Raja Ampat and Birds of Paradise

So the plan was we’d be picked up in a longboat at 4:30 in the morning, take a 20 minute ride to a different part of the island and then drive to a hide.  There’s nothing like splashing in the ocean in a skinny boat at 4:30 in the morning to test a marriage. Then, on the way to the hide, there was a small fire on the side of the road and we stopped to put it out. We got to the hide about 530, and the Wilson’s bird of paradise actually showed up about 6 o’clock. It was a bit too dark for photography, although Mike tried.   Fortunately, it showed up later in the day in good light and his wife even stopped by for a while.  The most surprising part was a red bird of paradise coming to the same hide where he’s supposed to be at a different hide that we would go to tomorrow in another long boat.  We got acceptable views and pictures of him, so there’s no longboat ride tomorrow. We actually planned for four days here, but since we saw the birds we wanted on the first day, we’re cutting our trip short and going to Sorong in a hotel with air conditioning. There are plenty of other birds and even other birds of paradise there, so we should have fun. The other surprise was the Papuan Pitta.