Today we would concentrate all our day to birding the trails around the Pousada. A gentle alarm call and a 6am start made for a nice lie in for everyone. This morning we would be retracing a trail into the Ramal do mari mari which is immediately opposite the entrance gates. As we left the garden we were straight onto a singing Bright-rumped Atilla, it showed well enough in the poor early morning daylight, we continued on along the path where we also picked up a flighty Guianan-warbling Antbird taht gave us 20 minutes of frustration as it always seemed to miss any window in the dense branches and leaves and a little easier was a Buff-throated Foilage Gleaner in the same bushes. High up in a large tree were at least a few White-throated Manakins which fed in the under canopy, again the light wasn't the best but they stuck around long enough for everyone to get views. To be fair it had the feel of what could be a good morning but once into the trail proper we eventually found a very hard to get onto Double-banded Pygmy Tyrant , disappointingly this was all we could muster. Breakfast was the order of the day as we had only walked a few hundred meters in to the trail so it wasn't too long a trudge back. It turned out to be quite an overcast day which made for a little less humidity thank goodness.
the view beyond the Pousada Mari Mari, we will walk a trail in there this afternoon
We had time to relax for awhile and enjoy the garden both food and birds
breakfast being prepared with the river backdrop
A few garden birds this lunchtime were Grey-breasted Sabrewing, Buff-throated Saltator, a pair of White-throated Toucan, Silver-beaked Tanager, Sulphery Flycatcher, Blue Dacnis, a pair of Common Ground-doves, White-throated Thrush and a few Guianan Cock-of-the-rocks feeding on a fruiting tree above the restaurant (like they often do!!).
Gray-breasted Sabrewing the only Hummingbird on the feeder at this time
Blue Dacnis in Mari Mari garden
Buff-throated Saltator coming to the feeder
spot the birds..... (only to make you all look harder)
White-throated Toucan very close to our lodges
Spangled Cotinga
you know who, feeding in the fruiting tree above the restaurant
After lunch we headed back on the trails, this time to the rear of the restaurant over the river but turning off the Cock of the rock trail and heading out further into the forest.
Bart and Nick with high expectations for this afternoon, well we have just seen Cock of the Rock feeding very close to the restaurant.
Pablo leading the way over the river for this afternoons birding
The trail started off brilliantly with Short-crested Flycatcher, Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Palm Tanager and a Saffron-crowned Tyrant-Manakin. We tried for a while to bring in a singing Pelzens Tody-tyrant but it didn't get anywhere near us, we tried a few times. Pablo took us on over a small stream and through a rocky climb to what was a welcome sight. A theater of such with some welcome tree stump stools laid out in a circle, this was the Lek of the highly anticipated Capuchinbird. Again we got a calling bird, it almost came into sight but eventually flew some distance away and again never got any closer..... Pablo had an idea for later on!!. The lek area did provide one nice bird that gave us a good view, a lovely Spotted Puffbird.
Pablo would have us clambering over the rocks later on in the near darkness all in a good cause
the challenging Amazon rain forest not stopping us, Ian, John, Pablo, Bart
Ian, Jeff and David at the Capuchinbird Lek
Spotted Puffbird
In the mean time the next hour was difficult as we again tried and failed with the Pelzens Tody-tyrant and also we had a near misses with a Yellow-crowned Manakin. We headed back along the trail a little bit and the best we could do was a Green-backed Trogan, all was not lost though and with Pablo still trying the tape he got onto another Yellow-Crowned Manakin and this time we all got it... what a cracking bird.
really dont know what this impressive tree is but lets call it the Torture tree
habitat of the elusive Pelzens Tody-tyrant amongst others, who said it would be easy
Green-backed Trogan
Twitching the Yellow-crowned Manakin
and the scrum..... Luckily after Pablo located it, I got onto it first and was able to take these shots
All feeling pretty good with the Manakin, we headed off back to the lodge to try for a Red-billed woodcreeper that we heard this morning, however Pablo came running back to pose a quandary for everyone, stay to try for the Woodcreeper or try again for the Capuchinbird. This afternoon Pablo had taken the lodge owner and his staff to where we had heard the calls this morning and was convinced that the birds had moved the Lek (how very inconsiderate of them), the staff had machettied their way through the forest for about 500mtrs further on and found the new Lek.... amazing work.
Anyway the debate didn't take long and Pablo, Jeff, myself, David and Bart all hurriedly if not quite flat out running set off as we only had 40 minutes to get there and to hopefully find the birds and get back before darkness set in.
We were pretty much strung out when I arrived after Pablo, Nick and Jeff (I didn't know you could move like that Jeff, very impressive pal, I think Nicks "every man for himself " did the trick). We caught enough of three individual birds to make it very worthwhile. David and Bart who debated for a minute too long back at the lodge gardens and never quite caught us up until they saw one of the three birds in the canopy, phew, that was seriously close. But what a moment to get on this special bird, we couldn't rest on our laurels we had to get back and it was getting dark.
It was a very happy beer and dinner
1 comment:
Beautiful photos Dave. Nice bird.
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