TRANSFER
TO ATTA LODGE
This was our best birding morning
since the first day at the Abary River. We had breakfast at 5:30am and then
loaded up two pick-up trucks with our luggage and climbed on board. We set off in
semi-darkness with hope of seeing the elusive jaguar on the road. We planned to
stop and bird whenever the opportunity arose, in fact we did a lot of stopping.
A Bat Hawk sat out nicely for us, as did a Black Hawk, Swallow-tailed Kite and
Plumbeous Kite. Black Carrasow walked across the track, Marail Guans fed in the
trees and we had great views of a variety of toucans, toucanets, parrots and
parakeets.
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| ROADSIDE HAWK |
When we arrived at Atta lodge we
were given a very warm welcome by the staff and we met our young guide, John
who resides there. Within a few minutes we found White-necked and Pied
Puffbirds and a much sort-after Dusky PurpleTuft. After a nice cold drink and home-made
cookies we settled into our rooms and prepared ourselves for our visit to
famous Atta ‘Canopy Walkway’.
The forest track took us through
primary grown and onto a slope before heading up a set of steep steps, the path
then wound its way round to the first elevated walkway. After some initial
apprehension we all crossed to the first platform. We had stunning views into
the forest canopy and our very first bird up there was a Great Jacamar, what a
lovely colourful bird. Then a couple of distant Scarlet Macaws showed up and a
couple of Ruddy Pigeons came near.
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| GREAT HORNED OWL |
Two more platforms were
interconnected to the one we were on by a kind of rope bridge, we spent the
next hour or so exploring platforms two and three where several species came
and went: a second Dusky PurpleTuft was found, also seen were Pied Puffbird,
Black-spotted Barbet (a species where both the male and the female are
stunning) and a few Honeycreepers and a couple of dacnis. The Black-faced Hawk is an incredibly looking bird and we were fortunate enough to see one at close quarters thanks to the canopy platforms. A Ringed Woodpecker
dashed by but the Red-necked Woodpecker showed well, also we had good views of
Spangled Cotinga, this was one of the most sort after species by the group.
We came down from the canopy
walkway just as it was getting dark, we stopped along the track as we heard a
White-winged Potoo so we stopped and our guide John imitated the call and we
all waited for the bird to appear, but it never came into view, by now it was
dark so we returned by torch-light watching the many fire-flies flash by.
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| GREEN ARACARI |
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| RED-BILLED TOUCAN |
.JPG) |
| GREATER YELLOW-HEADED VULTURE |
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| LOOKING FOR CRIMSON FRUITCROW AT ATTA LODGE |
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| YOURS TRULY ON THE CANOPY WALKWAY |
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| TWO SHOTS OF THE BEAUTIFUL BLACK-FACED HAWK |
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