Work-life balance
We have just finished our second week at work and I think my role is becoming clearer. I've written my work plan and it covers surveying the scientists on their attitudes and issues with scientific publishing, delivery of assistance in varying forms based on their responses and assisting with the relaunch of the PNG Journal of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (in hiatus for the last decade or so). I've been invited into the Research and Publication committee and have reviewed a recently submitted paper. We visited the Department of Agriculture and Livestock farm at Erap, out past the airport on Wednesday to look over a piece of land NARI is interested in leasing. I didn't realise it but although Lae itself has incredibly high rainfall through the year, as you head inland along the Highlands Highway this quickly reverts to a wet season-dry season situation. The land at NARI is not therefore typical of most of the PNG lowlands. Hence the need for more typical land.
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| One of the two helicopters based in our village at the moment. |
We have some public holidays coming up. Tuesday 26 is National Repentance Day, dedicated to prayer, spiritual cleansing and turning to God, as well as reflecting on the country's moral and spiritual values. September 16th is PNG Independence Day - 50 years since Australia's rule ended. Lots of events are planned across the country. We found out on Friday that the 15th and 17th are also declared public holidays this year so we will have a 5 day weekend. Not sure how we will use this free time but we are working on it. The weekend of 13-14th is the famous Morobe Show and both NARI and the Australian Consulate are involved so I expect we will be as well. We have been advised by AVI to stay clear of large gatherings to do with the Independence celebrations.
Jenny's birthday last week and she was very pleased with the water colour paint materials I gave her (all the way from Trev's bargain Emporium in Hamilton). We went to the Crossroads Hotel near work for dinner and it was fine but we decided our own mess/bar is as good and certainly cheaper.
I've not added much to the bird list and I'm still waiting for my first lifer. Recent additions include Peaceful Dove, Uniform Swiftlet, Blyth's Hornbill, Sacred Kingfisher, Palm Cockatoo, Coconut Lorikeet and Sahul Sunbird. The most bizarre addition was a Brown Noddy that flew uncertainly over the village one morning after heavy rain through the night. Noddy's are Terns that normally live at sea and rarely come to the coastal areas.
A breadfruit tree in the bush adjacent to the village.
Maybe lots of birds will come when the fruit is ripe.
I've met with Ronnie Dotaona who is a local birder. Ronnie is also a lecturer in agriculture at the University of Technology in town and did his PhD at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. He is keen to go birding with us and will hopefully come back to me soon with a plan on where we might go. I've also made contact with Defol Jabbar from Fuzzy Wuzzy Expeditions. He offers birding tours on his website so I'll meet with him on Tuesday to see what we can arrange. The difficulty in independent birding here is access to the bush. With few exceptions, every piece of land is privately owned and you need permission from the owners to enter. You can't just stop on the side of the road and start birding. Hence the need to go with locals who know what's what.
Despite the regular fogging for mosquitos here there are lots of bugs of all shapes and sizes. In the absence of new birds I'll be taking photos of anything that sits still and adding them to my iNaturalist page. Who knows - I might find a new species or two.
Lyssa macleayi, a Swallowtail Moth.
Black Soldier Fly (now being commercially cultivated as the larvae is great at
composting kitchen waste and can be used for livestock food)
Oriental Latrine Fly - used by forensic scientists to determine time of death of a corpse!
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