This morning will be a travel morning by plane as we start the exciting extension leg of this tour.
We leave the mighty rivers of the Rio Negro and Amazon River around the Manaus area and head to Itaituba where we will now be based on the banks of the Tapajos River at the glorious Portal Pousada Lodge
Itaituba sitting on the banks of the Tapajos River
and our Portal Pousada lodge marked in red a little further south of the city
Click on the image to see the map in more detail
We had a mid morning flight out of Manaus for a 90 minute flight to Itaituba, a city that sits on the banks of the Tapajos River. when we landed we quickly transferred by bus away from the city to Portal Pousada Lodge along the Trans-Amazonian Highway (third longest road in Brazil, and probably the dustiest). We would be based here for nearly four days. The views are stunning.
my cabin
and the views from the cabin balcony looking onto the Tapijos River
We dropped the case in the room and spent an hour before lunch checking out the bird species around the garden which consisted of a couple of small pools, Palm and native deciduous trees and of course the River bank. The first bird of the day had actually been a Savanna Hawk, and the obligatory Black Vultures beside the runway at Manaus Airport.
Here hawking the river were White-winged Swallows in plentiful numbers, Southern rough-winged Swallows, and a few fantastic Black-collared Swifts. Swallow-winged Puffbirds were perched virtually everywhere, on tree snags, lodge roofs, fence posts and even on the ground where we found out they had nest holes in the sandy riverbank... (you keep on learning). Across the wide Tapajos river a single Cocoi Heron fished while Nick got the scope on a distant Black Caracara perched up on a tree.
Lunch was served in the excellent alfresco dinning area and we had an hour or two to either relax in the hammock or do a spot more garden bird watching. So after lunch I checked out the pools where I got lovely close views of an Amazon Kingfisher, while a Black-Fronted Nunbird could have been nailed to a branch as it really didn't want to move and let me get quite close, its partner stayed a little further away. Other usual fare were around, Tropical Kingbirds, Palm Tanagers, Lesser Kiskadee, Striated Heron, Snowy Egret, Bananaquit and a pair of Southern House-wren that were mooching around the side of my lodge.
Black-fronted Nunbird
Amazon Kingfisher
Yellow-bellied Elaenia
Southern House Wren
Swallow-winged Puffbird...... in and out of its ground nest hole
A little time spent on the balcony got a lovely sight of upto eight Turquoise Tanagers that kept to the shade of the tree right outside my room, as did a Variegated Flycatcher.
We all met up in the garden for 20 minutes before we were to meet for the afternoon trail, we managed a few more sightings in the garden, a pair of Yellow-bellied Elenia and a Glittering-throated Emerald Hummingbird, while hundreds of Butterflies rested on the riverbank.
Turquoise Tanagers
Butterflies resting on the riverbank
We met our local guide Gilberto who was decked out in full camo gear (even his tape and speaker were camouflaged) and he wore snake gaiters.... hmm where were we going!
We boarded the bus and headed out to our first trail in the Amazonian National Park. About half an hours drive down the Trans-Am highway we came to the Acaizal Trail.
Trans-Amazonian Highway
we would see alot of this road during our stay
We had at least one specialty to find somewhere along this trail. But first up was a rather good Great Jacamar, not a lifer but as the name suggests a great bird to see again. A pair of Ornate Stipplethroats foraged in the high canopy with a White-eyed Stipplethroat (Antwren ssp phaeonata), I am not sure if looking down and deep into the jungle for a ground skulking bird is easier than stretching your neck back and looking high up into the shaded canopy at the underside of a bird ..... both situations are very difficult when it comes to forest birding. At least these three birds gave us plenty of opportunity to see them moving around. I missed the Elegant Woodcreeper which everyone got onto. Then we had a prolonged view of a stunning Rufous-throated Puffbird that Gilberto had found while we were watching the Stiplethroats, what a stunning bird.
Rufous-throated Puffbird
Yellow-footed Tortoise (Brazilian Giant Tortoise)
we found this fella on the track this afternoon
It has to be said that Gilberto and Pablo are excellent birders and Gilberto knows every inch of all the local trails, we would be in very good and able hands during the next three days.
I think the one species we needed to find on this trail was the Alto Floresta Antpitta, we had a small chance of finding one. A very difficult bird to locate never mind see, well today could be our lucky day. The good thing about having two guides is that Pablo stuck with us and made sure that we were trying to get the best views of what was around, while Gilberto was often 200mtrs ahead seeking out something special. He had been listening for the Antpitta and sure enough alerted Pablo to come up track. For the next hour we, using Brazilian lingo "suanda a camisa or sweating the shirt" ducking, diving, scrambling, bending branches off the track to eventually get to see it, and see it well. What a bird.
Retracing our steps back out of the track, the team still had time to find Plain-throated Antwren which I missed and a Spixs-warbling Antbird.
We still had time to stop at a small patch of open wetland area where dozens of Olive Oropendola were at their nest sight, while Short-tailed Nighthawks literally swooped just above our heads. On a dead tree were two Yellow-tufted Woodpeckers and we finished off with a Red-stained Woodpecker virtually as the light disappeared. We headed back to the lodge for beer and once again a hearty meal.
Our first day in the Amazonian NP had produced some stunning and difficult to get species.... bring on tomorrow.
Red-stained Woodpecker
the nest site of Olive (Amazonian) Oropendola
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