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.

It was a very nice morning to return to Estabrook Park. The air was cool and still, and the sky was mostly clear. I counted nine wood ducks and one great blue heron on the pond, but the fun really started on the river at the north end. There I found the first eagle I believe I’ve ever seen at ground level. There was also an osprey, but I only saw it fly by and didn’t get a picture.

There were a few herons around, both blue and green, plus this one great egret who nearly stepped over a resting wood duck as it hunted for breakfast.

On shore, there were several little birds in the trees, including an American redstart or two, and this darling female or immature bay-breasted warbler already on its fall migration to the Caribbean or South America. “Bon voyage, little one! See you next spring!”

I hadn’t heard an indigo bunding all morning, for a change, until I spotted this one who appears to be shouting, “now?!? You need a @#$%& a picture now?”

Finally, in one of the little pine trees at the north end of the soccer fields, I managed to get my very first red-breasted nuthatch picture. Aren’t they gorgeous? I’ve been on the lookout for them for years, and I only just glimpsed one for the first time this spring, but today was picture day! Ask the bunting.

Oh, and about our recent trip, if you guessed “Brazilian Amazon,” you were right! Well done! Anne planned us an amazing trip, and we flew into and out of Manaus, a city of about 2 million people and a deepwater port about 900 miles up the Amazon River from the Atlantic Ocean. A major tourist attraction there is the so-called “Meeting of the Waters“, where “the dark (blackwater) Rio Negro and the pale sandy-colored (whitewater) Amazon River” meet. The Amazon is “referred to as the Solimões River in Brazil upriver of this confluence.”

Anyway, from there we took excursions to a couple of lodges on some tributaries, and I took about 2500 pictures. We saw about 70 bird species new to us, plus butterflies, reptiles, and mammals still uncounted, so it’s gonna take me a while to get them all sorted out. For starters, here are some pictures I took right in Manaus or on a half-day trip just across the river and back.

You may or may not already know this, but the Amazon River is home to its very own Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), with echo location and everything, and here are two of them surfacing for a breath.

They are also a bit of a tourist attraction, and the boat we were on stopped at a floating dock just off the far shore where you could jump in, if you were brave enough, to watch a lady handfeed them fish right in front of your face. Anne and I chose to watch from the safety of the dock, but plenty of other tourists did join in the fun, and here are two of them. Yikes! That’s a lot of teeth, eh?

Before returning to Manaus, the boat also stopped at a floating cafeteria, which put on an amazing buffet, and then we went for a short walk in the nearby forest, where a troop of capuchin monkeys had grown accustomed to some tourists or guides handing out fruit.

While there are no alligators or crocodiles in the Amazon River, or so I read, there are plenty of caimans, and here is the biggest one we saw, with a jaw about 18 inches long. I can’t see the teeth, but I know they’re in there.

We didn’t see a lot of birds until we stayed overnight in the lodges, but here’s a flycatcher perched just above the caiman, either streaked, piratic, variegated, or sulphur-bellied, and I’m leaning towards the last one for now.

There were more vultures there than I’ve ever seen anywhere. I counted more than a couple dozen kettling together in the late afternoon sky over the city on multiple occasions. They were mostly black, like the ones I’ve shown you from Connecticut, or turkey, like the ones I’ve shown you in Estabrook Park, and here’s a black one on the ground giving its wings a good sunbath.

Finally, they have the common ground dove (Columbina passerina), the smallest dove I’ve ever seen, at about half the size of the mourning doves we see in Estabrook, and here are two of them getting romantic in the pink early-morning light.

That’s it for now, and I’ll have more for you next time.

We’re supposed to be back by now, but maybe I’ll be exhausted and not have the energy to visit Estabrook already. So, just in case, here’s a kingfisher with a crayfish.

Here are the four wood duck ducklings, from the second brood on the pond, who are still recognizable as ducklings today.

Here’s a picture of a great egret who had just caught itself a nice little fish out of the river.

Man, this trip is taking longer than I thought. I bet we’re having an amazing time, right?

Anyway, here’s that picture of a mink who had just caught a crayfish off the shore of the northern island back in July.

Here’s a grackle back in July who found itself a crayfish claw.