Day 4 of the Pantanal of Brazil

Up before 6 am while it was still dark was my routine in the Pantanal, just as at home.

I was fascinated by an apparently-leafless tree in the distance beyond the small river that ran by the lodge.  It was nicely framed by the foreground foliage. I took a normal photo and then one where I zoomed my lens during a 4 second exposure.

Ten minutes later, the tree and sky looked like this.

We took a boat ride along the small river before breakfast. Half of the group walked to the takeout place while the first group took the boat there. I volunteered to be in the first group, which I think was a good choice. The second group took the boat back and our group walked back along the trail paralleling the river.

But before the boat left, I had a few minutes to take some early morning photos around the lodge.

 

 

The boat we took was small, but quite serviceable. The river was narrow and shallow in parts. I never learned the name of the river; I’m not sure it had a name.

I also did not find out what these strange things hanging from the tree were.

The photo below was taken by Petr with his phone.  That is me in the front right.

During the boat ride, we were able to photograph a dozen species. Here are some of the photos I took.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the landing site in front of the bow of the boat.

We walked back rather quickly to get breakfast before the food was gone. However, I did get one nice bird along the way, a tiny Olivaceous Woodcreeper.

After breakfast, we took the van down the road and then hiked in through a forest where a Helmeted Mannequin had been spotted. This is a strange and colorful bird with its flaming red helmet. We were fortunate to be able to get some photos of it.

Farther down the trail we found a Rufus-tailed Jacamar which looks a bit like an oversized hummingbird.

And then high in a tree, a Masked Gnatcatcher.

From very far away, I got a photo of a Laughing Falcon. I hoped to find it when we got farther through the forest near where it was perching, but I didn’t see it again.

I did, however, get a photo of a Southern Crested Caracara.

Having a little free time before lunch, I photographed the Hyacinth Macaw pair that were nesting in a large tree not far from my room.

Nothing was planned after lunch until around 3 pm, so I wandered back the road to the small pool and got a number of photos of flycatcher species flying around. First, the Short-crested-Flycatcher.

The Lesser Kiskadee is a member of the tyrant flycatcher family.  It has a body like a kingfisher, and an omnivorous diet and bold behavior like a jay. They often eat small fish and snails.

We headed back to the “second bridge” for late afternoon and early evening photography.

Along the way, we stopped several times along the Transpantaneira.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the photos I took from the area around second bridge during the hour before sunset. We actually walked in both directions quite a ways from the bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun finally set around 5:22 pm. This was late June in the southern hemisphere and the days were around 11 hours long.

At 5:45 pm we were still photographing. Late in the day and after sunset is when the mosquitoes began to become a nuisance. You can see that the bridges are designed to keep cars, but not photographers, from falling into the water.

 

 

 

 

There were many Large-billed Tern cruising the area.

It was fun photographing the Black Skimmers at and after sunset, sometimes with quite slow shutter speeds.