have family members in Australia as well. As you read this through you will see the similarity with the family names.
    Ambua Lodge, overlooking the picturesque Tari Basin, is among the dearest places to stay in the world and overpriced for some, but even at U$300+ per person per day, the birds can be worth the price. We stayed there four days and identified these delicious birds. (Only species not yet seen on the trip are recorded, BoP = Bird of Paradise, and h = heard only).
    (Buff-banded Rail), Plum-faced Lorikeet, Large Scrubwren, Papuan Scrubwren (h), Mountain Meliphaga, Grey-streaked Honeyeater, Yellow-browed Melidectes, Garnet Robin, Lesser Ground Robin(h), Spotted Jewel-babbler (h), Crested BoP, Short-tailed Paradigalla, Ribbon-tailed Astrapia, King of Saxony BoP, Blue BoP, Archbold's Bowerbird, MacGregor's Bowerbird, Alpine Pipit (h), Mountain Firetail, Tit Berry-pecker, (Tawny Grassbird), Western Mountain Whiteye, Long-tailed Shrike, and Island Thrush.
    The guy whom I was guiding for couldn’t walk far, so because of our lack of mobility there were just as many that Ambua and the Tari Gap are famous for, that we missed out on. Salvadori's Teal, Rufous Woodcock, and Forbes and Chestnut Forest Rails for instance; Red-breasted Pygmy Parrot, Painted and Modest Tiger Parrots, Orange-crowned Fairy Wren, White-winged Robin, New Guinea Thornbill, Papuan Whipbird and Torrent Lark. The Black-mantled Goshawk and all those heard-onlys. Perhaps they were all saving themselves for the next time?

    The Tari Basin was our next stop. Glorious weather was a feature of the flight (from Tabubil) as is our usual luck in PNG, and we were escorted from the airstrip through the rather small crowd to the bus right beside the gate. Not many birds in evidence around the town as usual so we spent a half an hour at the colourful and always interesting market, mingling with the Nationals, some of whom were in their best dress - `arse-grass’ and heads adorned with bird of paradise feathers. Midday birds on the 40 km drive to Ambua Lodge were also very sparse, so we were pleased to be driven up to the Tari Gap at 2800m a.s.l. in the late afternoon.

    This drive can be the zenith of any birding trip to PNG. It can go like this. In an hour or so we added these new birds - Papuan, Plum-faced and Pygmy Lorikeets, Brehm,s Tiger Parrot, Mountain Swiftlet, Papuan Scrubwren, Rufous-backed, Grey-streaked and Common Smoky Honeyeaters, Green-backed Robin (the second sighting of this species at this spot - it is unrecorded elsewhere in PNG), immature White-winged Robin, Sclater’s Whistler, Friendly Fantail, Crested BoP, Brown Sicklebill (some perched and photographed against the sunset), Ribbon-tailed and Stephanie,s Astrapias, King of Saxony BoP, and Crested Berrypecker. The troops were glowing with the pleasure of seeing things so exotic. Next morning we drove up and looked at them all again.
    Between the Lodge and the Gap were Madarasz,s Tiger Parrot, White-breasted Fruit Dove, Yellow-billed and Orange-billed Lorikeets, Large Scrubwren, Belford’s Melidectes, Canary Flycatcher, Blue-grey Robin, Achbold’s Bowerbird, Mountain Firetail, Fantailed Berrypecker, Pied Chat and Island Thrush. New and prolonged views of the King of Saxony BoP rocketed it to the Best Bird of the Tour ahead of the Raggiana BoP. In the evening we did that all again too. Great stuff.

