Papua New Guinea, 7-28 September 2003

    Mark's tours are what he calls Holo-istic Nature Tours and on them he teaches all aspects of natural history and culture with birding as a central theme. He produced two people for the tour, Mrs Todd Smith from San Fransisco, a sprite 86 year-old and with an insatiable curiousity, and Charlie Maurer from Colorado, big and solid, dependable, and an excellent room-mate. Both of these had signed on a year before, but that was it; a tour going nowhere.
    In April an enquiry for PNG via Kingfisher Park, Julatten, Australia, re-ignited the possibility of the tour going. And so after substantial correspondence, Linda Fisher and Leah Norwood, also of San Fransisco, agreed to come too. They were avid birders and concerned we would spend too much time looking at culture and non-birdy things. As I was to take the tour in Mark's absence we agreed that it would be a bird tour with some culture things, keeping in mind that non-avian things are all around, all the time and would offer constant opportunity for observation anyway.
    The June tour I had just finished with the Brits, although quite narrowly focussed even for a birding tour, went very well considering but such tours don't have the success, the vigour, the class, of a tour where the participants are interested in everything else as well as birds, and where every bird or mammal has equal weight even though the big or gorgeous ones are bound to shine brightest in the end.
    Also I think that the demand-focussed tours are often not as successful as the relaxed, if-we-see-it, we see it, tours; often people just try too hard and miss the target species altogether; while relaxed, happier tours seem to turn those species up anyway.
    This tour was one of the latter variety, and thanks to the quality of the participants it wasn't just good, it was very good. Like most of our tours of PNG it had a start, a middle, and an end, well more of a climax really. Here is how it went.

September 7
    We met at the Papua New Guinea International Airport (they had flown direct from Brisbane), one of the nicest small airports anywhere, in the early afternoon, and began looking at birds within minutes in the dry savanna that surrounds Port Moresby. Brown Quail, Willie Wagtail, Pacific Swallow, House Sparrow, were the first, within 200m of the airport; sometimes two species of munia too, but not this time. Sept is in the dry season over much of Papua New Guinea and the parchedness of it could be smelt as we drove through the savanna habitat away from the city, toward our first accommodation about 14 kms inland.
    Typical dry country raptors, Black and Brahminy Kites, appeared, plus Cattle Egret and Torresian Crow, before we arrived at the Bluff Inn which is well below but within sight of Varirata National Park. The savanna here is broken by patchy riverine forest  and a few swampy ponds and as southern PNG is partly a mirror image of North-east Australia, many of the countries shared species were seen - Little Black Cormorant, Intermediate and Little Egrets, Purple Swamphen, Masked Lapwing, Torresian Pigeon, Rainbow Lorikeet, Blue-winged Kookaburra, Sacred Kingfisher, Helmeted Friarbird, Willie Wagtail (today and for 16 of the next 21 days), Spangled Drongo, White-breasted Woodswallow, and Black-backed Butcherbird.
    There was enough time left in the day to drive up through the spectacular Laloki River Gorge, and bird the entrance road to Varirata National Park. We saw Pacific Baza and White-throated Honeyeater, both birds also found in NE Australia, Glossy Swiftlet, widespread outside Australia, and Pied Chat occurring from here to India, but the rest were PNG endemics - Greater Streaked and Black-capped Lories, Hooded Butcherbird, female plumaged Raggiana BoP (in PNG BoP is Bird of Paradise, not Bird of Prey), Papuan Flowerpecker, and Yellow-faced Myna.

Sept 8
    A before-daylight start for Varirata National Park at 700-800m asl and which has a total list of nearly 240 spp.. Park ranger Augustus Kori met us at the gate as arranged, and as we explored the rainforest and the ecotones where rainforest and eucalypt woodland meet, we added these new birds to our trip list -
    Brown Pigeon (Cuckoo Dove), Orange-bellied Dove, Papuan Mountain Pigeon, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Red-cheeked Parrot, Eclectus Parrot, Papuan King Parrot, Uniform Swiftlet, Rufous-bellied Kookaburra, Yellow-billed kingfisher, Azure Kingfisher, Rainbow Bee-eater, Mountain and Mimic Honeyeaters, Spot-winged and Frilled Monarchs, White-bellied and Boyer's Cuckooshrikes, and Fawn-breasted Bowerbird.
    If you are familiar with North Australian birds you will see some familiar names - certainly all of the families represented are Australian - but there are also eight endemic species there, indicating that we were getting deeeper into Papuan ornithology. Kori showed us the replicated Tree House of the original Park people, the Koiari, who would climb into it when threatened then pull up the access ladder.
    On the way back down the hill at dusk we finally stopped in time for one of the Large-tailed Nightjars sitting, calling, on the road.

Sept 9
    Usually we give Varirata (and most other places) three full days but this time only two, so some species were inevitably heard or guide-seen, only - White-crowned Koel, always a difficult one, Common Koel, Dwarf Koel and Hook-billed Kingfisher, both missed at Tabubil as well, Brown-headed (Paradise) Kingfisher, seldom missed but by September the usually obliging pair along the Tree House Trail have been annoyed too often by persistent taping by other tour companies - you shouldn't need a tape for this pair, Rusty Mouse Warbler, and Rufous-banded Honeyeater, heard-only around the Bluff Inn.
    Of course the day really started at the Raggiana lek, a few males in attendance, but we got quite good scope views from the road, the lek having been pushed to the back of the ridge possibly by persistent photographers.
Pink-spotted Dove, Zoe Pigeon, White-eared Cuckoo, Pheasant Coucal, Forest Kingfisher, Dollarbird, Yellow-bellied Warbler, Grey Whistler, Hooded Pitohui, Chestnut-bellied Fantail, Crinkle-collared Manucode (well-scoped in thick forest from 30m), Black-fronted White-eye, Singing Starling at Bluff Inn as we paid up and left after lunch (good food at the Bluff Inn's restaurant), plus Whistling Kite and Australian White Ibis, as we drove to the airport to catch an afternoon flight to Madang, were all new birds today.
    There was just enough daylight left after signing for a 4wd double cab truck and dropping our gear at Jais Aben Resort to drive a few km further along the NW highway from Madang to the ponds at Alexhafen where Spotted Whistling and Pacific Black Ducks, Great Egret, Dusky Moorhen, Varied Honeyeater, and Varied Triller finished the day.

