Oof, the sky was, and as I write this still is, dark today, but critters gotta eat, so I managed to take some pictures anyway, even if they’re a bit dark and moody.

There was quite a crowd of wood ducks on the pond, I counted eleven, and this drake appears to be sporting the new fall line already.

I was happy to see that not all the sandpipers have already left for warmer waters, and here’s a nonbreeding/immature spotted sandpiper, who’s spots have not yet arrived, foraging on the rocks at the top of the falls.

At the north end, there was even a killdeer foraging on the vegetation that grows in the river and is now exposed by low water. I also saw two fly over, heading southwest, and they exchanged a few calls with the one below, but they decided not to join forces and continued on their way.

Finally, one of my favorite fall flowers is starting to open, New England aster, hairy Michaelmas-daisy, or Michaelmas daisy (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae formerly Aster novae-angliae) where. “‘Michaelmas daisy’ derives from the [tendency it has] to flower around September 29, the Feast of St. Michael,” and here’s a first look. With any luck, we’ll get plenty of pictures in the coming weeks of butterflies tanking up on these beauties for fall migration or winter hibernation, as the case may be.

Lastly, I’ve got another trip to go on, a short one this time, and due to all the positive feedback, I’ll cue up a few short posts to tide you over.

I was happy to see that we still have wood ducks on the pond, and I counted six of them today. Here is a drake, on the left, and a hen, on the right, acting like an old couple on the outs.

On the river, I was also happy to see that the green herons have not yet flown south, either.

The great blue herons do stick around for the winter, and this one looks like it’s soaking up sun while it can.

We even still have a great egret, taking a break from fishing to scratch an itch.

Back on shore, the warblers are still coming through, and here’s a non-breeding female or immature bay-breasted.

And here’s a female American redstart flashing her bright yellow tail patches.

As another enthusiast and I were watching the black chestnut trees for warblers, we were both quite sure we saw a pair of ketrels chasing each other as they soared overhead. Then, when I returned my attention to the river, I was excited to see that one had landed on a tree on the island. Upon closer inspection, however, it is clearly a juvenile peregrine falcon, and not one of the kestrels we were sure we saw. Plus, it’s sporting some nice jewelry.

Then, to complicate things further, there was a second raptor in the tree, and it looked much smaller. Maybe it was one of the kestrels, or maybe it was just a male falcon, which are “considerably” smaller than the females.

Well, hold onto your hats, because the second raptor is neither a falcon or a kestrel, but a merlin, instead. Ach du lieber! I surely have not seen a falcon and a merlin in the same tree before.

After all that excitement, I returned my attention to shore, and look who stopped by to fill up on some of the goldenrod that is in blossom everywhere now, a monarch butterfly.

Now that was a fine welcome back to Estabrook Park, eh?

On our last morning in the Amazon, at Antonio’s Lodge, I had sort of a magical moment in which I just kept seeing one new bird after another. The previous morning, I had parked in the observation tower they have, in hopes of seeing birds at eye level or below, and I did see that hummingbird and the orange-winged parrot from there, but not much more. Walking around on the ground instead seemed to expose me to a lot more, even though I had to contend with a light sky background.

The first bird to catch my eye was this amazing green-backed trogon (Trogon viridis), and I couldn’t believe how nicely it posed. I had never even heard of “trogons” before. Have you?

This chestnut woodpecker (Celeus elegans), our third woodpecker of the trip, was energetically picking fruit from this tree nearly the whole time, and it was often half buried in leaves or branches, but not always.

When I spotted this stunner, I thought it was another blue dacnis, which we first saw just yesterday, and I even logged it as such. It was only in the process of sorting through all the pictures in order to write these posts, however, that I realized it was a completely different bird, a spangled cotinga (Cotinga cayana), and not even in the same family as the dacnis, though they are both passerines. Note that the color reproduction in my image may look fake or pushed too far to overcome the backlighting, but it is pretty accurate, and the Pedia of Wik describes them as “bright turquoise-blue with a large deep wine-red throat.” You can check out the ebird picture here for reference.

In contrast, here’s the drabbest parrot, a dusky parrot (Pionus fuscus), that you may ever see.

As if the green-backed trogon above wasn’t enough trogon for one day, check out this Guianan trogon (Trogon violaceus) sporting a yellow eye-ring instead of white. It too has a yellow belly, that you can just see a corner of, but it didn’t want to flaunt it.

After all those exotics, check out this familiar face, a red-eyed vireo (Vireo olivaceus) just like the ones we see in Estabrook Park. It appears that some migrate to Wisconsin, and beyond, while some just stay in the Amazon year-round.

