Brazil 2019 - Day 1 - 17/7 - Pantanal and Caracas.

17/7/19

Our long-awaited trip, to The Pantanal arrived and we left for the airport, giving ourselves about 4 hours in case of problems. The trip was organised by Neblina Forest from Ecuador, a company was had used several times before. They planned the itinery, booked the hotels, guides and transport so all we had to do was sort out the flights. The drive up was reasonable and we found the parking area, got the bus and had plenty of time at the airport to check in the luggage, meet up with Alan and Brenda and have something to eat.

It was an eleven hour flight with something to eat about an hour out, then I put in my earplugs, put on my eye shades, settled down with the Turtl pillow and slept most of the way to Sao Paulo where the landing was fine. We disembarked, waited for David to go back for his phone, collected our luggage and found our guide, Marco Selva, waiting for us. We were given the option to go to the hotel or go straight to Trilho dos toucans, we chose the toucans. After a short wait for the bus and driver, we loaded up and set off for a 3 hour drive. Some new and well made roads gave way to smaller roads, followed by muddy dirt tracks until we reached Trilho dosToucanos. As soon as we stopped and opened the door, the noise of birds was nearly deafening. This was a lovely Lodge with feeders at the door, several round the back and various trails and stations in the woods around.

A feeder at the entrance had a bewildering selection of tanagers, hummers etc. We stood around and watched before going in for tea/coffee and cake. We went through to more feeders on a wooden, covered area and more birds zipped about and squabbled over the food in two long wooden troughs. Woodpeckers, tanagers, toucans and especially the Saffron Toucan. 

We were handed bananas to hold out and almost immediately we had a variety of Tanagers, mainly Green-headed,  and Saffron Toucan feeding from the hand. There was a woodcreeper foraging among the leaves and a Blue Dacnis posed on one of the metal struts to allow a quick photo.

  

Lunch was a buffet choice with salad, beetroot etc, plus hot choices of beans, beef stew, rice, cheese and rice fritters or chicken fritters. This was followed by creme brûlée and a drink. Any crumbs left over were soon cleaned up.

We went out to the feeders again and then took a gentle walk but the light rain made it difficult. We were lent umbrellas from the lodge and we did see blond woodpecker, which is one I really wanted to see. There were some bushes in flower, some funghi and a lovely pink lichen, which is nest material for  one of the hummingbirds. We saw four different hummingbirds, Scale-throated and Saw-billed Hermits, Brazilian Ruby and Violet-capped Woodnymph which were all new for us.

We walked up a trail into the woods, stopping for Golden-crowned warbler and House Wren but the weather meant that it was quite quiet and damp and soggy so we returned via the accommodation 

block with Yellow-legged thrush.

We got back for coffee and cake then more time at the feeders as the rain became more steady and persistent. Looking out at the lake we were lucky to see Night Heron, two Blackish rails and a Green-and-rufous kingfisher, an unusual sight for here.

Around 5pm, as it was a three hour drive and we had to be up early the next morning for our flight to Cuiba, we reluctantly decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel where we booked in. A slight problem with the door key was sorted quickly and then we headed to the restaurant for a buffet dinner with a nice selection of beef, pork or chicken and chips, pasta and cassava. We did the log and went to bed after a really good initial introduction to the birds of southern Brazil.