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.
DAYS AGO.
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 16th January 2014WEATHER - RAIN IN THE MORNING CLEAR PM - 22-25C HUMID.
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.
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.
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| 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 |
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.
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. |
| BLACK-CAPPED DONACOBIOUS |
 |
| 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.
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!
