New Britain revisited

[Nephrurus]

In January this year I went back to PNG to spend a month in West New Britain compiling a some bird lists for several sites around the Walindi Plantation Resort. The idea was I (and my friends) recieved food and board at the resort in exchange for alot of bird survey work. Easier said than done as the only time we could all go was during the wet season (uni/work commitments are very annoying).

I'd never experienced such powerful, unremitting rain in my life (I've been in the Kimberley in the wet season). Fortunately the rain broke for several hours a day and during this time bird activity was frantic. At the end of it all we managed to get some good data and hope to publish our results (eventually).

It wasn't all fun though. Although I managed to get in some time snorkelling out on the reef in Kimbe Bay and climb a volcano, I spent a week taking care of my girlfriend who had managed to get Malaria, both Plasmodium falciparum and vivax despite taking anti-malarials. She's 100% now, and it appears that being treated in PNG was a far better option than back in Aus. Over there it's treated sucessfully everyday and doctors know what works.

On top of all that the 100% humidity meant that a patch of mould grew inside my tele-zoom camera lens and the constant hazy atmosphere meant that every photo I took had an ethereal, misty quality about it. I couldn't get out at night to any decent areas so my herping exploits were severly limited. I managed to find a few critters though and got some nice bird shots. Skinks were difficult to catch and even harder to pose so when I had time to photograph things I could hardly be bothered.

Here are a few of the photos.

The Bismarcks are a centre of endemism for Bats, pigeons, parrots, kingfishers and frogs.
This is a relatively common species, the bismarck flying-fox Pteropus capistratus that is endemic to the Bismarck Archipelago.


Island tube-nosed bat Nyctimene major were also common. Their high pitched calls were often heard at night.


Another endemic bat, this is a cave dwelling species: Andersen's Bare-backed fruit bat Dobsonia anderseni. They are distinguished by it's white claws.

[Nephrurus]

Around the resort there were many flowering shrubs and it was wonderful to see birdwing butterflys everyday. Often the female would be harassed by several of the smaller but more brightly coloured males. Here a female is visiting a flower whilst three males hover over, i assume trying to court her.



Other regulars in the garden around the resort were buff-faced pygmy-parrots, the smallest parrot on earth. They were seen practically every day we were at Walindi, flittingthrough the tree tops. At no bigger than a red-browed finch they were difficult to see. Their long toes enable them to behave like tree-creepers, foraging for bark and lichens on the trunks of trees. Here is a photo of those cuties from a previous trip to New Britain and PNG here:
Papua New Guinea: Part 1 Varirata National Park - Australian Reptile Forum


The endemic red-knobbed imperial pigeon was common at all our sites and even around the gardens. This one was eating fruits from a fishtail palm near the bar (a good way to birdwatch ).





I'm pretty sure Emerald skinks Lamprolepis smaragdina (sp?) are common throughout their range. These guys were often on beach side trees. It was easy to approach them but difficult to catch. Even if you had caught them they were hard to pose. These two were interacting so I was able to sneak up a short way and quickly grab a photo with my 400mm lens.



The nights were a raucous mix of White Lipped Tree Frogs, cane toads and wodd frogs calling, but by far and away the most common and noisiest was the Schimdts Frog Platymantis schimdti. These guys have direct development of eggs so don't really need much free water at all, just a moist spot to lay some eggs. They do really well in the oil palm plantations and are usually the most common frog encountered.






The "trash" bird is typically the most common species you encounter. For us it was easily the Eclectus Parrot. These guys are EVERYWHERE in big numbers. Unfortunately it's incredibly hard to get close for photos (hunting pressure, plus they eat peoples crops), so this cropped one of a female is as good as it gets.



The blue eyed cockatoo, another Bismarck endemic, is also incredibly flighty. This was someones captive pet named cocky. With their small size and backwards pointing crest, they look like the child of a little corella and a sulfur crested cockatoo.


Another species quite fond of disturbed habitats is the common kingfisher. Yes, those of you that have travelled widely with some binoculars probably recognise this bird from Europe or America. It is a tremendously widespread bird. I'm very surprise we don't have this species in Australia, but I suppose it would compete with the similar Azure Kingfisher (they have the slightly larger and rarer Bismarck Kingfisher in New Britain, see below).



