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Farewell Southern Brazil

Posted 21st May 2012

With Anne safely returned from San Diego at the beginning of May, we went back down the Brazilian coast to visit (and revisit) a few areas before heading west into new territory: the famous Iguazu Falls and then Misiones province of far northeastern Argentina. Our first stop was Ilha Comprida ("Long Island"), a lovely coastal island south of Sao Paulo. The main target here was the very range-restricted Red-tailed Parrot, and we were not disappointed, with great views of many moving to and from roost sites.

Our lovely beachside campsite at Ilha Comprida, with the sea almost literally lapping at our tyres.

But we were not here for the sun and surf, but for the Red-tailed Parrots to be found in the stunted dune scrub and forest ("restinga") behind the beaches. This one is doing its best to avoid showing the red (which is much more visible on the underside of the tail).

After the Ilha we retraced our steps to two of our favorite places in Brazil: Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, and Fazenda Santo Antonio (the home of our friends the Almeida family, featured earlier in our blog), both in southern Sao Paulo state. Although much-loved places don't always live up to expectations on a return visit, this was certainly not the case with these two.

Black-fronted Piping Guan, Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, Sao Paulo, 8th May 2012. We were very fortunate to again find this very hard species (three of them this time) along the road that traverses the park.

Helinho (right) and Antonio (left, the Almeida's sons) in full Brasilian cowboy gear for opening night of their hometown annual rodeo.

From Fazenda Santo Antonio we made our way back to Parana state and the Curitiba area to try again for Marsh Tapaculo. This time Jon was successful and was able to get good views and reasonable recordings of this, one of the toughest of the tapaculos to actually see. Then we visited a new friend Jon had met at REGUA, Luciano Breves, who lives in the small town of Morretes, between Curitiba and the coast. Our main reason for the visit was to spend time in his remarkable bird-filled urban garden, and especially a chance to see Black-backed Tanager coming into the fruit feeders Luciano has there. After hours of observation, Jon got a good, if brief, look at a stunning male.

But it was equally interesting to see Luciano's set-up and learn more about his live-cam feeding stations. He is an expert bird videographer and, via the internet, truly dedicated to bringing beautiful Brazilian birds into the homes of folks around the World that arent lucky enough to have them in their backyards. He especially hopes to encourage young Brazilians see the wonderful birdlife of their own country and hopefully therefore develop a desire to conserve it. See his great work at www.ornithos.com.br

Luciano's superb garden, with one of his world famous bird tables just right of the step ladder. The ladder holds up a pole with a light, so the live cam can even run all night, giving viewers an opportunity to see nocturnal mammals from time to time, including fruit bats in the austral summer. Our truck was just able to squeeze through his gate and into the yard, where Luciano very kindly let us camp for two nights, so we had an even better view than from the live cams!

Finally it was time for us to do some rare "normal tourist" activity and visit Iguazu Falls. Often argued to be the World's greatest falls, they are located on the Iguazu River, which forms the border between Brazil and Argentina, with Paraguay barely a stones throw away. We visited the falls from the Brazilian side, where you can get an excellent overall view, and the morning light shows the falls at their best. Although water levels were relatively low, it was a spectacular sight and well worth the visit. Even here the preserved forest provided us with some good birding opportunities. Then after a superb four months and three days, it was farewell to southern Brasil.

The incomparable Cataratas do Iguazu, Parana, Brazil.

"Visit Paraguay and buy the Mona Lisa." These billboards line the highway west through Brazil that we took towards the Iguacu Falls. You have to love a country whose international tourism advertising campaign emphasises the fact that you can buy anything there, probably fake, but perhaps even real, albeit smuggled and/or stolen. Paraguay is infamous as one of the World's greatest smuggling hubs, which was the primary business of the military under the dictatorship of Stroessner. For example, Paraguay imports more whisky per capita than any country in the World, almost none of which is drunk there (it almost all finds its way illegally into neighbouring countries). Indeed the border cities are notoriously lawless in general. It is easy to buy military hardware (heavy duty machine guns, RPG launchers, and the like) in regular shops in some of the border towns, if you have the cash. So "relaxed" are Paraguay's borders that various terrorist organisations (Hezbollah, among others) are known to have operations based around Cuidad del Este, where the Paraguay, Brasil and Argentina borders meet near Iguacu.

