Brazil 2023 - a loooooong time coming!

[Zubbie15]

So after a quick lunch at the hotel, packing up, and checking out, we headed back along the Transpantaneira.  As always, the trip leaving is not as fun as the trip going!  I had big hopes that we would come across an anaconda along the road, but no luck.  In fact it was a relatively quiet drive most of the way, and with the less-than-ideal light we didn't stop too much.  

 

 

There were a lot of Jabiru nests in trees along the way, of course we needed to stop for a capture.

 

The main excitement came just as we were about to roll up to our next lodge, when we noticed that there were three crab-eating foxes in the field by the road.  They seemed to want to cross the road, so I hopped out an quietly got down on the road.  

 

 

Unfortunately they decided to cross in the shade - the photo would have been so much better if they'd come out in that shaft of light behind it!  But still nice to see well, up to that point we'd only come across them spotlight on night drives.

 

We turned onto the road for our next/last stop, Aymara Lodge, which travelled several kilometers through fields and forest.  There was a fair amount of water in the ditches and ponds along the edges, which we scanned eagerly.  We were excited to find this Capped Heron at one point, it's not a great photo (and taken at ISO 25600), but beautiful to see.

 

[Zubbie15]

We really liked Aymara, and would happily go back sometime.  It obviously wasn't as dramatic as being on the river, but the buildings were all built in amongst large trees that seemed to be a magnet for birds, and there was a small waterway right by the hotel that attracted the animals (especially when it's dry, like when we were there).  The lodge is fairly new under the current management, as I understand it, and they were really working to build up the wildlife sighting opportunities.   They had several bird feeding stations around, which attracted not only the birds but also various other animals.

 

 

An agouti looking for corn kernels dropped by the birds.

 

 

We were lucky that there was a troop of howlers in the area, apparently drawn in by the water hole I mentioned.  The conditions were rather difficult, with shooting against the sky, but they were fun to watch.  They also put on a really good show of howling on our first morning, it was impressive to be within ~50 meters of them in the morning when they were at full strength!

 

 

We had a nice Tegu sighting, he was quite calm around the people if we didn't move much.

 

 

And there was also this cute guy, who I think is an Amazon Lava Lizard.  

 

 

 

[janzin]

Wow, fantastic shots of leaping Medrosa!! I'll have to go hunt down the video you mentioned.

[Kitsafari]

wowzer! that camera sure captured the moments well! awesome to have such a sendoff from the big cats

I couldn't find the video on his instagram pic, mainly because I'm unsure of the date. 

Edited January 23 by Kitsafari

[janzin]

11 minutes ago, Kitsafari said:

wowzer! that camera sure captured the moments well! awesome to have such a sendoff from the big cats

I couldn't find the video on his instagram pic, mainly because I'm unsure of the date. 

I found it on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C160JHjuKfB/

[Kitsafari]

Thanks Janet!

 

17 minutes ago, janzin said:

I found it on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C160JHjuKfB/

 

[Atravelynn]

You may have lost out on some opportunities but overall you were a winner.  Medrosa and the mirrorless camera are a winning combo for sure.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @janzin, @Kitsafariand @Atravelynn!

 

I think it's time to wrap this up, almost 3 months after starting (eek!).  As mentioned at the very start, we were supposed to have almost two full days at Aymara, only departing after lunch on the second day.  Well, with our flight schedule change we ended up  only having one full day, and in the end we kept it quite relaxed.  Henrique suggested that we leave at dawn on a walking trail through the property.  This was a really nice walk, but we didn't see too much of note.  I chalk that up to the fact we had the two kids making a lot of noise - we saw a few birds but they were generally flitting away from us.  I am sure a serious (and quiet) birder would likely do quite well here.

 

After that, we just hung around the lodge grounds until we planned to take a canoe ride in the late afternoon.  During this downtime, my wife and kids spent a lot of time at the pool, while I wandered around a lot taking photos.  What follows will give an example of what birdlife was relatively easy to see (the animals and reptiles I posted before were also obviously seen at this same time).  

 

 

Grey-necked Wood Rail, come for some corn.

