Today we headed north from Manaus as we were heading for a three day stay at Mari Mari Pousada north east of the town of Presidente Figuredo. It was a highly anticipated part of the tour with plenty of specialist species to see and a few exciting areas to visit. The first of these was the ZF2 canopy tower that was more or less halfway. This was easily our earliest start of the trip, 03:30am on the bus..... with luggage and without Coffee. Doh this was not in the script. We traveled part of the way on the minibus and then pulled off onto a narrow dirt track where we were met by three 4x4 pick up trucks and rally drivers (haha only partially kidding). Well it was pitch black, the track was narrow, pot-holed and flooded in parts, our driver slipped and slided for the next 45 minutes often travelling sideways on a straight track, to be fair it was pretty exciting.
We all arrived at the base of the ZF2 tower about 50km north of Manaus and 100km south of Presidente Figureido
The vast green expanse of the Amazon Rain forest beetwen Manaus and Presedente Figureido, we would be at the location ZF-2 tower, We couldn't be much further from civilization if we tried.
Pitch black, underneath the imposing metal structure we unpacked Tables, Chairs, Torches, Coffee, Fruit juice, Cheese, Ham, Bread Rolls and even Chocolate bars and tucked into breakfast under car headlights.
Once we got a hint of light we all walked up 40+mtrs to the top of the tower. This tower is a working environmental tower and is a lot older than the Musa Tower that we visited in Manaus. As we reached the top the early daylight quickly told us that the whole rain forest was enshrouded in the most dense mist imaginable, absolutely gutted. How much of the moning would be lost? will it actually be cloudy and overcast once it lifted? I cant remember what time the mist eventually started to lift but it was a relief.
And this was the view....
The first birds on show were a pair of Red-necked Woodpeckers that were seen 20mtrs beneath us and they unfortunately moved away from us and into the gloom. The ever reliable White-throated Toucans and a Channel-billed Toucan were next to appear. Happily once the mist started to lift the sun quickly burnt through to reveal another beautiful day ahead. Still very early.... pre 06:30 am early, and a bit of a surprise as we at long last got one of the much needed birds that we missed on the MUSA tower when Pablo called in a Glossy Backed Becard, a good one to tick off quickly.
A real beauty showed up next when a Black-faced Dacnis popped in and out of view for the next hour with a few small mixed flocks of Spotted Tanagers, Palm and Paradise Tanagers, a few smashing birds. A gorgeous Slaty-capped Shrike-vireo showed well even though it preferred the shade and wouldn't quite sit out for us, while we also managed good scope views of a pair of Meally Parrots and a Guianan Toucanet. (Later on we would all get incredible close views of a Guianan Toucanet which would keep Nick and myself busy for a while as we went down 10mtrs to the level underneath to try to get portrait shots of it, we didn't do too bad between us).
Meanwhile the birds kept coming Flame-crested Tanager, Spot-backed Antwren, Jeff was pleased to get his bogey bird with a few Chapmans Swifts on a flypast, Blue-headed Parrots again in the scope, Guianan Tyrannulet, Painted Tody-flycatcher, Versicolored Emerald and Guianan Woodcreeper.
The star of yesterdays afternoon trail was a Pompadour Cotingas, well just like buses two more showed well today, a pair this time. Our only sighting on the trip of two Marail Guan were spotted in a flowering tree a few hundred meters away, eventually they flew a little closer for better views, after scanning around the tower I came back to these two and they had snook off unfortunately not to be seen again.
Guianan Tyrannulet
Black-faced Dacnis
Guianan Toucanet
Marail Guan partially hidden
Almost directly beneath us and the tower a pair of Golden Collared Woodpeckers pecked away on a dead snag for a good while, wonderful. Yellow-throated Woodpecker, Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, Yellow Margined (Zimmers) Flycatcher that actually flew onto the tower railings for a moment before retreating to the forest before I could get the camera trained on it, Grey Eleania and a perched Red-throated Caracara which eventually moved out of the shade to show really well in the scope. Of course as the morning warmed up the birding slowed down, a definite theme in the Amazon so far this trip but the list kept on slowly ticking over with Black Nunbirds, Black-tailed Tityra, White Hawk, King Vulture, a family of upto six Green Aracaris that got pretty close as well as Double Toothed Kite, Squirrell and Black-bellied Cuckoos. However we would have a new star of the morning, oh yes. A pair of Crimson Fruitcrows, perched on the same branch for a quite a while, yes they were miles away and only in the Scope, it would be one of the stars of the trip for sure, eventually one flew across the horizon of the distant treeline, happy days indeed.
a pair of Golden-collared Woodpeckers
Yellow-margined Flycatcher
Grey Eleania
Green Aracari male and two females
Green Aracari
Black-Tailed Tityra
Black-bellied Cuckoo
No better way to call it a morning as we started back down the tower on a very big high
Back down to the waiting 4x4s and back along the slippery, partly flooded and churned up track. The pick up in front of us was having a terrible time and couldn't keep straight at all, eventually a very steep slippery hill would be a step too much and after getting sideways and off track eventually had to be pulled up by the lead 4x4, our driver showed no fear, revved up as much as he could and shot off up the hill pretty effortlessly, Rally king.
At the end of the track we met our Minibus again and headed north to Presidente Figuereido, even this was fraught with danger as we were held up for hours in a traffic jam as a crane lifted out a car (or cars) that have recently careered off the road into a valley, eventually we moved on.
We reached our new Pousada a little later than expected, but we were here for a three days at the delightful Mari Mari Pousada. This afternoon turned out to be very special.
Mari Mari Pousada. mine and Jeffs room and gardens with a view
After lunch we set off on a trail just over the river. Pablo and the land owner lead us off and within five minutes this is what we saw......
Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock
There were eleven, yes eleven, oh and at least one female. Incredible.
We were at the lek site where the adult males and young males practice their display skills for when its time to display for the females for the right to breed. Anyway we stood behind a taped off area, or even arena. Some individuals flew over our heads probably feeding somewhere, others just called and flew from perch to perch. An absolute incredible hour and we would see a few individuals over the coming days literally taking fruit from trees directly above our dinning area. Magic moments.
Not to diminish the next hour where we would see Northern-Slaty Antshrike, Safron-crowned Tyrant-manakin, Bronzy Jacamar, the brilliant and very large Black Manakin, five Green Oropendola, magnificent Spangled Cotinga and a White necked Thrush. Brilliant day and it was only left to drink a few beers and celebrate eleven Guianan Cock-of-the-rock, my birthday and eat some cake which was very kindly mentioned by Pablo to the lodge owner who him and his family then made me a birthday cake. Cheers
No comments:
Post a Comment