Day 3 of the Pantanal of Brazil

Before sunrise, I photographed Capybara and Caiman in the wildlife pool.

Then I joined the group as we headed out from the lodge in a different direction than the evening before to try to photograph a rare woodpecker and a Great Horned Owl.

Wood Storks were perched in dead trees. Presumably they spent the night there.

Horses grazed in the field we crossed heading to the birds. Fisher knew where to find the owls.  This was early morning, so insect repellent or face covering was handy.

  We found a White-fronted Woodpecker on a dead branch high in a tree.

  We found a Great Horned Owl, and a second one in the nest in a nearby tree. 

I didn’t notice until I was about to post this photo, but it appears there are two chicks in the nest.

Here is the tree with the nest near the top left.

There was a Great Black Hawk perched on a snag.

We very carefully edged our way past a bull. I believe I stayed near some of our larger bodied group members as we did.

On the way back to the lodge, we saw an egret, two heron, and a beautiful female marsh-tyrant. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While waiting to depart after breakfast, I took a photo of the area west of the lodge where we had walked the night before. This perhaps gives a feel for the table-top-like character of the area. Imagine all this underwater a few months ago.

We posed for a group photo passing cell phones to a volunteer photographer. Left to right are: our bus driver, Curtis from Hawaii, Fisher from Cuiaba, me, Kamilla from Czechia, Pietro from Montreal, Petr from Czechia, Juraj from Czechia, and Ernest from Austria.

Thirty minutes later, we finally reached a portal welcoming us to the Transpantaneira. We were actually on this road and in the Pantanal since we left Pocone two days before. The Transpantaneira from Pocone to Porto Jofre is 91 mi. long and crosses 122 wooden bridges.  Some of the bridges are old and somewhat marginal.  If a truck gets stuck on a bridge, it can be a long wait for help.

There is apparently some talk about connecting the northern Pantanal, where we were, to the southern by a bridge from Porto Jofre.  Fisher was opposed to that because of the increased traffic it would generate. He and his wife run a nature tour company; both are guides.

While Fisher went into a building to conduct some business, I photographed a Rufus Hornero, also called an ovenbird, …

… and a pair of Hyacinth Macaw. 

We stopped at the “second bridge“, a great location we would visit two more times at dusk during this trip. There we photographed many species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped near a tree that had a Jabiru nest. As soon as I got out of our van, Blue-and-yellow Macaw flew over.

Here is the Jabiru tree with our van in the background.

And the Jabiru in its nest.

Just like the previous Jabiru nest, there were Monk Parakeets around. This time they were building a nest inside a Rufus Hornero nest. You can see clearly why the Rufus Hornero is in the Ovenbird Family.  It builds its oven-shaped mud nest in a tree rather than on the ground like our Ovenbird (a warbler) does. But the Rufus Hornero is not a warbler but is in the Family Furmariidae with Woodcreepers and many other Ovenbird species.

A Southern Crested Carrara appeared to be building a nest near the Jabiru nest. 

We stopped very briefly along the road to photograph an apply-named Roadside Hawk. 

In this photo you can see a wire passing through the old post. In Brazil they build fences this way.  It must be a real challenge to string a wire through small holes drilled in a long row of posts.

At another brief stop we found a Great Kiskadee.

Also, a gorgeous Common Tody-flycatcher.

Quickly out and back into the van at two more brief stops, we photographed

 

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some Brazilian Teal. 

And also a Little Blue Heron.  

And a flying Snowy Egret.

Around 11 am we reached the entrance to the Aymara Lodge. Except for one lodge at the end of the road in Porto Jofre, all the lodges we stayed in had long entrance roads off the Transpantaneira ranging in length from 1 to 7 miles. These are huge ranches.

Along the road we found a Southern Crested Caracara.

And, somewhat surprisingly, a six-foot long Yellow Anaconda. The first two of these photos were taken with my iPhone.

Even before we could check in and get to our room, we were treated to some close-up looks at a Blue-and-yellow Macaw. I expected we would see it at the same spot every day, but it was only here for a short while and that was it.  The lesson here is to get the photos when you have a chance and don’t count on a second try.

A short distance back along the entrance road was a small pool that I visited many times. Here I photographed a pair of Sunbittern.

 

The grounds of the lodge were filled with interesting species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nesting in a tree less than 30 yards from my room was a pair of Hyacinth Macaw. I took many photos of them the two days we were at this lodge. Here are some from the first day.

Petr chose this lodge because it t had a bit of real forest, unlike the others we would enjoy.  I joined Fisher for a stroll along a path which paralleled a small river that flowed near the lodge. Here are some photos I took along that path.

 

 

 

 

After dark, the pathways around the lodge were lit by torches.