Day 2 of the Pantanal of Brazil

We headed out before 6 am to try to find Giant Anteaters. Along the road, but still well inside the ranch’s property, we saw three Hyacinth Macaw across the field sitting at the top of a snag. This is a four-shot iPhone panorama of the scene.  You can see many termite mounds in the field behind them and one at the lower left of the photo.

 

I photographed the macaws in the dim early light handheld at 1/15 sec, ISO 6400, and, for the closer view pair, 1120 mm eq. The camera has amazing image stabilization capabilities.

Those photos were taken at 6 am. The sun was finally breaking the horizon at 6:23 am.

There were tourists from the lodge also looking for the anteaters. They are in the vehicle, and our group is on the ground off to the right. 

We walked through the fields toward where we thought we spotted an anteater. It was hard to get a clean shot of these shy creatures, but I did get a few photos. These animals, which are closely related to sloths, weigh 75 to 100 pounds. They have a huge black bushy tail.

And then, amazingly, one walked quickly in front of some tourists. The long lens compresses the distance from the anteater to the legs.  I wish we would’ve been standing with them. 

Still before 7 am, I photographed this sunrise with my iPhone. This is a nine-image panorama. You can see part of our group to the right of the tree.

Continuing to use my iPhone, this three-photo panorama shows the termite mounds that are prevalent in this area. Anteaters feed on the termites. The mounds have to be tall to keep the tops above the water level during the wet season.

Here is a large termite mound with a Brown Bracket deer standing nearby. This deer is a bit smaller than our white-tailed deer.

The deer ran across the field and then across the road in front of us.

On the way back, we saw a Savannah Hawk.

After breakfast, I took this photo of Juraj. You can see the vastness and flatness of the area. In the wet season most of what you see in this photo is underwater.

After breakfast we were going to drive to a Jabiru Stork nest a few miles away, but still on the lodge grounds. These lodges are typically a small part of the many huge private ranches that make up most of the Pantanal. Before we left around 9 am, I photographed a few birds and reptiles near the lodge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped along the road to the Jabiru nest to photograph our first Sunbittern. This bird appears quite plain when it is standing by the edge of the water, but it is glorious in flight. Here are some photos.

We got to the nest site and found a Jabiru Stork standing on top of a huge nest.

In the tangle of brush that made up the nest, many pairs of Monk Parakeets were nesting.

A Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture cruised the fields out beyond the nest.

Part of our group in the area near the Jabiru Stork nest included our two leaders who are hatless: Fisher on the left and Petr on the right.

A Black Vulture flew into a tree nearby.

We walked into the adjacent woods and photographed a group of Black-and-gold Howler monkeys. The males are black, and the females are a yellow golden color.

Also in this small wooder area we saw a Azara’s Capuchin Monkey.

We returned to the lodge for lunch and a rest in the heat of the day. We weren’t planning to head out until around 3:45, but in the meantime I took some photos at the wildlife pool and in the fields beyond it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked far out in the mostly-dry wetlands and sat down in the fairly dry mud. Petr felt that by remaining still some interesting birds would come to the water areas not too far away. A few did, but none got very close. Here are a few of the photos I took while we were sitting there.

 

 

 

 

Fisher had left the group and found a pair of Burrowing Owls. We decided to give up on those small water pools and walk much farther away from the lodge to photograph the owls. Along the way a Jabiru Stork treated us to a nice flyby.

   

I also got some photos of Nacunda Nighthawks.

We found the Burrowing Owls and laid down on the ground to photograph them. The set below were taken in front light with the fairly low sun behind me. 

We then moved around the other side to photograph the owls backlit. I prefer the backlit photos.

 

The sun was setting behind a river of Capybara.  Behind them you can see a number of black and white horses and many large birds flying.

The light was interesting as sunset approached.

After the sun set, the sky was filled with birds: nighthawks, ibis, skimmers, storks, and macaws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back well after sunset and photographed horses and Greater Rhea.

Before dinner, but well after dark, I hiked to the edge of the wildlife pool to photograph the Milky Way. Here is a view of the lodge grounds along the way.

The Milky Way graced the sky above the green wildlife pool and the field and tree beyond it, lit by the lights of the lodge at my back. This is a four-image panorama with a very different exposure for the bright foreground than the Milky Way.  It was great to be able to photograph the Milky Way before dinner with the temperature now reasonably comfortable.