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Musiewild's blog

Tag Archives: donacobius

Last boat outing – and an extra-ordinary finale!

21 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Photography, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 18 Comments

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.P1170067

Anhingas hanging themselves out to dry

Anhingas hanging themselves out to dry

Rufescent tiger heron

Rufescent tiger heron

Caracara

Caracara

There's a snake in there...

There’s a snake in there…

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

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

though sometimes there were open stretches

though sometimes there were open stretches

People in the know got very excited about this: Sunbittern

People in the know got very excited about this: Sunbittern

P1170142

Great egret

Great egret

The whole trip I kept hearing this word 'Donacobius', on the lips of people who knew about birds. it had been ticked 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.

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

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

Ringed kingfisher

The Ringed kingfisher is another that I learned to recognise

The heron reveals its eponymous boat-bill

The heron reveals its eponymous boat-bill…

... but not its tail

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

Massed water hyacinths

Massed water hyacinths

Another donacobius!

Another donacobius!

P1170202

Very, very occasionally we saw something familiar

Very, very occasionally we saw something familiar

P1170212

Kiskadee

Kiskadee

Great egret

Great egret

?? Savanna hawk

Juvenile Great Black-hawk

Black vulture

Black vulture

Jabiru stork - from the nest at the lodge

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.

p10080000

* 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.

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