In the bush finally and another training program delivered

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos in PNG are mainly forest birds.

We finally got into the bush! LaeAbout Tours sourced a vehicle and picked Jenny and me up (not quite as early as we would have liked) and off we went across the mighty Markham River to the village of Pile (pronounced 'peelay'). These are Labu people and own all the land between the river and the coast including some of the forested mountains we look at every day. Emma and her brother Noah are also Labu people so access was assured. We drove through the lowlands for a while then stopped and walked back along the road and up towards the Pele Waterfalls - 9 km in all. We didn't make the falls but enjoyed the walk through forest and village gardens with some good birds and lots of butterflies, dragonflies etc. Some interesting plant life as well.


Although we were a good hour late starting the walk the bird activity was quite good for a while. In the late morning however all activity had ceased and I saw few birds for the rest of the day. Some of the highlights were: Pink-spotted Fruit Dove, Palm Cockatoo, Hooded Butcherbird, Varied Triller, Raggiana Bird-of-paradise, Red-capped Flowerpecker, Black Sunbird and Great-billed Mannikin (lifer).

It was all very pleasant although we had hot walking conditions for a while. We are hopefully doing it again with an earlier start next weekend. We are also discussing with Emma and Noah other places we might visit. 

A streamside tree of unknown species.

A Parthenos sp. butterfly.

Common Grass Yellow butterfly.

This young boy was returning from a check on his traps. He had caught a Cuscus and a Monitor Lizard.

Painted Grasshawk.

Possibly Valanga sp.


Emma and our village guides resting by a crystal clear stream.


My survey of science staff last year revealed that experimental design and statistical analysis training was seen as a priority by 100% of respondents. This was never a strong area for me so I was not sure how I could help them but then a scientist from Aiyura Research Centre - Boney Wera - put up his hand and offered to deliver such training. I looked over his training material, it was fine, and we organised for him to come down to Lae to deliver it to our local science staff. That took place this week over three days. We had seven core attendees plus a couple who wandered in and out. It was a bit rough around the edges but otherwise very successful. Early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. One wanted it to go for an extra day! We plan to deliver this plus my scientific writing and spreadsheet courses to staff at the other centres in the coming months.



We spent some time looking at real experiments - This is a Taro spacing x irrigation trial.

Happy graduates with their certificates.

So all in all a good couple of weeks!



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