April 2012: REGUA

Posted 30th April 2012

As those who follow us on Twitter will know, Anne went to California for much of April for family reasons, leaving Jon to tough it out solo in deepest, darkest south-east Brazil. With plenty of birding still to be done, and more than years worth of sound recordings to edit and organise, he based himself for the month at REGUA, the Reserva Ecologica de Guapiau, not far from Teresopolis. This superb reserve is tucked at the base of the Serra dos Orgoas, the imposing mountain range just an hour or so north of Rio de Janeiro. Shortly after college, Jon briefly worked with a UK-based organisation that years later was instrumental in setting up REGUA, and thanks in part to this contact, he was able to arrange to stay with our truck-camper at the reserve in return for a modestdonation and some volunteer help accompanying their bird guides in the field.

We have firsthand experience of hundreds of conservation projects around the World, especially in Latin America, and given our professional backgrounds we tend to look at them all with a critical eye. REGUA is among the most impressive of all the projects we have encountered. It combines high quality existing forest with very active reforestation, plus some restored wetlands. It provides great support to a constant procession of Brazilian and international researchers, has an excellent volunteer program, and seems to be well integrated into the local community employing over 20 locals in many capacities. A high class bird lodge was built on the reserve a few years ago which provides an excellent base for visitors, complete with tour program and superb local guides, and profits from this environmental tourism now cover about 50% of the entire reserve budget. Not surprisingly, it is considered something of a model for sustainable conservation projects and restoration of tropical forest. REGUAs location is especially important in the Mata Atlantica, the Brazilian Atlantic forest, one of the Worlds most endangered ecosystems, where only some 5-10% of the original forest cover remains (hence all the rare birds and other wildlife). If you are interested in reading more about the reserve, or even visiting or volunteering, take a look at their website, http://www.regua.co.uk/

Despite the time we had previously spent in southern Brazil, there were still a few birds to find. By fortuitous coincidence, the REGUA area happened to be a particularly good place to try for most of them. Indeed, Jon ended up seeing more of his hoped-for species than expected in the month. Highlights included Blue-bellied Parrot, Grey-winged Cotinga, Russet-winged Spadebill, many great observations of Elegant Mourner (also known as Shrike-like Cotinga), Mantled Hawk, Buff-bellied Puffbird, Half-collared Sparrow, and Giant Snipe, among others.

Saw-billed Hermit, Casa Pesquisa, 25th April 2012. Not rare but a lovely hummingbird nonetheless, and endemic to the Mata Atlantica. For those of you in the western US, it is at least twice the size of Annas Hummingbird, and obviously with an unusual colour scheme for a hummer. This individual used to buzz me in my hammock at the Casa Pesquisa (research house) in the forest at REGUA.

Adult Elegant Mourner, REGUA, 31st March 2012 Ciro Albano. Jon and Adilei - REGUAs superb local guide - repeatedly found this individual, and there were many tense minutes until Ciro, one of Brazils well-known bird photographers who was with us (and who had never previously seen the species) could get a photo. Elegant Mourner is highly sought-after by birders to South America. It is one of several species (Russet-winged Spadebill being another) that can be very tricky to find throughout their range, but, for reasons that remain unclear,are rather straightforward at REGUA.

The truck perched precariously in the only flat(ish) pullout on the extremely steep access road up Pico da Caledonia, with the city of Nova Friburgo far below to the right. REGUA proved to be a great base to visit the Pico da Caledonia, a 2200m peak (barely a hill in the Andes, but high for Brazil) famous among birders as the most accessible place to find Grey-winged Cotinga. There is only an access road because the top is covered in antennae, and apart from the occasional maintenance vehicle, it is virtually deserted on weekdays. Jon found Grey-winged Cotingas in the trees just to the right of the truck, among other places. Intending to stay just a night, the weather and birding were so pleasant that he stayed up there for three.

Grey-winged Cotinga, Pico da Caledonia, 19th April 2012. Not a good photo, but it was over 100m away. Despite occurring in the mountains just north of the city of Rio de Janeiro, this cryptic species was only described in 1980, and remains very poorly known. It has a tiny distribution and an estimated population of perhaps 1000 individuals. We had visited a week earlier with clients during a day trip from REGUA but missed the species. Jon quickly recognised why; he saw them every day, but almost exclusively in the hour before dusk, andagainfor an hour or so after dawn, times when they were much more vocal and obvious than expected. This was yet another example of the great advantage of being able to camp onsite. Jon was able to record several cotinga vocalisations including some that appear to have been previously unknown.

Videograb of Giant Snipe, near Matumbo, 7th April 2012. Although not especially rare throughout its fairly broad distribution, the largest of the snipe is only reliably found at a few sites, and some fields near REGUA happen to be one of those. More like a woodcock, they are only vocal at night, which makes them much easier to locate, when it is possible to spotlight them on the ground. To minimise disturbance, we would not visit with clients more than once per week, but each time we were able to locate one and get within a few metres.

