In the last days of our Guyana tour each day is dedicated to a specific special bird, or birds in the case of the last day. Today leaving Rock View Lodge our major goal are the Sun Parakeets near Karasabai but there are other interesting animals or birds that we have a chance and hope to see. We have to be on the road, painfully, at 4 AM so we wake up early and then wait 15 minutes as the minibuses are late after the drivers attended the football festival the day earlier. Most people try to sleep on the way until around 6 AM we turn on the road to Karasabai and in the light of the dawn we see the first birds of the day, a coven of Crested Bobwhite on the road.
This stretch of the road is also the best place to see Giant Anteaters according to the guides but we are not that hopeful and mostly doze off again when suddenly our driver is agitated and happy and points at something on the side of the road. And there it is a beautiful Giant Anteater quite close to the van.
Everyone files out of the van with cameras taking photo after photo of the anteater who really doesn’t care or even sees us. Their eyesight is quite bad and we are downwind so it is a great opportunity to be relatively close to such a magnificent animal. And then as the winds turns the anteater picks up something and ambles over the earthen barricade, we are left quite elated and with some nice photos of the Giant Anteater.
After this we drive almost without stops to an area past Karasabai where we hope we can see the parakeets and now it is a waiting game. At least almost immediately we see a group of well-camouflaged parrotlets that give us the fits before finally noticing them.
It is now time to eat the breakfast sandwiches from the Rock View Lodge and unfortunately they are the worse sandwiches for the trip. They have onions, which we hate and really not anything else. At least some of the group seems to like them so that is fine but we are now hungry for the rest of the day till lunch.
On the way we picked up a local guide who guided us here and he continues exploring the road up and down looking for the sun parakeets with no luck. We see however a group of brown throated parakeets so it is encouraging the numbers of parrots we see, just no sun parakeets.
And then it starts to rain quite heavily and then it stops and a new set of birds appear. Ochre-lored Flatbill is a highlight but more attractive to everyone is the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, a day owl, that comes and sits next to us for quite some time in a great spot for photography.
With the owl we also get lots of birds keeping a weary eye on it and sometimes also divebombing it. It is fun to observe this in the wild with so many colorful birds.
There isn’t a lot of traffic but when something passes it is a logging truck which is not good for the future of this area. But for now the birds are plentiful including some rarities like the Pale-eyed Pygmy Tyrant we notice nearby.
There are lots of flowers and with them lots of hummingbirds all beautiful to see and follow around as they buzz from flower to flower or just relax.
It is more than an hour of waiting at this point at the group is starting to get a bit antsy. They walk up and down and road looking for any signs of the sun parakeets so everyone except us almost misses when the van drivers start to shout and point above them at a group of flying birds. It is quickly established that they were Sun Parakeets but now where are they?
With so many eyes looking for them soon we find them up in the trees, a group of three, a pair and a bonus parakeet. They fly a bit more around and we get a few better photos, we are happy we were able to see such a rare parakeet, rare due to being captured for pet trade unfortunately.
Now happily some try to approach the parakeets for better photos with no luck and then it is time to return slowly to Karasabai for lunch with some stops along the way.
First stop on the way to the village is near a bridge. It is quite hot now so standing on the bridge is almost physically painful but we do it looking for birds before retreating to the shade of the trees on one end of the bridge.
Here we get lucky with one more special bird, the buff-breasted wren, a beautiful wren flitting in the undergrowth. And then we retreat to the van and it is time for lunch.
Today we have a special lunch in the community. It is prepared in a common area of a house it seems and it doesn’t have that many choices but still it is better than the morning sandwich. As a bonus they are also selling some T-shirts with the sun parakeets something that we have to buy with the guide giving some money back to the community.
There is also an interesting toilet unit, there are two units but one is a fake-out there is no toilet there even though everyone tries to use it during launch. At least the second one is working ok, luckily for all the people needing a toilet.
Leaving lunch we stop at another bridge to look for birds while avoiding the huge trucks passing by.
This spot is quite a good one for birding with many special birds like the hooded tanagers and black crested Antshrikes.
In fact we have a couple of black crested Antshrikes and that allows us for quite good comparisons between the two very different looking birds. And we also see a beautiful Tropical Gnatcatcher, a quite rare bird on the trip.
But the bonus is the Pale-legged Hornero something rarely seen on the trip and a lucky find for us today.
Next we stop near a pond that we passed on the way in but there are no interesting birds and there is no shade so soon we move on through the savanna.
There are no anteaters this time but instead there are a lot of fork-tailed flycatchers, they are mesmerizing to watch and we always wonder how they can fly with that huge tail.
And then on we go, luckily it is now more cloudy so we can exit a few more times to look for birds.
We stop at one more pond near the main highway to look for another target bird for the day, the Crested Doradito. Surprisingly there are no water birds but the shore area is quite good with nice views of a Yellow-chinned Spinetail.
And then the guides hear something and we start looking through the undergrowth and with some luck and perseverance we are able to see our target bird, the small but beautiful Crested Doradito.
Happy now it is time to drive to our last accomodation in inland Guyana, Manari Ranch, where we will sleep for the next two nights while exploring the area.
