We left the hotel in low cloud cover; it had rained
overnight but it soon cleared. We drove a short distance to a new area known as
The Ridge and walked along the main track. This was quite a birdy place for a
change.
One of the first birds seen was a Black Sicklebill which flew over and
landed high in a tree then stayed there for ten minutes, occasionally calling.
This was the only one we saw all trip so it was great to get such good views.
At the same time, a Princess Stephanie’s Astrapia flew over, making up for the
one I’d missed yesterday; we later saw another five and several more in the
afternoon so this is clearly a good location for them. Our first pigeons for
several days were a flock of Papuan Mountain that flew over, which they
typically do.
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| Hooded Manakins |
New trip birds were regularly added with Black-billed
Cuckooshrike, Regent Whistler, Hooded Manakin, Rufous-backed Honeyeater amongst
others. We walked up and down the track before taking a trail into the forest.
Here we saw a new BoP, an immature male King of Saxony; it was singing but
resembled a female in plumage so wasn’t the view we were hoping for.
We returned to the hotel for lunch; it was already laid out
and had clearly been sitting there a while as it was stone cold. The staff
obviously hadn’t learnt anything from the visiting chef and need to do a lot
better if they want to attract groups to stay there. At least Max had finally
arrived, having suffered a repeat performance yesterday of flying out and back
to Port Moresby without landing due to the cloud cover.
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| King of Saxony Bird-of-Paradise |
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