Today we wake up with the rays of sun, actually it is more rays of the moon as the moon is up and it will take a bit for us to see the sun. There was no rain tonight and we explore a bit outside catching a couple parrots in front of our room before finishing up packing. Because after breakfast it is time to leave Atta Lodge and make our way to Surama Lodge.
There is a surprise today at breakfast, instead of eating inside the breakfast is laid out outside on the lawn. This is great for birdwatching but it is worse from a mosquito perspective, there are more here than under the covered lounge.
However this allows us to explore and take photos of the interior of the main building. Here there is something that is mentioned in our guidebook but we didn’t have time to examine previously, the bartop of the bar. It is made from a huge slab of Wamaradan (Dicorynia guianensis), supposedly the largest ever but who knows.
And then we pack the minibuses and it is time to continue toward Surama following the main road. Of course the decision is to stop a few times to look for birds along the road as we did until now but there is not much movement in the trees.
We continue persisting however weaving between trucks but with relatively little to show for it. And it is getting hotter but luckily it is cloudy which helps a lot.
Then our tour guides decide to try a short trail into the jungle and at the entrance we finally see a new bird, a Greater Yellow-headed Vulture. And then we start looking for any interesting forest birds, maybe we get lucky here.
There is only one interesting bird though but it is a beautiful one, a Green-backed Trogon, we always enjoy seeing trogons. But nothing else birdwise, only flowers and old trees, lots of them.
However the major stop planned today is at another Cock-of-the-Rock lek. While we already saw them at Kaieteur it is a chance to see them maybe even closer. We park close to the exit from the Iwokrama Protected Area and start walking in on a good trail.
The trail is flat originally but then starts going up through rocks overhangs and caverns and here we find something that excites everyone a lot, a group of Lesser Dog-like Bats. We watch them for a short while before continuing to the lek overlook.
Soon everyone catches glimpses of a male Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock and we watch him enough that we can get some good pictures of him. Or as good as can be in our opinion. But the bonus is a female Cock-of-the-Rock waiting for the male to display. It is quite a contrast with the female beign brown and the male so orange and we watch them quietly for some time before moving on.
the trail back is enjoyable as we explore the jungle a bit more but with no luck on additional birds. And then it is back to the van for the short drive to Surama Lodge where we will stay for three nights exploring the area around it thoroughly.
