Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
I recently took a trip to Guyana after which I tacked on a few days in Suriname and French Guiana. The Suriname part was a combination of general sightseeing and birdwatching and I did have a few birds there that we didn’t have on the Guyana tour. I ended up with 63 species in two days, including 7 lifers, which wasn’t bad considering I had just gotten 100+ lifers in the two week trip to Guyana. French Guiana was uneventful birdwise, since I really went there more for tourism than birding, but since there’s so little information on it, I figured I’d at least give what little info I have.
I arrived at Zorg en Hoop Airport in Paramaribo via Gum Air from Georgetown on a 13 seater Cessna and took a taxi to my hotel, the Eco Resort Inn. As has been noted by others, I have no idea what makes it “Eco” since it’s simply a motel in a fairly urban part of town, although it is along the Suriname River. While waiting for them to get my room ready, I wandered around the grounds, picking up some of the common species: great kiskadee, tropical kingbird, house wren, and blue-black grassquit.
After growing tired of waiting for them to finish my room, I threw on my walking shoes and headed into town to explore. The town is quite pretty, but I didn’t see much bird-wise in town other than flocks of feral pigeons. I ended up my walk at the Palmentuin (Palm Garden), where I added pale-breasted thrush, gray kingbird, short-crested flycatcher, palm tanager (in palms!), and silver-beaked tanagers along with many more kiskadees.
After going back to my hotel and finally checking in, I went down to the riverside on the hotel grounds. This added black vulture and turkey vulture, laughing gull, snowy and cattle egrets, yellow-headed caracara, greater ani, purple gallinule, white-winged swallow, short-tailed swift, and blue-gray tanager. It began to pour at about 6 PM, so I headed inside to safety and ended my day.
The next day I had arranged to go birding with Otte Ottema, who formerly worked for Stinasu, the Foundation for Nature Conservation in Suriname. He met me in a taxi at my hotel and together we went to a local car rental agency, who provided a compact car with air-con for $20 USD including 100 free kilometers (cheap!).
I gave Otte a short list of targets that I figured we might see based on Jan Hein Ribot’s webpage. He went through the list, eliminated a few species as being uinlikely, and concluded that we could get many of the others by going to three main locations – Peperpot Plantation, Weg naar Zee, and the Cultuurtuin Park. I was surprised he put Weg naar Zee on the to-do list, because I only figured one species was possible there, be he felt some others might be possible near there. He was right, of course.
Our first stop was the nature trail at the Peperpot Plantation, where we had the best chance at the largest variety of species including Suriname’s only endemic, arrowhead piculet. Now other reports I’ve read describe the trail head as being less than obvious, but there was now a large sign at the entrance advertising it as the “Peperpot Nature Trail” or Nature Preserve with a large yellow gate. They also now charge admission - $12.50 SRD for foreigners, $3.00 SRD for locals.
We stopped right at the entrance before going in the gate to see what was around. We picked up the common three tanagers (palm, silver-beaked, and blue-gray), a pair of black-crested antshrikes, yellow-rumped cacique, crested oropendola, and orange-winged parrots. We heard ashy-headed greenlets, but having seen them in Guyana, we didn’t make an effort to call them in. Then Otte heard a cream-colored woodpecker. We called that in, but it hid behind the trunk and didn’t give great views. We also had what was probably a pygmy kingfisher fly in for a split second before taking off again.
We finally entered the gate (!) and found another flock of mostly the same species, but added a great antshrike that wouldn’t show itself. At this time Otte heard an arrowhead piculet. We tried unsuccessfully to call it in, but while trying, I found a hummingbird which Otte identified as a plain-bellied emerald, my first lifer of the day. We then turned right down the main, 3 km long trail that eventually leads to the old Peperpot Plantation.
The next lifer was a blackish antbird, which Otte heard and called in, and soon after that we heard another few arrowhead piculets both calling and drumming. I was able to find the drumming male right over our heads and then we saw a couple more zipping around over the trail. Good to get that one under our belts. While watching the piculets a straight-billed woodcreeper called and then flew off.
We walked a little further down the trail seeing brown-throated parakeets and green-rumped parrotlets, as well as adding cinereous tinamou to the heard-only list. Eventually we came to a place where bamboo arched over the trail. We sat down and Otte called in some crimson-hooded manakins – first a female, which Otte says never tend to respond, but then a couple of beautiful males. There was also a cinnamon attila calling nearby but he was well buried in the trees and wouldn’t show himself.
It was starting to heat up and bird song was definitely dropping off, so at that point we turned around. The first new bird on the way back was a little cuckoo who we saw before hearing. Meanwhile, Otte was working his way through the target list, so he picked a suitable spot and gave the white-browed antbird tape a try. Boom! A nice male came right in and after a bit of hide-and-seek gave stellar views. For a black and white bird, it really is quite pretty. We tried another spot for black-throated antbird, another target, but instead got a singing yellow-crested elaenia that unfortunately wouldn’t come into view. We also heard a slender-billed kite over our heads while looking for the elaenia.
