GUYANA - DAY 14 - JANUARY 28TH 2014

MORNING AT KARANAMBU THEN A FLIGHT TO GEORGETOWN

 

Another special outing was taken this morning. We set out at first light into the bush on foot in search of the strange Capuchinbird, there is a place near the lodge where several of these birds come to display. It was a short walk to the ‘lekking’ site but it took quite a while as we stopped several times to look at forest species. Once at the ‘lek’ we were very disappointed to see that the birds were not there, we could hear one bird in the distance but reluctantly we moved on. Then after about 15 minutes we heard the bids calling so we quickly returned and sure enough 4 of these strange birds were making the unusual call imaginable, they sound like a bull in pain! We watched in amazement for 30 minutes before things quietened down.

CAPUCHINBIRDS AT THE LEK



One other good sighting was of the beautiful Spotted Puffbird which is another stunning looking species. As we made our back we stopped to look for Antwrens but only came up with Black-chinned Antbird and a very nice Streaked Flycatcher, what a stunner.

Soon it was time to leave this magical place, no-one wanted to go but at 10am we were all packed into the jeeps for the short drive to the local airstrip where we boarded our scheduled light-aircraft that flew us back to Georgetown. Our trip was not quite over yet as we have two more nights at a lodge on the outskirts of the town on the north bank of the river Demerara.

BOARDING FOR THE FLIGHT TO GEORGETOWN

Our flight took 90 minutes and we landed in the rain in Georgetown, our minibus was waiting to transfer us to the river lodge. The journey through town was tedious and slow but once we reached the river our mood and the weather brightened up. The boat trip to Arrowpoint Lodge was lovely, the weather had cleared and once we turned into a creek the water was flat calm. It was now mid-afternoon so not many birds were seen along the creek, we did see several Ringed Kingfishers, a few Spotted Sandpipers but not much else.

A HAPPY GROUP WITH JASPER
THE EXCELLENT GUIDE AT KARANAMBU

 

 

We arrived at Arrowpoint Lodge at 4pm to a warm welcome from the staff, this small lodge sits right on the elevated bank of the creek and the restaurant has a lovely terrace that overlooks the water and an open area of forest. At 4pm we took a guided walk along a forest track, it was very quiet and sightings were few and far between but we managed to see a local speciality – the White-bearded Manakin and to the delight of the group we had great views of Fulvous-crested Tanager.

Back at the lodge we spent some time watching birds flitting about in the grounds, we found; White-lined, Silver-beaked, Palm, Blue-grey and Turquoise Tanagers as well as Red-capped Cardinal, Fork-tailed Palm Swifts, Swallow-winged Puffbirds and many common species.

BLACK NUNBIRD

 From the terrace we found our last new bird of the day, a lovely Masked Yellowthroat (warbler). Finally after a lovely dinner we walked back to our cabins and a Common Parquet flew down onto the grass and began calling, we found it by torchlight our very last bird of the day.