Site Report: Waigeo

Visits

• 2024-08-01: We took the early morning ferry from Sorong to Waigeo Island. I spent the whole time outside looking for petrels. About halfway to the island, is saw a petrel in the distance. All the men outside, smoking, were very confused about the excitement. We then drove off to the place where we were staying which were basically vacation cabins on the beach. There was a big pier that you could walk on to get out to the corals. We also took a driving tour on the road that does a loop around the airport.
• 2024-08-02: We were up before sunrise hiking up a hillside to get to the place where the birds of paradise lived. On the way up, I stepped on something that made a crunch. I was stressing that I stepped on a frog or something. On the way back down, though, I saw a crushed millipede, so not quite as bad as stepping on a frog. There was some guy who showed up at the blind with the biggest telephoto lens that I ever saw, and on top of that, it looked like he had one or even more telecoverters as well. I was kind of wondering if it was even possible to photo with that kind of setup. Clearly, the salesman saw this guy coming. Later, his guide told me that all his photos looked dark...
• 2024-08-03: We went over to the blue lagoon area today. There is a somewhat clear spring with a strong current. Afterwards, we mainly waited for some rain to stop, and then we wandered around the resort area.
• 2024-08-04: We went over early to look around by the airport again, then our time on Waigeo was coming to an end as we waited for a boat transfer to Batanta Island.

Species Seen

Lifelists

• Asia
• World

Trips

• Indonesia