   That afternoon and the following day were spent around the Lodge, adding to the list and photographing orchids, or for two of us, down among the Huli people of the Tari Basin and a back-to-earth culture tour. The straight birdos around the lodge grounds added Papuan Treecreeper, Mountain Mouse Warbler, Buff-faced Scrubwren, Black-throated Robin, Rufous-naped Whistler, Wattled Ploughbill, Hooded Cuckoo-shrike, Mountain Peltops, Mid-mountain Berrypecker and Tit Berrypecker.
    At 2 am one morning, the two keenest of us were woken by a nearby and fairly constant “hou hou”, and leapt out of bed to spot the Papuan Boobook at the bottom of the garden, hunting for moths under the security light. And looking back on it, the animal that kept flying through the light after insects could well have been a Feline Owlet-nightjar; same colour, same size, same habitat. At the time we thought it was some sort of huge bat! The final evening trip to the Gap was the only wash-out on the entire tour.
    We left for the airport 2 hours earlier than necessary on the last morning. The reason? To look for the gorgeous Blue BoP down in the Tari Basin. On the way one lone Black-winged Kite was still on its perch, and there were Mountain Leaf Warblers where the bus stopped and could go no further. But no Blue BoP. The time for leaving was fast approaching. Suddenly a male called from a distant patch of bush and simultaneously the sharp-eyed Britta spotted another at eye level through the sparse trees, but not far off. We settled for the immature male close by, watched him for a while then wandered off to check in at Tari’s funny little airport shed, for our flight to Madang.
    It's a good challenge, forest birding in PNG.

Islands in Paradise.

Buka, North Solomons, Aug 1999.
(A three-day extension of a regular PNG tour)

