August puts a cherry on top, and trip pics continue

Today, the last day of August, might just be the nicest day of the summer. The air was cool, and the skies were blue this morning, and we’re forecast to reach only 70°F this afternoon. Talk about going out on a high note.

Estabrook was pretty quiet this morning, and I didn’t see much photo-worthy until I came across this little character on my way to the north end along the river path. Someone had just come south walking two dogs, and perhaps that is what set it off, but it kept up chirping long after they were gone, and it didn’t budge as I approached for a picture. Maybe it was just announcing to all who could hear that it had found the largest nut in the world. For what it’s worth, I believe that is a black walnut fruit, and it is indeed good-sized, but it certainly is not the largest nut in the world.

At the north end, an egret was fishing again, and caught another tiny fish.

I spotted a couple of warblers this morning, but failed to capture an image, so the migrant of the day is this solitary sandpiper.

Finally, on my way back south, there was a trio of white-breasted nuthatches, probably a family, all foraging together, and this was the boldest or slowest one.

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

Here’s another snail kite, a female/immature one this time. They were quite common, and I probably saw one or two every day.

This next bird is one of my favorites of the trip because that long tail seems so exotic compared to anything I’ve seen so far in the northern hemisphere. It’s a fork-tailed flycatcher (Tyrannus savana) and a close cousin to the scissor-tailed flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus), whose breeding range does extend all the way into Missouri.

One of the most exciting parts of our trip was when our guide pointed toward shore, carefully took off his sunglasses and hat, and then nearly dove overboard to catch this little caiman with his bare hands. I did not see that coming!

Although I didn’t see any gulls or geese, I did see quite a few ducks, and the consensus is that they were all black-bellied whistling ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis), and here’s a handsome pair.

Finally, with all that water and nice warm air, you might expect a dragonfly or two, and there were literally hundreds. I’ve never seen them so thick. I was surprised, however, to see not a lot of variety. Almost everyone looked like this deep blue and bright red flame-tailed pondhawk (Erythemis peruviana)

That about wraps up day four, and there’s plenty more to go, but I gotta stop here. Meanwhile, if you are interested in any of the trip pictures I took, of people, lodges, sunsets, and the like, I’ve put them on flickr here. We haven’t written captions for them yet, but you can get the gist of things.