Sept 10
    Jais Aben Resort is a good place to stay, a few kms out of town, extensive grounds beside the lovely Bismarck Sea, good accommodations, reasonable food, and good security although Madang must be one of the safest places in PNG - you can actually stroll around the town in the evening, untroubled.
    But of course we were only there for long in the evenings - this morning we left early, driving north-west again to a logging road (that's the downside of Madang - a wood-chipping mill has been there for nearly 20 years) just past Francis Dedmai's Wasab Ecotourism sign, about 20+ km out.
    As we got there the light rain stopped. From the top of a small hill we could see Francis' mostly intact forest on the left, but in front and on the right, ravaged forest, some cleared entirely, but with several isolated large trees, some already dead, that had been left.
    The few tall trees left amongst this devastation provided good perches for the large birds which fed and bred in the Wasab Ecotourismforest on the left, and so made for easy birding. From our little hill in nearly two hours new trip birds we scoped were Variable Goshawk, Superb Fruit Dove, Pinon Pigeon, a distant pair of Palm Cockatoos, Dusky Lory, Papuan Hornbill, always a great sight, Dusky Honeyeater, Lowland Peltops, Grey Crow, (Streak-headed Mannikin was guide-seen only), and Yellow-bellied Sunbird. There are lots of Red-cheeked and Eclectus Parrots in these parts to add much to the general avian noise as they busily fly around adding to the colour of the dead trees as they perch there in bright green and red. Heard-onlys were Brown-collared Brushturkey, these much-hunted birds are very hard to see, Variable Pitohui, White-bellied Fantail, and Lesser BoP. 
    On the way back along probably the best-surfaced road in PNG we also saw Little Ringed Plover and Common Kingfisher from a bridge, Shining Flycatcher flying across the road, Eurasian Little Grebe, White-browed Crake, and Comb-crested Jacana at Alexhafen, and Metallic Starling at Jais Aben.
    After lunch we boated out to Bird (Pig) Island (birders have changed the name to suit themselves), for New Guinea Scrubfowl, these hunted birds are never easy either, Eastern Reef Egret, Common Sandpiper, and Beach Kingfisher. I was relieved to find the latter here as in September 2002 we only saw several Collared Kingfishers but this time none. The Beach Kingfishers have reclaimed their territory. Mangrove Golden Whistler remained heard-only and unresponsive even to tape - sometimes they are very vocal and hard to miss.

Sept 11
    We spent all of today birding the Madang-Lae Road, one of the picturesque birding roads in PNG, or at least the first 100k through the foothills still mainly covered in forest. Taking a packed lunch we started as usual quite early so we could reach the Gogol River at daybreak so we could see the Moustached Treeswifts, the biggest and best of their four-member family, embellishing the power cables along the roadside, and the Lesser Black Coucals sitting, calling, from the tall grass-tops on the river bed. Other new birds there for our tour list were Wandering Whistling Ducks, Little Pied Cormorant, Grey-tailed Tattler, and Black Sunbird.
    We saw White-throated Pigeon along this road, a most unusual sighting, Great-tailed Pigeon (Cuckoo Dove), Tawny Straightbill, Pygmy Longbill, Leaden Flycatcher, Black-browed Triller, almost a sure thing in the first lot of hills, Brown Oriole, and a scope view of Lesser BoP, on their hillside lek tree (but only visiting the tree this late in the day) where the road first meets the Nuru River. (Lesser BoP can be difficult around Madang unless your group is quite mobile then they can be seen after a quite long and arduous walk into Wasab Ecotourism; we used to drive in but Francis' has let the road become over-grown - "No funding," he says).
    We spent the middle of the day just driving to the start of the Markham Valley and back to the place descibed above where the Vulturine Parrot often flies over in the late afternoon - no luck today but it's a good birding spot, with lots of Papuan Hornbills coming in to their last feeding trees for the day before roosting in the big trees along the high, hard-to-access ridges.
    The first time I drove this road, in 1992, I saw two pairs of Doria's Hawks, one of the world's rarest raptors, but I have never seen any since in spite of birding along here four more times, but it still must be the best chance for it.

