2018 review

As 2018 draws to a close, it is time for my traditional review of the year, the birdy highlights of the past twelve months being as follows (lifers in CAPS);

January - ROSS'S GULL (NL); a first-winter successfully twitched in Vlissingen harbour, where it showed extremely well.  One of those near-mythical, high-Arctic species which very rarely turn up this far south.
February - HOUBARA BUSTARD (Canaries); excellent, close-up views of perhaps five individuals in the desert-like habitat of Fuerteventura.
March - Icelandic Redwing (Brussels); a self-found individual, this is an extremely rare bird in Belgium as a whole and probably the very first for Brussels.
April - Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Brussels); the final year of the Brussels woodpecker survey, I finished off in style by finding two drumming birds in my sector as well as seeing a female.
May - WESTERN ORPHEAN WARBLER (Namur province); a long walk amongst beautiful scenery for a few brief glimpses of this first-for-Belgium.
June - SCALY-BREASTED WREN aka Southern Nightingale-Wren (Cristalino); the first of just three lifers seen during my summer season at Cristalino and, without doubt, the best story of the year.
Back in 2014, I was walking one of the forest trails by myself when I saw what looked just like a Dipper hop up onto a log, flick its wings, call briefly, then disappear.  Despite mailing a local expert with a description, including the call, it remained a mystery.  Fast forward to this year, and my earlier-than-usual arrival at the lodge coincided with a lot of Nightingale-Wren song.  This is a very rare species at the lodge and one I'd only only ever heard a handful of times in just two of my years there.  One morning, there was even a bird singing close to the dining room and a little bit of playback by another guide brought it out into the open, whereupon I immediately recognised my 'Dipper', finally identifying the bird I saw four years previously!
July - BLACK MANAKIN (Cristalino); perhaps my most wanted bird at Cristalino this year, it took me four attempts to connect with the one and presumably only individual on the reserve which was originally discovered by my friend Rich Hoyer in 2016 and is still in the same spot!
August - WHITE BELLBIRD (Serra dos Carajás); we started birding with its distinctive call echoing around the hillsides, eventually stopping the car right underneath a singing male with a female in attendance.
September - Greenish Warbler (Belgian coast); technically not a lifer since I heard one singing in 2017, this was the first one I got to see, at a well-known, coastal migrant trap.
October - Hume's Warbler (Zeebrugge); a very unexpected, self-found rarity while looking for Yellow-browed Warbers (which I also saw).
November - Blackcap (Brussels); a rather quiet month, the biggest surprise came right at the end of the month in the park next to my apartment when I heard a subsong I didn't recognise at first, eventually deciding it had to be a very late Blackcap although I still wasn't convinced until I actually saw it.
December - Firecrest (Brussels) - seen regularly throughout the month in the same park as the Blackcap.

The bird of the year award goes to the amazing-sounding White Bellbird, seen and, more importantly, heard singing within its minuscule range south of the Amazon, where a small population remains in a patch of protected forest.  The sound really has to be heard to be believed and is almost deafening up close but the male is a snazzy-looking bird too, with its immaculate white plumage and ridiculously long wattle looking for all the world like a worm hanging down from its beak!

This was one of 50 lifers (36 in Brazil, 10 in the Canaries, plus Ross's Gull, Western Orphean Warbler, Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Paddyfield Warbler in Europe) I saw this year out of a total year list of exactly 700 species!  Of these, 174 were in Belgium, with short birding trips to Rutland Water, Paris and The Netherlands taking my European total to 191 species for the year.

Being away for the whole of June, July and August meant I did very little Belgian butterflying or dragonflying this year yet I still managed to add another seven species to my Belgian butterfly list before I left for the Amazon, including Glanville, Pearl-bordered and Dark-Green (below) Fritillaries.

Amazon advent Day 24

And finally, doing its very best "fairy-atop-a-Christmas-tree impression", a 'Cristalino' Parakeet.  Another easily seen species, with noisy groups almost permanently on show in both the staff and guest clearings, this is, however, probably the most range-restricted "species" on the reserve.  This subspecies, so far only known from a few localities around Alta Floresta in northern Mato Grosso, was only described in 2008 and, depending on which authority you follow, is currently considered to be a subspecies of either Santarém Parakeet or Madeira Parakeet.  Having seen true Santaréms in southern Pará this year, I can confirm they do look quite different, and research has suggested the Cristalino birds to be an isolated population of Madeira Parakeets, possibly even warranting full species status themselves.  Ah, the joys of trying to put finite labels on the constantly changing process of evolution! 
Merry Xmas one and all.

