After our morning birding tour via boat and hiking to Turtle Top we are quite famished. So it is good that lunch is ready by the time we return. As usual it is buffet style with lots of fruits and vegetables and other local produce. And we are also carefully watched by the Silver-beaked Tanagers that are quite courageous and happy to wade in if they see an opportunity to get some fruits or vegetables.
We now have something like a couple hours before the afternoon birding tour and we spend it…birding and relaxing. First we enjoy the doves and lizards right next to our cabin while trying to stay in shade as much as possible.
Other birds next to our cabin are Palm Tanagers and surprisingly a Pied Plover pair that enjoys a small pond created by the rains.
And then we split up, one goes for an afternoon nap and one goes to check if there are any other interesting birds on the grounds. As we are not allowed to enter the forest the only area that can be explored is the river bank and the grassy area near the cabins but even so there is a hope for some interesting birds.
There are a few interesting birds but the one that is most common and we haven’t seen before is the Chestnut-bellied Seedeater which seems to be common in the brushes on the river bank.
Soon it is time for the official birding tour and we make our way to the main building from where it will start. Even though we arrive there 5 minutes before the start time everyone else is already gathered, everyone is quite excited it seems.
With no interesting birds at the starting point we make our way into the jungle via the main access road to the lodge. It is a bit annoying that we cannot walk on it without a guide as it is quite safe at least during the day in our opinion. But I guess there are liability issues that they want to avoid. It is quite dark in the jungle already so as photographers we are happy that we do not go deeper into the jungle via side trails. But as explorers we are disappointed of course…
There are some beautiful birds on this stretch, our favorite is the Golden-headed Manakin, it seems someone just painted the head yellow as it stands out quite a bit from the black rump.
Macaws are always exciting including for the guide but we really like to see a couple bat falcons waiting in the dusk for any prey. Especially as they do not care about a group of 10 people passing by and taking lots of photos of them.
Overall it is a nice hike with some good birds but unfortunately due to the general darkness in the jungle we cannot take good photos of quite a few of them. But as we return to the lodge we take a beautiful photo of the dramatic violet dusk over the Essequibo River, quite impressive for us.
And then it is time to eat dinner and with the help of our tour-mates with impressive flashlights we can take photos of the Nightjars and Foxes roaming around before it starts to rain again.
In the morning we eat our last breakfast at Iwokrama, which in our opinion was the most tourist ready of the lodges in the Guyana interior. The food was always high quality and available in sufficient quantity and the room was the most like a usual lodge, minus the AC.
Before embarking in our minibuses that are waiting for us we take one more tour of the grounds but this time with the guides. It is an opportunity to see a few birds that we missed or weren’t able to get photos before like the White-Throated Toucan.
Forest Elaenia is a great find as we won’t see it again as well as a curious Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet.
However the major draw of the trail is the opportunity to see a few Antbirds and we find one soon, a beautiful Rufous-capped Antthrush.
In fact we make an incursion via a trail into the jungle as our guides hear something into the underbrush. We have flashbacks of the unsuccessful search of an antbird the previous day as we follow the bird around through the underbrush.
This time however it is much more cooperative and we take a good photo of the beautiful Spotted Antpitta. We are quite happy with this, as a group, and the decision is made to return to the vans it is time to drive to Atta Rainforest Lodge, our next lodge, and bird along the way after a beautiful two night stay at Iwokrama.
