Papua Paradise Eco Resort

 

And so it begins!

Our route!

Well, it has been exhausting, but three full days of travel, encompassing five different flights & we are finally here in Sorong in West Papua. The Etihad flights were fantastic, the others of a more variable quality! 

Three nights without sleep, 

was easily managed by some!

The view from the resort.

We arrived in Sorong on 21st September. We are spending one night at the Kasuari Valley Beach Resort, which has the bit of the fabled glory days about it! We have one night here to recharge our batteries before catching the  boat in the morning.

The view from the resort.

Gentle birding from the terrace.

I said it was relaxing!

The first of many nasi-gorings!

Birding produced 15 Lesser Frigatebird; lots of Great Crested & Common Terns; 3 White-winged Black Tern & a Little Tern. Little was seen in the garden, but Scrub Honeyeater & 2 Yellow-bellied Gerygone were nice.

The end of our first day in West Papua.

A lazy morning’s birding in the hotel gardens & overlooking the sea in Sorong on 22^nd September produced: 3 Brown Noddy; 13 White-winged Black Tern; 18 Common Tern; 5 Great crested Tern; 1 Lesser Frigatebird; 2 Pacific Reef Heron; 2 fast flying Yellow-capped Pygmy Parrots; Brown-backed Honeyeater; a nice male Black Sunbird & 2 Olive-backed Sunbirds.

Not happy! Can't bird from this boat!

After lunch, we boarded the small speedboat to Papua Paradise Resort. The boat went super-fast, so no birding was possible! 50 Common Tern & a Great crested Tern were seen. What a disappointment!

Our home for the next week.

Pacific Swallow

First impressions of the resort were good, very comfortable & laid-back spot on the map. After settling into our chalet over the sea, we did a little casual birding from our temporary home overlooking both the sea & forest.

Sunset from our water villa.

 It was a very chilled out afternoon/evening with 15 species being recorded. The best of which were:

Rajah Shelduck

They were common at this location.

2 Rajah Shelduck; 5 Uniform Swiftlet; 1 Glossy Swiftlet; Pacific Baza flying along the edge of the forest; 1 adult White-bellied Sea Eagle; 2 Dollarbird; 2 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (this species proved to be common here); 40 Coconut Lorikeet & 2 Grey Crow.

Our home from home faced the open sea on one side

 & jungle on the other side.

The restaurant at night.

Jungle was thick, which made

 birding difficult.

Dusky Scrub-fowl

Very ancient family & it shows in both 

their looks & behavior!

A Megapode's mound, where they lay their eggs.

Glossy-mantled Manucode

Helmeted Friarbird

Common here & the first bird to 

wake us up in the morning.

Up at the crack of dawn on 23^rd saw 45 Spice Imperial Pigeons leaving their roost. A flyover Palm Cockatoo & 2 Metallic Starling. As soon as were entered the forest edge we saw our first Dusky Scrubfowl (Megapode) scratching away; and a Glossy-mantled Manucode (our first Bird of Paradise)! In the undergrowth at the swamp edge were a pair of Northern Fantails & excitingly a new species for us Black Thicket- Fantail. The fantails were seen quite well through the binoculars, but proved impossible to photograph, as they kept to the darkest depths of the tangles.

Delana, in her element!

Black finned Reef-Shark

These were quite common close inshore.

Threadfin Anthias

Golden Batfish

Saddled Butterflyfish

Redfin Butterflyfish

Oval Spot Butterflyfish

Pearl Scaled Butterflyfish

Long Nosed Butterflyfish

Regal Angelfish

Black backed Angelfish

Batuna's Damsel

A pair of Papuan Hornbills

Female on the left, male on the right.

Rufous-bellied Kookaburra

After breakfast Delana went snorkeling & I had a wander around the resort. Activity was quite low as it was hot & humid, but 5 Papuan (Blyth’s) Hornbill were spectacular as was an obliging Rufous-bellied Kookaburra.

Beach Kingfisher

An evening watch from our chalet produced 2 flyover Pacific Baza; a Beach Kingfisher & somewhat surprisingly, a Grey Wagtail feeding on the beach. That individual has certainly flown a long way from its breeding grounds!

 

Birding from the chalet.

Early morning on the 24^th September saw us sat outside our chalet overlooking the forest as the day unfolded. It is a very nice way to start the day with coffee in hand & unfamiliar bird sounds coming from the forest.

Great-billed Heron

Surprisingly common here, as normally 

a very low density species.

A Brown (Sultan’s ) Cuckoo-Dove sped by; 33 Spice Imperial Pigeons left the roost; a Great-billed Heron afforded us fantastic, prolonged point blank views. By scanning over the forest we saw Long-tailed Buzzard (distant soaring over the canopy); Variable Goshawk & our seemingly resident pair of Pacific Baza.

Metallic Starling

Female Shining Flycatcher

Later while Delana snorkeled, I had a walk in the forest producing 4 Metallic Starlings & a nano second view of a dashing Papuan Dwarf-Kingfisher! When will I ever see one perched? A pair of Shining Flycatchers was also nice.

A four-hour lazy afternoon vigil from the chalet, was quite productive with 27 species seen:

Great-billed Heron back in it's favorite tree!

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

The Great-billed Heron put on a show for us & I saw a Sacred Kingfisher but failed to get a photo. Parrots proved excellent with 2 Palm & 2 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo: 2 Eclectus & 7 Red-cheeked Parrots flying over. But best of all were a pair of the small island loving Violet-necked Lory, which I yet again failed to get a photo of!