Amazon advent Day 23

Another fairly common species today, this is Racidula Sailor (Dynamine racidula).  You don't often get to see both the underwing pattern and upperwing colour in the same shot but, what makes this picture really special for me is the Pusilla Purplewing (Eunica pusilla), arguably the commonest butterfly at the lodge, in the foreground.

Amazon advent Day 22

Widely distributed from south-eastern Mexico to Ecuador, Bolivia and most of Brazil, the Rufous-tailed Jacamar is far from being one of the rarest or most sought-after species on the reserve.  Constantly on the lookout for butterflies and other flying insects, they rarely sit still for very long, however, so I was particularly pleased with this shot, the bird's hummingbird-like, iridescent plumage glistening in the sunlight.

Amazon advent Day 21

Of course, all those weird and wonderful caterpillars eventualy turn into some fantastic-looking moths and the lodge's moth sheet provided lots of post-dinner entertainment.  I haven't a clue what this one is but it has to be one of my favourites; I just call it the flying carpet!

Amazon advent Day 20

I'm not sure if I was paying more attention to them or it was because I was there earlier in the season but there seemed to be a lot of caterpillars around this year.  Identifying the species usually requires raising one together with some leaves of its hostplant until it pupates, and then being around when the adult finally emerges!  Nevertheless, certain families show certain characteristics and the above one is probably in the Erebidae family of moths.  Below is a typical slug caterpillar in the family Limacodidae, known for their bright colouration and spiky protrusions.

Amazon advent Day 19

Red-throated Piping-Guans are pretty much guaranteed either around the lodge itself, or along the river where groups regularly congregate on exposed rocks, especially in the early morning, to feed on algae.

Amazon advent Day 18

It's been a while since the last butterfly picture!  This is a male Metope Eyemark (Mesosemia metope), the eyemarks being another subfamily of metalmarks which show considerable sexual dimorphism.  Males of some species are entirely blue and easily spotted in the forest understory, whilst the duller females are generally brown and white.

Amazon advent Day 17

This is a monkey grasshopper in the family Eumastacidae, which characteristically sit with their legs perpendicular to their body like this.

Amazon advent Day 16

Another puffbird today, this is Eastern Striolated Puffbird.  It is easier to see than the Collared Puffbird, especially in the more open areas where it can be located by its long, melancholic whistling, and is one of the local specialties, being restricted to south-eastern Amazonia.

Amazon advent Day 15

Another planthopper today (see day 10), this has got to be the biggest one I've ever seen, almost the size of my fist, and goes by the name of Phenax variegata.  You can make out the waxy tail filaments produced by many species in this family and the purpose of which is probably to confuse predators.

Amazon advent Day 14

After the madness of 2017, I saw very few tapirs this year due to lower temperatures and a much higher level of water in the river.  Whereas I regularly saw twelve or more per boat trip last year, I perhaps saw a dozen all season, yet Cristalino has still got to be one of the best places in the world to see them.  One of my guests even got to see one during her transfer into the lodge and promptly burst into tears as she was so moved by the unexpected encounter.

Amazon advent Day 13

Unlucky for some, a snake for day 13!  I discovered this venomous Common Lancehead (Bothrops atrox), sometimes called Fer-de-lance, on the lodge grounds after dinner one evening but it presents no danger to humans unless you go and do something silly like step on it or try to pick it up.

Amazon advent Day 12

I'm usually at the lodge much later in the season, once the river level has dropped too far for us to make the long trip upriver to the area's only Hoatzin colony, so I'd not seen this prehistoric-looking creature since 2011.  In June, however, I got to guide a couple of keen birders who had difficulty walking the trails and were thus happy to spend a full morning in the boat instead, resulting in some wonderful, close-up looks at a small group of Hoatzins.

Amazon advent Day 11

It doesn't get any smaller than this, I promise, but this little jewel is some kind of tortoise beetle, and that's all I could find out about it!