Sept 12
    It poured with rain overnight and until after daylight, typical of the tropics, but fined up well for our scenic flight up to Goroka. Beside the airport, after the rain and prior to leaving, we managed Black-billed Pigeon, Grand Mannikin, one of only two areas I know of for this species, and Golden-headed Cisticola.
    The small-plane flight was superb, of course, over some excellent scenery of coastal hills where we were yesterday, then the Markham Valley, and the Bismarck Range, the northern barrier to the highland valleys the floors of which are all at about 1650m asl. Eternal Spring reigns here, every night Europeans say, is a two-blanket night. I wouldn't be surprised if the locals only use one, or none at all, they're very tough.
    Another 4wd was signed for and we tried to get up Mt Gahavisuka to the Provincial Park there. It was hopelessly boggy. I hadn't been up for 11 years and the road hasn't been touched since. To our surprise, a young Australian woman walked past and advised us that the road only got worse. Pity, as there's good highland birding up there. But there were a few good birds around the town - Mountain Myzomela, Yellow-browed Melidectes, Black-headed Whistler, and Island Thrush.
    We were here for the Goroka Sing-sing the next day and already the town was crawling with police. One of the safest places on the planet that weekend I thought so we (I) decided to get out of town, west along the Highlands Highway and try birding the Daulo Pass at about 2500m asl although this is known to be a place for occasional hold-ups, especially trucks laden with goods for further west. The Highland Highway police are known to shoot "rascals" - highway robbers - on sight so as most of the country's police seemed to be here for the weekend I knew it would be fairly safe.
    Before leaving town we stopped by the market to buy water when two young men approached us from the surrounding crowd. Upon learning where we were going they asked if they could accompany us as one of them knew the village people there quite well. So they climbed onto the tray of our double-cab and off we went into the unknown, well almost, although I had driven through there and birded the Pass about six years before, passing near the village of Asolo where the famous Mudmen, who dress as ghosts to frighten would-be attackers, come from.
    We had bought some awful take-aways in Goroka for lunch and ate as we drove so it was early afternoon when we got to the Pass but we saw nothing I can remember. Our newly-met guides suggested we go through the roadside village because there seemed to be good forest on the other side. We parked over a little knoll which hid our vehicle from the road and asked an elderly fellow if we could walk through the village. He said OK and elected to guard the truck in our absence and we all set off.
    The village was a double row of houses along the ridge top and as we walked along the 10m wide dirt "street" it was like going back several hundred years in our own society. Pigs, dogs, and children were the main street inhabitants. We skirted a sow suckling her litter and were joined by curious children and adults, with two or three men keen to demonstrate their hunting ability by showing us their village birds, none of which they seemed to have a seperate name for. Small birds in PNG, and in many other societies, are usually just called "small birds" and are recognised as only being good for target practice.
    The crowd quickly grew to about thirty - we were probably the first European visitors since the Australian Patrol officers left 28 years ago - and we sauntered slowly along, talking in a mixture of English and Pidgin. "You tok-tok pisin?" Typically of older cultures, they revere the elderly, called "lapuns", and "dispela lapun" Todd  was treated with the utmost respect, the men helping her over the slightest bump and a small girl of about four holding onto her little finger for the next two hours.
    Belford's Melidectes, Common Smoky and Rufous-backed Honeyeaters, were fairly common and we also saw Red-collared Honeyeater. Not that bad for the middle of a warm afternoon and from a crowd of about thirty-five people all chattering away. As we were leaving, a girl of about ten presented each of us with a small garland of flowers she and some of the women had quickly woven. They were all so happy that we had visited them.
    Not much in the way of birds but an interesting interchange between two very different cultures; we, of course, learnt much more than they did. Most of the Highlands adults can understand five or more languages and speak at least four of them. These Daulo people with the bad reputation were just as kind and considerate to visitors as anyone else in any other country, possibly more so than most.
    The Australian Govt advises not to drive the Highlands Highway and normally I wouldn't, with women anyway, and most people I know are frightened to even come to PNG, but I think of what happened today and of the young woman we met earlier who was climbing up Mt Gahavisuka to the next village above Goroka, obviously living there among the locals and probably working in the area possibly with the Volunteer Service. Around the world I meet young women like her often, working as overseas volunteers, or for Oxfam or such, or the United Nations, in countries and areas considered dangerous by our governments and media, places where most grown men are frightened to go. Makes you wonder.

Sept 13
    Goroka Sing-sing day. This is what we came for; not a normal bird tour destination but this tour is supposed to deal with all things, including human history and culture, but especially nature, with birds as a central theme. You can't deny birds are central to a sing-sing, all of the participants are wearing them.
    But they're all dead, all taxidermed with the flesh and bones of the bodies removed leaving the entire skin and feathers with head still attached. A skewer is poked through the stuffed body of the bird and they're skewered, tail up, into a matted hair-piece made of human hair so the beautiful tail feathers are shown to the best advantage. At the Goroka or Hagen Sing-sings these are mostly male birds of paradise - a bunch of red fluffy feathers is a whole Raggiana BoP; a bunch of light yellow or whitish feathers is a whole Lesser BoP; two long, wide, black feathers represent one whole Stephanies Astrapia; two long, narrow, black feathers a whole Brown Sicklebill; two very long, narrow, white feathers represents the body of a Ribbon-tailed Astrapia.
    Shorter red, green, and blue feathers are from parrots, the whole body, or just the tail or wings. Several species of parrots are represented in the first photo of this article, where a mother is showing off her children who sat there all day without moving. Not for money, for pride of heritage and tradition.
    These days the hair base is often replaced with any material such as the bright red this Mt Hagen Womens' Group uses. If you open the image you will see that each woman has several pairs of Stepanie's Astrapia on her head. The breast plates are large mother-of-pearl shells, the original kina, traded up from the coast anytime in the last ?200 years. Both the feathers and the kina are treasured family heirlooms.
    Fur from the Cuscus, a type of possum, beads from plant fruits, and skirts from palm-fruit fronds, anything that adds colour, are all used. These days arrangements of straw or white hen feathers are often used to represent bird feathers. This is especially noticeable with groups from Madang whose Lesser Birds of Paradise are now quite scarce, not because of hunting but because of logging. No habitat, no Birds of Paradise. The Black Sicklebill is probably the only other BoP that is threatened by human activity and the cause is also habitat destruction not collecting for head-dresses.

