GUYANA - DAY 1-2 JANUARY 15/16TH 2014

 

DUE TO THE LACK OF ANY FORM OF SPEEDY INTERNET IN GUYANA I WAS UNABLE TO POST MY DAILY BLOGS - SO HERE THEY ARE THEY WERE WRITTEN A FEW  
     DAYS AGO.

 

DAY 1 -  15TH JANUARY - TRANSFER LONDON TO GUYANA VIA TRINIDAD

 Just a quick note to say that we logged 3 species at Trinidad Airport whilst waiting for our connecting flight, these were white-winged Swallow, Caribbean Martin and Tropical Mockingbird – these were our first specie of the trip. Our flight to Georgetown was delayed by 2 hours so it was very late when arrived at our hotel.

DAY 2 - Georgetown 16^th January 2014

WEATHER - RAIN IN THE MORNING CLEAR PM - 22-25C HUMID.

After getting to bed at midnight we were up at 4am for our first day’s birding.

This morning, is was dark and raining when we got up, but it was warm as we left the hotel to take our minibus to the Abary river area.  Pale-breasted Thrushes were singing from several gardens and one sat on a wall of the hotel and an owl called in the distance, when our guide Luke turned up he named the owl as Great-horned Owl.

It took an hour or so to get go Abary and we arrived just as it was getting light. The rain increased to torrential downpours so we sat in the bus and ate our packed breakfast and after 30 minutes it stopped.



RUFOUS CRAB HAWK

So we birded a track that runs adjacent to the river Abary, it consisted of Riparian woodland on one side of the track and open savannah on the other. It was fantastic of course, as every bird was new for most of us and we had several target species on our list, two of which we seen very well: Blood-coloured Woodpecker and Rufous Crab Hawk.

We intended to spend the morning walking this track for 2-3 hours and eventually meet our bus at the beach but it took an hour to move just 100 meters it was really great.

L TO R - GILL, MIKE, PENNY, DEITMAR, RICK, JOHN

A few nice birds were listed included Yellow Oriole, Yellow-rumped Cacique, Black-crested Antshrike, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Lemon-chested Greenlet and there were lots of flycatchers, tyrants and tyrannulets. We found several other birds of prey including Merlin, Osprey, Roadside Hawk, Snail Kites, Turkey, Black and Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures.

At the beach we added gulls, terns, Magnificent Frigatebird, Brown Pelican and another Osprey. It was because of the rain that we walked back along the track and that was when we found our star bird the Blood-coloured Woodpecker.

BLACK-CAPPED DONACOBIOUS

 

So considering the adverse weather we saw about 50 species, not back eh! Next we drove a short distance to a small tributary of the river Mahai0ca to catch a boat for a short trip along the river. The main target species was the incredible Hoatzin and although these strange birds show much better in the early morning we found several and heard a lot more, fantastic. Also along the river we saw: Red-capped cardinal, Green-tailed Jacamar, Silvered Antbird and Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture.

AMERICAN PYGMY KINGFISHER

Wattled Jacana, Great Egret, Snowy Egret and Snail Kites were seen over the rice fields as we drove back into town. It was now mid-afternoon so we decided to spend the rest of the day at the Botanical Gardens in the town centre. What a lovely place, great habitat and plenty of birds to see.

The highlights included a number of parrots the star being the Festive Parrot, but for me the Great-Horned Owl was special and the Black-capped Donacobius was terrific.

We concluded  a very long day by taking a nice meal at the hotel before retiring. We had seen just under 100 species, not a bad start at all, only 14 more days to go!