Amazon advent Day 10

This is a flatid planthopper in the genus Poekilloptera, but even less seems to be known about them than the treehopper of Day 5, since there is some uncertainty as to whether the variations in pattern and amount of spots relate to one or several different species.  I spotted this one from the boat while guiding a Swiss family and am not sure whether they were more impressed by the insect itself or the fact that I noticed it from half way across the river!

Amazon advent Day 9

The Euselasias, a subfamily of metalmarks, have got to be one of my favourite groups of butterflies.  They are challenging to observe well as they usually land upside down underneath a leaf and are generally uncommon; I've only identified eight of the 30 or so species recorded at the lodge so far.  In mid-August, however, this species, Euselasia clithra, was suddenly all over the place and quite numerous along the various trails.

Amazon advent Day 8

From Collared Peccaries to Collared Puffbird!  My first four seasons at the lodge, I had only ever heard this secretive beauty, enlisting the the expert help of Rich Hoyer in 2016 to finally find me my first and, until this year, only one.  One morning, though, I was investigating the noise of a mixed flock when I looked up and found this sitting quietly directly above the trail.  I even managed to summon another guide who had never seen one and his guest for great looks before it disappeared off into the forest, not to be seen again.

Amazon advent Day 7

Walking quietly along the trails by myself whenever I was without guests, I got to experience quite a few close encounters.  This twenty-strong group of Collared Peccaries, including several young piglets, didn't hear or smell me and foraged to within a few metres, moving slowly off once their poor eyesight allowed them to realise I wasn't a tree standing in the middle of the trail.

Amazon advent Day 6

If your immediate reaction to today's picture was 'Ooh, what a beauty', then congratulations as you have succesfully identified your first butterfly of the Amazon!  This is Baeotus deucalion, or Deucalion Beauty, one of four species in the beauty family.  They all have these heavily-patterned undersides and either orange or blue upperparts, and would often follow the boats along the Cristalino, occasionally landing on the guests.

Amazon advent Day 5

Most visitors understandably want to see the birds and mammals so it can be quite frustrating when we have a slow morning for these but there is always something to see in the rainforest!  There is a whole, fascinating world of insects out there to be discovered if you set your sights a little smaller and take the time to investigate all around you.  The treehoppers, in particular, are a wonderfully diverse group of brightly coloured and fantastically shaped, sap-sucking insects related to cicadas.  This one, about as big as the tip of your little finger, is almost certainly in the genus Phyllotropis but I was unable to find any information as to how to tell the various species apart.

Amazon advent Day 4

Of the six species of trogon found on the reserve, three have yellow bellies and three have red ones.  I already featured White-tailed Trogon (since split and renamed as Green-backed) back in 2016, so here is a male Black-tailed Trogon, which can often be found around the lodge clearing.

Amazon advent Day 3

I'm getting to be a bit of an expert on the local butterflies and found several new species for the reserve this year, as well as getting to see the tiny caterpillars of a new, undescribed species of metalmark being tended by ants for the honeydew they produce.  The skippers do not generally get as much attention as the brightly-coloured metalmarks but this Two-barred Flasher (Astraptes fulgerator) shows that this family can be just as attractive.

Amazon advent Day 2

Arriving at the lodge for my seventh summer season of guiding, I was greeted by this sight along one of the trails.  To the uninitiated, it looks quite bizarre and I love asking my guests what they think it could possibly be, with very few of them actually getting it right.  I call it Cicada city, the rather phallic constructions being made by cicada larvae burrowing deep into the earth and forming these 'chimneys' to help regulate the temperature and humidity of their burrows.  After several years (anything from two to seventeen, depending on the species) underground, the nymph will crawl up the nearest tree, and a fresh, adult cicida will emerge out of their nymphal exoskeleton (below), ready to head up into the trees and make hearing anything else in the forest virtually impossible, much to the dismay of the birders!

Amazon advent Day 1

As mentioned back in June, I flew via Belém this year since that means a much shorter transatlantic crossing, and managed to see a few new birds during my two-day stopover before heading on to the lodge.  I didn't realise at the time but this Ruddy-breasted Seedeater was only new for my Brazil list, having already seen it in Costa Rica.  Scarlet Ibis, however, was a lifer and one of the species I most wanted to see. As soon as we reached the mangroves, we saw the first ones, eventually seeing around 60, all of which were even gaudier than I had imagined!