 

 

Yellow-billed Cardinal at seem feeding location.  There was a bench set up near this location, and the birds were clearly used to humans being nearby.

 

They had also spread food on the ground for some of the larger birds outside the restaurant area, and I spent some time seeing who would show up.

 

 

Bare-faced Currasow

 

 

Chestnut-bellied Guan

 

There was a Macaw nest in a tree across from one of the buildings of the lodge, I also spent some time there hoping they would come out.  

 

 

 

And just near this (and the nest box where the Barn Owl was seen) was an area with some water for the birds to enjoy.  At one point there was dappled light shining on the waterbath but not on the background, allowing for some black background shots.

 

 

Caracara, there were quite a few around.

 

 

Macaw down from the tree.

 

At one point I heard tapping from inside a tree, and was able to locate this Crimson-Crested Woodpecker.  It seemed like there was a bee nest in the hole, they were all swarming around the entrance to the hole, but it didn't seem to bother her.  

 

 

And in the forest around the pool I spent some time chasing after this Pale-crested woodpecker.

 

 

And a Black-fronted Nunbird.

 

 

So a pretty good haul around camp, especially for a non-birder!

 

 

[Zubbie15]

And our final activity was taking the canoe out on the little river by camp.  They also had a little boat with a motor that you could take farther out, but we decided to do the canoeing.  It was interesting because Henrique didn't have much experience paddling, and I have to say the paddles weren't the best, but still it was a fun and really relaxing time.

 

 

I was the one that was piloting the boat, so my wife had the camera (and our younger daughter).  So we don't have too many photos, but we did find this Wattled Jacana posing well.

 

 

And this snail kite looking for a meal.

 

 

But that was about it, I will say as it got darker out the mosquitoes really came out in force!

 

When we got back to camp it was getting really into dusk, but somehow we all agreed that it would be worth going for a quick drive to look for tapir.  They were starting to put out some grains to attract a tapir that lived in the area, but we had a hard time finding the location and then when we did there was no tapir present.  We did a quick tour of the roads afterward, hoping to find something interesting, but it was quite quiet, so back to the lodge to eat and pack.

 

The next morning we were up bright and early, hitting the road just after 4AM.  On the way out we decided to spotlight in case we had any luck, and we did find the tapir - however it was only the back half, so still not a satisfying sighting!

[Zubbie15]

I was lazy about putting in videos as part of the report, so here are a few combined together.  Most of them from our GoPro, many of which were taken by our then 5-year old.  Apologies for some of the titles, I was playing around with testing how dramatic a title is to how many views it gets so some are very over the top. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zubbie15]

So that's it for my report, thanks to everyone who read along, gave likes, and posted comments.  We had a great time, and are considering a return for 2025 already.  

 

[michael-ibk]

Thanks so much for sharing, really enjoyed the narrative and your excellent photos. The Pantanal truly is a wildlife wonderland.

[Alexander33]

@Zubbie15

 

Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us. It was really enjoyable, and you got some great photos. 
 

As to Courtney and Bororo, we came across them up in a tree late one morning (not sure if it was the same day you saw them) and stuck with them for about 3-4 hours (missed lunch!), and they did finally come down onto the beach and mate (3 different times while we were there). So....maybe Courtney will be with cub(s) later this year!

[Kitsafari]

it was fun riding along with you to Pantanal - a place I've yet to go, and unsure if we will ever make it there. THanks for sharing those excellent images and your experiences - I sure did enjoy the TR very much. 

 

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @michael-ibk, it's certainly a different experience from Africa, but still more than worthy on its own merits.  

 

@Alexander33, not sure I needed to know that!  One of the trade-offs of traveling with kids is there's only so much patience for waiting for something to happen.  When we were in Tanzania last February there was a male lion we spent the whole afternoon with; every time we said he's going to keep sleeping he would move and make it look like he was about to do something.  Finally it was getting dark and we had to head back to camp, and the kids were happy to express their surprise and disappointment that we'd only seen one animal all afternoon.  So lesson learned!

 

@Kitsafarithanks for the kind words, it's definitely a location worthy of considering if at all possible (although I guess quite far for you!).