Kumul to Port Moresby

Up at 6 am to watch the sun come up over hills outside our room, and then down to the bird table once more.   Mainly Common Smokies, but the odd Astrapia had been present before we got there, and Brehm's Tiger-Parrot put in an appearance too.   Nigel and I wandered down the drive of the lodge with John

Sunrise at Kumul

and found Rufous-naped Whistler (something we forgot to add to the checklist last night), White-winged Robin, Island Thrush, Belford's Melidictes, but we could not relocate the Archbold's Bowerbird from yesterday.

Breakfast was an interesting concoction of Spanish Omelette with a square of  'plastic' cheese melted in top.   It really did look like "omlette and custard".   Lettuce and orange provided the start of our 'five a day'!

At 8 am we left for the flight to Port Moresby.   The check-in procedure is interesting with a simple handing over of tickets and bags, then out of one door and into the one departure room - no facilities, including water.   Phil,wanting the loo, had to go back outside and negotiate with several people to find the person with a key to the executive wash room, which still had no water!

Soon we were on our way back to the Capital, and our last PNG birding.

After checking in to the hotel we had lunch in the restaurant.   As we prepared to go out for an afternoon of Birdwatching  in the university of the Seventh Day Adventists the rain started to fall. And yet again the tropical afternoon precipitation caught us.

Pacific Black Duck

We managed to catch up on several new species of water birds however, including: Little Black Cormorant, Little Pied Cormorant, Great Egret, Pied Heron, Intermediate Heron, Cattle Egret, Rufous Night-Heron, Black Bittern, Australian (Sacred) Ibis, Little Egret, Spotted Whistling Duck, Plumed Whistling Duck,
Wandering Whistling-Duck and Rajah Shelduck, Pacific Black Duck, Dusky Moorhen, Purple Swamphen, Comb-crested Jacana, Masked Lapwing, Pacific (Lesser) Golden-Plover and Common Sandpiper.

To these species we added, Orange-fronted Fruit-Dove, three Pied Imperial Pigeon, Blue-winged Kookaburra, Rainbow Bee-eater, Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike, Grey Shrike-Thrush, a pair of Figbirds sat high up in a bare tree, taking the full force of the wet weather.   White-Breasted Woodswallow, Black-backed Butcherbird, and we also had the delight of seeing the Bower of a Fawn-Breasted Bowerbird.

Pied Imperial Pigeon

After a very long wet afternoon, we were keen to get back into the warmth and dry of the bus and then the hotel.   We were surprised how many birds had actually shown themselves given the conditions.

After a late dinner at the hotel, we were all off to bed with an early start tomorrow, hoping to see Raggiana Birds of Paradise at their lek.