Suriname, 8th day, to the southern mountains

This video is called Suriname an exciting part of the Amazon.

After yesterday, today, we are going to the Kayser mountains. This is an uninhabited region in the deep south-west of Suriname. Decades ago, there has been biological research there. However, the findings of this research have got lost. In February 2007, there was some research on Dendrobates frogs there. No ornithological literature known.

The Surinamese biologist with our group, Marchal Lingaard, has been there once, for a short time. He found that capybaras (see also here) live there. Two mating anacondas, arguably the biggest snakes alive in the world today, have been seen.

So, basically, most things that we will be able to find out about animals and plants there will be new.

On our way to the airport: a smooth-billed ani on a wire.

Groove-billed ani, a more western South American species; picture: here.

This is a video about Suriname, seen from the air. We flew from Paramaribo‘s domestic flights airport to the Kayser mountains airstrip.

The airstrip was originally made by the Dutch colonial government in 1960. We will sleep in the buildings, built there for aerial cartography then.

The airfield and its immediate surroundings are grass and marshland, up to the Zuidrivier (Southern river). Quite some moriche palms. A bit further, there is rainforest. The airfield is 280 meter above sea level. Some of the mountains around it are over 700 meter.

A black vulture. Green garden lizards rushing across rocks. Next to the buildings, a yellow-rumped cacique hanging nests colony in a tree.

On the other side of the buildings, cecropia trees. They attract many birds, including tanager species. Like turquoise tanager, palm tanager, blue-grey tanager, and silver-beaked tanager. Also tropical kingbird.

Marchal says that ocelot droppings have been found. Early in the morning, ocelots are coming close to the buildings to eat fruit.

A plumbeous kite driving a great black hawk away. A giant cowbird. We will see many of them here, as they like the grass of the airfield.

A white-tipped dove.

Grey-breasted martins. A greater yellow-headed vulture.

Mating blue-grey tanagers.

Two blue-and yellow macaws flying across the airstrip.

A lesser seed-finch. This bird which used to be common, is now rare in northern Suriname, as it is often caught as a cagebird for its singing.

A bare-necked fruit crow. A blue-and-white swallow.

A blue-black grassquit male doing its dancing. Here, not from a telephone pole like near Paramaribo, but from a branch.

A barn swallow.

A capped heron.

From the rainforest, black spider monkeys are calling.

A swallow-tailed kite flying overhead.

Smooth-billed anis in shrubs close to the airstrip grass.

A walk to the Zuidrivier. A teju lizard.

A bananaquit in a tree.

The Zuidrivier is a tributary of the Lucie river, a tributary of the Courantyne river.

We hear a coraya wren; a species often heard, but rarely seen.

A black caracara. A common tody-flycatcher.

Many frog sounds, as it is getting late in the afternoon.

A channel-billed toucan.

A red-throated caracara.

Capybara footprints on the path.

A black-necked aracari sitting on a tree.

Back to the airstrip. A great black hawk, looking for frogs just before darkness.

In the evening, at least one frog very close to the building.

In the dark, we are going to look for nightjars around the airstrip. We find at least three species tonight: parauque; ladder-tailed nightjar; and blackish nightjar.

Birding in Costa Rica – Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum): here.