Blood-coloured Woodpecker - Azure-coloured skies (Eustace Barnes). GUYANA & SURINAME 22 FEBRUARY – 7/12 MARCH 2020 LEADER: EUSTACE BARNES with SEAN DILROSUN in SURINAME GROUP MEMBERS: BERNARD COURONNE, MICHAEL GODDARD, KARIN KOESTER, MANFRED KOESTER, MARIANNE LENZ, IAN LEWIS AND DENZIL MORGAN. 1 BirdQuest Tour Report: Guyana & Suriname 2020 www.birdquest-tours.com Rufous Potoo at one of very few known roosts for the species (Eustace Barnes). So, Guyana and Suriname in one comprehensive tour of the region (assuming you do the extension). Got to be the way forward with ever improving infrastructure and better site information. Also, the Guianan shield avifauna is only accessed in Guyana and Suriname. That is, since Venezuela continues its staggering collapse into chaos and anarchy and, somewhat oddly, Manaus is remains out of fashion. Don’t understand that at all. Anyway, the Guianas do offer a great opportunity to see a good chunk of what the region has to offer so visiting both countries in one tour makes good sense. 2 BirdQuest Tour Report: Guyana & Suriname 2020 www.birdquest-tours.com I think it could safely be said that the tour was the best ever. We did improve on a number of counts as you might find, reading on. We did miss a couple of things and gain a couple of others. Whether I can now avoid the stultifying tedium of most tour reports is another question entirely, but I will try. However, I have just reread the list and what a trip. Got to be done, surely! A superb male Red (Orange?) Siskin (Jonathan Newman) Highlights as follows; outstanding views of Red Siskin on day 2, great experience with the magnificent Sun Parakeets on day 3, a nice session along the Ireng river with Hoary-throated Spinetails on day 4, a pair of Crestless Curassows at Karanambu, the other-worldly Capuchinbird, Bearded Tachuri at three locations, a couple of Crested Doraditos, a pair of Blue-backed Tanagers, a cooperative pair of Red and black Grosbeaks, a beautiful male Guianan Red Cotinga, the stunning Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock at a lek. Activity in the Iwokrama forest reserve was way better than usual for the specialities, producing great views of the rare Crimson Fruitcrow, two White-winged Potoos, a roosting Rufous Potoo, Crimson Topaz, a Spotted Antpitta and a tree full of Cotingas, including Purple-breasted, Spangled and Pompadour Cotingas! On the coast we found a pair of Blood-coloured Woodpeckers, a pair of Rufous Crab Hawks and those vexing Festive Amazons in the botanical gardens. Again, a big hit for only two weeks of birding. Well yes, but as a friend once wryly observed, ‘I suppose you do get more luck the more time you spend in the field’. All these tours are honed from thousands of hours of field experience, there is no luck, only tireless, leaders coordinating logistics. If either fails the whole thing is a disaster. The Rupununi savannas (Eustace Barnes). 3 BirdQuest Tour Report: Guyana & Suriname 2020 www.birdquest-tours.com So, the Guianas (‘Covid-19’) 2020 tour kicked off with flights to Panama on KLM. Panama being the principal hub for onward flights for destintons Latin American and there being no direct flight to Georgetown from Europe.. A spectacular dark phase Long-winged Harrier (Eustace Barnes). Unfortunately, the less developed world is precisely that part of the planet most affected by the grotesque over consumption that defines the developed world, generating that ‘work place stress’ and which, as such, simultaneously degrades natural systems and peoples lives. The staggering rate of environmental degradation taking place at present leaves me reeling and both horrified and overwhelmed. Those ‘sun seekers’ heading off to bury their heads in the sand and pickle their livers on some hideous package deal in the Caribbean might well have it sorted: the bliss of ignorance. However, while connecting with nature might be somewhat illusory for us, nature had every intention of connecting with us, as the tremendous diversity of biting things in the savannas and forests of Guyana demonstrated, with much of the fauna weighing up the pros and cons of trying to eat us. Tranquil southern savanna rivers (Eustace Barnes). 4 BirdQuest Tour Report: Guyana & Suriname 2020 www.birdquest-tours.com Once assembled at the shambolical Herdmonsten Lodge we quickly made plans to visit the misnamed ‘botanical’ gardens; a sort of city park for picnickers, families and drunken revellers but not the carefully arranged selection of Guyana’s flora its name might suggest. These gardens are, nevertheless, always worth a visit or two, as our time therein demonstrated. White-bellied Piculet. Picumnus s. spilogaster. (Ed Wilson). Heavy barring on the throat and chest with large spots and crescents on yellowish flanks and belly do make this taxon quite distinctive. 