This next bird, a chestnut-bellied seedeater (Sporophila castaneiventris), was the last bird I photographed that I knew was new to me at the time. After the “cotinga incident”, however, I should probably comb through all my pictures again, to see what else I might have missed, but not today.

Instead, let’s just enjoy another glimpse of a turquoise tanager from that last morning, …

a fun look at a female silver-beaked tanager digging breakfast out of a local fruit, and …

my last wildlife picture of the trip, of a pretty little Labe satyr butterfly (Vanima labe).

Even if I don’t find any new birds, I still have a few other pictures to sprinkle into future reports, but this concludes the Brazil-heavy portion of our program, for now. Thanks to Anne for planning the whole adventure and making it possible.

I couldn’t make it to Estabrook Park again today, so that means more room for Amazonian wildlife. As I mentioned yesterday, we traveled back to Manaus from the Dolphin Lodge, where we spent the night, and the next morning we started the four-hour boat-car-boat trip to “Amazon Antonio’s Lodge”. While the Dolphin is south of Manaus and not on true “black water“, Amazon Antonio’s is northeast of Manaus and is supposed to be on true “black water“. One big takeaway was that Amazon Antonio’s was not supposed to have any of the mosquitoes that Dolphin lodge had, which wasn’t too many anyway, and I’ve experienced way worse in Waterford, WI. A big visual difference was that there were no floating mats of vegetation around the trees growing out of the water and even white, sandy beaches in some spots.

Anyway, the wildlife was amazing but different. Let’s get to it.

Right away after we arrived, I spotted this stunner skulking about in the foliage over the bank down to the river, and he turns out to be a blue dacnis or turquoise honeycreeper (Dacnis cayana), I can also see a female in some of the images, but I wasn’t aiming at her, so they didn’t come out as nice.

There were plenty of macaws, parrots, and parakeets around, but they were usually flying by noisily at a distance. This orange-winged amazon (Amazona amazonica), also known locally as orange-winged parrot, and its companion were happy exceptions to that rule.

There were hummingbirds, of course, and this little cutie sticking its tongue out at me appears to be a black-eared fairy (Heliothryx auritus)

Here it is feeding from the flowers of what looks like some species of tree in the Inga genus, perhaps Inga edulis, known as ice-cream bean.

On our second day at Amazon Antonio’s, our guide took us on a long hike deep into the forest. A big surprise was how much the forest changed as we got away from the river. Once we moved beyond the sandy riverbanks, which didn’t support tall trees, we came to small rolling hills covered with the kinds of tall trees we had seen at the previous lodge, and that’s when we spotted our second woodpecker of the trip, a yellow-throated woodpecker (Piculus flavigula)

We eventually reached a campsite with a nice clearing, little waterfall, and pool where our guide cooked us lunch. The soil in the clearing attracted a lot of butterflies, and here’s a trio of Florida or tropical whites (Appias drusilla).

And here’s a dapper-looking Crethon daggerwing (Marpesia crethon), cousin to the Orsilochus daggerwing (Marpesia orsilochus) we saw at the previous lodge.

Once we hiked back out to the lodge on the river, I finally got the best picture I was gonna get of this majestic-looking yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima), seemingly saying to the fork-tailed flycatcher, “whadda you doin’ in my tree?” Since we had arrived at Anotnio’s, I had seen at least three individuals, perhaps a fledged family gliding from our shore to that tree and back, but I could not get a good picture, and this will have to do.

Here’s a couple of blurry pictures of a caracara snatching an eel or snake out of the river near the Dolphin lodge.

Finally, let me wrap up the first day and a half at Antonio’s with this amazing creature, which appears to be an assassin bug, perhaps (Calliclopius nigripes).

Estabrook Park eluded me again today, but I believe you know the drill by now.

On our last day at Dolphin Lodge, we visited another nearby family, and this one had befriended a white-throated toucan (Ramphastos tucanus) so that it stuck around. Thus, I was finally able to get a portrait of this amazing creature.

Also in that yard, I finally got a nice clean shot of a bird I had tried repeatedly and in vain to capture on the wing. The bright yellow on its face means that it is neither a black vulture nor a turkey vulture, both of whom we have already seen in North America, but instead is a greater yellow-headed vulture (Cathartes melambrotus) or a lesser yellow-headed vulture (Cathartes burrovianus), who do not come north of Mexico

We’d been seeing these cuties, white-winged swallows (Tachycineta albiventer), swooping just above the water surface ever since we arrived a Dolphin Lodge, but I wasn’t able to get a decent picture until the last day.

