Day 9 of the Pantanal of Brazil
Breakfast was scheduled for 6 am so I thought I had a bit of time. I took this photo of the patio area at our lodge. Then I realized our group was already eating breakfast early, as can be seen in the left back corner of this photo.
After breakfast, I photographed a very tame bird sitting in the patio area. I believe it is a dove species.
The lodge had some jaguar statues.
As we walked to the docks around 6:20 am, I photographed a few flowers with my iPhone.
The sun was just coming up at 6:26 am as we walked down to board the boat.
Soon, we were heading into the sun along the river.
At 7:15 am, we found our first Jaguar. Here is an iPhone photo of it in the center of the image in a tree.
The Jaguar seemed quite comfortable in the tree, wandering around and preening.
It then climbed down, walked along the shore, and settled down for a bath.
Quite a few boats had gathered to view it as it sat along the shore.
These two photos were taken with my iPhone.
The Jaguar rested with its paws crossed.
It reminded me of our cat, Rilla, who often did the same thing.
We left after an hour and spent the next 35 minutes searching for another Jaguar. Meanwhile I photographed birds along the shore including and adult and immature Black-crowned Night Herons and a colorful Wattled Jacana.
I photographed a Capybara with my iPhone and then with a real camera with a much longer lens.
A bit before 9 am we found our second Jaguar of the day. It gave us a nice demonstration of its ability to keep its head above water while swimming.
We lost sight of the Jaguar for 30 minutes while I photographed some birds along the river.
Then our second Jaguar of the day reappeared briefly when we headed up a small stream. We could tell it was the same animal by the pattern of spots.
Before lunch we saw some nice birds, including more adult and immature Black-crowned Night Herons and a colorful Wattled Jacana.
Lunch was delivered early this day around 11:20 am. Since the boat delivers a lot of lunches, they don’t all arrive at noon.
At 12:25 pm our boat driver made a mad dash for our third Jaguar of the day. It walked along the shore and then disappeared. We only saw it for two or three minutes.
That was it until well after 3 pm that we would see our fourth Jaguar of the day. During the afternoon, I photographed a great variety of bird and reptile species.
Three Caiman 90 minutes apart.
Some Green Iguana.
An anhinga with a fish.
Cocoi Heron which somewhat resemble our Great Blue Heron.
An Amazon Kingfisher caught a fish.
A Black-collared Hawk did also, though it is a bit hard to spot.
Here it is in the hawk’s claws. It is a Snow Pieco.
A pair of Large-billed Tern, a Black Vulture, and a Ringed Kingfisher.
Some cute Pale-legged Hormero, in the Ovenbird family.
We cruised by some nice scenery.
And saw a Yellow-rumped Cacique and Orange-backed Troupial together on a beach.
And a bright yellow Lesser Kiskadee.
Then it was time for stunning Rufous-tailed Jacamars to make an appearance.
This one caught an insect.
We saw three together, though the third is a bit hard to spot.
At 3:45 pm we found a pair of Jabiru Storks. One was gathering material for its nest.
Just across the river, sitting high on the bank was our fourth and final Jaguar of the day.
It stayed only briefly and then walked back into the woods. I believe we were the only boat around at this point.
We began heading slowly back, taking pictures along the way: a group of Cormorant, a Pale-vented Pigeon, an unnamed humming bird far away, and a Great Egret.
I again photographed that interesting burnt-out tree
A Ringed Kingfisher was catching late-day sun.
And an Amazon Kingfisher was basking in the very last sun of the day.
At 5:09 pm, the sun was setting.
Well after sunset, a large number of Great Egrets flew into a distant tree.
It was a great way to end our time on the rivers around Porto Jofre. In three long days, we photographed 16 individual Jaguars including a family of three and a mother with cub.
