Suriname, fourth day, Nickerie river

This 2011 video is about the ship Mi Gudu on the Nickerie river in Suriname.

Suriname, 6 February.

Today, like yesterday, on the Nickerie river in the west of Suriname.

Close to the river bank, a tree lying in the river. Around its leafless branches, white-necked jacobin hummingbirds flying around.

A landing on the bank. On a tree, a wedge-billed woodcreeper.

A podosiri palm. From its berries, the Native American and Maroon people of the interior make a drink.

Many frogs in puddles on the jungle path.

Tracks of a red brocket deer, second biggest of the three deer species of Suriname. A bit further, a jaguar skeleton. Almost complete, except for the head. Probably killed by American Indian hunters, who use its teeth for necklaces. A high level Dutch embassy official is said to have smuggled a jaguar pelt out of Suriname, which is illegal, by using diplomatic mail. Also, a paca skull was found today.

At 10:45, the ship goes on. A mating flight of two greater yellow-headed vultures. Then, a king vulture. An Amazon kingfisher. A green kingfisher. A plumbeous kite.

Two blue-and-yellow macaws, calling.

White-winged swallows. Yellow-rumped caciques.

We have a landing again, near a silver-beaked tanager nest. This is a relatively open spot in the jungle.

A female wing-barred seedeater on a blade of grass.

Two orange-winged parrots.

A swallow-tailed kite.

A giant cowbird. The crested oropendolas whose colonial nests hang from a tree on the opposite bank, consider it a threat; as it is a brood parasite, somewhat like the European cuckoo. The oropendolas frantically try to drive the cowbird away; not succeeding immediately, but eventually.

There are piranhas in the river. And bigger predatory fish, like the tukunari. A korjaal motor boat takes us to a tributary river of the Nickerie, full of fallen trees. Ringed kingfisher. Wagner’s sac-winged bats. Amazon kingfisher. An anhinga spreading its wings to dry them, on a branch above us. A roadside hawk flying overhead.

The other group, going to the tributary river just after us, sees even more, including river turtles, river otters and giant otters.

This video says about itself:

As seen recently on ‘The Land of the Jaguar’ on the BBC, here is my video of Giant Otters from a trip to Peru. Please excuse the shakiness of the film… it was recorded handheld from a boat – I don’t have a fancy BBC HD camera!

They also see big freshwater turtles. The pygmy kingfisher. And a black nunbird.

Back to the ship.

A black caracara. An osprey. Red-billed toucans in a treetop. A squirrel cuckoo.

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