     The blue "wings" on this back view of one of the finalists in the beauty contest is actually the breast plate of the male Superb BoP, and the row of bodies beneath all the black Stephanie's are Dusky Lories. A shawl of Cuscus skins cover her back.
    The picture below shows many head-dresses with raptor feathers. These are mainly of the Long-tailed Buzzard although some could be New Guinea Eagle, a much prized skin and consequently rather scarce.
    The "lone warrior" pictured demonstrates several things. The head-dress featuring trimmed red and black feathers from the Vulturine Parrot represents a threatened species; parrots of both sexes are taken for feathers, and large, uncommon parrots like this are becoming even more uncommon, unlike the BoPs where only males are taken, selectively in the case of lekking species, the dominant males being left to breed.
    Our warrior also has many adornments, two Cowrie shell necklaces, a bigger shell and pig tusks stuck onto the lower lip somehow, a nose shell carved to fit into the septum hole - all shells have been traded up from the coast over the years, a bow which takes a very strong man to fit the string onto - most men I know wouldn't be stong enough - but a bow mostly for ceremony as bow hunting is not common anymore. Slingshots are used instead but many boys these days are too busy at school to go hunting and aspire to getting a ghetto blaster instead, or are even TV addicts if they live in the cities. Which is good for the birdlife.
    Finally, our warrior has many bright clours from imported "wool" from China, actually synthetic wool and string, the latter also woven into very strong bilums (shoulder bags) of various sizes.

    These are the finalists in the beauty competition with some tourists sitting behind. Between 50 and 60 tourists are here, all of them paying about 80 kina (A$40) to get into the enclosure where the action is. Most are out on the grounds mingling with the teams from various parts of the Highlands, and taking pictures. PNG tourists are mostly from the North America, Europe, and Japan; Australians are noticeable because of their absence. Several thousand locals are here but choosing to watch from a distance - after all, they get good looks for nothing as the teams dance and sing their way down the street to the grounds. Food and soft drink stalls are around the perimeter of the grounds. Similar to a show anywhere really.

    But we did manage to see some new birds too. Long before the show started we were out in the town looking in trees and hedges for our avian delights. We spotted a Brown Goshawk circling our suburb, a Brush Cuckoo finally scoped on a tree top, Mountain Swiftlets flying over the show grounds, Brown-breasted (Gerygone)Warblers in the tall trees, and Ornate Melidectes, now there's a good town bird for you (towns are the only places I've seen them).
    About two-thirty a rainstorm approached the show ground from the south-east so the Sing-sing quickly finished for the day as paticipants hurried for shelter before their face and body paint ran. After all, they were on show again tomorrow. We got into out truck and edged away through throngs of people as the rain came, drove to our motel, loaded the luggage, and got to the airport to check in for our late afternoon flight to Hagen as the rain stopped.
    From inside the terminal we could clearly see the runway and grass surrounds. A flock of several dozen Pacific Golden Plovers lifted and shifted now and then as did a smaller flock of much smaller birds which turned into Hooded Mannikins through the scope. An Australasian Pipit (note the streaked flanks in the picture indicating novaeseelandiaenot richardi) hunted not far from them and to really make the day, a male Papuan Harrier, all black and white and handsome was doing the same further away. Nine new birds in Goroka town, not bad at all, considering.
     After a short flight, we landed in Hagen town in the next big valley to the west and were met, inside the terminal, by Kim Arut half of the senior management of Kumul Lodge, her husband Paul being the other half.

Sept 14
    Kumul Lodge, at 2850m asl, is very close to the Tomba Gap which, although a pilots reference, is famous in Papuan ornithology as being the original collection place for species, the type specimen, such as the Tomba Bowerbird, now lumped with Archbold's; more recently, in the mid-seventies, Bruce Beehler, senior author of the "Birds of New Guinea" camped here for 6 months collecting and studying the avifauna. On his last trip here, in May 2003, Bruce recorded species that most locals didn't know existed; maybe Paouli the old hunter knows, but no-one else.
    It's a scenic location. (Is there somewhere in PNG that isn't?). Mount Hagen, mostly forest-clad, towers nearly 1000m above the lodge and some of the well-appointed rooms have their verandas opening towards it. Very nice. Walkways from the carpark and central 2-storey dining area are covered so even if it rains you can still watch for birds. After all many of our target species are in the surrounding mountain forest and treat the buildings as part of their habitat.
    All these Lorikeets for a start - Goldies, the fabulous Papuan (both morphs are here) which some say is the prettiest of all the parrots, and Orange-billed or Emerald (pictured here); other new birds for us were Mountain Mouse Warbler, Red-throated and Grey-streaked Honeyeaters, Canary Robin (Flycatcher), White-winged Robin, Regent Whistler, Dimorphic and Friendly Fantails, Brown Sicklebill, a female feeding quite close (see Sept 15), Ribbon-tailed Astrapia, (aren't these birds the epitome of exotic birding?), Mountain Firetail, Fan-tailed Berrypecker, and Crested Berrypecker, always an excellent bird to see (the yellow crissum is invisible in the picture below) especially as it's one of a two-bird family.
    Further into the main forest on an afternoon walk we saw White-breasted Dove, the only fruit dove at this altitude and not much else. Todd was helped intensively on the muddy trail, one man on either side; my word they look after elderly people well. "I really appreciate being helped up these steep slippery bits," said Todd, "I couldn't get up them by myself. But I wish they would let go when it becomes flat again!"
    The main road is about 200m down the drive from the lodge toward Mt Hagen and beyond it over an extensive sub-alpine grassland a Little Eagle circled. 