As we were returning from our last boat excursion, and the sun was getting low in the sky, so around 5:30pm, I got crazy lucky to spot this yellow-tufted woodpecker (Melanerpes cruentatus) on the dark side of a dead tree trunk. Fortunately, by then, the guides were familiar with my shenanigans, and so they quickly slowed the boat and gently drifted us toward the bird so I could get this image, which is good enough for a positive ID. Woo Hoo! Our first woodpecker.

At some point on that last day, I found this tiny mystery hummingbird taking a sun bath, and it never moved enough for me to see any more of its plumage. The best google image search can suggest is a couple of birds that are native to Asia and have never been sighted in South America. Oh well. “Your secret is safe with us, Sweetie.”

Thankfully, this bird, a yellow-rumped cacique (Cacicus cela), is easy to identify by its jet-black plumage with bright yellow highlights. They stay up high in trees and move fast, however, so it wasn’t until the guides found a colony of nests, characteristically installed near a big wasps’ nest, that I was able to get this picture.

Eventually our time at Dolphin Lodge came to an end, and on the trip back to Manaus, which required 4 boats and 4 automobiles, we saw a great egret (Ardea alba), …

my first ever snowy egret (Egretta thula), close cousin to the little egret we saw in Slovenia, and …

my very first anhinga (Anhinga anhinga), which I thought at first was a cormorant drying its wings, as we’ve seen the do in Estabrook, but then I zoomed in and saw the light brown neck and head. Cool. I read that they are also called snakebird, darter, American darter, or water turkey, and anhinga comes from “the Brazilian Tupi language and means ‘devil bird’ or ‘snake bird'”, which is said to come from the fact that “only the neck appears above water” when they swim “so the bird looks like a snake ready to strike.”

Before we say goodbye to the Dolphin Lodge, here’s one more visitor to the dining hall screen, one of the leafwing butterflies, genus Zaretis, but I really can’t tell which one.

And from a shrub out in the yard, a Sara longwing (Heliconius sara), probably.

I couldn’t make it to Estabrook today, despite the nice weather, but I’ve still got plenty of Brazil pictures, so let’s dive into those. These first six pictures I took while just wandering around the Dolphin Lodge grounds, either before or after breakfast.

This stunner was very willing to pose, but I only saw it one time, and it is a black-fronted nunbird (Monasa nigrifrons).

Here’s a male silver-beaked tanager (Ramphocelus carbo), and these birds were about as shy as house sparrows.

Here’s a female silver-beaked tanager, on the left, with a big green grub in its beak, and a youngster on the right begging to be fed. The females and young are a lot redder and have all black beaks.

While we’re on tanagers, here’s a palm tanager (Thraupis palmarum). They were not quite as bold as the silver-beaks, but they were a lot less flighty, so it was easier to get a nice portrait.

A blue-gray tanager (Thraupis episcopus), who were a bit shyer than the palms.

And a turquoise tanager (Tangara mexicana), who were very shy.

Back out on the water, here’s our third and last heron, a striated heron (Butorides striata) and close cousin to the green herons we see in Estabrook Park.

Speaking of close cousins, here’s one of the four king fishers native to the region, and the only one of which I managed to capture an image, a ringed kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata).

And a neotropic or olivaceous cormorant (Nannopterum brasilianum) 

This next bird is more like a sibling than a close cousin. The house wren (Troglodytes aedon) “occurs from Canada to southernmost South America, and is thus the most widely distributed native bird in the Americas.” There are, however, “32 recognized subspecies,” with the northern house wren, Troglodytes (aedon) aedon group in Canada to southern United States, and the Southern house wren, Troglodytes (aedon) musculus group in southern Mexico, Central and South America.

Finally, what would a trip to the Amazon be without seeing a tarantula, eh? Well, here’s ours.

Lastly, let’s wrap up with something a little prettier, this Orsilochus daggerwing (Marpesia orsilochus) on the screen of our dining area.

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.

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.

It was dark, breezy, and wet at sunrise this morning, and I’ve got a 9am meeting to attend, so instead of trying to rush through Estabrook cursing the lack of light and time, I’m going to take the opportunity to show you a few more pictures from our trip to the Brazilian Amazon instead.

First, before I forget, here’s one more picture from our half-day excursion from Manaus on day two: this darling little rounded banner butterfly (Pyrrhogyra crameri).

Okay, now back to the boat tour near the Dolphin lodge on day three. If you solve crossword puzzles, you’ve probably already encountered this next bird, at least in print: the ani. As is often the case, however, there are several varieties, and this particular individual is a greater ani (Crotophaga major). We saw several lurking in the low branches at the edges of the flooded forest, and except for the beak, they look like super-sized grackles.