Bismarck Kingfisher, IUCN redlisted. Very rare... we found them at one spot only. THe rest of the red listed species didn't make an appearence, so the purportedly rare ones are actually vary rare, not rare through lack of survey effort.
.

More to come in a few minutes!

[Nephrurus]

These buff-bellied mannakins were actually very common. According to bird tour groups they are a hard to find species. We got them on every decent bit of seeding grass.



Another common yet spectacular species is this Moustached Tree-Swift. A really beautiful graceful bird that you can never get close too. These ones came down lower on one of the few sunny days.


Pied coucals were also common but fall well short of graceful. Those of you who know Pheasant Coucals know how clumsy they are. These pied coucals tend to climb trees with their feet, then fly/glide down from the elevated position.

[Nephrurus]

One of my favourite finds of the trip was not a bird but a reptile. When i was out trying to catch a white lipped tree frog I saw a spot of eyeshine gleaming from a hedge of hibiscus.
As i worked out what it was coming from I couldn't believe my eyes. Forest dragons are pretty hard to come by in PNG... They seldom come down from trees. I seen a few sitting high in the branches, but this one was a different species that I'd seen on mainland PNG in the Adelbert Mts, Hypsilurus modesta. Hypsilurus longii is endemic to the Bismarck Archipelago and is the only other forest dragon recorded on new Britain.






Another great find was this Platymantis boulengeri. I'd found this species before, but only a single male. This female was considerably larger than the male and reminded me of a big Mixophyes.



This is the male, more spectacular.





If you're kicking around at night you certain to see fire flies. Even better is the bioluminescent fungi. With some long exposure shots and a little post processing to increase the exposure you can get some crazy photos.

[Nephrurus]

One of the irritating species is the blue tailed skink Emoia caeruleocauda (i think thats it's scientific name). Hard to catch, hard to pose... a real pain in the anoose. To be honest I didn't try very hard. Only now do I wish I'd put in a bit more effort. Here is the best I managed.



On one of my days off I did the walk to the caldera of the local active volcano. Due to the prevailing winds there is seldom the scent of sulfur around the resort. If the wind blows the wrong way you can really smell it... that thick egg-y smell. It's a 14km round trip that made me realise just how unfit I am.

The caldera


Sulfurous vent



Bubbling pools of steaming water. I didn't jump in. Apparently you can boil an egg in there quite easily.




On the way back down I checked under some bark, and as well as a fairly boring Nactus gecko (they are EXACTLY like a Bynoes gecko) I foudn these Whip spiders.






Now.... can you guess what happened here? This is exactly as we found them...



I'm guessing that Ground Boas Candoia aspersa are quite sensitive to bufotoxin. I'm assuming some crows have given it a good pecking that morning.
Head detail below


Gina found this Pacific Ground Boa Candoia carinata on the walindi grounds. I put the effort in to get some presentable photos of this one.







The highlight of the trip was not in new Britain but at Brown River, about an hour out of port moresby.

The king bird of paradise is a species I've always wanted to see and it didn't disappoint.
An awesome species. Pity i got such lousy photos, but such is life in PNG.



All the best,

-H

[VinceFASSW]

Amazing.

[Asharee133]

wow!!!! thats really really good

[Sock Puppet]

Great pics, that Pacific Ground Boa is unusual.

[phoebe]

Awesome photos. I love birds as much asI love reptiles and that Tree Swift is just stunning. Love the Ground Boa too

[JasonL]

Good one Henry, your one lucky fella to spend so much time in the scrub....though I bet your kicking yourself with the last pic, lucky it was just a bird eh?....

[TNWJackson]

Fantastic stuff. I visited New Guinea when I was a kid.....how I long to go back!

[Nephrurus]

Those ground boas are really unusual. This one smeared a really foul smelling white paste all over me when i handled it. My camera stank of it for a few days. I'm lucky i didn't get pulled up at customs by the sniffer dogs!

It was a trip highlight Jas, name one herp that is bright red with blue legs with a filamentous tail with metallic green discs at the end?
I'd have to find a galliwasp or something to start coming close to that...

New Guinea is great! I recommend it!

[JasonL]

Yeah as far as a bird goes (or any animal) it's pretty clean cut and super bright... those legs are freaky... If I saw one I might even try to get a photo

[reptilerob]

WOW what a fantastic collection of images, well done.

[Macmilliam]

great pics the spider is scary