The 2023 Brazil Journals, Chapter Four

 

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Chapter Four

Always Carry a Camera with You

 

 

Morning comes whether you set the alarm or not.

Ursula K. LeGuin

 

 

 

Once again, my cell phone intrudes into my life and makes itself necessary.  This time, it’s for its use as an alarm clock.

 

I brought a small travel clock for that specific purpose.   It also has a flashlight that comes on when you lift the clock off the night table.   Unfortunately, I can neither hear the alarm not use the flashlight feature because the latter doesn’t work.

 

I can’t hear the alarm on my phone either.   Virginia suggests putting it under my pillow and that works quite well.  

It takes a whole table to accommodate our cameras.

I suspect that if I turned on the phone right now and went to the clock app, I’d find an alarm set for 4:15 A.M.  Frankly, I don’t recall what time we met in the morning, but 5 A.M. seems about average.

 

At any rate, it’s early in the morning and dark when I head down the hill to the lodge.   The walk is somewhat treacherous because of tiny pebbles that threaten to act like ball bearings and propel my descent to the ground, and the nearby grass is wet with dew in the morning, so that is tricky walking also.

 

Our outings begin before breakfast.   We return to the lodge to eat after a couple hours.

 

Half way down the hill in the daytime.

This short video shows you the lavish breakfast spread.   You'll notice there are cakes.   Brazilians eat cake for breakfast!    Brilliant idea!

Sergio

Female Tuffted Antshrike

Male Tufted Antshrike

 

Wood Creeper

In the afternoon, Sergio shows us his hummingbird set up for photography.  A large, open-sided covered building, much like a car port, has a number of hummingbird feeders hanging and they were busy with hummers of all sorts.

There are four remote-triggered flashes on tripods and a hummingbird feeder in the center of them.  Our cameras will trigger the remotes.   Sergio replaces the feeder with real flowers.   Right now, he's getting the birds used to finding feed in the center.

Violet-Capped Woodnymph

Brazilian Ruby female

 

 

Violet Capped Woodnymph, I think

Jacobin

Black-throated Mango

As he continues to set up for the next day, he offers to let us try with the synchronized flashes.   It is, to put it mildly, a clusterf..k.

 

Multiple flashes going off on cameras and multiple frames-per-second shots that's don't allow the flashes to charge, plus the four flashes he’d set up, meant I didn’t get anything decent.   Slow down, he says, so we do.

 

But it is still an experiment to be fine-tuned tomorrow.

We spend every spare moment on the deck of the lodge getting shots of new birds.

Golden Chevroned Tanager

Olive-Green Tanager

 

Green-headed Tanager

Rufous-Tailed Jacamar

Blond-Tufted Woodpecker

I should mention that these three nights at Trilha dos Tucanos are called a “pre-extension” to the Complete Pantanal trip.   Many of these trips offer pre or post extensions to the main tour, and that’s what we’d signed up for.

 

That evening during dinner, several people leave their tables and go outside.   “Tapeer!”  one says.   I follow.

 

There, on a dirt bank of the edge of a forest is an enormous animal.  We call it a tapir, pronounced “TA-per”  or "TAPE-er." The Brazilians call it “anka” in Portuguese or “tah-PEER” in English.

 

I had no idea they were so big!

 

I am without a camera of my cell phone so all I can do is watch in wonder as the tapir eats bananas.   Yes, more bananas.

 

Eventually, I ask Sergio to drive me up to my room so I can get my cell.    He does but the tapir is gone when I get back.   On the back deck, also eating bananas is another animal I’ve never seen before—an opossum!

Another critter to marvel at as it nonchanlantly munches on the soft yellow fruit.

 

Tomorrow, I promise, I won’t be without a camera if the tapir comes back.

 

 

Saffron Finch in the rafters.

  

 

 

 

Manakin

 

 

For fun, look at this manakin courtship display:  swallow tailed manakin display

Black-Throated Grosbeak

Saffron Toucanet