south america Archives - Distracted Birder

Bird of the Week: Blue-Footed Booby

distractedbirder — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 02:02:29 +0000

Who doesn't love a blue-footed booby? This bird of the week dances like everyone is watching.

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2021 Vaccinated Vacation Adventures

distractedbirder — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 20:33:41 +0000

It turns out that 2021 was, indeed, better than 2020 in many ways. Granted, the endless working from home and refrigerator access probably hasn’t helped the fit of my wardrobe. Bummer. But in terms of travel, the outlook has become markedly more positive. For those of us lucky to have it, access to the vaccine has definitely opened up more vacation options! The year started with the certainty of… well, uncertainty. But a willingness to be adaptable led to a couple opportunities I wouldn’t have predicted in January. — Sadly, I’ve written exactly zero blog posts in recent months, which means I’ve written nothing about the international trips I was lucky to experience in 2021. I definitely should write about them, and I sure hope to do that (and spend more time on this blog in general). But the highlights: The Galapagos In August, I joined a 7-night cruise with Quasar Expeditions on their Evolution yacht. I don’t mean to toot my own horn here, but this was an awesome decision. This company, their boat, and the destination are just flippin’ awesome. This was a live-aboard experience, which definitely is not as affordable as the land-based options in the Galapagos. But 2021 was a time for amazing deals for those willing to pounce on them, so I took the opportunity to fulfill one of my bucket list dreams. And pay less, while the discount was available. Birdy Note: This was a birding tour for me in that I focused on seeing new birds, but it was also a standard tour offered by a non-birding company. There are TONS of wildlife encounters on any Quasar offering, but the focus is not birding or maximizing species. This is not the way to see all/most of the endemic birds of these fascinating islands – unless you do the full 14-night option. (That didn’t really fit into my budget OR leave balance, though!) For birders, I’d suggest that you must either accept fewer birds or go with an actual birding company. Colombia Ok, this is vacation cheating. This was actually just a little extension of my Galapagos vacation, an extra two days to do a little bit of birding around the capital city. I think I ended up seeing a few dozen new birds (although one ebird list seems to have been overlooked, unfortunately). Colombia is one of the birdiest of bird destinations, so two days in the capital city isn’t remotely scratching the surface. I’ll be happy to get back here for better birding someday. But I did see a fantastic rail and two amazing hummingbird gardens, which was great fun. Hummingbirds are also a wonderful test of high-speed photography skills. I learned that I have none. Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks Amazing trails, fall colors, and multiple covid tests. Plus grizzly bears! This was my first time in Montana AND the country of Canada, which had only allowed Americans for about a month when we arrived. This international peace park is worth a spot on anyone’s destination list, but I am grateful that we specifically scheduled our family vacation for the shoulder season. Our adventure here taught us that we do, in fact, love Canada and will certainly be returning to Alberta someday soon. Barcelona Birthday Hey there, Spain! It’s been a minute (or two decades). I only visited Madrid and Toledo during my first (high school) trip to Spain, and I remember little of that pre-planned big bus tour. I’d wanted to visit this particular destination city for a couple years. When notified of some heavily discounted fares to Barcelona, which generally experiences tolerable temperatures in November, I decided it must be a sign. I needed to celebrate my birthday in Barcelona! This was four days packed with Gaudí, food tours, and walking too dang much. I did kinda exhaust myself. But… I visited Girona, explored the Gothic Quarter, and ate the best croquettes Barcelona has to offer. Yum. More to Come… I’m excited to get back to my photographs and writing here, and I hope to publish more in the coming weeks. Every trip deserves some attention, and I do love how writing about adventures allows more time for reflection and enjoying the memories. Honestly, I wish it didn’t take me so very long to curate photographs. I am tortoise-like in many ways, including my neck-breaking speed. But I’ll plod along. Glad to have you along on the (very slow) journey!