With all that water around, I expected to see herons of some kind, and this capped heron (Pilherodius pileatus) did not disappoint. Except for the blue beak and face, it looks a bit like a yellowish version of the black-crowned night-herons we’ve seen in Estabrook.

At one point in our little boat tour, our guide had to climb out to pull the canoe through a thick floating mat of vegetation and over a submerged log, and that gave me the opportunity to spot this amazing banded sphinx moth caterpillar (Eumorpha fasciatus). It was the size of my middle finger; I kid you not.

One of the birds we saw most often, similar to the ubiquitous American robin in Estabrook, is this striking creature, and one of the reasons I suspect contributing to its frequency is that there are probably a half dozen species that look just like this. Some include the great kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus), the lesser kiskadee (Philohydor lictor), the social flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis), and the rusty-margined flycatcher (Myiozetetes cayanensis). Go ahead, click on those links and see if you can tell them apart by their pictures. I’ll wait.

As I mentioned above, there is more than one ani, and this one hiding in the tall grass is called the smooth-billed ani (Crotophaga ani).

As you have probably already guessed, there were also a lot of amazing butterflies around, and we enjoyed a glimpse of this white peacock (Anartia jatrophae) in the interlude between arriving at the lodge and embarking on the boat tour.

There were also plenty of hummingbirds around, but they were a lot trickier to photograph. As far as I can tell, this cutie is a glittering-throated emerald (Chionomesa fimbriata)

Here’s another look that shows off the “glitter” on its throat a little better.

Anyway, near the end of the boat tour, we got super lucky and spotted a white-throated toucan (Ramphastos tucanus) high in the trees, but it didn’t take long for it to amscray. Since we were so close to the equator, at just 3.66° south latitude, the sun set sharply at 6pm, and the daylight was already getting dim, so I had my camera set for the slowest shutter speed I thought I could get away with while handholding in a canoe. Thus, I have no idea how this Hail-Mary picture is even recognizable as a bird.

Finally, a delicious supper was served at 7pm every evening at the lodge, and on our walk back to our cabin, look who we found on the boardwalk railing, this precious Manaus slender-legged tree frog (Osteocephalus taurinus). A perfect ending to an amazing day.

And that wraps up our first day at Dolphin Lodge and our third day in Brazil.

Anne and I hosted our grandson last night, and he wanted to visit Estabrook with me this morning, so that’s what we did. He’s just turned six, so the three-mile hike to the north end and back was a bit of a stretch for him, but the little trooper made it the whole way under his own power.

When we got to the pollinator garden, he spotted a goldfinch digging seeds out of some flowers, while I spotted a house wren on the downed log behind the garden, and I did a better job with the house wren picture, so here it is. I was happy to see a wren because I hadn’t heard them since I got back from Brazil.

When we got to the pond, we counted nine wood ducks, but the big find was our first yellow-rumped warbler of the fall migration. “Welcome back and safe travels!”

We pressed on all the way to the north end, and our reward was watching this great egret catch a tiny fish.

On the way back south, he spotted a northern cardinal beside the Oak Leaf Trail, and this time I was able to get a good picture of the bird he found, and here it is. When I showed him the picture, he was surprised to see that it had a red beak. Cool.

Okay, back to the Amazon. After the first two days in Manaus and its surroundings, we headed farther afield, by car, boat, car, car ferry, and finally boat again, to the wonderful Dolphin Lodge on the Parana do Mamori, which eventually flows into the Amazon River. We were greeted on the dock by this stunning and quite friendly male orange-fronted yellow finch (Sicalis columbiana).

Once we got ashore, there were plenty of lizards skulking around in the dead leaves on the ground, and here’s an adult and juvenile giant ameiva, also known as the green ameiva, South American ground lizard, or Amazon racerunner (Ameiva ameiva) checking each other out.

That evening, we went on a short boat tour of the surrounding waters and spotted this spectacular black-collared hawk (Busarellus nigricollis).

There were also a few fast-moving squirrel monkeys, and this was the slowest one.

I could barely believe I was even seeing this next bird, a hoatzin or hoactzin (Opisthocomus hoazin). It was huge, at over two feet from beak to tail, and “is notable for having chicks that have claws on two of their wing digits.” I kid you not!

The parade of large and fabulous birds continued with this snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis).

Besides the river and forest, there was a lot of flooded forest where the trees just grew up through the standing water. At the edge between the flooded forest and open water, big mats of floating grass and other plants grew, and these mats were often inhabited by small families of these long-legged cuties: juvenile wattled jacanas (Jacana jacana). There were four in this particular group…

and one adult, that I could see.

There’re plenty more pictures from day 3, but I’d better stop here and save the rest for later.