I woke up on our second morning hearing a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl tooting somewhere outside our room. Excited that the previous days rains had stopped, I quickly dressed in order to head back to the veranda for some hot tea and more birds. Pamela woke and asked me if it had stopped raining. When I said "of course" and opened the door, I found that I was wrong. Pam stayed in bed a bit later and I nevertheless headed to the famous veranda, because a little rain doesn't stop these birds.
After breakfast, Pamela and I learned that in the evening that we would be going to the Caroni Marsh to see the Scarlet Ibis coming in to roost, and that we would be leaving at about 1:30 in the afternoon. Up until that time was our own to explore. The rain seemed to slow so we decided that since our initial arrival was in the dark, we would bird the entrance road.
The birding started out pretty slow, a was a bit frustrating. Up until this point, most birds had been coming close to us and remained relatively visible, or we had birded with a guide who knew the sounds well and where to look for the birds. We had neither advantage now, and I can understand how difficult birding in the rainforest can be - birds remained high in the canopy, for neck-breaking looks at silhouettes. We were slightly comforted looking at some of the beautiful vegetation and flowers of the area while watching flitting shadows.
Don't know what these are, but I do know that the following are Heliconia - one of Pam's favorites!
We did encounter a fruiting tree with quite a few birds when we reached Blanchissuese Road, but mainly the same birds we'd seen at the feeders. Off in the distance we still could occasionally hear Bearded Bellbirds calling or a flock of Orange-winged Amazon parrots calling in flight. On the walk back, the sun came out and things started getting a bit birdier. I tried my hand at a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl toot and rather than calling in smaller birds, I actually had the owl itself respond and had a conversation with it for a few minutes, but was not able to coax him out into the open to see - I expect he was able to see us just fine though. Pamela spotted Barred Antshrike working in some nearby vegetation that with a little patience provided some very nice looks.
And while we were watching the antshrike, I heard the distinctive tapping of a foraging woodpecker above us. Looking up, we had our first really good looks at a Linneated Woodpecker!
Continuing on, we heard a trogon calling softly, and within a few moments were getting stunning looks at a another one of my favorite birds of this trip- a Violaceous Trogon:
Views like this allow you to easily distinguish this bird from the similarly colored White-tailed Trogon, which has a light blue eye-ring and large white panels on the tail (note that this bird shows a yellow eye-ring, and barred undertail).Upon returning to the room, we found that we still had about an hour-and-a-half before lunch, and after we'd be heading out with the group to Caroni. Pam wanted to rest a bit, and maybe do a bit of reading on the veranda, but I was having none of that - I wanted to explore a bit, stepped out the door, and saw our first Golden Tegu Lizard - what a beauty! (said in a Steve Irwin accent!)
Now that it was sunnier and warm they were more active, and this was the first of several that we would see. The male Tufted Coquette was also near the purple flowers again, but still no good photos. Pam headed to the veranda to do a bit of reading, so I told her I'd meet her at lunch, and headed off to explore the Discovery Trail again (and maybe some of the side trails.) I soon ran into a few others that had been staying at the lodge (which reminds me I have not said anything yet about the other birders we met - more on them in a little bit) who were getting great looks at a White-tailed Trogon. I tried again to get a few photos, but again, shooting into the canopy resulted in disappointing shots.
A little further down the path, the Common Potoo was at the same roost as on the day before, but sitting such that it looked a little more like what I'd expected to see:
Happy with the new shots,
I continued down the trail towards the White-bearded Manakin lek, hoping that these snappy little fellas would be displaying but they were not again today.Just a bit further on, I heard several Bearded Bellbirds calling, and spent a good deal of time trying to get a good photo of these amazing birds. They were certainly closer that the previous morning (one was so close at one point, when it called it almost jarred me off my feet again - these guys are loud!) I got a few more pics and a video, although nothing like what I would have wished.
I wished I was able to stay longer and find a bird a little closer to the ground, but lunch had begun and we still had a big day ahead of us, so I packed it in, and headed to the dining room.
This is a good place to stop for the moment. Part 4 - Trincity Ponds and Caroni Swamp!
