Thanks Paul – it really was! How are things with you and Christine and are you back in Van for the holidays? If so it would be great to catch up!

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D.

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P.S. Sorry Vanbirders – I couldn’t find Paul’s email address – apologies for the post to the group!

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We’ve just finished a long 2-month birding trip to Indonesia, the remote West Papuan Islands and Tasmania.

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Our travels took us to Jakarta where we started the trip birding the Jakarta Bay and Mount Haliman Salak NP. We then flew to bird West Timor and Rote Island before flying up to Sorong in West Papua to join the boat for the remote West Papuan Islands. Our tour took us to Waigeo and other Raja Ampat islands and on to Kofiau Island, Obi Island, Seram Island, Boano Island and Ambon Island before heading down to spend the last part of the trip in Tasmania.

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This was an opportunity to bird in rarely explored Islands such as Kofiau for some of the planet’s rarest and least known species. These included some extraordinary birds such as Wilson’s Bird-of-paradise, Red and King Birds-of-paradise, Kofiau and Red-breasted Paradise Kingfishers and Kofiau Monarch. We then crossed the Lydekker’s Line and headed to the North Moluccas exploring little birded waters in addition to visiting Obi Island. Then on south to the Central Moluccan islands of Seram and Boano ending up in Ambon for the endemic Salmon-crested Cockatoo, Purple-naped Lory, Seram Boobook and Boano Monarch to mention a few!

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We spent the last part of the trip in Tasmania where we managed all of the endemics except one – the critically endangered Orange-bellied Parrot which we had arranged to try for by flying in from Bruny Island but the weather was stormy with high winds and limited visibility which the pilot wouldn’t fly in as there was no line of sight, and when we saw the size of the single engine prop plane we were due to fly in decided that dying was probably too high a price to pay for a single life bird!!

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It was a fantastic trip with so many memorable birding highlights – some of which were:

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• A pre-dawn landing on Waigeo to hike in to hides to wait with bated breath for Wilson’s Bird-of-paradise – simply described as one of the most beautiful birds on earth and a very special moment!
• A slightly sketchy ride on a tiny boat out to the island of Haraku where we waited until dusk for the rare and extremely localized Moluccan Scrubfowl (Megapod) and were rewarded with up close and personal views of this amazing bird as it came to the beach to lay its eggs in the sand at night. The journey back in the boat in the pitch dark was also an experience!
• A 4 hour near vertical hike on Buru for the Madanga, initially thought to be a white-eye of sorts but now included with the pipits and wagtails even though it behaves more like a nuthatch! It was virtually unknown as a living bird until it was first found in 2016 – and after all that effort we didn’t get it!! It was a fantastic experience though and we were rewarded with two other endemics, Buru Honeyeater and Buru Thrush.
• Standing in a rookery on Bruny Island at night as hundreds of Short-tailed Shearwaters returned from the ocean to their burrows – they appeared out of nowhere in huge numbers and were flying right past our shoulders to land close to their burrows.

It’s going to take some time to sort photos and compile the trip report which we will post on our birding website () with information on the itinerary, accommodations, guides and bird list etc., and as always, happy to help and provide more information for anyone thinking of planning a trip there.

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Derek

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