I'm back in Brussels again after a horrible 48-hour journey, starting with a nightmare flight from Alta Floresta which ended up being diverted to Goiânia due to a storm preventing us from landing at Cuiaba. The plane was bouncing around all over the place with people screaming and being sick until the pilot eventually decided to give up on approaching Cuiaba airport after two terrifying attempts. I must say Azul airlines were exceptional and, instead of flying me all the way back to Cuiaba for the following day's flight to Brasilia, put me on a short flight to Brasilia the same evening so I could have a restful night there before my international connection.
Stephen's law finally kicked on my final afternoon at the lodge, when we got fantastic looks at White-whiskered Spider-Monkey from Tower 1 with me then finding a roosting Short-billed Leaftosser close to the lodge on the way back. Leaftossers have become extremely rare at Cristalino and this was my first, of any species, since 2014. On my very last morning at the hotel in Alta Floresta, I finally got a glimpse of my first Cinereous Tinamou. I had heard this species every year I'd been but never managed to see one and, although this was a typical view of just a body, the head being obscured by vegetation, the size and colouration ruled out any other possibility, plus it started singing shortly after. That was thus my fifth lifer of the season, taking my total birdlist for the seven weeks to 370 species. Back in Brussels, the leaves are falling and the smell of autumn is in the air.
