Day 6 - Cerulean Warbler Reserve - Colombia

Cerulean Warbler Reserve

Today we transferred from El Paujil to the Cerulean Warbler reserve.   As the river hadn't dropped we were able to leave by boat, which was our preferred route.    Breakfast was at 5.30 am, we hung around the lodge until the boat arrived and left at 6.30.   Unlike our arrival, the walk down the river bank was cut into definite steps which made life easier, and when we arrived at the town the mud was far less gloopy, and there was no audience to put us off!   Spotted sandpipers were seen on the sandy banks of the river.

Undulating countryside along our journey

We travelled along the dirt road for about three hours with several birding stops.   A squirrel cuckoo showed really well on a wire fence at the side of the bus.   Two pied puffbirds delighted us by performing like bookends, whilst we watched and photographed them, seemingly unaware of our presence.   Northern screamers were in the same area as before, along with ibis, cocoi heron, savannah hawk.   We stopped at a roadside cafe just on the Pan-American Highway for elevenses I had a berry milkshake which was superb, if a little large.   Here we scanned the river which was high and had covered several sandbanks which we had hoped to bird.   Black skimmers were in the distance.    An hour or so further on we stopped for lunch, I had vegetable soup which as usual had meat in it - typically Colombian.  

Looking for sandbars!

We carried on towards the next reserve, meeting up with our three jeeps which were to take us up the rocky and winding road leading to the lodge.   We made a comfort stop at an outlying building -primitive but working, and then we continued up through a town where we stopped for some cold remedy for one of the group, this gave the rest of us time to watch the world go by.   It was now dark
and raining.   After about 3 hours in the jeeps we finally arrived, had dinner and settled into our rooms, which were set in a row with a short walk over to the dining room.  
I had the nearest room which ended up being the way through to the verandah, so everyone was invited into view the feeders.