Day 5 of the Pantanal of Brazil

I was up at 5:30 am to continue my exploration of that well-framed distant tree. Early morning is the best time of day in my opinion.

Eight minutes later the dark red glow of the sky had faded to just a memory and a bunch of captured pixels.

In the center of this photo is the lodge registration area and a small bar. On the left side is the dining area. The river is behind me and the path through the woods heads off behind the dining room.

Here is the dining room, well before breakfast service.

It was still an hour before breakfast, so I wandered to the wildlife pool, but found no Sunbitterns.

I did, however, find some Turquoise-fronted Parrots, there and also nearer my room.

I thought this tree was interesting.

Kamila and Juraj were out for a morning stroll before breakfast.

Most of the lodges had hammocks outside the rooms.

After breakfast, I had a chance to photograph some now familiar and some new species before we moved to the next lodge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped along the road out to get quick photos of a Golden-collared Macaw. It stayed mostly hidden, but I did capture this one image. 

While we were out of the van, I got this photo of Kamila in front of a huge Pink Ipe tree.

We arrived at Rio Claro Lodge shortly before 10 am. We checked in, and I immediately headed out to get some photos on the grounds of the lodge before lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lodge had a Jabiru Stork nest very nearby. I got some late-morning photos and then returned after dark to use it as a foreground object for some Milky Way photos.

There were some large termite mounds in the fields near the nest.

After lunch in the heat of the day nothing was planned, but I spent some time photographing the very interesting trees in front of our rooms.

Just before we headed down to the river for a boat ride, I was able to pose three guides:   Fisher; his wife, Patricia, who happened to be at this lodge leading another tour group; and Petr. 

Around 3 PM we were in another boat on another river, searching for herons, kingfishers, hawks, and whatever else we could find.

Within a few minutes we started seeing some nice birds and even a caiman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the action started. A stunning Black-collared Hawk flew in and grabbed a fish. In this photo you can clearly see how it got its name.

We enjoyed Ringed Kingfishers flying around and fishing.

 

And then Cocoi Herons took their turn to entertain us.

 

We finally raced back after the sun set. This photo was taken by Petr.  It shows me on the right photographing something in the trees.

After dinner, I headed out to the Jabiru nest to photograph the Milky Way. This is a nine-photo panorama. The mosquitoes were vicious, but I tried to ignore them.