Cristalino chronicles part 5

Boom!  The rains have finally started with an impressive storm which brought two hours of torrential rain, strong winds, thunder and lightning.  Almost immediately, bird activity seems to have picked up and, today, I had another great morning on one of the observation towers.  This is also the time scarce austral migrants turn up and I finally got my third lifer of the season with a Rufous-tailed Attila along the river.  It's funny how some groups seem to be luckier than others.  My latest group got to see spider and howler monkeys plus Giant Otters and two Agami Herons, all on their first morning.  One guy really wanted to see the trumpeters so I suggested going for a short walk late one morning and, within ten minutes, three of them crossed the trail right in front of us!  If only it was always that easy.  Finally, last year's Paint-billed Crake, only the third for the Alta Floresta region, has made a repeat appearance and is running around out in the open, much to the delight of my last two groups.

Cristalino chronicles part 4

The temperature here has finally dropped a little but we are now shrouded in smoke from farmers burning off their fields.  Strangely enough, though, I had one of my best mornings ever on the tower, with a mixed flock which stayed close to the tower and 45 species seen during the three hours we were up there.  Sungrebes are now all along the river, there having been none at all until 16 September, and 100-strong flocks of Greater Ani are passing through.  My last group saw howler, spider and saki monkey at the lodge all on the same day, and also got to see an immature Harpy Eagle, with a group of Dark-winged Trumpeters as their leaving present on the way out.  Finally, we added a new species to the lodge list when an immature male House Sparrow turned up in the staff clearing!  Although common in Alta Floresta, it must have flown over around 10km of contiguous forest to get here, but disappeared again after just two days.

Cristalino chronicles part 3

I've now been here exactly three weeks and have broken the 300-species barrier.  Some of the bird highlights of the past few days have included Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl, a heard-only Southern Nightingale Wren, Agami Heron, Common Potoo on its daytime roost, and today's big surprise of two Magpie Tanagers, which should only be in the more open areas around Alta Floresta.  Perhaps the horrible heatwave we are currently experiencing, with daytime temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius, has something to do with them showing up here.  In any case, tapir sightings have increased even further as they are forced to the river to cool off; we had 15 on this morning's boatride, including a mother and her stripey calf, with another mother and calf this afternoon.  Most exciting of all, though, was a Green Anaconda we discovered this morning resting on a rock to digest whatever it had recently eaten.

Cristalino chronicles part 2

Well, there's not been anything quite as exciting as an Ornate Hawk-Eagle trying to catch a Green Ibis since I last wrote but every day is different here in the Amazon.  One of my guests got to see 11 tapirs in one day, which is ridiculous even for this time of year.  My latest group 'only' got to see nine of them during their four-night stay but also saw the elusive tayra as well as a southern tamandua.  After two weeks here, I had seen or heard around 280 species of birds and I now have a few days off to find some more before my next group arrives.