A couple of bush walks and learning new skills at work

Sunday 15th February we went for a walk with a group of expats and locals up the forested hill behind our village. The highlight of the afternoon was actually walking out our gate and into the world outside our electric fence. It felt like we had been liberated. It was a blazing hot afternoon and people fell away as we climbed higher - why would you not bring water? We walked through village gardens and greeted lots of our neighbours. I added a couple of Red-cheeked Parrot near the top of the hill and then a Brown Falcon near the heliport on the way back down. We agreed to do it again soon one morning - before it gets too hot.

A nice view over the valley from the hill behind our village (Jenny's photo).

At work my focus has turned to the two journals which are now open for submissions. Jenny and a colleague here have put together a story for the Harvest journal on Black Soldier Fly larvae for getting rid of plant waste and producing fertiliser and food for livestock in return. We have decided that Harvest articles will be made available as ePUB files rather than PDFs. ePUBS are smaller and easier to read on phones so are a better fit for farmers with limited connectivity. This means that someone had to learn how to produce ePUBS from Word documents. After a couple of weeks watching instructional videos and downloading various software packages I reckon I know what I am doing so now I'm writing instructions for a future copy editor to follow.

Jenny and Martin's Harvest article in ePUB format.

I went to Port Moresby on Wednesday for the day to attend a meeting of the editorial board of the journals. Although we are open for submissions we need to make decisions on editors, policies, a launch etc and we made some progress towards these. I had a window seat on the way back and had some great views as we flew up the Markham Valley.

Looking down at our workplace and house.

Down the Markham River towards the coast.

Near the airport there are large Oil Palm plantations.

Thursday was a public holiday to remember Sir Michael Somare (the father of the nation) and I was glad of the day off after a long day travelling.

On Friday we had a lunch with the other volunteers courtesy of Brenton - the Consul General. After that Jenny and I decided to take the afternoon off.

Today (Sunday 1st March) Jenny and I went up into the bush with LaeAbout Tours again. We were all better organised this time and got there earlier (but still way too late for good tropical birding). I added a few birds to the PNG2025-26 trip list but no lifers and no small bush birds were showing. I had a lot of fun with the insect life though and added 14 entries to my iNaturalist account. We are thinking of an afternoon walk next time to try to see some birds after their siesta.

Rainforest Elf

Protorthemis coronata

Taking a break along the track with a few villagers.

Zoe's Imperial Pigeon

Coconuts at a village stall for a Kina each ($0.32).

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