Wednesday, Nov 9 - Birding the Tari Valley

We had breakfast at 5:30 and set off in the bus at 6:15,  this time heading downhill towards the Valley and its many tiny settlements. 

(pic:  clay wall protecting a settlement)

 There is one main road in the area and small dirt lanes lead off it.  The Valley has quite a bit of cultivated land, mostly growing sweet potatoes and sugar cane in private lots and coffee in more commercial areas.  Almost all land in New Guinea is owned by the many tribes, rather than by the federal government; outside commercial interests, such as timber or oil, have to deal with the land owners and can be kicked off if the tribe finds their actions disrespectful or unpleasant - it would be fun to be able to do that to Exxon!  One’s land and pigs are the most valuable thing one owns and permission is needed to go anywhere.  The small village settlements are surrounded by 5’ high red mud walls, some very old by the size of the vegetation growing on it, to keep pigs and non-villagers out and are entered through elaborate woven gates.  Fortunately with David, who has been traveling in PNG since the 70s, and Joseph getting permission to bird these areas doesn’t seem too difficult.

We stopped at a patch of uncut forest and immediately got two fabulous birds: the male Superb Bird-of-Paradise who was puffing out a large flat disc of iridescent blue-green feathers around his neck - I’d seen photos of him displaying, but didn’t expect actually to see it - and the male Blue B-of-P who had a black head and back, blue wings and tail and extraordinary large white eye ring with a  line through it.

We drove to a lovely riverside area to see some water specialists such as the Torrent flycatcher and Salvadori’s Teal, but neither was present.  A friendly group of villagers gathered around us and when asked if they would mind us taking pictures, broke into big grins and started posing!  With digital cameras it was easy to show them shots of themselves which they enjoyed very much.  They wear a mixture of native dress and western clothes. 

 Several men were wearing leafy wreaths on their heads, some women wore gathered skirts made of natural material (tapa cloth?) and a couple of little kids were wearing short grass skirts, similar to hula skirts except open on the sides. Many of the women have facial tattoos and some had yellow and white face paint.  Almost everyone we come in contact with is very friendly and quite a few are knowledgeable about birds and happy to show you them.  Feathers are still gathered for ceremonial dances, but not enough individual birds are shot or trapped in any one area to damage the population.

We were driving back to the hotel when Joseph was flagged down by a young man who somehow knew that we wanted to see the Papuan Frogmouth.  We clambered out of the van and walked a short way down and through a stream and up the other side a couple of times and found ourselves by some small fish ponds.  Sitting above the ponds on a small branch was the well-camophlaged Frogmouth!  It hunts insects at night, scooping them up with its huge mouth; during the day it sits very still on a branch and with its brown, mottled colors blends completely with the wood on which it is sitting.  A very difficult bird to find!  (pic:  Papuan Frogmouth)

We returned for a lunch of vegetable lasagna and chicken empanadas - very good!  We had until 3:30 of free time so I washed my hair as, with no hair dryers, I didn’t want to go to bed with wet hair and Bob went out and hiked down to a small river valley below the hotel. 

At the set time we took off again in the bus and drove up to the Bailey Bridge.  It was overcast and drizzling off and on which made for poor birding as the birds, sensibly, like to take shelter in the rain.  We did get some more good views of the King-of-Saxony which was great.      (pic:  Long-Tailed Shrike)

We returned to the hotel in the late afternoon and  I bought some locally-made woven hot pads and we changed for dinner.  We met at the bar for wine and the List, and had yet another very good dinner of fish kebabs and roast beef with cabbage.  After dinner we watched a David Attenborough film about his early days in PNG looking for and filming various Bs-of-P - especially exciting to see now we’ve seen quite a few!