The View of a Million Trees at Turtle Mountain, Guyana Week 5

Day 27

The group woke up early to get on our way to Turtle Mountain, which has a spectacular view above the canopy, looking out over the large expanse of forest. Once we got to Irokrama, I needed to check some emails on some news about my upcoming job. They came through, and unfortunately, the school I was hired to work for could not get enough enrollment, so they had to cancel everyone's contracts. That was a serious blow because I was looking forward to moving to Hawaii. I am glad we get some WiFi out here because to come back expecting to move to Hawaii in a week and find out I was not going would have been a serious blow.

Mammal Sean, Courtney, Johnny, and I caught the last boat to the mountain, and about halfway there, it started to dump water on us. We have been getting at least one deluge a day of rain because of the buildup of precipitation. That afternoon I had a very chill day, and we went on a boat ride. While exploring, we found a beautiful medium-sized amazon tree boa that I grabbed and planned to show people the next day how to work with snakes and such.

We continued along the way and spotted some cool frogs and then some birds. The great potoo is a large-mouthed bird that mimics dead logs and perches on top. It is such a great species to see, but unfortunately could not grab a photo of it. We continued and spotted a large tree boa. This one was more of a brown morph that I have not seen before, so I grabbed it as well for processing.

We passed by a small black caiman that would have been perfect for catching, but I could not get my snare out in time, and he sank away. We then headed back to the station for some sleep.

Day 28

The next day I woke up and processed the snakes with everyone and went on a bit of hike by myself. I did not find much, but that afternoon I headed to the top of the mountain. I made it up in forty minutes which is not too bad. The view was stunning. I did not spend too much time up there, so I headed back down and looked for wildlife.

That night we went on a walking hike along the river for frogs and saw a water snake but could not catch it and then spotted a Pipa pipa, but it got away. While hiking, we heard the low rumble sound of an ocelot.

Day 29

This morning I hung out, and while waiting at the table, the bird team showed me something super cool. A bird had an absolutely colossal bot fly inside of it that the medic removed. It was gross. Hopefully, someone gets one by the time we leave.

That afternoon I headed up to the top of Turtle Mountain and was able to see a massive storm system coming in. I set up a time-lapse, but it was too short to capture the storm moving through. I got drenched on top because I was initially going to wait out the storm. The thunder was getting louder, and I was starting to see lightning, so I headed back down. That night we went out on the boat and saw so many great birds: common kingfisher, amazon kingfisher, and capped herons. We also spotted a couple of caimans and then four big amazon tree boas that were out of reach. We headed back, and then it rained all night.

Day 30

I woke up at 3:50 am because I wanted to do the sunrise hike. It was a clear night, so I took my tripod to get some star photos before the sun came up. Iona and I started earlier before the others, but it was like being in a cloud, so I could not get any photos. I set up my GoPro to get a time-lapse of the sunrise, and we just sat up there looking at the sun. It was a very cloudy day, though, so the sun was not that visible, but after a bit, I noticed a strange cloud formation that I have only seen a few times in my life before, a Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud formation.

This cloud form is when there is a layer of hot air and a layer of cold air moving together, creating the wave look of the cloud. About 6 am, I head down the mountain to get breakfast and some rest before the big school groups come in. While on our way down, we saw peccary and capuchins moving around and working together, which seems like a type of symbiosis. When I got back up, I checked the area for any fer de lance, lifted a log, and found a young one underneath it. I got Justin over to hook the snake and take it to the jungle.

After the snake, I grabbed my stuff together to head to the jungle to set up my hammock. It was the first time camping in the forest for me as I have been under the A-frame so far this trip. I am a fan of having all my stuff with me because I am so used to the hostel lifestyle because I can watch out for my stuff. I set up everything between two beautiful big trees and set my tarp, bug net, and hammock up. I made a laundry line and then a little table to rest my North Face duffel bag on. The new students started coming in, and introductions were made.

Around lunchtime, Iona found a pink toe tarantula, which is a common sight out here. I love tarantulas, so I picked the spider up and got some fun photos with it. I also helped Iona somewhat get over her fear of spiders.

That afternoon around 3 pm, I headed up to the top of the mountain with Brian, Vanessa, Katie, and David, to enjoy some calm before the storm. It was beautiful with the sun brightening that green canopy. I set up my time-lapse for the clouds, and as the day went on, we saw lots of macaws and other cool birds. The rainstorms in the distance started to produce rainbows.

That evening I set out with a new group of students, and right off the bat, we found a beautiful dwarf caiman, and I was excited to compare photos of this one to the one I thought was the other species, and I am correct! I have 100% caught three species of caiman out of the four found in Guyana.

