July 11 – Day 15: Boat back to Kiunga

Continuing with the early starts it was a little more challenging by torchlight but we were soon tucking into a cooked breakfast. We piled into the boat and motored a short way down the river where we pulled up. 

Twelve-wired Bird-of-Paradise

Atop a tree on the opposite bank sat a male Twelve-wired BoP; it was calling continuously and was looked almost alien with its misshapen head and bizarre tail strands contrasting with its bright yellow body. It remained for about twenty minutes before quietly disappearing into the forest. Continuing on we saw some more Grey Crows and Southern Crowned Pigeons, the latter showing off their bad hair-dos.

Southern Crowned Pigeon

Azure Kingfisher

We walked around a different muddy forest trail and had scope views of both Little and Common Paradise Kingfishers. Back at camp there was a feeding flock of Double-eyed and Orange-breasted Fig-Parrots as well as a perched Doria’s Hawk. Lunch included fried spam for which Kwatu is famous for but there was plenty of choice for those that don’t care for such a delicacy, like various packets of cream-filled biscuits!

Doria's Hawk

We walked to another hide overlooking a bower but its creator, the Flame Bowerbird remained absent during our stay. Fortunately one flew over the river as we headed back to Kiunga on the boat although we really wanted better views of this spectacular orange bird. There were a couple of other new birds on the return journey with two Pacific Bazas and a Dwarf Fruit-Dove seen. 

A rather large dugout on the river

Arriving back at Kwatu, using the boat seats a a makeshift quay

It was nice to get back to civilisation in Kiunga where we could get clean and remove the layers of mud from our clothes and boots. We heard news of a tribal massacre in the Tari area in PNG which was where there’d been trouble last year and it’s remained out-of-bounds since.

July 10 – Day 14: Boat to Kwatu

Another early start but this time we boarded a boat for a two day trip downriver to Kwatu Lodge taking with us an overnight bag. 

Boat to Kwatu

Other river traffic

The weather was sunny and the birding relaxing as we slowly motored along the main Fly River highway before turning off into a tributary. 

Saltwater Crocodile, only a small one compared to the beasts in northern Australia

Pinon's Imperial Pigeon

Palm Cockatoo

Palm Cockatoos

Pigeons and Parrots were plentiful including Pinon's, Collared and Zoe’s Imperial Pigeons and the impressive Palm Cockatoos, along with the colour-opposed Sulphur-crested cousins, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots and Yellowish-streaked Lory. Other new birds included a new BoP – Trumpet Manucode, and both Black-billed and Ivory-billed Coucals. Raptors such as White-bellied Sea-Eagle and Brahminy Kite were regularly seen over the river.

White-bellied Sea-Eagle

Disembarking at a very muddy quay at Kwatu

Lunch at Kwatu Lodge

We arrived at camp for a late lunch and then headed out into the forest on some very muddy trails, hearing but failing to see three species of kingfisher although we did see a Cassowary's footprint so we knew they were about. 

Cassowary footprint

Back in the boat, we added our last BoP, a female Twelve-wired. More impressive was a Southern Crowned Pigeon which sat up high in the trees and three Grey Crows flew over. We stayed out until dark, getting a Papuan Nightjar over the river and hordes of Flying Foxes heading out to feed.

The rather rustic Kwatu Lodge

Kwatu Lodge is very basic but with six twin-bedded rooms all with mattresses and mosquito nets, two outside loos and a bush shower room it is perfectly adequate. The chef made us a reasonable dinner and after the log we retired to bed early as there was no electricity to keep us up.