Myola in September

Following our successful trip to Myola in early June, another was organised for late September 1987. Heavy overnight rain in the week preceding our departure, early on Friday 25 September did not bode well for our long weekend. The general concensus was ‘if it’s wet in Moresby, it must be worse in Myola’. So we were pleasantly surprised upon landing to find clear blue skies, even if it was a bit chilly until the sun climbed above the surrounding hills. There might even have been a frost on the runway. It remained sunny, dry and mostly cloudless for the duration of our stay, surely a record for Myola.

The bird-watching matched the weather all the way with everyone seeing new birds. We recorded 72 species, several of which had not been recorded in the area previously. PNGBS members have visited Myola six times in the past two and a half years. Some species seemed more common and others less numerous than on previous visits. Less in evidence were Common Smoky Honeyeater, Blue-capped Iftrita and, to a certain extent, Belford’s Melidectes, or maybe the latter were just quieter. Stephanie’s Astrapia was only record on two occasions, at the edge of the forest. Black Monarch seemed to be present in greater numbers, or at least was recorded more often. Many of the birds ‘new’ to Myola were active canopy species, which I think would have been noted if they had been present on previous visits. Good views were had of both Sittellas, Varied and Black, in the same area of forest although on different days. Joan Oliver rustled up Garnet Robins wherever she went, but I had real trouble getting to grip with these birds and am still waiting for my first good sighting; maybe next time. Two skulkers were also added to the list; these may have been present all the time but avoided detection. Chris Eastwood found a Black-throated Robin on our last afternoon and a Lesser Ground Robin was caught in a net. I subsequently had a glimpse of another one on the forest floor. One of the highlights of the weekend for me was seeing a male Macgregor’s Bowerbird perched in the open with his crest partially raised, unfortunately a sight that only Ian Burrows and I witnessed.

As on our last visit we used mist nets to trap birds for ringing (banding). This time we set the nets to the east of the village, two in dense secondary growth and the rest in moss forest. We were much more successful than previously, catching 82 birds of 20 species. We seemed to have birds in the net all the time but without doubt Saturday morning was the high spot. Our first round of the nets, just after dawn, produced only one bird but that was a Mountain Owlet-Nightjar, the first in that family for most of us. This was followed in the next couple of hours by a succession of good birds, including Lesser Ground Robin (making Ian and Helen members of a very select club having seen and ringed Greater Ground Robin on English Peaks), Rufous-naped Whistler, which was much brighter than the illustration in the field guide and New Guinea White-Eye. Fan-tailed Berrypecker was the most commonly caught species, although only rarely seen out of the net; over the weekend we handled 21 of which 13 were females or juvenile and the majority were caught in nets in the secondary growth. Ashy Robins were caught wherever we placed the nets and always in the lowest shelves. The larger individuals all showed a pale horn-coloured tip to the bill which the smaller birds lacked. Further studies may indicate whether this is a reliable field character for aging or sexing birds, or whether it is just individual variation.

Mike Hopkins, Simon Headford and Krysia Lupa left the relative comfort of the guest house on Saturday morning for an expedition to the higher altitude of the central divide to the north of Myola. They spent a frosty night in the tre fern forest at c.2600m and then moved higher. Mike eventually reached c.3150m to the north-east of Myola and saw several species not recorded lower. Eastern Alpine Mannikins were common in the tree fern forest and higher he saw Painted Tiger-Parrot, Mountain Robin, Alpine Pipit and Sooty Melidectes. There was no sign of the hoped for Macgregor’s Bird of Paradise but the bird’s main food plant Dacrycarpus was not in flower or fruit. Mik returned full of enthusiasm for this high altitude forest and is already planning another expedition to return in the near future.

Once again our stay was all too short. We would like to thank the villagers of  Myola for their hospitality, Talair for promptness of the charter flight and Pacific Expeditions through whom we organised the trip.

People List: Ian Burrows, Chris Eastwood, Simon Headford, Roger & Jenny Hicks (+1/4), Mike & Helen Hopkins, Krysia Lupa and Joan Oliver.

 

Species List: r = ringed; h = heard, M = Mike’s high altitude expedition only

Brown Falcon, Wattled Brush-Turkey (h), Brown Quail, King Quail, Forbes’ Forest-Rail, Spotless Crake (h), Black-billed Cuckoo-Dove, Bronze Ground-Dove, White-breasted Fruit-Dove, Papuan Mountain Pigeon, Goldie’s Lorikeet, Little Red Lorikeet, Orange-billed Lorikeet (M), Painted Tiger-Parrot (M), Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Sooty Owl (h), Papuan Boobook (h), Mountain Owlet-Nightjar (r), Mountain Swiftlet, Glossy Swiftlet, Pacific Swallow, Alpine Pipit (M), Pied Chat, Lesser Ground Robin (r), Island Thrush (r), Spotted Jewel-Babbler, Lesser Melampitta, Blue-capped Ifrita, Tawny Grassbird, Orange-crowned Fairy-Wren (r), Mountain Mouse-Warbler (r), Large Scrub-Wren (r), Buff-faced Scrub-Wren (r), Papuan Scrub-Wren (r), Grey Gerygone, Brown-breasted Gerygone, Dimorphic Fantail (r), Black Fantail (r), Friendly Fantail, Black Monarch, Black-breasted Boatbill, Canary Flycatcher (r), Garnet Robin, Mountain Robin (M), Ashy Robin (r), Black-throated Robin, White-winged Robin (M), Blue-Grey Robin (r), Regent Whistler (r), Rufous-naped Whistler (r), Papuan Treecreeper, Black Sittella, Varied Sittella, Fan-tailed Berrypecker (r), Tit Berrypecker, Spotted Berrypecker, Papuan Flowerpecker, Crested Berrypecker (M), New Guinea White-Eye (r), Olive Straightbill (r), Red-collared Myzomela, Rufous-backed Honeyeater (r), Sooty Melidectes (M), Belford’s Melidectes, Common Smoky Honeyeater, Grey-headed Mannikin, Eastern Alpine Manniken (M),  Macgregor’s Bowerbird (r), Loria’s Bird of Paradise, Brown Sicklebill, Stepahanie’s Astrapia.

First Published in Muruk 3(1):17-18