Breakfast today is at 5:30AM which is quite early given that we do not have any long drives planned. In fact according to the official plan after breakfast we will just walk from the lodge through the plain to the jungle and then hike for some time on the Burro Burro Trail trying to find any interesting birds. But first it is time for breakfast and for the first time there are no eggs by default and you have to request them something we find out too late. So it is just bred and sausages for us this morning. Then we return to the room to pick up our stuff and on we go.
Not so fast though first we wait a bit as it is too dark, how about waking a bit later instead of just standing around looking at nothing?
But then we get more light and start following our local guide who by knowledge and listening is trying to find us a rare Ocellated Crake. In the end we gather around a small cleared area where we hope the crake will show and…..nothing, unfortunately. We wait for some time but with no luck and the sun starting to raise it is time to continue towards the jungle.
Part of the plan is to bird along the way but to make it to the shade of the jungle before the sun rises completely because otherwise walking in the open can be quite a chore. Initially most birds are far in the distance with the only close ones being the quite common now Swallow-winged Puffbirds.
But soon we get more special birds and we stop more. Chivi Vireo we have seen before but it is the first time for a Rufous-browed Peppershrike which looks quite striking with its red eyes. And quite a few of other interesting birds.
That includes Trogons and even a few Pigeons a bonanza to us. And just as the sun starts to get uncomfortable we hit the jungle and the cooling shade, now we will continue on the trail/road for some time looking for antbirds and anything else interesting.
The major bird attraction on this trail and one of the major ones on the trip is the capuchinbird. We are quite excited when we hear it first but then we start looking for it and somehow it always seems to evade our group. And then we finally notice it through the trees and bring it to the attention of the group, this is our claim to fame for the whole trip :). The sound that the capuchinbird makes is quite unmistakeable if you heard it once, it doesn’t appear to be made by a bird, more by a demonic force.
Happy now we continue birding along the road finding a few other interesting birds besides some we are consider common now like most aracaris and the screaming pihas. Which are still fun to see, no complaints.
We rest for a while on a woode car bridge on the way that crosses a mostly dry river bed. There was a time you could drive down the road but now most cars won’t brave it so both today and tomorrow it will be walking only on this stretch.
Besides everything this part is also quite muddy and while on foot you can avoid them, driving would make it much more difficult and you don’t want to get stuck by mistake.
Returning we find a few more special birds like a Golden-collared Woodpecker and a Cinereous Antshrike with the help of the guides and the great eyes of our group-mates.
The van picks us up at the exit from the jungle, no need to hike through the open area in the blazing sun. It is about 11 when we return to the lodge and we use the one hour to lunch to take a cold water shower, the fact that it is hot outside helps a bit with the shock of the cold water. And then lunch, we have the usual choices but quite a few of them versus the paucity of choices at Atta Lodge.
We try all of them and fill up our plate, we are hungry after eating breakfast sooo early in the day.
After lunch we have a couple of hours to relax. We use them to explore the grounds of the lodge, as usual we are not allowed outside, and to wash our clothes as we do not have that many with us due to luggage restrictions.
At 15:30 it is time to leave for our afternoon birding. The plan is to enter the jungle via a different trail to look for some rare birds but it starts to rain soon after entering the trail and we retreat to the van.
We then explore for a while along the road finding a tree full of honeycreepers which is neat but otherwise mostly being chased by rain back to the van.
In the end we cannot even do the sundowner on the road. The van takes us back to the lodge where we do the sundowner ritual and watch the dusk which is, as if taunting us, almost completely cloudless. Before dinner we do one more trip with the vans near the lodge for owling but it is unsuccessful, and wouldn’t you know it, it starts raining again. So back to the lodge we go for dinner.
Dinner is uneventful, we have learned to appear early as otherwise our group will finish the best dishes on offer at the buffet. Today we do not have issues finding all items but late comers do not get the best and there are no refills. And then tired we go back to the room to rest. Tomorrow we have an early boat trip planned to a harpy eagle nest, we have no idea yet how huge of an adventure it will be.