Sept 15
    One of the resident pair of Chestnut Forest Rail was heard this morning, only about 60 m away from the top carpark, but nothing responded to the tape. We failed to see this excellent bird on this trip. We had settle for the next bird which was a lovely Brehm's Tiger Parrot. The female can usually be found feeding around the upper carpark, especially in the early morning. This was also the first hearing of Mountain Kingfisher, another irksome miss for the trip - on the six days it was heard it always seemed so far away. Even at Dablin Creek at Tabubil they seem harder to get than they should be. By far the easiest place for this species that I know is just north of the Kolorong Pass south of Wau Ecology; they usually come straight in to tape playback there.

    Papuan Scrubwren, hanging around the top of the driveway as usual, Long-tailed Shrike on the grassland by the road, Black-throated Honeyeater and Black-breasted Boatbill from the road down the west side of the Tomba Gap, and later on Rufous-naped Whistler appeared back around the Lodge. In the evening Mountain Nightjars were seen flying about outside the dining room (birding as you eat Josephine's good cooking and lovely fresh salads) and landing on Unit 6, and a Mountain Owlet Nightjar was heard-only during the night.
    Not a great birding day, perhaps it's time to move on but thanks to our birding guides Max and Paouli for trying so hard. We missed a few important birds at Kumul, especially the Crested BoP, (which they say isn't seen as often as it used to be), but forunately there was another chance for them on the Tari Gap.

Sept 16
    A pair of Great Woodswallows is waiting to be put onto our list outside the dining room this morning. Good Oh! And Second John (there are at least three Johns at Kumul) knows a good place for birds by the road on the way to the Hagen airport. Sure enough, although Superb BoP was heard-only, through the scope we saw the fabulous Blue BoP calling, calling, from his tree top, and with binoculars, a small group of Yellow-breasted Bowerbirds feeding closer to us; the latter is not often seen by birders probably because they are unaware that the much-populated Highland Valleys from the Wahgi eastwards to Kainantu are good places to look for it. Thanks Second John.
    Nothing new around the airport today so we eventually flew away to Tabubil with MBA who fly above the clouds so you can't see anything, then waited around for someone from the Cloudlands Hotel to pick us up. Typically, they take about an hour to come and no new birds at this airfield either so by lunchtime we're still floating along on a Blue BoP. Finally there's word from Sam Kepuknai in Kiunga. He hasn't left yet.
    So we arrange another 4wd and pop up to Dablin Creek late pm. and stand around by the road. Not much is happening here either although it can be a very good place at this time of day but we do get Long-billed Honeyeater, Scrub Meliphaga, Lemon-bellied Robin (Flycatcher), and Cicadabird before dark. No Hook-billed Kingfishers calling here or by the Hotel at dusk like they used to and the Papuan Boobook has moved further along the escarpment. Well, if you cut down some of the untidier trees and shrubs and tidy the place up so it looks parky, what can you expect? White man's values are not conducive to good wildlife watching.
    Sam arrives with his van and driver in time for dinner. Good to see him again. But the 4wd's use may be limited - the Ok Ma road has been washed out again and is impassable for now.

Sept 17
    So we decide to go to the Powerhouse instead. No Salvadori's Teal but Torrent Robin (Flycatcher) and Torrent Lark, with Black Butcherbird and Glossy-mantled Manucode on the way back. We can hear a Red-necked Rail and a Golden-backed Whistler calling but they are both too far away with a lot of low bush between us and them. After a promising start the day slides into obscurity.
    There's an Obscure Berrypecker up Dablin Creek to prove it. It was so obscure that even Sam didn't recognise it at first. Heard Bush Hen there too, also Emerald Dove, Pygmy Lorikeet, Emperor Fairywren, Black-shouldered Cuckooshrike, Greater Melampitta, and Carola's Parotia. And the first of three guide-seen only Long-tailed Buzzards. An afternoon to forget.

Sept 18
    A last burst up Dablin Creek. Sometimes it doesn't wake up until 9 am, but this morning it's quite reasonable. Good new birds even. Spotted Honeyeater, Chestnut-backed Jewelbabbler, Northern Fantail, Mountain Peltops, Magnificent BoP, female as usual, and Western Mountain White-eye.
    Two months ago Sam had organised a hide at the display ground of a male Magnificent BoP and it was a huge success for the Brits, but after we had gone the landowners made a garden close by and the bird abandoned the place. So that was out.
    Guide-seen-only birds today were Red-flanked Lorikeet, Greater Black Coucal (a surprisingly hard bird to see despite the size), and Pale-billed Scrubwren, heard-only were Shovel-billed Kingfisher, not far away either, White-rumped Robin (little Sebastian), Crested Pitohui, a fair way off, Stout-billed Cuckooshrike, and Greater Melampitta again unresponsive to tape playback although it was close enough to record.
    Two days around Tabubil for 15 new species. Hmmm. I think it was a bit better two months ago. Still, it's interesting country and the Torrent Lark is a pretty good bird; you can hang around Ambua Lodge at great expense for a week or so and still not see one. And the Shovel-billed K or the Melampitta could have jumped out. We used to give the area three days but these days two seems sufficient.
    We sloped off for lunch, returned the 4wd, and drove about 150 km to Kiunga. It's a very picturesque drive, much of it along a ridge with a great view over miles of terra firma lowland rainforest but we hardly ever see anything of note because it's the middle of the afternoon and usually fairly warm.
    At the Greater BoP site we stopped in the late afterrnoon as usual by the roadside and saw several species we had already seen, pigeons etc mainly, but heard for the first time Green-backed Warbler and Rufous-backed Fantail; although we came back here we never saw or heard either of them again.

