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

Giant anteater, tapir…

Tags

Amazon kingfisher, black-collared hawk, capuchin monkey, capybara, caracara, chestnut-eared aracari, giant anteater, green ibis, Jabiru, rufescent tiger heron, tapir, toco toucan, vermilion flycatcher

Late afternoon and into dusk on Sunday afternoon, into the safari truck again. We were making for a specific spot, and en route saw birds new to us, and old friends:

Green ibis, as if green were not already my favourite colour

Chestnut-eared aracari

Caracara (not to be confused with the large rodent, the Capybara – we saw both every day)

The Rufescent tiger heron again

The stunning Vermilion flycatcher

Toco toucan

Jabiru

and Black-collared hawks

Then we parked, silent, at a respectful distance from a pool where animals were known to come to drink – on the other side – as darkness fell.  Thanks to just a moderately good camera, and a little computer-aided lifting (but, promise, no distortion), I am pleased to be able to record for my future reminiscing, most of the creatures we saw there in the gathering gloom.

Amazon kingfisher

Capuchin monkey

Two toco toucans

The extraordinary Giant anteater, about 2 metres from snout (to the left!) to tail

Bare-faced curassow

Tapir

On the way back it was dark, and we saw, ‘lamped’,

a better view of a tapir

…and the ‘cutest’ young Capybara – so far.

Walks round and about the lodge

Tags

Brazil, caiman, cattle tyrant, chaco chachalaca, coati, hyacinth macaw, marmoset, monk parakeet, Pantanal, peach-fronted parakeet, Pouso Alegre, rhea, rufous hornero, tega, toco toucan

Most mornings we were up around 6.00 am, sometimes earlier. Today, Sunday 20th September, some went for a short guided walk before breakfast;  I just wandered around a bit on my own for a few minutes.  I, and no doubt everyone else, had been woken by the noisy ‘hoarse, harsh cackling’, to quote my bird book, of these:

Chaco chachalacas – on my roof

They were everywhere we went in the Pantanal, and it was rare that their characteristic loud calls, instantly recognisable, were not, at least faintly, somewhere in the soundscape.  Others tired of them, but I never did.

You practically tripped over cattle tyrants.  Where people were, they were.

Hyacinth macaws, the second heaviest member of the parrot family, are globally endangered, but they are seen quite frequently in the Pantanal, and have adopted some of the lodges at which to settle and breed.  Their squawking is just slightly more musical than that of the chachalacas.

After our early breakfast, we all went out for a walk,

in this sort of terrain, which would be flooded in the wet season.

It was a pleasure to see the occasional flower, or flowering tree, but given that it was the end of the dry season, it was not surprising that we saw few at all during the nine days.

We didn’t see many coatis either. They are about the size of a domestic cat, and here is my best picture of a very distant one.

Toco toucan

Two baby caiman

Quite sweet really, head about 2 inches wide

Marmoset

Thousands of snail shells were at our feet.  Once snails have bred and left their eggs in the ground to develop in during the next wet season, they are a valuable part of the food chain, nourishing especially birds like snail kites, but many other creatures as well.

These shells are all empty.

Back at the lodge, before and after lunch we just sat or wandered around, observing the many creatures to be seen within 50 yards or so

A tega lizard. Picture of what he did next (poop) on request.

Chaco chachalaca and mango

Monk parakeets

Peach-fronted parakeet. Sadly the mangos were not ripe enough for our digestions.

Rufous hornero

Red-crested and yellow-billed cardinals

Rheas were unconcerned at our presence and one could approach quite close to them.

Time for a siesta.