July 6 – Day 10: Dablin Creek and OK Menga

Tabubil certainly lived up to its reputation as the rainiest place in PNG. The group we’d met at Kumul had suffered four days of continuous rain (and consequently did little birding) and it started raining first thing and remained so on and off all morning. Despite the weather we still managed to see birds, the highlight being a female Carola’s Parotia. 

Driving to OK Menga, note the sign in English and Pidgin

Low cloud and light drizzle is typical weather here

However we’d managed to see less than ten species before we decided on an early lunch. It seemed like there were more birds in town with Great Woodswallows flying around over the football pitch and a Scrub Honeyeater in the hotel grounds.

The afternoon session was fortunately much drier and we started with a spectacular Golden Cuckooshrike, which seemed most aberrant compared to its monochrome cousins. 

Golden Cuckooshrike

We saw a male Greater BoP, soaring Long-tailed Honey Buzzard, a perched Doria’s Hawk, Pygmy Longbill, more Blyth’s Hornbills, Beautiful Fruit-Dove and a good view of a Pesquet’s Parrot flying over. 

Greater Bird-of-Paradise

Blyth's Hornbill

At dusk we waited for Shovel-billed Kookaburra which finally decided to respond just as we were climbing into the vehicle. We piled out and heard it call from a nearby tree and saw it briefly fly between the branches.