Sept 19
    Another 4wd this a.m. because the road past Boystown has deteriorated sharply since we were here two months ago. There's a little knob beside the road a fair way along where we traditionally stand these days to get a glimpse of the Flame Bowerbird. Magazine Rd is out. We haven't missed at the new place yet and you will see, after you read this we will be going back again and again! Yes, our luck suddenly changed.
    Getting to this knoll was so slow because of the treacherous road conditions that it was nearly 7 a.m. when we got there, and we usually stay until 10 a.m. It certainly is a grand place with cut-over forest immediately surrounding it providing good views in three directions and many large trees for stray birds to land on briefly.
    In those three hours two species of Fig Parrot, Orange-breasted and Double-eyed, landed on similar dead trees at different times; there were Puff-backed, Tawny-breasted, and Streak-headed Honeyeaters; (Plain Honeyeater guide-seen only), a Meyers Friarbird or two, Grey-headed Cuckooshrike, Golden Triller (Cuckooshrike), Trumpet Manucode, Magnificent Riflebird, Greater BoP, female plumaged only, and, yes, once again, male Flame Bowerbird perched briefly in a nearby tree. Wow! What a bird! There were lots more species but those twelve were the new ones for the tour.
    Sam, all the while was giving loud grunts, not from pain but imitating a New Guinea Eagle which was continually calling from not too far away. I walked away back along the road trying to triangulate from where the noise was coming from but no luck in sighting anything. These Eagles seldom soar but hunt through the sub-canopy like goshawks so they sit quite low usually.
    Sam doesn't use a tape but is always trying to imitate something or call something in with his imitation of an Emperor Fairywren. My opinion was that trying to call in a N.G. Eagle wouldn't work, but he said that it had been known to, although none had responded to him - yet. It was getting close to being time to go and we had just had good views of our main target, the Flame Bowerbird.
    Suddenly, from the opposite direction to the calling bird, a New Guinea Eagle glided over the top of us and landed in plain view about 60m away, low down on the sloping trunk of a large tree, and turned to face us.
    You can see in the photo sequence how one minute we were just looking at some "common" birds and the next gaping at something the other way! Scopes are left ignored, but not for long - Charlie had a digital camera and using my Swarovski scope suddenly became a digi-scoper! Not a bad subject for his first attempt!
    In the afternoon we tried Gre Road but apart from a Hobby, either Australian or Oriental, there was not a lot moving, and toward late afternoon we drove north a bit more to the Greater BoP lek. Black-billed Brushturkeys, were calling from across the road and we tried to find a calling New Guinea Bronzewing without success. But we did see a Stephan's Dove, beautiful looks at a Beautiful Fruit Dove, and very long gazes at the impressive Greater BoPs displaying at their lek.

But nothing was as impressive as that New Guinea Eagle.

Sept 20
    Not a terribly early start today with such a lot of supplies and things to organise, but by around 0800 we set off in Sam's open boat, up the Fly River. After about an hour we turned up a side stream, a short cut, and came out on the much smaller Elevala River.
    Darter, Great-billed Heron, Striated Heron, and Papuan Spinetail were the new birds on this stretch (Large Fig Parrot was guide-seen only), many Collared Pigeons, and several other species already seen well on the tour, flew over our heads or perched in the large trees lining the banks, then we found a Dwarf Fruit Dove and a Golden Monarch on a large fig tree before getting to Sam's Ekame Lodge, simple but adequate accommodations mainly built from bush materials. Few people live further up than this so it is in the middle of pristine, almost uninhabited, lowland forest.
    Before lunch we studied the resident Golden Mynas for a while then walked part-way along the trail going east from the Lodge seeing nothing of note but the women attracted several leeches each (I don't know which species) which they were not aware of until we got back. Usually North Americans, nearly always wearing long trousers, have treated their clothes with permethrin, a synthetic pyrethrin, which with a little deet on bare parts seems to repel just about any biting thing, although some leeches still get through. This trail was quickly called the Leech Trail and was never trod on again although good birds can be seen along it, including Southern Cassowary and Blue Jewlbabbler, and Black-sided Robin, to name a few.
    This is a hot climate so if you wear shorts and sandals then you can see the leeches coming; then you just pick them off. If they have already dug in you roll them gently with your finger - they like that. When they let go, you roll them between finger and thumb and flick them at your friends.
    Some upland forests around Cairns are just as bad and most birders wear shorts there too. No-one uses permethrin because it is still illegal in Australia. And even though we may have a good layer of deet many leeches frequently walk right over it, seemingly undeterred, although spraying it around your boot-tops often works fairly well, (then they usually climb the outside of your trousers) but the use of deet really is to repel mosquitos and sandflies, both prolific in the North Australian and Papuan lowland forests. 
    In the late afternoon we took the boat further upstream to one of Sam's better trails, the King Trail?,  and before long flushed a pair of Southern Crowned Pigeons, one of which landed about 70m away through the dense forest - Charlie managed to digi-scope most of it, you can see that its beak is behind a tree trunk. Little Shrikethrush and Yellow-bellied Longbill were the only other new birds seen although Little Bronze Cuckoo, Rufous Babbler, and Black Thicket Fantail were heard.
    Back at the Lodge in the evening we were lucky to hear a Vulturine Parrot coming and most of us were quick enough to get on to it as it flew past. Unfortunately, this endangered species is mostly only seen this way these days. Ten years ago we could regularly see them perched, along the Ok Ma by Tabubil. Yellow-eyed Starling was another good bird scoped across the river from the high veranda of the lodge.