We also found a massive trail of leaf cutter ants, and I seriously want to get a time-lapse of them moving around. We did not see much else, so I headed back and went to bed. I grabbed some quick photos of bats before I went to bed, though.

Day 31

Since we have so many new students that came in the day before, I started doing day transects to look for herps. It is not the best time as these reptiles do not come out during the day, but we have a chance at seeing the cool diurnal species. That morning though, while hanging with the bird team, we noticed many termites starting to emerge from the ground. The toucans and aracari started all jumping up and eating the termites that were flying. So as one does in the jungle, I decided to try some and ate around 20 of them! Individually they do not have a taste, but the more you had in your mouth, the more you could taste the nutty flavor. The bird team brought back some interesting birds that morning. One in particular, the royal flycatcher, I was very adamant about getting a photograph due to how charismatic its threat display is. They have a gorgeous crest of color that they display when threatened or attracting mates. I photographed that bird along with some others.

That day I went on a walk through the river area and did not see much. I then went up to the top of Turtle Mountain, caught a beautiful rainstorm passing by, and photographed macaws and the jungle.

That night we went walking around the river area because the rain was pretty constant that night, and I found a couple of cool frogs and some water snakes. As I walked back, I searched for black caiman again but could not get one close enough to noose.

I decided to walk into the forest after that by myself because I was feeling the groove. My goal was to get a time-lapse video of a leafcutter ant colony moving. The other night I saw a massive group of them, so I thought I would head that way. As I was walking, I noticed an awesome ant colony close to where I caught the caiman. They were moving some fantastic plant pieces, green and red leaves with white flowers. I sat in the jungle next to the ants, trying to get a video with my GoPro, holding my torch in the right way, so it is not too bright or dark to see the ants. I was not happy with the quality coming from the GoPro, so I took my phone and decided to set it up on the stand to use the iPhone's time-lapse feature. After shooting like five million tries, I was finally happy with my results. It was getting close to midnight, so I packed up and headed back to camp.

While walking near the bat nets, I see two bats caught and then spot Iona, Quincy, and Dalans with head torch lights aiming upfront. They were not moving, and there was no bat net near them, so I wondered what the heck they were doing. Then Iona shouts, "bushmaster"! So, I get super excited, and since I do not know where the snake is, they guide me to the spot. I spot the snake and immediately see it was just a larger fer del lance. The biggest B.atrox I have seen yet for sure. I would guess around 1.5 meters. The snake was calmly lying in an ambush position on the side of the trail, so I went up and used my snake hook to scoot her off. The snake then went to the other side of the path where the bat nets were, so I continued to drive it away. It eventually went on to a log and sat on the top, so I gave the bat team the all-clear to come and close the nets.

Waiting for them to clear the nets was irritating because of the sandflies. These painful biting insects can potentially carry leishmaniasis, which no one wants to have. The bat team came over, and I monitored the snake while they closed the bat nets. After they all left, I hooked the snake and moved it far into the jungle on the other side so it won't do anything to anyone. I went back to camp and photographed some bats before I went to bed.

Day 32

I went hiking on the long route today, which was spectacular because it had all these awesome pools perfect for dwarf caiman. We headed back to camp in the afternoon, and I photographed a very cool dung beetle that Dan (Bug guy) had brought back from his pitfall traps. The sapphire blue coloring was stunning. The bug team had also brought a stunning species of flower mantis that I photographed as well.

I headed up the mountain one more time to get some time-lapse and look for birds and such. I saw a small rainstorm was building up in the south and heading our way, so I set up the time-lapse to get it in view. Unfortunately, on the GoPro 5, they have this lens cap thing that makes my camera fog up in temperature changes, so I did not get a great video, but I was thrilled with the one I got the other day. Finally got a great group photo of our amazing team!

On the way back down, I wanted to look for snakes, and some students found an aquatic coral snake crossing the road, so I posed it in the center of the path so everyone could view it safely and borrowed a macro lens from one of the teachers to get photos of this stunning snake. Then I set it on the same side it was headed.

That night we went out on a boat ride to look for snakes, and we spotted the typical caiman and some amazon tree boas but one, in particular, was deep red and beautiful with a white belly and red on top. I have never seen anything like it before. I tried to get the snake, but unfortunately, the snake was too caught up in the bushes, and you don't want to pull on them due to potentially hurting its spines. We also found an orange-red juvenile, and I got some photos before releasing them. Saw a bunch of gladiator frogs, and then we headed in for the night.