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.

A very lucky capybara…

Tags

black vulture, capybara, cocoi heron, Howler monkey, iguana, Jabiru, jaguar, Pantanal, water buffalo

Off again for the afternoon boat ride.

Iguana (about 2 ft long) with replacement, boneless, tail

Howler monkey, male

Howler monkey, female

Look, no hands!

Cocoi heron

Cocoi heron

Black vultures. ‘They’ said that this bird defaecates on its legs to cool itself. As my bird book says this bird has yellow legs, I have to accept that ‘they’ were not kidding.

And then, thanks to boatmen’s walkie-talkies, we came upon Maxime,slowly making his way  along the small beach.

And then he froze.  For a long time.  Clearly he had seen something.

He waited.

We waited. He waited.

And then in a mad rush there was nothing.

We heard loud barking, just like a dog, the characteristic sound of a capybara who is very unhappy indeed. But he should have been happy:  he had escaped.

One very lucky cabybara

And Maxine went to climb out of the river,

before changing his mind, and continuing along the riverside.

We followed. So did lots of others.

… and so did lots of others

The jaguars are really not bothered by human attention, as long as a respectful distance is kept.

In due course Maxime decided to go ‘inland’, showing himself from time to time.  Jaguars love the river banks as places to cool off.

We continued on our way, vaguely making for home.

Impossible, almost, not to photograph this endearing animal, the capybara

It is entirely vegetarian

Two young water buffalo, playing. Wild animals, but introduced, not native.

How sweet is that, the youngsters trying to follow their parents up the bank?

Cattle tyrant on Capybara

 

Juvenile Rufescent tiger heron

Jabiru stork and small chicks

Juvenile Great black-hawk

The sun started to set,

and in due course we rounded the corner, past the ‘cormorant tree’,

Home to roost for the night

Nous aussi.

 

A very early start

Tags

Amazon kingfisher, black vulture, caracara, Howler monkey, marsh deer, Pantanal, Porto Jofre, scarlet-headed blackbird, southern screamer, Southwild, Transpantaneira

After a 5.15 breakfast, it was time to load our safari truck with baggage and sleepy bodies, and set off on what was forecast to be a six-hour drive to Porto Jofre, at the end of the Transpantaneiro, where we would almost be at our next accommodation.

Cactus in flower. We did see a bird drinking the nectar at one point

Fortunately, road repairs had been such that the drive not as long as feared. Here one of the dicey bridges is being repaired. (In the dry season you can drive into and out of some of the gullies.)

 

Howler monkeys. The (black) male’s dawn roar may be heard three kilometres away

Marsh deer

Piling in again after a comfort stop

Amazon kingfisher

Scarlet-headed blackbird. In life it glowed even more than this.

Great egret

Southern screamers

Pleased that the drive had not been quite as tiring as we feared, we had to wait a little before our transfer boat was available at Porto Jofre. A few more photo-opportunities.

Porto Jofre

Is the Caracara’s permanent expression more that of puzzlement or of being affronted?

Black vulture

Our boatman helping us load up. Dig those boots!

25 minutes later we had first sight of our ‘flotel’, run by Southwild.

Because we had arrived earlier than expected it was after lunch before we had access to our splendid rooms. (You couldn’t possibly call this a cabin, and is that description appropriate on a boat that goes nowhere anyway?)

Two hours to settle in and rest before we set out for our afternoon boat ride.