Sept 21
    In the mornings, a Twelve-wire BoP can be seen displaying across and down the river from the Lodge and it certainly got its share of being viewed through the scope. An excellent bird. But after a while we boated back upstream to the King Trail and after a long walk, saw, guess what?, the King BoP of course! Honoured by some as the prettiest bird in the world, better even than Cock of the Rock or Resplendent Quetzal. Unfortunately a large branch had fallen from the sub-canopy where it displays from and it appeared only sporadically and then not for long - very difficult to get in the scope. We thought that it may eventually shift, but probably not far. The trouble is that other nearby Kings are even harder to see, the display sites they have picked are so high and cluttered.
    We were very lucky to clearly see both Common and Little Paradise Kingfishers, both brilliantly-coloured and excellent birds, the former stangely hard here in the west, and the latter found only here and a new bird for me although we had tried for it two or three times in other years. Black-sided Robin, an excellent skulker considering its relatively open habitat, (it nearly always manages to land behind a small tree trunk), was also seen quite well. We heard a Hooded Pitta, then a Blue Jewelbabbler too, but neither would come out.
    And from the deck at Ekame Lodge we scoped a Channel-billed Cuckoo in a large tree.

Sept 22
    Not many years ago Sam thought that birders were a strange bunch - he would prefer to fix an outboard motor - but his boating skills drew him into his present business as he was hired to take these strange people up the river to where the birds were. Now he can't be stopped. He's as mad as the rest of us, maybe worse than most.
    When we are staying at Ekame Lodge we often wake in the middle of the night hearing a Papuan Boobook, or a Marbled or Papuan Frogmouth, but it is sometimes only Sam imitating them. But early this morning we really did hear Papuan Boobook and Marbled Frogmouth; we tried to call in the latter, and even looked carefully around the clearing in daylight but without success.
    Real birds (seen birds) for the day were Oriental Cuckoo, Large-billed (Gerygone) Warbler, White-bellied Pitohui, thought to be a scarce species not long ago but Sam has proved they are relatively common in their resticted habitat of "varzea" or flood-prone forest, and Hooded Monarch. Hook-billed Kingfisher and Yellow-capped Pygmy Parrots was guide-seen only.
    After lunch Linda and Leah wanted to go back to the King Trail again so I said that I would stay back with Charlie, who had a crook foot which needed resting, and Todd who said she need an afternoon nap after all of our exertions, enabling them to go with Sam alone. It was the highlight of the tour for them; not only did they see Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher but a Blue-breasted Pitta hopped about quite near them for some time.
    About 3 pm we coasted quietly back down to Kiunga, without any new species, but with quiet satisfaction and happiness. It's really great to stay with Sam up the Elevala.

Sept 23
    We went out to Gre Road again this morning but it was still quiet and no further new species crossed our sights. Contrast the last three days to the trip report with the Brits two months ago and you might think we were in different places. Everything was new for them, at the start of their tour, but this is near the end of the US tour and we had already seen more than half the birds which we saw around Tabubil and Kiunga. And, as always happens, each group saw birds the other didn't.
    So off we flew with MBA to Hagen town again and were picked up by Haus Poroman in whose grounds high above the town we saw Large Scrubwren, Black Fantail, New Guinea White-eye, and after much manouevering, Superb BoP calling from an almost hidden position from the side of a tree (their favoured site) on the crest of the ridge. We could hear a Blue BoP across the small valley but couldn't locate it, Rufous-naped Whistler in the extensive and well-kept grounds but all we could get on it was a shadow, and White-winged Robin too. We had already seen these species, at or on the way from Kumul Lodge, but it would have been nice to see them again. But four new species isn't bad for a late afternoon in a lovely setting.

Sept 24
    We had booked a small plane from Bob Bates, who also owns Ambua Lodge, to fly us in to direct to Ambua from Hagen. This is one of the great flights in PNG and we always seem to get a clear day. Charlie, a small plane pilot himself, really appreciated the flight.
    We're fully laden as usual and circle a bit over the Wahgi Valley until we have enough height to fly past Kumul Lodge, through the Tomba Gap between Mt Hagen and Mt Mendi, then over forested ridges and hills too high and cold for permanent habitation - there are areas of grassland "frost-pockets" in the hollows and airflow-constricted valleys - (the old Hagen-Mendi Road is somewhere down there), past the Doma Peaks and suddenly we are following the Mendi-Tari Road through the Tari Gap, a wide sweep to the right so the beautifully situated Ambua Lodge and grounds are in full view from the left windows, then coming in to land on the new, quite steep, Ambua Lodge airstrip. Charlie loved it.
    There was my friend Benson (real name Hale Hamoko), bird guide and willing helper, and Jake the bird-knowledgeable bus driver waiting for us. Coming back to some of these places is almost like coming home.
    From the carpark beside the Lodge we saw these new trip birds - Yellow-billed Lorikeet, Black Sitella, Short-tailed Paradigalla, dead easy compared with all that looking two months ago and even then one person missed it, Blue-grey Robin, male and female Stephanie's Astrapias, and Mid-mountain Berrypecker, (in the Longbills & Berrypeckers Family, the Melanocharitidae). In the late afternoon we went as usual up towards the Tari Gap. Halfway there (it's 8-10 km) we saw a male King of Saxony BoP on his display perch waving his "tentacles" and another without tentacles at all, and Tit Berrypecker (that cleans up the two-bird Painted Berrypecker Family), before an evening shower stopped play. Fantailed Cuckoo was heard only.