Finch flurry

As you've probably guessed from the lack of posts of late, I've not done much birding this month.  Last week, though, I did a short walk in the Sonian Forest, where there were huge numbers of Chaffinches feeding among the leaf litter, accompanied by a few Bramblings, their northern cousins.  Towards the end of the walk, I also got to watch three Crested Tits, a rather uncommon and localised species within Brussels, one of which even sat still long enough for a photo!  Starting this weekend, my traditional, online advent calendar will be showcasing some of the pictures I took during my seventh season of guiding in the Amazon so you can expect a daily image to brighten up the dreary days of December.

The results are in

As mentioned in October, I've been doing some migration-watching from my balcony this autumn and, now that things have quietened down, I can compile the results.  I started the last week of September and only spent a total of around 15 hours counting between then and the end of October yet tallied some 1512 birds going past.  That's a fairly decent average of 100 birds per hour considering I'm in the built up area of Brussels.  Chaffinches were by far the most numerous, with 621 individuals identified, as well as many more no doubt making up a good proportion of the unidentified birds. 
The total list is as follows;

Chaffinch 621, Starling 257, unidentified passerine 167, Skylark 140, Woodpigeon 96, Meadow Pipit 71, Redwing 38, Siskin 20, Song Thrush 18,
Lapwing 18, White Wagtail 8, Brambling 8, Cormorant 8, Woodlark 6, Linnet 6, Buzzard 4, Black-headed Gull 4, Greenfinch 3, Grey Wagtail 2,
Great Egret 2, Sparrowhawk 2, Blue Tit 2, Swallow 1, Blackbird 1, Stock Dove 1, Herring Gull 1, LesserBlack-backed Gull 1
plus probable Ring Ouzel 3, probable Marsh Harrier 1, probable Mistle Thrush 1, bunting sp. 1

So far this month, all I've managed to do is a quick visit to my Brussels patch where the Red-crested Pochards seemed to be trying out some synchronised swimming!

Bulgarian birding

I've not been out of Belgium since my last post but a couple of species I've seen over the past week would make you think I was in Bulgaria instead! 
Just three days after finding my Hume's Warbler in Zeebrugge, I was back there again for this Paddyfield Warbler.  First found within the port, where there is very little cover, it was ever so obliging, even perching on birders' cars.  By the time I got there the following day, it had moved into the dunes and taken to the thick cover of the marram grass so that I was happy to get a couple of good looks at it during the hour or so I was there.  The bushes were literally dripping with Goldcrests and I also saw my first Fieldfare of the autumn, in addition to my lifer Paddyfield, which became my 450th species in Europe!  Then, against all expectation, our Pygmy Cormorant was again seen at the place it spent last winter and was last observed on 10 June.  It is now sporting a beautiful, speckled plumage, very different to the juvenile plumage of last winter.  It looks like it has settled in for its second winter in Brussels, and the Paddyfield Warbler is still skulking around the dunes of Zeebrugge, so there's a little taste of Bulgaria (minus the Red-breasted Geese of course) in Belgium at the moment.

Red October

I had a rather red day at the coast earlier this week with Robins all over the place and quite a few Redwings.  This Red Admiral posed nicely and I also got a picture of a pair of Common Darters (below), one of several, confusingly similar, red-bodied Sympetrum species on the wing at the moment.  The main bird target was Yellow-browed Warbler, however, which is pretty much guaranteed at one particular migrant trap in Zeebrugge at this time of year and, sure enough, I eventually heard one calling.  Whilst I was trying to locate that, though, I suddenly heard a very diferent call I didn't recognise and went to investigate, expecting to perhaps find a Tawny Pipit or something similar.  To my surprise, I instead found a small warbler busy feeding and calling but, despite getting good looks at it, I was still unsure what I had seen.  Back home, I first checked the field guide and decided the features I'd noticed, mainly the grey-green back and long, thin supercilium stretching well past the eye best fit Hume's Warbler.  I then looked on xeno-canto and, sure enough, discovered an exact match for what I'd heard.  Unfortunately, just as I got out my phone to record it, the Hume's Warbler lifted up out of the bush in which it was feeding and flew off over the harbour so it will remain an undocumented, one-person observation.  Still, I'm 100% sure that's what it was, even if it is rather early for this species and it would be the first of the autumn for the Benelux and only the 6th or 7th of the autumn for the entire Western Palearctic!  This is a mega rarity, with only 13 accepted records in Belgium, and by far the rarest bird I have found myself since I've been living here.

