Last boat outing – and an extra-ordinary finale!

Tags

anhinga, black vulture, boat-billed heron, Brazil, capybara, caracara, donacobius, great egret, Jabiru, jaguar, kiskadee, Naturetrek, Pantanal, ringed kingfisher, rufescent tiger heron, sunbittern

The word ‘amazing’ is vastly overused, but the end of our trip truly was.

Sunday afternoon, 27th September. With no inkling of what was to came at the end of the day we set off again in our two boats for a final gentle glide.  This time, there was no question of wanting to see things being fed or performing, indeed we went in the other direction.

Anhingas hanging themselves out to dry

Rufescent tiger heron

Caracara

There’s a snake in there…

I couldn’t help but admire the boatmen’s determination

though sometimes there were open stretches

People in the know got very excited about this: Sunbittern

Great egret

The whole trip I kept hearing this word ‘Donacobius’, on the lips of people who knew about birds. It had been ticked on the list every night in our review. On the last day, I not only saw one, but was able to take a photo of it. Black-capped of that ilk.

One of my favourites – not least because I could recognise it – the rufescent tiger heron, juvenile

The Ringed kingfisher is another that I learned to recognise

The heron reveals its eponymous boat-bill…

… but not its tail (not that it’s got much of one)

Massed water hyacinths

Another donacobius!

Very, very occasionally we saw something familiar

Kiskadee

Great egret

Juvenile Great Black-hawk

Black vulture

Jabiru stork – one from the nest at the lodge

Every day, late afternoon, hot, sticky, beginning to tire, we were treated to chilled drinks which had emerged from a cooler at the back of the boats.  I had discovered a local carbonated one I rather liked, guarana, so that was my choice every day.  (I’ve just looked it up.  No wonder I liked it:  it’s high in caffeine!)  Dave Allen video’d our ‘sundowner’ about half way through the trip. (In case you’re interested , I’m in a green and white check shirt, towards the left.)

Well after dark, we assembled for our final meal together – some of us were leaving at 5.00 am the following day.  Suddenly, one of the boatmen came rushing in. “Onça!” he cried, “Jaguar!”  We rushed out.  Staff soon had their incredibly strong lamps on the spot on the other side of the river, but it was still very difficult to see anything.

“It’s in the hyacinths”.

“Naturetrekkers*, go and get your binoculars”, advised our leader.  We did, and I was just back in time to see the large feline clamber out of the water and up the bank, and then head off into the undergrowth.  With something in its mouth. A capybara.

But George hadn’t fetched his binoculars: he had fetched his camera.  And this is what he managed to take, very low resolution image here, but unmistakeable. An amazing finale to a wonderful trip.

* I was travelling with the excellent wildlife tour company, Naturetrek.

Many thanks to Dave Allen and my French birder and computer friend (and friend friend) Bernard Liégeois with great help in removing question marks from bird pictures throughout this series, and again to Dave for permission to use his wonderful video clips.

Rain!

Tags

Amazon kingfisher, anhinga, boat-billed heron, coati, great horned owl, Jabiru, jacana, monk parakeet, orange-backed troupial, potoo, ringed kingfisher, rufescent tiger heron, southedrn rough-winged swallow, sunbittern, toco toucan, woodcreeper

I didn’t always join the group for every little excursion on foot, especially when it meant getting up even earlier than usual.  Here’s what I missed on one occasion, video again courtesy of Dave Allen. Charming coatis.

Overnight it had rained, and the atmosphere was very damp indeed on Saturday, 26th, though a little, a little, cooler.  This is what the rain had done to the tree outside my room.After breakfast, I did go for a little wander in the grounds on my own, and climbed the observation tower, to see a Jabiru stork nest from another angle. I actually switched my camera to video, and took this experimentally myself, and was intrigued to see a teenager learning how to arrange the nest.

The cawing you can just hear in the background is Chaco chachalacas. I was pleased to see (and recognise!) a monk parakeet up there as well.

We set off on another boat ride, in the other direction.  The river soon narrowed down, from this,

to this

There was frequent reversing and roaring of motor to free the propeller from greenery

There were just so many birds, over our heads, beside us, around us.

