David had ordered breakfast for 5 AM, so we staggered out of bed at 4:15 and made it into the dining room for fried eggs, tiny bananas and papaya. David told us a bit about how he came to be such an expert on New Guinean birds. He left England at the age of 22, after deciding not to continue in his career of being a policeman (actually very good training for guiding bird tours!) and took his savings and came to PNG to explore his interest in birds and nature in general. He spent several years here and in other parts of SE Asia, I think, assisted Jared Diamond in his research and gradually got hired guiding birders. He has excellent ears and eyes and enthusiastically gets his clients onto the particular species of the moment. An excellent leader!
We loaded on the bus and left at 5:30 for a 30 minute drive to Boystown Rd, passed the vocational school and headed into the forest. We parked and birded from the side of the road for a couple of hours, and saw, among many other birds, good views of several Flame Bowerbirds, stunningly beautiful birds with bright orange heads and golden yellow bodies with black wingtips and tail. Really lovely birds whose vivid colors could be seen from a great distance whereas most birds look like black dots from far away!
We took off on a trail which was quite muddy. Bob and I had brought along our old Tico boots that we had bought in Costa Rica 25 years ago, and with a little tire patching, are still very comfortable. Everyone else had to pick their way through the puddles, but we could march right through! With great difficulty, we all saw a pair of Emperor Fairywrens, lovely tiny wrens of iridescent cobalt blue for the male and russet and blue for the female. Then it finally started to rain. It had been incredibly humid all morning, quite miserable, and the rain felt good even when it started to pour! We headed back to the bus and returned back to our Guest House for clean-up and lunch of beer, Shepherd’s pie and chips (French fries)!
We were given 90 minutes to rest and I collapsed into a deep sleep and when I awoke decided I was too wasted to go out and stand for another three hours, so I rested and attempted to get on the internet. I was told that I could use the office computer, but it was so slow that I could just barely get to my mail, let alone the blog!
Bob came home at 5:30 and told me that three others had stayed behind to rest, so I felt better about cancelling out.
We had a good dinner served by our charming hostess, Barbara, who brought us soup, main and dessert. To bed early as we are to meet for breakfast at 4:30 AM for our day in Sam’s boat!!
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