       Buka is the small island immediately to the north of the recently-troubled Bougainville, the large island which dominates the North Solomons. Air Niugini had been flying there regularly during the entire time of the 12-year? war with Papua New Guinea, and up to about 1997 Buka was the field HQ of the PNG army. For the next two years it was to be the field  HQ of the UN and other peace-keeping agencies.
        By the time we arrived on 31st July 1999, both the PNG army and most of the peace-brokers had left. The small town of Buka, right on the southern shore and only a few hundred yards from mainland Bougainville, was so peaceful and orderly it was a pleasant surprise. Like many northern and south-western PNG towns it was just as safe as walking around Cairns.
     The locals told us that we were the second party of tourists they had seen in nearly 15 years. Two or three intrepid birders had visited or passed through but probably no birding tour had ever been that way before.
     But I had made a bad mistake in the planning. Buka shuts down for the weekend and this was Saturday afternoon. The plan had been to hire a vehicle and explore the north part of the island on Sunday. We found out the hard way that Buka vehicles are very scarce on Saturdays and impossible to get on Sundays.
     The management of Kuri Lodge where we stayed had said that vehicle hire from the lodge owner would not be a problem. What they didn’t say was that the owner took his vehicle home to the north part of the island on the weekend and didn’t return until Sunday night. And most other vehicle owners in the town seemed to do something similar.
     The troops were not amused. They comprised Helmut & Ingrid Schumann from Germany and Brian & Margaret Sykes from England, the latter couple being secretary and treasurer of the Oriental Bird Club. So we had to walk around the town and adjacent areas for a day and a bit, winkling out some fine birds in the process, never-the-less.
     On our walk around the town that first afternoon we saw Brahminy Kite, (that day and every other day), Variable Goshawk A. hiogaster (was novaehollandiae - frequently seen on the tallest tree in town), Island Fruit Pigeon Ducula pistrinaria seen flying over from the main island every day, Solomons CockatooC. ducorpsi, flying over daily in ones or twos but only scoped perched once, Cardinal LoryChalcopsitta cardinalis very common, Eclectus Parrot, one of the most common parrots of lowland northern Australasia, Sacred Kingfisher, Willie Wagtail, White-bellied Cuckooshrike Coracina papuensis, one Bougainville CrowC. meeki, seen much better two days later and not as common as we had  anticipated, and Pacific Swallow.
     Mino kreffti of the islands bordering the north Solomons Sea and which Schodde split almost 20 years ago from Yellow-faced Myna of the Papua New Guinea mainland, was seen every day. This bird has such a distinctive voice to M. dumontii that we immediately re-named it Musical Myna when we heard it for the first time in New Britain in 1997. Others of the Starling Family that day were Singing Starling, seen every day, and Metallic Starling, also seen on the 2nd.
     Kuri Lodge, our comfortable  lodgings with good food and caring management, is beside the western end of the airport. As we wandered over the runway to get to the gardens and forest edge on the second day, we saw a Pacific Black Duck and an Osprey flying over and a Pied Goshawk A. albogularis perched tamely on a runway marker. It was there nearly every time we went past and an excellent bird at close quarters. There are three forms - dark grey, light grey, and light grey with a rusty collar - this one was the latter and was quite striking at close quarters with its yellow legs and cere and orange eye, all contrasting with the light grey of the top half and the pure white of the underside.  They are quite common and we saw several in the next two days.
     On our morning circuit we spotted four species of shorebird; Whimbrel, Siberian Tattler, Pacific Golden Plover, Greater Sand Plover; scoped a Claret-breasted Dove Ptilinopus viridis perched at the back of town, saw several Red-knobbed Pigeons Ducula rubricera flying over, and our first Rainbow Lorikeets. Would that they were one of the three Charmosyna spp recorded on Buka but we never saw any of the others. We did see a few Brown-winged Starlings Aplonis grandis perched in the town that day and the next, and Olive-backed Sunbird N. jugularis.
     On Monday 2nd August, we had a pre-dawn breakfast then drove around the airport and inland to the north-west into the low hills of the Parkinson Range. This gravel road leads to the western side and  along most of it has potential for good birding. Scenic too.
     We were looking for passerines and although we never saw a honeyeater or a whistler new birds for us were two Steel-blue Flycatchers Myiagra ferrocyanea, two White-winged FantailsRhipidura cockerelli,  Midget FlowerpeckerD. aeneum, and more than ten Yellow-throated Whiteyes Z. metcalfii. I thought I heard and glimpsed Island Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus poliocephalus, recently split from P. trivirgatus now of the Oriental Region only, but its presence on Buka remains unproven.
     Other new forest birds we saw were Song Parrot Geoffroyus heteroclitus, Papuan Hornbill Aceros plicatus, (from which Blyth’s was recently split and re-named Plain-pouched and is now purely an Oriental species), and Glossy Swiftlet.
     The road winds in and out of numerous gullies, paralleling the coast which we eventually got down to at a 4km strip of lovely beach between the villages of Kahule and Tung. We spent some time with the villagers of Tung, waching for seabirds between the shore and the line of reef and islands about 2 km out. And although we saw Brown Booby, Lesser Frigatebird, Eastern Reef Egret, Little (Striated) Heron, Eastern Curlew, Common Sandpiper, Greater Crested Tern and a species of noddy, we were most interested in the large pelagic feeding flock we could see just outside the reef.
     We felt a pelagic coming on but no-one had any fuel for the boats. “Bring fuel, no problem”, they said. But next time when we have fuel there will be no feeding flock. But it will be worth a try as amongst the noddies and frigate birds and boobies there were shearwaters, some mostly? white under-winged and white-bellied and probably Streaked, and possibly a few of a darker species. But they were too far even for the scope.
     By the time we reached Skotlan, a small missionary village further along and about 40 km from Buka, it was lunchtime and it was warm. A pair of Beach Kingfishers was flushed but not much was moving of its own volition.
     Suddenly, sailing up on the thermals, was one of our most hoped-for, a Solomons Eagle or Sanford’s Sea Eagle, Haliaeetus sanfordi! It quickly soared away up a small valley. Not a great look but two others were seen on the way home as we approached the highest point of the road above Kahule. They too, were soaring above the forest. This was also the spot where we had good scoped views of two Solomons Cockatoos.
     Our early morning walk before the plane the next day added no new birds to the 41 species we had seen on Buka out of the 95 species ever recorded there. We were quite happy with seeing 9 of the 14 area-endemics recorded from Buka, i.e. Solomons Eagle, Pied Goshawk, Cardinal Lory, Steel-blue Flycatcher, White-winged Fantail, Bougainville Crow, Midget Flowerpecker, Yellow- throated Whiteye, and Brown-winged Starling.
     Next time we might see the others as well; Ultramarine Kingfisher, Red-naped Myzomela, Bougainville and Solomons Pied Monarch, and Solomons Cuckooshrike. Beck’s Petrel and Heinroth’s Shearwater are possible too!
     Next time we will probably stay at Kuri Lodge’s new tourist resort right on the water beside the Buka passage. We will probably fly down to Arawa on mainland Bougainville with Sauncumup Air to see Woodford’s Rail and ? Imitator Sparrowhawk. Over a weekend.
     Because next time we must be on Buka only on week-days and take plenty of two-stroke fuel when we travel out of town.