Metropolitan migration

Well, I last wrote that there had been an increase in the number of migrating Song Thrushes and, two days ago, the migration counters in The Hague logged a staggering 14,657 of them going past!  I spotted a small group of Redwings, my first of the winter, going over on my way to the supermarket and also heard a migrating Brambling, another first of the season.  Yesterday morning, therefore, I decided to see if the thrush throngs were also passing over the centre of Brussels and spent an hour and a half counting the migration on my balcony, tallying 184 birds of at least 15 species.  Just as I started, I noticed two Great Egrets disappearing in the distance, no doubt following the canal, but the best bird of the morning was a single Woodlark which passed directly overhead, calling twice as it went.  I saw small numbers of both Song Thrush and Redwing but the majority were Chaffinches and distant things I just couldnt identify, including a very dark-looking bunting which may well have been Little, plus two possible Ring Ouzels.  Both Great Egret and Woodlark were new for my balcony list and, this morning, during another count with roughly the same amount of birds, I also added Lapwing, as a flock of 18 passed high overhead.  That makes 59 species seen from my balcony in the three years I've been in this apartment, and almost 400 individuals of at least 20 species going past in a total of just three hours this weekend.  That you can see so much migration in the built-up area of Brussels, whereas a lot of species often skirt around major cities, is amazing and just gives an idea of the amount of birds passing over at this time of the year.  Look up!

The end of summer?

This Indian summer we are having just doesn't want to end but, temperatures aside, things are starting to look very autumnal.  I've been trying a migration watch from my balcony most mornings with varying success.  There have been good numbers of Chaffinches going over, with quite a few Siskins, Skylarks and Meadow Pipits, plus an obvious increase in Song Thrushes the past few days.  The best migrant so far was a Barn Swallow, which flew right past on 5th October and will most likely be my last swallow of the year.  My local park, is starting to get the odd Chiffchaff, Firecrest and Goldcrest feeding with the resident group of Long-tailed Tits, and several Robins have arrived and are singing to proclaim their winter territories.  On Monday morning, I guided a visiting birder around my Brussels patch, with Middle Spotted Woodpecker again showing ridiculously well although it took several visits to the spot before it finally appeared.  We managed to find 47 species in just a few hours, including the regular Red-crested Pochards and Ferruginous Duck, with a Kingfisher in the mist making for a very atmospheric start.  My guest was also interested in fungi and these seem to be at their peak right now as we saw several interesting species, including some very fresh Fly Agaric mushrooms, which I don't remember noticing before.

Going blonde

I made a quick visit over the border into the Dutch region of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen this week and, as with my previous trip to the Netherlands, there were a lot of birds around, including geese, ducks, Spoonbills and even a hybrid Chilean x Greater Flamingo.  The target of the twitch, however, was my lifer Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and the group of Ringed Plovers it was hanging out with conveniently flew in and landed fairly close by as soon as I arrived.  The Dutch name for it translates as blond cavalier, and this juvenile certainly had a lovely, yellowish tinge to its plumage.  At one point, I had the Buff-breasted, a Pectoral Sandpiper and a Little Stint in the field of view of my telescope all at once!  Pectorals do nest in eastern Siberia but, as far as I know, Buff-breasted only breeds in North America, so it's anybody's guess just where the group of Ringed Plovers accompanying these two rarities have come from.  I did manage this distant record-shot of the Pectoral Sandpiper but my attempts at the Buff-breasted were even fuzzier so, instead, here are some great pictures taken by somebody with a much bigger camera.

Wot, no birds?

Earlier this week, I did my annual hike across the rolling hills of the Reuland Plateau in Belgian Luxembourg in the hope of seeing Nutcracker.  It was a bit early for them, however, and I didn't get to see any although I did hear what was possibly one calling way off in the distance.  The only migration I saw was a single Marsh Harrier and a group of six Barn Swallows right at the end of the day, and there were very few passerine migrants around too.  The only birds of note were the ones I typically have to go to this part of Belgium for; Tree Sparrow, Red Kite, Eurasian Treecreeper, Common Crossbill and a heard-only Raven.  Thankfully, though, there were still a few butterflies around to liven up the 20km walk.  Some Pale Clouded Yellows took me a while to identify as they just wouldn't sit still, in stark contrast to this Peacock, which is always a pleasure to see, even when part of its wing is missing.