Anhinga

Boat-billed heron, unfortunately hiding most of its boat-bill

Two toco toucans and anhinga

Sunbittern

Amazon kingfisher

Southern Rough-winged Swallow

Ringed kingfisher

Rufescent tiger-heron

The other boat forges the way for ours among the water hyacinth

The flower is very pretty

We disembarked to go for a short walk in the woods, to see this, a Great potoo. It didn’t move a muscle all the time we were there, hoping (thinking?) that we couldn’t see it.

Great potoo

Narrow-billed woodcreeper

It was only around 9.00 when we got back, and it was damp, starting to rain again.

We agreed to reconvene at 10.30 to see whether it was still raining and to decide whether to go for another stroll in the grounds, with a particular bird in mind.

It wasn’t, so we did.

Wattled jacana (it wasn’t this we had in mind)

Before we got to our goal, it started raining again, but we decided to press on.  And got soaked.  Still we saw the

Great horned owl

just about. We sheltered under its huge tree, which made a little difference to our degree of wetness, and made our way back to the lodge when the rain slightly eased.  Still, I got another, more subdued, sighting of the lovely orange-backed troupial, in the tree by my room.

Brown-chested martins

A birdy morning

Tags

anhinga, cacique, capped heron, capybara, caracara, cocoi heron, giant anteater, giant river otter, green ibis, hyacinth macaw, Jabiru, piping-guan, purplish jay, rufous hornero, smooth-billed ani

Fearing we might be a little bored with jaguars (?!?!?!?!), the leaders decided – after consultation – that this morning we would not go in search of felines, but visit instead a very bird-friendly fazenda (farm). So, even earlier than usual, we set off with the faithful Manuel, this time turning right from the flotel. (Up-river I think, but the waters flow so slowly in that so-flat land that it was difficult to tell).

But before going any further, do you remember the giant anteater we saw a few days back?  Dave Allen was a fellow wildlife enthusiast on this trip.  A great birder, he personally saw 199 different species during our time in the Pantanal.  He was wielding a video camera for much of the time, and he has authorised me to share with you this excellent clip of our anteater encounter. Can you believe that such an animal exists?

We had hoped yesterday’s rain might mean it was a little cooler today, Thursday 24th September. In vain.

It was not long before we came across a small group of Giant river otters.  Those with fish were making it very clear they were not going to share.

Anhinga and Giant river otters

Shortly afterwards, the boat screeched – metaphorically – to a halt.  We had come to a phenomenon that neither of our naturalists had ever seen before: Capped herons courting.  What beautiful birds!

I wonder if she’ll like this twig

In case not, I’ll fluff myself up

and I’ll throw my head back and show her what my throat can do

Perhaps this pretty leaf will please her

Think I’m in with a chance here

I’ll go on ahead

but mustn’t forget that leaf…

We moved on.

Green ibis

Reflecting

Capybara and Smooth-billed ani

Cocoi heron and fish. We stayed to watch for a while, but he just didn’t seem to know what to do with such a great big catch.

Yellow-rumped cacique

When we arrived at the fazenda, we were stepping on to land for the first time for three days, though it seemed, in the nicest way, to have been much longer.  What a collection of avian masterpieces we saw there, including those noisy, noisy Hyacinth macaws once more.

Jabiru stork practising its arabesque

Rufous hornero

Who’s a cheeky boy then?

A reminder of the wonderful silhouette of a hyacinth macaw as it comes in to land

Caracara portrait

Chestnut-bellied guans, with caracara

White-tipped dove

Giant cowbird (BL)

Saffron finch

Blue-throated piping-guan

Caracara care

Greyish baywing

And there was a little extra treat in store at the river bank as we went back to the boat for our return to the flotel and lunch.