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Jaguar Safari in the Pantanal: The Best of Brazil

distractedbirder — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 14:47:14 +0000

I decided to take a trip to Brazil based almost entirely on the appeal of the Pantanal. I’m not sure how well-known this site is to the general public, but it is a tremendously popular ecotourism destination. There’s plenty of cool critters and beautiful birds to see in Brazil, but the most people come to the lowlands for one specific target – one of those charismatic big cats everyone loves to see. It’s almost certain that a visit to the Pantanal will include a search for the Jaguar. That Darned Cat I had never seen a big cat before my trip to Brazil. At that point, my only trip to Africa was to Ethiopia – not a “Big 5” destination. And of course I’d love to see every Panthera this world has to offer. I’m just a bit slow to get started. At the time, videos of male jaguars preying upon black caiman had experienced quite a moment of internet popularity. This is unlikely to be a tourist’s view of the cat, of course. This big cat with beautifully patterned fur is near threatened, having lost about 40% of its historic range. Besides, visitors have to have realistic expectations! Any glimpse of this secretive predator would be exciting. Populations are most stable in equatorial South America, especially the Amazonian rain forests of Peru. Despite larger populations in the Amazon, the Pantanal in Brazil has the reputation for providing the best opportunity for observing a jaguar in the wild. I booked an available tour. The itinerary included 10 days in the Pantanal and Cerrado (plus an extension into the Amazon basin). Granted, this was a birding tour. But we’re talking a birding/wildlife tour now. On trips like this, the birders tend to be less driven to get the highest bird numbers and have a broader interest in wildlife. The Wetlands The Pantanal begins just south of Cuiabá, a city in the western Brazilian state of Mato Grasso. It’s the largest tropical wetland in the world. It covers most of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but extends into much of Mato Grasso and crosses borders into Bolivia and Paraguay. The Pantanal is protected by the Ramsar Convention and a portion is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Pantanal is a depression, a large delta of converging rivers. It is seasonally flooded and supports a diverse ecosystem of vegetation and dense wildlife populations. But it’s also a threatened system – particularly from cattle ranching and logging. Cattle ranching is the dominant land use across the entire wetland. (And, as a special added concern, sometimes predators aren’t welcome in landscapes where they might prey on livestock.) Destination: Porto Jofre From Cuiabá, we head south on the Transpantaneira, the two-lane dirt highway connecting Poconé to Porto Jofre. Porto Jofre is, quite literally, the end of the road. It’s actually north-central in terms of the Pantanal, but this is a northern access point from Mato Grasso. This is a long day of travel. In fact, Porto Jofre was our second destination. We had already driven for hours after leaving Cuiabá to arrive at our first lodge near the Rio Claro. This was the second stretch, but it was still a lengthy drive on a dirt road. It did include a nice lunch stop and great birding, though. In central and South America, the bird feeders frequently include fruits. This stop was no exception, and we were delighted to see hungry araçari eating lunch. After hours of driving (with birding stops), we arrived at Porto Jofre in the early evening. This was our most anticipated destination of the entire tour. There wasn’t much opportunity for birding on the grounds this night. But we were excited for the following day, which would begin the search for wildlife along the river. Jaguar Safari The next morning, we boarded the boat from our dock on the Rio São Lourenço to search for our prime target. This is not the serene excursion you might be picturing – imagine, instead, numerous motorboats heading out on the river throughout the day. Each is searching for the same elusive cat. A sighting leads to frantic calls over the radio, and all boats descend upon the same location. The moments are filled with anticipation of seeing the cat and dread that our arrival will be too late… One… Finally, the call came for a location somewhat close to us – our driver raced over in time to see a beautiful adult Jaguar striding along the river’s edge. She was the first big cat I had ever seen, and she was perfect. I couldn’t stop shaking; the sight of her filled me with a rush of relief and happiness that was surprising to me. She soon started walking, stalking along the banks of the river and moving in and out of sight behind the vegetation. We were told she had cubs and was hunting for them, although we did not spot them at the time. All the spectators watched her walk the bank for hundreds of meters, slowly boating along to keep her pace. Eventually, she stalked away, tracking inlets where boats could not float. Two… Once she had disappeared, we ventured away down the river to observe more wildlife. But, as luck would have it, she re-appeared not long after. This time, she was simply sitting at rest on a small sandy point. After a few moments, the cat began walking again. Unfortunately, she didn’t venture very far down the bank before she disappeared from view. Three! The day’s river tour was eventful with a number of great wildlife observations, in addition to our two jaguar sightings. It was about time to end the day when another call came over the radio. We weren’t far from the reported location, so our captain sped down the river to try to see jaguar a third