Another place visited to gather nice nature images for the DVD (see previous post on Morovo lagoon) was the rainforest. The solomon islands rainforests yield very high biodiversity, supporting a large number of endemic species and there is a strong need for conservation initiatives to protect them, project that the country itself can barely support, so a number of NGOs are involved.
Going along with Patrick Pikacha, a local conservation scientist who works for the NGO Conservation International, it was easy to take up a bushwalking trip to the top of Ngatokae mountain, Mt Mariu, to photograph the many frogs species that inhabit the forested slopes of the mountain.
Patrick works for Conservation International and is the founder and editor of Melanesian Geographic, the Geo equivalent publication for the Solomons/PNG
Ngatokae is an old volcano, now extinct, and its summit culminates at about 885m.
It is not a high mountain but because it is so close to the open ocean, the vegetation gradient is remarkably compressed from the tall lowland rainforest to the misty cloud forest, Species that would be found elsewhere at 2000m are found here at 600m here! This makes for Ngatokae high conservation values.
The first morning led us along an old logging road, now eroded into ferralitic soils and covered by the bush reclaiming its grounds.
The lower parts of the island have been logged ten years ago. The forest has now recovered to a lower canopy called secondary forest. Some of it remained cleared for the gardens exploited by the villagers.
Gardens are nested in the clearings
The secondary forest can sometimes a better habitat supporting a more diverse range of bird species than the primary forest. In some of the remaining tall trees, Eclectus parrot can be spotted. The female is red and from the throne of her nest, in a large tree hole, she monitors a crowd of green males who brings her food. This female eclectus was shy but I managed to “creep” her and take a shot
Female eclectus parrot, high in her tree
Up at 200m elevation, we enter the dark shade of the primary rainforest forest. Meandering amongst the tall trees, the tracks becomes softer and less slippery, the soil is covered in a thick layer of leaves and its very quiet.
We descend back towards the valley of the Kavolavata river which drops from the upper ridges of Mount Mariu. Beautiful volcanic rock pools and and relief to refresh when we arrive at the camp in a curve near the creek.
Robert is cooking up a feed of rice and 2 min noodle with onion and capsicum on the fire: breakfast, lunch and dinner!!
A Hennessy Hammock is once again a must in the rain forest!
The evening is spent looking for frogs. Patrick has a nice sigma 150mm macro lens that he’s lent me to take close ups. The frogs are found easily: as soon as it gets dark, especially after the bucketing rain, they start singing very loudly, though so small!
tree frog
Many species can be found on the tree trunks under leaves or inside the small water pools formed by the epiphytes.
eyelash frog, an endemic species from the Solomons-
The next day, a walk up to the 600m elevation mark took us through a fast transition to a sparser ridge forest with large pandani and later through the cloud forest, where short trees covered in mosses intricately mix with smaller species of pandani (not unlike Tasmanian ones) and ferns. Higher on the ridges, with a shorter canopy,
there are also a lot of orchids
The internet repeater is located on a clearing at 600m, and the only place where a sweeping view of Morovo lagoon can be enjoyed, and a rare sight as the summit is often in cloud!
Morovo lagoon and its many islands