Zeeland zillions

I had a nice day with my Dutch birding friends in Zeeland at the weekend.  We started with a twitch to some terribly distant Dotterel which were just brown birds in flight but then moved to the harbour of Stellendam, where the mudflats were teeming with zillions of birds.  Oystercatcher and Curlew were probably the most numerous waders, with several hundred of each, but we also counted at least 150 Spoonbill and 250 Sandwich Terns.  A small group of Sanderling contained one bird still in summer plumage, as were a big group of Grey Plovers, and I managed to pick out one Bar-tailed Godwit from the masses of other birds present.  The best birds, though, were an unusually confiding Rock Pipit and a pair of Caspian Terns, one adult and one juvenile, which appeared out of nowhere and sat on the nearest sandbank for us to admire.  By the end of the day, we had tallied 63 species.
Yesterday, I made my first visit to my regular Brussels patch since May.  There were much fewer species around of course but our female Ferruginous Duck is back again, having disappeared to parts unknown since early June and there was one Red-crested Pochard in eclipse plumage.  There was also a colour-ringed Great Egret, which I presumed was the one which turns up there regularly but, having sent the details to the ringer, it turns out its a 1st-year Dutch bird ringed in the nest in South Holland, around 115km north of Brussels, just three months ago! 

The greenish grass of home

I've done very little birding since I got home from Brazil, except for one morning of guiding around Mechels Broek which only produced around 40 species, the most exciting of which was a Ruddy Shelduck!  Migration is well underway but there has been little of interest to tempt me out until late yesterday afternoon, when a Greenish Warbler was found at the Belgian coast.  It was still there this morning and a short walk from Heist train station so off I went.  It was in a tiny migrant trap but ever so mobile and difficult to find.  I saw it about four times during the hour I was there and got good but brief looks as well as hearing it give its distinctive, disyllabic call a few times.  This is the first one I have seen, having made a long trip for the last one in Belgium well over a year ago when I only managed to hear it singing.  I was happy, therefore, just to see it but the finder of the bird had been sitting there all day trying to get some good pictures and eventually succeeded.  I continued down to the beach instead, finding no less than five Wheatears plus this Whinchat all lined up along a fence.

There were, in fact, lots of passerine migrants around, including another group of at least four Whinchats, two Pied Flycatchers, two Common Redstarts and a showy Firecrest.  Best of all though and totally unexpected was the Osprey, which first looked as if it was migrating along the beach but then circled around for the longest time before trying to catch fish in the sea.

Amazonian birding part 10

White-crested Guan

I'm finally back in Brussels again after an exhausting 26-hour journey from Parauapebas, Pará.  It involved travelling by car, a 1.5 hour ferry ride along the Acará and Guamá rivers, two flights, train and bus!  During my four days in and around the Serra dos Carajás, I managed to see another 22 new species for my list, one of which is a new species entirely, as it is still undescribed and currently known as Amazonian Spinetail.  There were also five subspecies which are likely to be split in the near future, including Santarém Parakeet, which was noticeably different from the Madeira Parakeets at Cristalino.  We had the most amazing guide, Filho Manfredini, who got us on a singing Snethlage's Antpitta on our first afternoon, although my first lifer of the trip were three ridiculously heavy-looking Horned Screamers along the road.  Lots of goodies followed and, on our one day without Filho, I even managed to find Sharpbill, Snethlage's Gnateater and Ruddy Spinetail by myself, but by far the highlight for me was seeing and especially hearing White Bellbirds singing.  This meant a horrible drive up through a working mine into the upper parts of the Carajás National Forest but, as the car ground to a halt, the driver and our guide having heard something I'd missed in the back seat, and we all  got out, I couldn't believe my ears.  There was the loudest and weirdest birdsong I've ever heard coming from atop a dead tree right alongside the road.  I even managed to get a short clip of it singing.  A Yellow-browed Sparrow giving its dry, buzzy song as we waited for the ferry back to Belém was my 36th lifer from my seventh summer in the Amazon and my 2350th bird in the world!