Our boatman & trusty guide.

We sailed by some excellent virgin forest.

It was a super morning, with wonderful light.

We were up before dawn on 25^th September for our boat trip around the island. It took us just over three hours to cover 19 kms by sea, keeping as close as possible to the shore & birding from the boat. The small boat was not in the best of order & the engine kept stalling. When we were moving the noise & vibrations stopped you conducting any meaningful birding! However, we did manage to spot some excellent species & the whole journey was incredibly scenic.  

Best birds:

Spice Imperial Pigeon

Pinon's Imperial Pigeon

Moustached Treeswift

A pity about the poor light.

Beach Thick-knee

This really is a brute of a bird!

Grey-headed Goshawk

Pacific Baza

Osprey

Pacific Reef-Heron

12 Spice Imperial Pigeon; 6 Pinon’s Imperial Pigeon; 3 Moustached Treeswift; 2 very obliging Beach Thick-knee (it is often amazing how close one can get to birds from a boat); 2 Pacific Reef-Heron; a fly-over Grey-headed Goshawk that had the good grace to perch distantly in a large tree so I could take its photo! This was a cracking bird to see & quite un-expected. We also saw a Pacific Baza perched, which gave us good views of this amazing bird.

A pair of Papuan Hornbill

Dollarbird

White-bellied Cuckooshrike

Glossy-mantled Manucode

14 Papuan Hornbills; 1 Azure Kingfisher; 3 Dollarbirds; 4 Palm Cockatoo; 30+ Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. They were in good numbers in the forest here, with several pairs in & around large holes in giant trees. Obviously, they are not trapped on this island. 8 Eclectus Parrot; 20 Red-cheeked Parrot; a distantly perched Great-billed Parrot (hope we see more of these); 1 White-bellied Cuckooshrike & 5 Glossy-mantled Manucode.

We both enjoyed the boat trip tremendously, but it would have been nicer to have a quieter mode of transport!

Yet another memorable sunset from the chalet.

Grey Crow

A strange looking bird!

The afternoon vigil from the chalet, produced a Roseate Tern among the Common Terns offshore. All the now normal species were seen, best probably being 4 Grey Crows, which overflew us. This can be a tricky species to obtain good views of, but not today!

Dusky Scrubfowl

Early morning of the 26^th September dawned overcast & bird activity was low. Not much was seen. Probably the best being 4 Dusky Scrubfowl which showed nicely in the open.

Common Tern

All the birds appeared to be of the longipennis race.

Lesser Frigatebird

Later in the morning, we walked across to the other side of the peninsula to snorkeling site 2 where Delana enjoyed a couple of hours snorkeling & said it was fantastic! I contented myself with watching terns offshore & managed to photograph both Common & White-winged Black Terns. A couple of Lesser Frigate-birds were around, as was a Great-billed Heron. It seems a relatively common species here. Normally on the mainland, it is very low density, localized & hard to find.

The swamp, which produced a few good sightings

 during the week.

On the walk back, we both obtained good views of 6 Metallic Starlings in the swamp.

The afternoon watch from the chalet produced 9 Lesser Frigatebirds & an Osprey.

Me, after managing to photograph

  Black Thicket-Fantail!

Black Thicket- Fantail

This species played hard to get 

for a few days!

Then the sun came out & I nailed it!

A Collared Sparrowhawk quickly flew by early morning of 27^th September. This species is shy & always difficult to see well. An impressive 21 Red-cheeked Parrots flew over. But this was the morning that I finally nailed Black Thicket-Fantail! Today the same pair which always gave me the run-around decided to perform beautifully & I spent quite some time observing them. I was delighted to get these photos. I also saw a pair of Island Monarchs but didn’t get any photos.

Later in the morning we again walked to snorkeling site number 2 seeing Lesser Black Coucal briefly along the way. While Delana was under the water, I spotted an adult Meyer’s Goshawk displaying over distant hill forest. It was too far for photos, but decent enough views through the scope. It behaved exactly like the display of European Goshawk, or European Honey Buzzard, with dipping swooping, drooping flights before climbing high again & repeating the performance. An unexpected world tick for me!

It rained most of the night so dawn on 28^th was a dull affair. I decided to walk a short trail which goes into the forest, which proved to be treacherous with mud! Two Hooded Pittas gave me the run around, by calling all around me, but not showing themselves! I spent quite some time trying to see them! An adult Grey-headed Goshawk flew low over the forest canopy. In the interior of the forest managed to see a pair of Frilled Monarchs & identify a Puff-backed Meliphaga by song! A Northern Fantail briefly came into view. It was, however, impossible to get photos in the gloom.

Green Turtle

Lemon Damsel

Slender Grouper

Juvenile Humpbacked Grouper

Clark's Anemonefish

False Clown Anemonefish

Orange Anemonefish

Bower's Parrotfish

Quoy's Parrotfish

Black Spotted Pufferfish

Fox Face Rabbitfish

Double banded Soapfish

Black patch Triggerfish

Anchor Tuskfish

Delana went on a snorkeling boat excursion & we met up for lunch when she told me how fantastic the underwater world was!

Leaving the resort. It had been a wonderful week.

We enjoyed a lazy afternoon on the beach & packing as our week here had all too soon come to an end. It had been an excellent start to the trip, very laid back vibes, world-class snorkeling & some nice gentle birding. We recorded 72 species in our week on the island, which I think is decent. It appears that no-one has been birding here before us, as we couldn’t find any information on ebird, or the internet.