Bougainville Birding, 16th to 23rd August, 2001.

    Brilliant weather (warm as), good birding, nice people. Sums up a week on Bougainville. Same day flights (2) from CNS to Buka for A$1075 -
    Least Frigatebird, Crested Tern, Island Fruit Pigeon, Solomon's Cockatoo, Eclectus Parrot, Cardinal Lory, Red-flanked Lorikeet, Sacred Kingfisher that same afternoon, and Intermediate Egret, Yellow-eyed C-shrike, Cicadabird, Pacific Swallow, Willie Wagtail, Yellow-throated White-eye, Musical Myna and three Aplonis Starlings, Metallic, Singing, Brown-winged, in one feeding tree outside the lodgings, added the following morning.
    O'night at Kuri Lodge for A$58 w/b'fast.

    Runabout taxi-boat (one Kina) over the 150m channel to the main island of Bougainville the next day and air-con 4wd to Arawa (K50 = A$30) 4+ hrs later. Saw little on the way except Purple Swamphen and a fast Woodford,s Rail Nesoclopeus woodfordi scooting across the sealed road near Arawa. (ArAHwa).
    Don & Llane Hadden "em i goin finis" next year hence the unseemly haste to do a prospect of the place. Don and I watched a Woodford,s Rail for 10 mins just on sunset. Very nice. Off-white beak, dark-grey legs, dull blackish body. They're actually quite common.

  An apology from me at this stage is called for. I did mention a year ago that Don had been given two new (dead and very bedraggled) birds unknown to science. Make that one, the Odedi, as the other (which we in Cairns had hoped might be a new shrikebill from the photo), turned into the local version of an immature Golden Whistler. Our mistake, not Don,s - he would never be drawn into such an assumption. As soon as he got fresh specimens he realised what it was.
    The fresh specimen of the Odedi (still un-named) looks like a juvenile with very yellow gape, a rusty cap, lighter brown on the back and tail and pale under with dark spots. This specimen is also on the way
to Mary LeCroy in the New York Museum of Natural History.
    Don showed me a third specimen in his freezer, an adult received when nearly dead. Olive-brown nearly all over, very plain; must be very hard to see in the highland rainforest. Total length about 4.5 to 5
inches, very short winged. I should think it would only fly as far as a Lesser Melampitta, say from a large log down to the ground a few metres away (personal observation of a Melampitta). But white fellas (birders included) will not be able to access the higher-than-coast habitats on Bougainville for some time. Not even Don.

    So coastal birding is what we did over the weekend, and the following two days. Seen amongst the more common birds and additional to the trip list were Spotted Whistling Ducks (new for B'ville), Variable Goshawk, Pied Goshawk (dark phase only), Spot-breasted Pigeon, Macropygia mackinlayi, Red-knobbed Fruit Pigeon D. rubricera, Claret-breasted Dove, Duchess Lorikeet Charmosyna margarethae, Brush Cuckoo, Solomons' Boobook Ninox jacquinoti, perched nicely in very good light, both White-rumped and Uniform Swiftlets, and River (Common) Kingfisher.
    Then there were the Todirhamphus (was Halcyon) Kingfishers, UltramarineT. leucopygius, Sacred, a silent and normal-looking green-backed migrant, ANOTHER of similar body and beak size with similar habits and calling in pairs like breeding Sacred (four even notes) but coloured like the Chestnut-bellied in Doughty, ANOTHER, possibly longer-billed and similarly coloured but calling in pairs with 3 notes, the first two even and the second one note down, and supposed to be the local version of Collared.
    The races of T. chloris must be due for some very close study. This particular race is not only coloured differently to the "normal" chloris but seems much smaller, shorter beak to head length, lives in a different habitat and calls differently.
   Other notable spp were Papuan Hornbill, Bougainville and Solomon,s Pied Monarchs Monachus erythrostictus and M. barbatus,Steel-blue Flycatcher, White-winged Fantail, Bougainville Crow, and Midget Flowerpecker.

