UKARUMPA, PNG — I went out onto the deck this morning, as I often do before work. A tiny little bird flew across and landed in the top of a tall tree in the backyard. I caught only the briefest glimpses through the branches, but it seemed to have a bright red head and rump.

Mountain Red-headed Myzomela, proclaimed “Birds of New Guinea.” What a mouthful! And the bird itself is so tiny. It seemed even smaller than our kinglets. It had moved so quickly that I hoped I wasn’t imagining things. I wondered if it had been a flowerpecker, but I was almost certain the head was entirely red, and the back wasn’t the dark, flat blue of a flowerpecker. Maybe I’ll see some more.

By the evening, it was quite cold and drizzly. We were invited over to a big Fourth of July cookout at someone’s house, which was much too small for the hordes of people that came. Mark and I tried to huddle in a corner out of the way, but even that proved impossible as the number of bodies continued to swell. American folk songs and patriotic songs played in the background but seemed strangely out of place in such an unfamiliar setting. The picnic-style food was quite good, but it was all just a little bit different from the way things are at home. There was a bag of Doritos, for which someone had no doubt paid an exorbitant sum. They were stale.

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