5 BirdQuest Tour Report: Guyana & Suriname 2020 www.birdquest-tours.com Rounding up a fleet of taxis we headed, in convoy, the short distance to the garden entrance. Wandering around the gardens we quickly picked up the perky little Common Tody Flycatcher and Ochre-lored Flatbill which was previously misidentified as Boat-billed Tody Tyrant by local guides. I can only suppose this error arose when the first visiting birders on ‘FAM’ trips told the locals they were Boat-billed Tody Tyrants. Also present were Grey Kingbirds, of which we saw several, the brightly attired Yellow Oriole, dapper Rusty- margined Flycatchers, Great and Lesser Kiskadees and a few Violaceous Euphonias. Raptors were well represented with several Grey-lined Hawks, a single Zone-tailed Hawk, numerous Snail Kites and a pair of Black-collared Hawks flopping about. Cocoi Heron lifting off (Eustace Barnes) Anyway, we were looking for other targeted species and in no time found several White-bellied Piculets. The nominate form here having a heavily barred breast with variable ammounts of spots and or crescents on yellowish flanks and belly unlike the form orenocensis in the south (contra Winkler and Christie in HBW7) which is white from chin to crissum and largely unmarked. It would seem, as observed earlier, that this form and the Arrowhead Piculet need looking at from Georgetown to Paramaribo. The latter being more of a canopy species and much darker olive green below with profuse scalloping not barring. 6 BirdQuest Tour Report: Guyana & Suriname 2020 www.birdquest-tours.com A superb Ringed Kingfisher (left) and displaying Great Egret (right) (Eustace Barnes) The afternoon skies are always full of parrots and we were treated to great views of numerous groups of Red-shouldered Macaws, Brown-breasted Parakeets, extraordinary numbers of both Yellow-crowned and Orange-winged Amazons. We also found a few pairs of the resident Festive Amazon (of the race bodini). The latter a now rare and somewhat localised taxon whose presence in these urban ‘gardens’ seems to be questioned. However, as with all the other parrots found in urban Georgetown the racces are appropriate to the their natural range and original distribution, although they are not questioned. As it was getting dark, we had found our target species and enjoyed the stunning spectacle of dozens of Psittacids wheeling in to roost we decided to return to our hotel for a splendid meal. Indeed time for a Banks and good night’s sleep, far, far, far from rain and floods in the UK (Three one hundred year floods in as many weeks seems indicative of something). A funereal Grey-lined Hawk (left) and the wary White-tipped dove (right) (Eustace Barnes) The usual Caribbean urgency to get things done greeted us at Ogle airport, as we waited for our flight to Lethem on the Brazilian border in the far south. It was cloudy. Window seat, aisle seat it made no difference to the views we obtained. However, we were flying over the vast forested interior that should give some hope for the survival of the great tropical treasure house. 7 BirdQuest Tour Report: Guyana & Suriname 2020 www.birdquest-tours.com This is page seems to be all about the environment, so skip a page to get to the birds if it gets too depressing. Any optimism on that score being ill-founded, as huge areas of forest are being cleared and degraded in dense mosaics of illegal mining. These swarming plagues of miners are churning up said ‘tresurehouse’ and destroying its real treasures forever. We did have sight of the intricate mosaic of savannas, gallery forests and wetlands so typical of the southern region, heralding our arrival at Lethem. A dusty little settlement, whose existence is contingent upon a tax differential between Guyana and Brazil, allowing residents of the latter to buy industrial quantities of shoes, flip flops and other consumer goodies in the former, before nipping back to the now bustling city of Boa Vista; a city whose population is now greatly augmented by the arrival of several hundred thousand Venezuelan refugees, fleeing the people’s socialist republic of Venezuela. What would Jeremy say about that I wonder? We did see, not only Venezuelans but also Haitians pouring down the Guyana highway to the Brazilian border, where presumably they will set about further wrecking the tropical ecology. At such times, one can see the pace of a globalised, desperate fight for water and land accelerate. Hole in the sky. Peering down at those searching for gold (Eustace Barnes) So, you can see here the separation ponds and cleared areas along streams where alluvial materials are being washed and graded in the search for gold. These areas soon regenerate but leave behind a mat of thick vegetation and poor secondary growth with a network of ponds. These present a threat of malaria to any settlers, which are periodically flushed by heavy rains to increase trace metal contmaination in water courses.