Amazonian birding part 9

It's now my last couple of days at the lodge and Stephen's law has already kicked in. The Serra trail yielded a second poison frog, this time ameerega picta, I recorded a new species of metalmark for the reserve, and I was surprised to hear a singing Thrush-like Wren, a common species in the open country around Alta Floresta but one I'd not yet encountered here, from Tower 1. A singing Blue-cheeked Jacamar was my 400th species of the season but the biggest surprise of the past few days came as I was sitting in the bar area cooling off after the morning's walk. A small, cinnamon-coloured bird zipped through the bar and landed in the nearest tree leaving me perplexed as to what it could be. Grabbing my binoculars, I was soon looking at a male Fiery-capped Manakin, perhaps one of the most difficult birds to see here, showing off its fiery crown-stripe, cinnamon back and streaked underparts. What a beauty!

Amazonian birding part 8

It only took for me to write that the birdlife was changing for the first austral migrants to start appearing on their way back south. First up was a Dark-billed Cuckoo, another species I've only encountered once before, followed by several White-throated Kingbirds. Most unseasonal was a Cristalino Poison Dart Frog sitting in the middle of the Sera trail for my group of 8 people, the first one I've seen prior to the first rains in all the years I've been coming here. We had a big rainstorm last night, however, so maybe it sensed the increase in humidity and came out in anticipation. In any case, it looks as if the rainy season is starting three to four weeks early!

Amazonian birding part 7

The really hot, dry season is well underway and the birdlife is changing accordingly. Tinamous have become much more vocal and I got a great look at a Great Tinamou as it drank from the river. The first Neotropic Cormorants have arrived, as have the Blue-black Grassquits atop the serra, and the Teles Pires held a nice flock of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, with an ultra-rare Paint-billed Crake being found there by another guide. A Southern Tamandua, my first of the season, feeding right by the restaurant at 5am provided some excitement but my best observation of the past ten days came on the last morning of a lovely Swiss family I had the pleasure of guiding. We were up the tower enjoying the Grey-breasted Martins flying all around us when I noticed them converge on another bird that was approaching fast. It was only as the intruder flew right past us at eye level that I realised it was a Tiny Hawk, which I've only seen once before!

Amazonian birding part 6

I'm over half-way through my stay here but things just seem to get better and better. On a free morning, I walked a trail no-one had visited in several months to see if it was accessible. I had a few birds but, close to the end, I heard the distinctive growl of a jaguar right next to the trail!  I've been accompanying the annual Wings tour led by Rich Hoyer the past five days. Whilst we had multiple good species, including Fiery-tailed Awlbill, Bare-eyed Antbird, Zigzag Heron, two Great Potoos, and a heard-only Pavonine Cuckoo, my personal highlight was seeing an Ocelot during a spotlighting trip along the river. Then, just as the cats seemed to be getting the upperhand, this morning's birds blew me away. First of all, I found a hummingbird I didn't recognise in the Secret Garden and Rich identified it as a female Blue-chinned Sapphire, a lifer which is not yet on the local list although we are only just outside its normal range. After that, I went to investigate a mixed flock and found a Collared Puffbird looking down at me, only to turn around and see a Grey Tinamou walk slowly away along the trail. That wasn't all though as I then made a fourth attempt at seeing the Black Manakin, a new species for the area found by Rich two years ago and recently seen again by another group along the Manakin trail. After half an hour of watching and imitating displaying Flame-crowned Manakins, an adult male Black Manakin zipped past and sat briefly on a branch in full view, disappearing again before I could get a photo. That's two lifers in one morning!

Amazonian birding part 5

I've now been at the lodge for exactly one month and have seen or heard 301 bird species. Frustratingly, I heard Speckled Spinetail, a bird I've never managed to see, in a big mixed flock the other day. It's not all about new species or adding to this year's list, however, as the commoner species can often be just as interesting. Yesterday, for example, we saw a Bat Falcon plucking a large woodcreeper, a prey almost as large as itself and which it had presumably caught in flight as it tried to cross the river. Today, we observed a Striated Heron using a flower as bait to lure fish by repeatedly dropping it in the water and waiting for the fish to come to investigate. The Amazon never fails to amaze.

