Mount Hagen
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Mount Hagen is the biggest town in the New Guinea highlands - "city" is stretching it a bit, as only 28,000 people live there.
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Crested Satinbird (formerly Crested BoP) - an astonishing performance |
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Rather than risk the 12 hour drive to Hagen from Tari, we flew! Sadly, we failed to convince the pilot of our plane to fly us there direct (he wasn't actually scheduled to!), so we had to return to Port Moresby, and then catch another flight back to the hills - all rather silly, but we got there in the end. This was the logistical nightmare day that never was - remarkably, everything ran smoothly.
The approach to the high altitude Kumul Lodge was notable for Archbold's (or Cloud-forest) Nightjar on the road - and the lodge itself was notable for the evening chill, the bizarre room "styling", and the awful fried fish. The hot water was a bit unreliable too - but the place had a charm all of its own.
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Kumul Lodge on a rare dry afternoon |
"Like a set from an Albanian 1973 porn film" - our originally decorated room |
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High octane birding from the balcony |
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Mountain Firetail |
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The incredible Brown Sicklebill - complete with bright blue "airbrake" and yellow gape |
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Kumul more than made up for any housekeeping shortcomings with the most awesome birding. The bird table in the garden was the instant attraction - Brown Sicklebill, Ribbon-tailed Astrapia, Brehm's Tiger-parrot, Mountain Firetail, Archbold's Bowerbird, Island Thrush, Rufous-naped Whistler, Belford's Honeyeater and Giant Black Rat anyone?
Elsewhere in the garden, we completed another world family (of two!) with stunning Crested Berrypeckers, and a star turn was an unbelievable performance by a male Crested Satinbird (aka BoP) displaying inches from a cabin window - probably displaying to his reflection? Add in Chestnut Forest-crake, Mountain Mouse-warbler, Buff-faced Scrub-wren and White-winged Robin - what a lodge!
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Some bird table bird.... |
The hardly less attractive female.... |
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....and again, preening |
Belford's Honeyeater (or Melidectes) |
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A sub-adult male Ribbon-tailed Astrapia |
Brehm's Tiger-parrot.... |
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....Julia's favourite |
Common Smoky Honeyeater |
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Just down the hill, a good forest trail turned up more - a particualr highlight for Simon was Orange-crowned Fairy-wren, but we both dipped New Guinea Woodcock by an agonizing three seconds!
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Crested Berrypecker |
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Superb BoP.... |
....warming up for display |
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Another Ribbon-tailed Astrapia |
Lesser BoP - hard to photograph! |
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Wet but content |
An agitated Common
Smoky Honeyeater - note the red flush on the wattle |
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The hills near Kumul Lodge |
Giant Black Rat |
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Excursions along the valley to both open habitats and some pretty treacherous, muddy forest trails turned up yet more superb birds - we visited a Lesser BoP lek, and also saw Marbled, Ornate, Black-throated and Hill-forest Honeyeaters, Garnet Robin, Torrent Flycatcher, the superb Torrent Lark (another new family!), Mid-mountain Berrypecker, a showy (eventually!) Forbes's Forest-crake, Mottled Whistler - the list just went on and on.
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Torrent Flycatcher |
High-viz forest birding - they work! |
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Grey-streaked Honeyeater |
That Crested Satinbird again! |
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David works his laser.... |
....and so does Frank.... |
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....and there's the green dot,
just below a Forbes's Forest-crake.... |
....which is totally different from Chestnut Forest-crake, above, you'll note.... |
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Simon managed to unblock Lesser Melampitta here, too - but a calling Spotted Jewel-babbler proved to be the latest whipbird to elude us....grrr.
There was a lot of rain while we were at Kumul Lodge - but you just get on with it - it's only water after all. Try telling that to Julia, who lost her umbrella in the forest.... Full blow-by-blow
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Belford's Honeyeater |
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Buff-faced Scrub-wren |
Satisfied customers |
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