Today we have a reasonable waking hour compared to most days on the trip, 5:30AM for breakfast at 6AM. Of course this is the night when someone, who seems to be deaf, has an alarm starting at 4:30AM and then going on for what seems ages so our sleep is interrupted earlier than we wanted. So we prepare and off the breakfast we go.
Breakfast is the usual mix of eggs, bread and bacon with some fruit thrown in. It is good enough and we fill up before the hike to the Canopy Walkway where we will spend the morning.
The hike to the Canopy Walkway starts level and because it is early it is still relatively cool outside. There are quite a few birds here including supposedly a Swainson’s Thrush that our guide saw that would make it the first ever in Guyana on eBird. So quite the excitement. However we have better looks at other birds like the beautiful Wedge-Billed Woodcreeper.
The level trail is not that long though and soon we arrive at “The Steps”. Usually to get on a canopy walkway you climb a tower or something similar, here we climb the mountainside from where we will access the walkway.
The climb, even though it is cooler, is difficult for most of the group with many stops to take a breath and just to recuperate. But finally everyone makes it to the top and now it is time to brave the walkway.
Suddenly all these obsessed birders, ready to jump in front for any bird seen, are quite polite, you go first, no you go first, it is quite funny :). In the end most of the brave the walkway but only part of them are making the additional trek to the second platform which is accessed via a longer suspended bridge.
In a way it is too bad for them as there is quite some bird activity on that platform and the views are impressive. The first bird that visits us is a rare Golden-sided Euphonia, rarely seen actually due to its habit to stick to the canopy.
And even though our guides say that there aren’t as many birds as usual we are happy with each of them, like the Cream-colored Woodpeckers close to us and the White Hawk sitting in the distance.
We continue watching and most of the birds we see are actually in the distance like the beautiful Black-headed Parrot. Which is fine with us as long as they are standing still and are clearly visible.
We also walk between the two platforms a few times to see what can be seen from either of them. And there are some real specialties that make us almost run on the narrow moving bridges. Like the Guianan Puffbird that we were luckly to see and the Guianan Red-Cotinga that looks almost like a Summer Tanager to us.
And then as the shade starts to disappear and it gets hot the decision is made to get back on terra firma. But right as the last people make it to solid land someone notices something new in the canopy. And after some searching we notice it is a Guianan Red Howler Monkey and it is quite close to us. Given that only six people can be on a platform at once we file back in groups so each of us can take a photo of the colorful monkey.
Descending the stairs is an unexpected adventure as there are some sweat flies on the way that “attack” the people with part of the group running screaming back uphill with the rest making it safely to the bottom. Then a lot of coaxing is needed to convince the group at the top to run past the aggressive but not dangerous flies. Finally with everyone at the bottom it is time to look for new birds and we find again a Black Curassow but now in the jungle where it belongs.
This section is built as an ecological trail with lots of informative signs and because we are at the end of the group we walk with an escort that points out various interesting trees and plants, quite fun. But then the guide hears a special bird and it is time to scan the vegetation for it.
In the end we get eyeballs on it, it is a beautiful Ferruginous-backed Antbird soon followed by a group of Gray-Winged Trumpeters, a rarely seen bird as they are quite skittish.
We are now on a loop trail around the lodge and the trail is wide and flat, exactly how we like it. It also has lots of flowers and we stop to enjoy them, we are not here only for the birds.
But the primary goal are the birds so as the guides here something else it is time to go and check it out. This time it is a weirdly named Brown-bellied Stipplethroat singing its heart out, beautiful to see.
And then we return back to the lodge and have an hour break before lunch which is the usual buffet style. But today we have time to enjoy also the feeders with some interesting hummingbirds stopping by.
In the middle of our lunch a lodge worker comes running and speaks excitedly to out native guide. A special bird has been spotted and it is time to abandon our lunch and go look for it. Luckily everyone is prepared and just a few hundred meters into the jungle we find the bird, it is a beautiful Ornate Hawk-Eagle. It doesn’t seem to care about us that much and in fact plays around on the branch for what seems hours, very exciting!!
After lunch we return to our room to take a shower and rest for a while, at 15:30 it is time to go back out to explore the trails near the lodge. We first start on foot walking on the access road and trying to see if any interesting birds can be found.
There are some fun ones like Oropendolas and Macaws but nothing new in this section.
However right next to the main road we find a group of Green Aracaris, they are the first for the trip and also quite fun to observe.
From here we take the vans to explore the main road in both directions. There are multiple stops mostly close to creeks to check if something interesting is visible.
Most of the birds are “common” ones now, like the gregarious Blue-headed Parrots and the guides and the group seem a bit disappointed. We do like the parrots though!
However the flag bird that we see this evening is a Spix’s Guan, it is quite far away and difficult to see but still it is there in the distance in a tree and hidden amongst leaves.
As the dusk settles in we again receive a sundowner rum round in an area that seems a bit scary as it has seemingly some graves dug out. It feels like one of those gangster movies but luckily there are no issues while we drink our rum and then start back towards the lodge.
But we start short of the lodge as we want to try again to find the White-winged Potoo rumored to be near the lodge. We had no luck the previous day but today is our lucky day with an easy find of the potoo who does it’s best impersonation of a dead stick.
And then it is time for dinner, doing the birdlist for the day and finding out the plan for tomorrow. The only thing that remains in our mind is chiggers, supposedly tomorrow there is a good chance of chiggers unfortunately. But now it is time to go to sleep tomorrow we will move to a new lodge, Surama Lodge.