Amazonian birding part 4

Its funny how the cookie crumbles. My second group were desperate to see Giant Otters yet, despite doing lots of boat trips to try to find them, they just weren't around. My last group, however, were focussed on seeing as many birds as possible and we ran into groups of Giant Otters on three occasions. They also got to see over 130 different birds in their four days here, the best of which was an adult Ornate Hawk-Eagle we got to admire along the river. Having some keen birders also gave me a good excuse to do a long trip upriver for the Hoatzin which we can't do later in the season and, consequently, I've not done in several years.

Amazonian birding part 3

After two weeks at the lodge, I have now seen or heard 250 bird species.  The undoubted highlight of the past few days was a gorgeous, male Blue-backed Manakin, a bird I've only managed to see a few times, singing in full view along one of the trails. The local race is an anomaly as we are well within the range of the red-capped subspecies but the birds here have a yellow crown and may well be a separate species entirely.

Amazonian birding part 2

Having already given up two of their kind, the tinamous have returned to their normal, furtive selves and I've only had brief glimpses of what were probably two more species since my last post. The past four days, I was guiding eleven (!) Thai photographers. They were hard work but one of the nicest groups of people I've guided so I was sorry to see them go. They left very happy with their pictures of White-whiskered Spider-Monkey, Red-handed Howler-Monkey, both otters, Red-fan Parrot and an adult Agami Heron fishing, amongst others.  We even got to see a Greater Yellow-headed Vulture 'skiing' as it slid down the wooden handrail of some steps which lead to our beach, where it then devoured a dead fish. I have a little while before my next group and so am now teaching a newly arrived birding guide all the trails. This morning started off very well with my first lifer of the season; a Southern Nightingale-Wren singing right at the lodge!

Amazonian birding part 1

My first day and a half birding around Belém provided me with 14 lifers, including the ridiculously red Scarlet Ibis, one of the species I most wanted to see.  I'll have more time in Pará on the way back but I'm now at the lodge again.  I've spent the past two days walking the various trails and trying to investigate the myriad bird calls, many of which I've forgotten since I was last here.  Yesterday, I flushed a Variegated Tinamou which scuttled off the trail but then froze within view, allowing me to get a great look at its markings.  This morning, I was standing quietly in the Secret Garden when I heard some rustling leaves and turned around expecting to find a lizard, only to see a Tataupa Tinamou walk over the rocks and off into the forest.  That's only the second Tataupa I've seen in all the years I've been coming here and two tinamous in my first two days.  Only another nine tinamou species to go!

Amazon bound

Rufous-thighed Kite by David Lang

I'm on my way to the Amazon for my seventh season of guiding at Cristalino Jungle Lodge, where my local bird list stands at a whopping 534 species.  Of course, after a year and a half in total spent in exactly the same place, the law of diminishing returns means that I have very few potential lifers remaining but this Rufous-thighed Kite, a rare austral migrant, was one of 5 new species I managed to see or hear during my 7 weeks there last year.  A few new birds would be nice, therefore, but, this year, I've managed to arrange a stopover in Belém, to see another part of the Amazon and, hopefully, quite a few different birds.  I'll be updating my blog regularly over the summer about life in the rainforest but won't be able to post any pictures until I get back so I'll leave you with these two wonderful shots taken by one of my groups last year.

Zigzag Heron by David Lang

Blue Monday

Today was my last chance to do some Belgian butterflying this year since I'll soon be leaving for Brazil and won't be back until most of them have finished flying.  I thus decided to visit one of my favourite nature reserves at the southernmost extremity of Belgium in the hope of adding Adonis Blue to my Belgian list.  It didn't take long until I found this very co-operative female but I first saw a Green-underside Blue, which is almost as rare and I have only seen once before.  Two rather early Dark-Green Fritillaries were also my first in Belgium and there must have been a dozen or more Pearly Heaths flying around.

This Military Orchid was one of three orchid species I found but perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was a singing Turtle Dove, which I've not heard for several years due to them being hunted to extinction in the Mediterranean.  After a long and very quiet walk through the forest, I emerged into another nature reserve where I finished off by adding a third species, Mazarine Blue, to my Belgian list and even got a fleeting glimpse of a wild cat!

Pearly Heath