A day at Surama, a small village just up the road from Rock View Lodge. The road there, which is also the highway from Georgetown to Brazil, produced the usual savannah species: Burrowing Owl, Cocoi Heron, Vermilion Flycatcher….

We enjoyed  wonderful meal at the village’s fine little eco-lodge, then set out to look for birds. Savannah Hawk was a revelation,  even larger and more beautiful than the books make it seem. A Great Potoo was a welcome stake-out in a damp bit of woods, and there was also a pair of Black-crested Antshrikes there–does anyone know why that bird is called canadensis?

But the bird of the day, head and shoulders above even that stiff competition, was a Spotted Puffbird perched low above our heads, flashing out every few minutes to grab a bug, then returning to its customary stolidity. There’s something about a puffbird that screams ‘tropics’, and this bird, along with the day’s Black Nunbirds and Swallow-wings (a funny name for a funnier bird), left no doubt about where we are!

What more need be said? I have seen the White-plumed Antbird, looking for all the world like the moustached and helmeted tyrant of a tropical land. They were feeding ahead of an army ant swarm at Turtle Mountain, a low hill just up the Essequibo from Iwokrama, along with a nice little gang of Rufous-throated Antbirds, oblivious to their human admirers, intent on the hapless bugs fleeing the myrmidon horde.

And of course there was much more. Red-fan Parrots were at an apparent nest site in a tall snag, and a Curve-billed Scythebill, heedless of its embarrassingly pleonastic name, fed quietly above the boat when it came time to leave.

Our way back downstream took us past the usual wondrous creatures: Amazon and Green Kingfishers, Cocoi and a single Capped Heron. The prize, however, was a trio of Black-collared Swallows huddled in the cleft of a large boulder mid-stream, dressed as if they had a table waiting at Tavern on the Green rather than an aerial smorgasbord above the Essequibo.

An early, early start at Shanklands Resort this morning, first into the forest, then upstream in a leaky boat to enjoy such common river birds as Ringed and Amazon Kingfishers and, the real beauty of these tropical rivers, White-winged Swallows. Silver-beaked and Turquoise Tanagers continued to find the eaves of our cabin irresistible, greatly to the detriment of whatever interesting invertebrates had made the choice to shelter there overnight.

And on, then, to yet another mode of transportation: a tiny propeller plane, which flew us south across dazzlingly beautiful rainforest to Iwokrama, some 220 miles up the Essequibo. And on, then, in another boat to the Field station. This boat was slow and easy, giving us ample opportunity to enjoy three species of wader: Spotted Sandpipers were common of course, but a splendid little Collared Plover feeding on a narrow beach put even that charming little shorebird to shame–only to be outdone itself by the Pied Lapwings on the river and on the lawn here at the Field Station.

Yes, that should have been enough. But birders are nothing if not greedy, and we followed our guides out onto the somewhat frighteningly name Bushmaster Trail, where we watched Screaming Pihas scream and Capuchinbirds capuch. It’s the tropics for sure, and we ended our walk listening to a close-in but typically shy Thrush-like Antpitta. Maybe tomorrow it will bound across our path. And if it doesn’t, I’m sure something will.

Last night’s visit to the Botanical Gardens in Georgetown was exciting enough, but we had to content ourselves with just (just!) Lineated and Crimson-crested Woodpeckers in the picid line. This morning, though, an early start gave us our target, one of the most range-restricted and most beautiful woodpeckers in the world: the vividly hued little Blood-colored Woodpecker. A pair worked quietly in the trees above the path, the male sanguine red all the way to the crown, the female more somber-headed but beautiful still.

I don’t know whether you can really tell much about a country from its national bird or not. But all the same, I suspect that I’m really going to like Guyana. Our trip on the Mahaica River this morning was not overly birdy, but it did produce amazing sightings of Hoatzins, great gawky blue-faced birds that seem somehow more intensely subject to gravity than any other solid body I know. They croaked and crashed through the trees all along the river bank, sometimes perching up in the open, sometimes thumping away into deeper cover, red wings half spread.

Other highlights: Rufous Crab-Hawk and Laughing Falcon, both perched nonchalantly nearby. And the amazingly beautiful, common, and tame Pied Water-Tyrant, already a strong contender for bird of the day. But there will be more; we’re off to the Georgetown Botanical Gardens to look for one of the country’s most desired endemics…. Stay tuned!