As we made it back to the trail head, Otte heard a plain-crowned spinetail. This bird came right in and gave spectacular views, which he said doesn’t happen often. It also meant that we could avoid a stop at the Cultuurtuin Park, which is actually a more reliable spot for the spinetail and the manakin. So I paid our admission fees to the guard, and we headed to a nearby bar/store for some cold drinks.
I arrived at Zorg en Hoop Airport in Paramaribo via Gum Air from Georgetown on a 13 seater Cessna and took a taxi to my hotel, the Eco Resort Inn. As has been noted by others, I have no idea what makes it “Eco” since it’s simply a motel in a fairly urban part of town, although it is along the Suriname River. While waiting for them to get my room ready, I wandered around the grounds, picking up some of the common species: great kiskadee, tropical kingbird, house wren, and blue-black grassquit.
After growing tired of waiting for them to finish my room, I threw on my walking shoes and headed into town to explore. The town is quite pretty, but I didn’t see much bird-wise in town other than flocks of feral pigeons. I ended up my walk at the Palmentuin (Palm Garden), where I added pale-breasted thrush, gray kingbird, short-crested flycatcher, palm tanager (in palms!), and silver-beaked tanagers along with many more kiskadees.
After going back to my hotel and finally checking in, I went down to the riverside on the hotel grounds. This added black vulture and turkey vulture, laughing gull, snowy and cattle egrets, yellow-headed caracara, greater ani, purple gallinule, white-winged swallow, short-tailed swift, and blue-gray tanager. It began to pour at about 6 PM, so I headed inside to safety and ended my day.
The next day I had arranged to go birding with Otte Ottema, who formerly worked for Stinasu, the Foundation for Nature Conservation in Suriname. He met me in a taxi at my hotel and together we went to a local car rental agency, who provided a compact car with air-con for $20 USD including 100 free kilometers (cheap!).
I gave Otte a short list of targets that I figured we might see based on Jan Hein Ribot’s webpage. He went through the list, eliminated a few species as being uinlikely, and concluded that we could get many of the others by going to three main locations – Peperpot Plantation, Weg naar Zee, and the Cultuurtuin Park. I was surprised he put Weg naar Zee on the to-do list, because I only figured one species was possible there, be he felt some others might be possible near there. He was right, of course.
Our first stop was the nature trail at the Peperpot Plantation, where we had the best chance at the largest variety of species including Suriname’s only endemic, arrowhead piculet. Now other reports I’ve read describe the trail head as being less than obvious, but there was now a large sign at the entrance advertising it as the “Peperpot Nature Trail” or Nature Preserve with a large yellow gate. They also now charge admission - $12.50 SRD for foreigners, $3.00 SRD for locals.
We stopped right at the entrance before going in the gate to see what was around. We picked up the common three tanagers (palm, silver-beaked, and blue-gray), a pair of black-crested antshrikes, yellow-rumped cacique, crested oropendola, and orange-winged parrots. We heard ashy-headed greenlets, but having seen them in Guyana, we didn’t make an effort to call them in. Then Otte heard a cream-colored woodpecker. We called that in, but it hid behind the trunk and didn’t give great views. We also had what was probably a pygmy kingfisher fly in for a split second before taking off again.
We finally entered the gate (!) and found another flock of mostly the same species, but added a great antshrike that wouldn’t show itself. At this time Otte heard an arrowhead piculet. We tried unsuccessfully to call it in, but while trying, I found a hummingbird which Otte identified as a plain-bellied emerald, my first lifer of the day. We then turned right down the main, 3 km long trail that eventually leads to the old Peperpot Plantation.
The next lifer was a blackish antbird, which Otte heard and called in, and soon after that we heard another few arrowhead piculets both calling and drumming. I was able to find the drumming male right over our heads and then we saw a couple more zipping around over the trail. Good to get that one under our belts. While watching the piculets a straight-billed woodcreeper called and then flew off.
We walked a little further down the trail seeing brown-throated parakeets and green-rumped parrotlets, as well as adding cinereous tinamou to the heard-only list. Eventually we came to a place where bamboo arched over the trail. We sat down and Otte called in some crimson-hooded manakins – first a female, which Otte says never tend to respond, but then a couple of beautiful males. There was also a cinnamon attila calling nearby but he was well buried in the trees and wouldn’t show himself.
It was starting to heat up and bird song was definitely dropping off, so at that point we turned around. The first new bird on the way back was a little cuckoo who we saw before hearing. Meanwhile, Otte was working his way through the target list, so he picked a suitable spot and gave the white-browed antbird tape a try. Boom! A nice male came right in and after a bit of hide-and-seek gave stellar views. For a black and white bird, it really is quite pretty. We tried another spot for black-throated antbird, another target, but instead got a singing yellow-crested elaenia that unfortunately wouldn’t come into view. We also heard a slender-billed kite over our heads while looking for the elaenia.
As we made it back to the trail head, Otte heard a plain-crowned spinetail. This bird came right in and gave spectacular views, which he said doesn’t happen often. It also meant that we could avoid a stop at the Cultuurtuin Park, which is actually a more reliable spot for the spinetail and the manakin. So I paid our admission fees to the guard, and we headed to a nearby bar/store for some cold drinks.
