Today we would travel back to Manaus where we would say goodbye to some of the team before the rest of us would travel onto Amazonia NP as part of the extension to the whole tour.
First light however we tried to mop up a few species that were still missing. We all gathered at the gates of mari mari to try for the Variable (Little) Chachalaca , Black Nunbirds were the first to appear. We had at least two Variable (Little) Chachalaca calling for quite a while before they both decided to fly right over our heads, great views even if they were in silhouette as the light hadn't quite broken through, job done thankfully in fairly quick time.
With this one in the bag the whole team split up as we all had different agendas this morning. Nick, David and Chris wanted the Pelzens tody-tyrant, Pablo took Ian and John to catch up with Capuchinbird, while Jeff, Bart and myself wanted to keep watch on the fruiting tree to try for the missing Guianan Cotinga and White-tailed Cotinga (or was it the coffee on tap).
Our star bird for the next hour were four Guianan Cock-of-the-rocks, almost teasing us as they flew in and out of the tree directly above the restaurant, they perched behind the kitchen, flew to the fruiting tree and back again, absolutely magic.
If the GCOTR was the current star of the show we had a nice supporting cast of two Suphery Flycatchers, a number of Swall-winged Puffbirds, a Guianan Tyrannulet, Grey-breasted Sabrewing and a very close Green-backed Trogan that was perched in full view behind the Kitchen alongside the river. We had this little flurry of activity when directly above us I managed one last lifer when three Yellow and Blue Macaws flew past, another bird that we would see on only one occasion during the whole tour.
As late morning approached the other guys returned with Capuchinbird and Pelzens Tody-tyrant in the bag, well done to them. I had to settle for the Macaws, oh and the magnificent end to this leg of the tour with possibly the star bird of the last ten days.........
Quick lunch, load the minibus and we are off back to Manaus. We had to drop off Chris and Ian who were flying back to England after their two legs in Brazil. This evening we would have an evening meal back at Ibis Hotel and say goodbye to John.
That would leave Nick, David, Bart, Jeff and myself who again would be led by Pablo in Amazonia NP, in the words of Nick "this could be the dogs bollocks"...... we sleep with great anticipation of what tomorrow would bring when we fly to Itaituba in the heart of the National Park.
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