Autumn gives a sneak preview, plus a few more pics from Brazil

It was brisk this morning in Estabrook Park, and it didn’t warm up past 60°F until after 8am. Meanwhile, this little darling is still wearing its spots, and I read that it will continue to wear them until its winter coat comes in.

The regular crowd of wood ducks on the pond were joined by five mallards this morning, but the big surprise was watching this great blue heron SWIM over to the island. Of course, I can’t absolutely assert that it swam because I could not see that it’s legs were not merely walking on the bottom, but the water line on its body stayed remarkably constant for the trip, and I read that “yes, herons can swim.” Ha! Just when I think I’ve seen it all.

The fall warbler migration continues, and today’s special guest is this sharp-looking blue-throated green.

With the colder temps, I didn’t expect to see any bugs, and I did not see a single butterfly or dragonfly, but I did see this amazing swarm of freshly emerged river flies. The cedar waxwings noticed them too, and there were probably a couple dozen birds gorging on flies.

Finally, the first of the autumn asters have begun to open. Yay!

Okay, now back to Brazil. Here are some pictures from day four, our second day at the Dolphin Lodge.

We set out by boat after breakfast to visit a local family in their home, and we were greeted by the second heron of the trip, this cocoi heron (Ardea cocoi), a close cousin of the great blue herons we see in Estabrook (swimming above), and the grey herons we saw in South Holland.

The family had a couple of young yellow-spotted Amazon river turtles (Podocnemis unifilis) in a tub for safe keeping until they are old enough to fend for themselves more-effectively on their own in the river.

They also had trees in their yard that attracted hummingbirds, and this one appears to be a female black-throated mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis)

Here’s another look.

Closer to the ground, this orange-barred sulphur (Phoebis philea) sipped from a blossom. These were about as common as the sulphurs are in Estabrook, but they were all much bigger than ours.

After our visit was over, we piled back into the boat to return to the lodge for lunch and soon came across this hot-looking brown-chested martin (Progne tapera). Speaking of hot, temps were in the high 90s every single day, and it was not a dry heat. At night, it might cool down to 80°F, if we were lucky.

Closer to the ground, in a field where a few cows were grazing, I saw another familiar-ish bird, this southern lapwing (Vanellus chilensis), a close cousin of the northern lapwing we saw in South Holland.

Finally, I was surprised to see not a single gull the whole trip. Instead, the closest I got was this large-billed tern (Phaetusa simplex). There were also some yellow-billed terns, probably, but they did not pose as nicely for me.