Sept 25
    The world-famous Joseph Tano was waiting in the carpark this morning and quickly called a McGregor's Bowerbird which had just come in and was feeding near the top of a large tree. Unfortunately, just as quickly it was away before we got a scope on it and some missed it. A Peregrine flew over as the others were having breakfast. If you must have breakfast at Ambua either have it during darkness, eat it outside, or have it at 10 a.m., so much goes on around that carpark.
    It used to be even busier but the staff-member who lives near the gate has had a cat for many years now and most of the small ground-feeding birds have gone and no-one wants to do anything about it, in spite of compaints to the owner and various managers. Actually, the cat died this year and I wonder if the owners are silly enough to let him have another one. I'll know next year when we come back again. Last year I talked Kumul Lodge out of keeping a cat; non-birders (civilians) have to be constantly re-educated about the real facts of life.
    We again bussed up the road, spending all morning around the clearing, (well it used to be a clearing, now rapidly getting "overgrown"), on the Henapipi trail. Buff-faced Scrubwren and Grey Gerygone were there, (not to be confused with the Grey Warbler in the same genus in New Zealand), Blue-capped Ifrita, and Sclater's Whistler, but it really was a bit quiet, although Papuan Log Runner was guide-seen only, by Benson.
    In the afternoon Charlie and I did a circuit of the extensive grounds, a circular concrete path leading past the 44 donga-like units, without seeing much, as the women attended a women's talk titled "A Woman's Place in Huli Society". I don't think we would have learned much there either. We walked the sometimes excellent drive into the Lodge and explored the top of the Large Waterfall Trail across the road as the women of our party enlightened us on the talk they had just been to.
    New birds we saw there were Brown-backed Whistler, Loria's BoP, and Island Leaf Warbler.

Sept 26
    To the Tari Gap this morning - White-shouldered Fairywren and Tawny Grassbird on the way up, Modest Tiger Parrot, and Brehm's again, Wattled Ploughbill, with Rufous-throated Cuckoo guide-seen only. Other good stuff too but we had already spent 3 days at this altitude.
    In the afternoon we bussed down into the Tari Basin to Piagonda, where the Wabia Spirit Dancers entertain tourists. Three blokes dress up in arse grass, bones through the nose, etc and chant a few songs for the tourists. We didn't go for that. We went for the birds. Malingi owns the place which is of several acres, and is responsible for keeping the large stand of forest intact near the middle of the property.
    There are about three Lawe's Parotia dancing grounds in there and a very harsh sort of screeching drew our attention to one of the males, often very hard to get a sight of, females are much easier.
    And right above us, in a corner of the Spirit Dancers' Ground, pretending to be a dead branch was a big Papuan Frogmouth, and a Collared Sparrowhawk circled overhead.

Sept 27
    Ambua Lodge is situated just below the tree-line overlooking lots of grassland fringing the Tari Basin down below. It's a tremendous view made possible by simply clearing almost the entire forest. The forest has been cleared for human habitation as up to this level, about 2200m asl, the staple diet of sweet potatoes can be grown without getting frosted. Below this level live maybe 50,000 people in the Tari Basin.
    This open country, with some very small patches of rainforest and lots of tall Casuarinas grown for the wood fires and for building fences and houses, supports a surprising amount of birdlife. It is quite surprising how many species have adapted to this man-dominated habitat. Like Blue BoP and Lawes' Partotia.
    Many species though have disappeared as "civilisation" has crept up the hill. Black Sicklebill doesn't particularly like this destruction but hangs on in surprisingly sparse forest. And although there are many more around Tari than around Hagen the reason is not so much habitat destuction it is that the Huli people here do not use them to dominate their head-dresses.
    But they are still hard to find. None, that we know of, can be easily accessed from the main road now so the technique for finding them is to listen pre-sunrise, for the male calling from a high tree in the distance. We had been doing that, without success.
    But local birds we did see from the Lodge were Buff-banded Rail on the lawn, and Black-faced Cuckooshrike, on the roof of one of the dongas. Further up the hill at Henapipi we spotted Marbled Honeyeater, Garnet Robin, and Black-bellied Cuckooshrike, (Lesser Melampitta guide-seen only), and near the Gap in the afternoon Grey Wagtail, Crested BoP, female pictured here, note the grey eye, and Archbold's Bowerbird. What excellent birds these last are! The male Archbold's stayed in sight for a while. (It has been re-split by some, on distribution alone, this PNG race being sanfordi,Sanford's or Tomba Bowerbird). And only us guides would put the fly-by Plum-faced Lorikeets on the list.

Sept 28
    Final morning's birding in PNG. In desperation we bussed down the hill before daylight to Benson's cousin Steven's place, Warili Lodge, and stood outside on the road - listening intently. There's the call! "but, But!" And another! We can't pick up a thing on the skyline. Benson wandered casually over and asked for the scope. After a few minutes he said "Here it is." Black Sicklebill. Well I'll be damned. Then he found another. About a mile away but clear enough on dead branches against the sky. Thanks Benson, let me slip you a small bonus.

    And a particular heart-felt thanks from Todd, Charlie, and I to Linda and Leah; without you this tour would not have happened and your company, patience, and birding ability was much appreciated.