    I was fortunate to go on a tuna-trawling trip back at Buka. There were two or three smaller-than- Crested terns following the bait fish and although I never id-ed them properly they were probably Grey-backed. Hard to look at through all that spray. I spent some time that afternoon on a forest-covered coral atoll and saw one Melanesian Scrubfowl, one Solomon's Eagle, three Beach Thick-knees, one Beach Kingfisher, and a pair of Island Monarchs.

    Don (the keeper of the Bougainville list), tells me Grey-backed Terns have never been recorded in B'ville waters, so I just have to go up to Tung with some two-stroke fuel next time.

MOLUCCAS -

Birding Seram, 12th June, 1999

    We had  a small `prospecting’ tour to Ambon, Seram, and Halmahera in August 1998. Although 10 Bali Starlings on the way there and four days at the Tangkoko-Dua Sudara reserve, near Manado (Sulawesi) on the way back, were highlights in themselves, one of the main aims was to see the endemics of Ambon and Seram, and Halmahera.
     Here are some suggestions of the Seram section that others might like to follow.
Ambon will be quiet again now after the riots of mid-1999, but you only have to go there to get the Ambon White-eye anyway. The Australian War Cemetery is a good place for it, near the Birdlife International office, Jl. Pandan Kasturi SK 43/3, Tantui, on the main road out of town.
     Apart from that you could head straight for the Seram ferry, which leaves from
Hunumua and goes quietly over to Kairatu. You could take a bus or hire a car from there to Masohi. Stay at the Masohi Hotel. Twin rooms started at Rp44,000. Dearer ones would be best. The food is OK. And the beer.
    I strongly reccommend against taking the speedboat from Tulehu to Masohi unless you are desperate to get across to Masohi. It's a 2.5 hr bloody awful ride. And do not do as "Birding Indonesia" suggests, (and many people's trip notes); i.e. bus to the north side of Seram and catch a boat and walk through knee-deep mud for three days and climb steep hills etc etc to access Manusela N.P, unless you're desperate for about two further species.
    We hired a car with driver from the Hotel Masohi and drove up the sealed road every day toward and over to the north coast. We walked up the road in front of the car most of the time and it was our support vehicle with our lunch etc in it. Gentleman birding. We paid Rp100,000 for the vehicle for the the last half of the afternoon on the first day and 250,000 per day after that.
    The road winds north over the spine of Seram, to a height of about 800m, through excellent rainforest, un-logged away from the road edge. The Birdlife Int office monitors this road. They will be pleased to hear what you have seen. We saw two Salmon-crested Cockatoos the first evening about one third of the way up. They were coming in to roost. Also a Meyers Goshawk (only the 5th I have ever seen), some Papuan Hornbills (was Blyth's), a Common Kingfisher on the flat, and two Long-crested Myna which we never saw again. Around the hotel were Willie Wagtail, Chestnut Mannikin, and Tree Sparrow.
 You don't have to go far for the Cockatoos. We saw 14 the next day, a little higher up. Piece of cake really. The hardest parrots will be the Purple-naped Lory; we saw none at all. Victims of the huge (mostly internal I think) parrot trade. You might have to go over to the north side to see them. Then well inland away from roads. Lorius lories are in big demand throughout Indonesia.
    We glimpsed two Blue-eared to make up for it, estimated at about the 600m level, as low as they have been recorded. A lucky day. There were lots of Great-billed Parrots at the same spot. One or ?two Moluccan King Parrots called as they crossed the road in front but we got a glimpse only. Red Lory were there but not many.