time. As we approached the location, we saw a neat row of boats – waiting. They motioned for us to stop, and so we sat motionless, staring across a channel of water. Soon, between us and those aligned boats, the head of a jaguar appears. The cat was swimming across the river! The mother had already crossed – this was the second cub. We only really saw its head as it swiftly paddled through the water. But it was remarkable – to see how easily and quickly those cats can swim! Cost/Benefit: Are Jaguar Tours Good? Heck, I can’t be certain about this. It probably requires some research, and even then the decision to seek out this type of activity would come down to personal interest/comfort. Honest assessment, there’s probably potential for tourism to wreak havoc here, same as anywhere. If people want to see the cats, they might need more places to stay, might need more boats on the water. At some times, maybe there already are a large number operating in a finite linear space. But whether you see cats crossing the water or prowling on the water’s edge, you can only get as close as your captain allows. The cat will always have more options for movement than the tourists, even if there’s an annoying number of boats out on the water. And lodges do not seem to dominate the landscape. There are a few options in Porto Jofre, but the development is still at low densities and minimal. On the other hand, the allure of the jaguar does provide clear economic value to an ecologically sensitive area, which doesn’t hurt when there are economic powerhouses vying for the same landscape. And the tourists are coming to see the cats, giving a remarkable incentive to support conserving the habitats and land use that would keep them around. Bottom line: Like in all ecotourism activities, it’s good to be thoughtful about choosing a conscientious tour operator. But given the lower potential for tourists to directly impact the cats, it does seem sensible to give the wetlands (and their threatened wildlife) a distinct, measurable economic value. This is in addition to any intrinsic value of the ecosystem. Unfortunately, that type of value is not universally respected. The Wildlife Parade As lovely as seeing the jaguar was, it was only the highlight of a tremendous day on the river. We saw herons trying, unsuccessfully, to devour an utterly enormous catfish. Elegant swallow-tailed kites swooped around us, catching insects in mid-flight. Osprey perched above us, enjoying its recent catch. And, one of the most common sights was families of capybara, watching us from the bank. This Otter Be Good… If any critter were to secure a Number 2 spot on our “Best Wildlife of the Day” list, it would have to be the Giant Otter. Note: We did not actually make a “best wildlife of the day” list. The best on this day was pretty clear to everyone with a pulse. Also, no more lists are allowed. We probably spend more than an hour reviewing the bird checklist each night… (yep, that is actually a thing we do!) We watched a family of Giant Otters as they swam together, eating a meal of fish. As we watched, they climbed out of the river to return to their bank den. As some continued swimming nearby, one otter dug sand from the den entrance. Then, others stalked around the nearby bank, blatantly marking their territory. It was a tremendous production of natural history theatre. Porto Jofre – Day Two Our itinerary included two days of in the Porto Jofre area. Since we’d seen the jaguar on our first day on the river, most folks opted for bird walks on our second day. We saw a good number of birds, including some lovely Toco Toucans, grey ibis, and wetlands full of lily pads and wading birds. But the most engaging species was not hard to spot on the grounds of our lodge – the Hyacinth Macaw. There was even a statue of a macaw on the grounds, although I assumed at first that the statue was just honoring a beautiful local bird. We didn’t see any on our first day at the lodge. But, as it turns out, the statue was an omen of many sightings to come. Once macaws were spotted in the trees outside our rooms, they seemed to be in every tree. And, in typical macaw fashion, they seemed to be laughing at us from their high perches. These are simply spectacular parrots, large and brilliantly colored. I am a sucker for a blue bird; I just can’t help myself. Beyond the grounds and the wetlands, we continued to explore small trails just off the entrance road. Short walks led to a number of new songbirds in the understory of small forest tracts and shrubby edges. We did take some short drives to increase our trail access, but there was plenty habitat to explore and keep us birding through the day. For Your Consideration When to Go Although I’ve heard Porto Jofre can actually be a fairly busy place, we were lucky that there were probably less than ten boats on our section of the river this day. I’m sure timing is important here for both the crowds and the possibilities of seeing jaguar in the Pantanal, so it’s worth consideration – especially if large numbers would lessen your enjoyment of the experience. In the wet season, typically October-April, many of the grasslands are flooded. This is also during the southern hemisphere’s spring and summer, so these months are generally warmer and rainier. During this time, you’d have less hiking opportunities and wildlife might be more dispersed. In drier periods, water bodies might be more limiting as the precipitation wanes. The fauna tends to be concentrated and easier to spot/access. My tour took place in mid-August, which is dry season and winter in the southern hemisphere. So if you want drier weather, good temperatures, and better wildlife viewing… you’ll probably shoot for...

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