Families: Giant river otters, capybaras…

Tags

anhinga, cacique, caiman, capybara, cocoi heron, curassow, giant river otter, jaguar, kiskadee, piping-guan, roseate spoonbill, sandpiper, skimmer, southern screamer, trogon

Boat excursions from the flotel were every day from 7.00 am until 11.00 am, and from 2.00 pm until 6.00 pm.  This is the view from my window at 6.15 am on Tuesday 22nd September.These Blue-throated piping-guans were there every morning under what we called the cormorant tree (explanation later), but not when we returned.To our utter delight, shortly after setting off today, we came across a family of giant river otters, to our right as we meandered along a wide river.  Ten or eleven individuals in all, including four cubs, which were often carried in the mouths of adults. After a while they decided to cross the river in front of us, in search of one of their holts.

We continued on our way, seeing birds (and other creatures) we recognised, some we hadn’t seen before, and some I’m not sure of.

Unicoloured blackbird, male (confirmed by BL)

Cocoi heron

Caiman

Not so sweet, this size

Collared plover (confirmed by BL)

Mr and Mrs Southern screamer

Semi-palmated sandpiper (ID thanks to BL)

Black skimmers in context

Anhinga

Mr and Mrs Bare-faced curassow

Lesser kiskadee

Blue-crowned trogon (female)

Yellow-rumped cacique (weaves its nest)

Roseate spoonbills

We were always pleased to see these, commonplace though they were.

Team capybara

Grampa?

And in due course we found ourselves, along with Peter and Bianca, in almost exactly the same spot we had all been the previous day.  This time we got much better views of the beautiful female, with her much finer features. How long could she stand that heat? I wondered, and in due course she did move back into the shade.  Peter thought this could be an invitation.

Bianca

Bianca

Hopeful Peter, Bianca turning back to him

As we could hear from her vocalisations, he was smartly rebuffed, and when we moved to go back to the flotel for lunch, they had resumed almost the same positions as before.

Jaguars: Peter, Bianca and Cage

Tags

anhinga, black skimmer, caiman, jaguar, large-billed tern, ox-bow, Pantanal, pied lapwing, ringed kingfisher

(OK, the first person to see a ‘new’ jaguar gets to name it for the researchers…  I can tell you now that although we had some great sightings, there is no jaguar in the Pantanal newly-named Venetia.)

Monday afternoon, 21st September. First boat trip out, along the winding river banks in this totally flat country, classic geography lesson stuff, with low ‘cliffs’ on the outer sides of bends, the beginning of ox-bow lakes, and sandy beaches on the inner.

Black vultures and Southern screamers. Previous identifications corrected thanks to BL.

Pied lapwing

Black skimmer

Large-billed tern

After an hour of gentle cruising and observation, we arrived where the grapevine had told us there was a jaguar to be seen. Unfortunately the grapevine tells others as well.But there are conventions, not least about keeping a distance from the big cats, and these were respected in the main during our stay. The boatmen have an interest in staying friendly with their colleagues. (Lucky things, these visitors have shade over them – it’s in the high 30s – but our opportunities for observation were better, and we were able to stand up when it was safe to do so.)First view of a jaguar.  Yes, it is a jaguar, not a python.

Hmmm. I was taken right back to December 2008, when I saw my first tiger, from an elephant’s back, in Bandhavgarh National Park, India.  That also was a large male, and he was fast asleep too, in a gully. Bit disappointing, really, I admit.

Oh well, there are other things to look at.

Caiman

Ringed kingfisher

At last ‘Peter’ stirred a little. Handsome beast.  Big pussycat. Third largest feline in the world.

And, ey-oop, what’s this?  There’s another jaguar, a female, Bianca we learned later, behind the right-hand tree.  And now she’s moving…

(just look at those markings) to settle where we can see … just half her head.  And Peter’s yawning.

Now, I could have lied and said that this was the beginning of the dramatic encounter we saw next.  But it wasn’t and all I can do is recount that.

Over from the left came – sadly I didn’t even catch a glimpse of him, and he didn’t come close – another large male.  Peter leapt into action, ran off right for a few metres, taking his lady with him, roaring and growling at the same time.  The intruder was easily seen off by this vocal display, and the two lovers settled down again very quickly, still well within our sight. They stayed there until it started getting dark, and we left the scene.

Bianca

Peter

Back at the flotel, we learned that the intruder was almost certainly Cage, Peter’s brother.  Usually they are the best of friends, and are seen nuzzling one another.  Not when it’s a question of la femme though.