    That day we also saw Brahminy Kite, Black Eagle, Spotted Kestrel, lots of Spectacled Fruit Pigeon D. perspicillata, Brown Cuckoo Dove, Red-cheeked Parrot, heard Australasian Koel, Uniform and Glossy Swiftlets, Papuan Hornbill, Island Leaf Warbler, Streak-breasted Fantail, Black-fronted White-eye, Drab Myzomela (well-named and scoped in the tops of trees on top of the cutting right at the road's highest point), and a pair of Slender-billed Crow, the only ones we ever saw and also scoped from a distance.
    We spent all of the next day along this road too. We couldn't get through to the north coast because of a large slip which was being cleared. Forunately perhaps for we saw a pair of Rufous-necked Sparrowhawk, quite tame, which were hunting along the roadway, just as we were. The contact call is quite like a Sacred Kingfisher's but goes on for twice as long. Other new birds for the trip were Little Pied Cormorant, White-bellied Seagle, Oriental Hobby, Superb Dove, Long-tailed Mountain Pigeon, Spotted Dove, Moluccan Swiftlet, Moustached Tree-swift, Sacred Kingfisher, Rainbow Bee-eater, Pale Cicadabird, (Common -rainforest variety- heard), Golden Bulbul, Golden Whistler, Ashy Flowerpecker, Seram Friarbird, Moluccan Starling, and Spangled Drongo.
    Not a bad day for a road that is already about 8 years old and which has not received any publicity at all! It must be the premier birding road in the whole Moluccan Sub-region. Next time we will spend 4 days at Masohi.
     We hired the vehicle (very comfortable) again for the next day and drove back to Kerehu for the early pm ferry. The two vehicle-ferries run alternately about every 2 hours. We added Little Egret, Lazuli Kingfisher, and Black Sunbird on the way, and Frigatebird sp and Gt Crested Tern on the way over. The ferry costs Rp3000 per person, taxi to Ambon from Hunumua Rp40,000, Taxi up to Mt Sirimau above Ambon Rp30,000, and the quiet and clean Hotel Sahabat (not too far from Mt Sirimau) Rp36,000 for a twin room with a good view. This turned out to be important because we recorded a flock of House Swifts from there, the first for Ambon.
    We only added Slaty Flycatcher to the list on Mt Sirimau, although we went up it three times. Not the place it is cracked up to be. We stayed a night on the quiet north coast at Hila-Kaitetu at the Manuela Beach Hotel, Rp40,000 for a twin room, Rp30,000 for a single.
    "Birding Indonesia" says that here "the hills are alive with parrots". Not any more buddy. And the book was only written in 1996. But we did see 6 Moluccan Reds bornea here, the best views, one Claret-breasted Dove - lucky us, Pied Fruit Pigeon (as opposed to Torresian - they've been split again before most of us knew they were lumped), Peregrine Falcon, Northern Fantail and Lesser Coucal. And we walked all the way to the top.
    The hotel was the best place for Lazuli Kingfisher; a pair holds a teritory on the road outside the hotel gate. There is a 300 year-old Dutch fort nearby, worth a visit - we saw Black-faced Munia from the top of it! Taxi from the airport is Rp60,000 to the Manuela and Rp30,000 to Ambon City, acrosss the bay the other way.
    In spite of the troubles there recently, you should now be safe in Ambon, which is a city of 400,000. They really related to Australians before Timor and there were a few Aussies living there. A large and popular Darwin to Ambon yacht race was held every year. But although the riots were religious-based and parochial, you can taxi straight to Hunumua for the Seram ferry, without going into Ambon at all, if you feel it may not be safe.
    Endemics cofined to Seram-Buru that we missed, other than Purple-naped Lory were Spectacled  Honeyeater, Grey-collared Oriole, Bi-coloured White-eye, Grey-hooded White-eye, and Moluccan Thrush. But I, at least, will be back.
    Seram birds need you. Hire a trapper for a guide. Show them that bird-tourism does pay money. Ask them to stop others trapping until I get back!