South-east Brazil revisited

Posted 27 March 2012

South-east Brazil is one of the most important regions for endemic wildlife in the world, and Brazil contains more bird species classified as Critically Endangered than any other country in the World, many of them found in this area. Although we spent a month in southeastern Brazil back in 2006,we have easily managed to keep ourselves occupied second-time-around, and we have tracked down most of the species we missed or werent able to try for previously. We have visited many new sites on this trip and re-visited some of those that we particularly enjoyed on our previous trip.

Perhaps our favourite new site was Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, in So Paulo state, which we visited just after leaving our friends the Almeida family (see Fazenda Santo Antonio below). This is one of the most complete tracts of remaining Brazilian Atlantic rainforest (Mata Atlantica), and hence home to some superb wildlife. Located on the scarp where the planalto drops down to the coast, it is almost permanently misty and/or rainy, which of course helps produce such verdant forest. Our best bird here was Black-fronted Piping Guan, but this was almost overshadowed an hour later by a troop of 11 Muruqui monkeys, the largest and one of the rarest New World primates, which gave us a great show swinging through the trees as they crossed the one track that traverses the park.

One of the sites we re-visited was Parque Nacional Serra da Canastra. The photo above is of the Rio So Francisco, just downstream from its source in the plateau grasslands of the serra and immediately upstream of the spectacular Casca DAnta (below). If you look closely, you can just make out Jon standing in the lower left corner of the waterfall photo. Though not nearly as famous as the Amazon, the Rio So Francisco is one of the longest rivers in Brazil, snaking its way for over 2000 kilometres from its origin here in southeastern Minas Gerais state (inland of Rio de Janeiro) to the Atlantic Ocean along the border of the northeastern states of Sergipe and Alagoas. We will see this river again in a few months time far to the north.

Portions of the Rio So Francisco above and below Casca DAnta are home to one of the rarest ducks in the world: Brazilian Merganser (above). When we visited the park in 2006, we were very happy to find a pair just above the waterfall, and on this visit we were lucky to spot a pair several kilometers downstream of the waterfall.

One of our favorite mammal sightings ever was of this impressive Giant Anteater, well over two metres long, on the Serra da Canastra plateau. With their rather poor eyesight, we were able to get fairly close without disturbing it as long as we stayed downwind and enjoyed watching it meander its way through the grass for close to an hour.

Regular readers may have noticed that Jon has a perverse weakness for seeing (and sound-recording) birds that are especially hard to see, with tapaculos featuring high on this list. With considerable effort, we have seen almost every species of this uniquely New World bird family on this journey. Extremely poorly known as a group, most species have never even had their nest found and described. Brasilia Tapaculo (above) was one of the birds we missed in 2006, and a major reason we returned to Serra da Canastra this time. In better weather than our earliervisit, one pair was very cooperative.

We will take whatever suitable campsite we can find, even in the yard of the "Congregation of Christ in Brazil"! It was late afternoon by the time we found our way to one of only a handful of sites for the very recently described So Paulo Antwren, and we had been unable to find a secure place to park near the marsh in question. Our only option was for Jon to politely ask the live-in caretaker woman if we could camp in the fenced churchyard. She was understandably perplexed by the request at first but then welcomed us warmly and even gave Anne a big bear hug upon our departure the next morning. (And yes, we did see the antwren, just across the road.)

Another new place we visited was Fazenda Caets in the state of Espirito Santo, one of only two known sites for Cherry-throated Tanager (Critically Endangered, of course). In 2006 we had decided not to try for this species, because access to the lone property where it was known was shockingly expensive. Since then, the species has been observed here at Fazenda Caets, so we decided to give it a try. In more than three days we had onlyone brief sighting of a tanager, but the birding throughout the forest was excellent, and we found a couple of our othermost-wanted species as well. The wonderful caretaker Paulo even allowed us to camp in the fazenda forest for three nights, which was so peaceful.

At least 85% of the Mata Atlantica has been cleared since European colonisation in the 1500s. This is the major reason for the large number of highly endangered animals in this region. Deforestation is especially severe northeast of Rio de Janeiro, so patches like Fazenda Caets are unusual and the species that rely upon it even more so. There is continuing pressure to make way for crops and tree plantations, as was evident in an area of the fazenda where the forest had been very recently cleared (above), right next to a GPS point where we know Cherry-throated Tanager was recorded about five years ago.

A new year, and two new countries (so far)

Posted 10 March 2012

Its hard to believe we have been in southern Brazil for almost two months. In early January we crossed into Uruguay, and after a couple of weeks there, carried on into southernmost Brazil. Although we spent a month in southeastern Brazil in 2006, we didnt visit the far south on that trip. So we took our time working our way north through this area, enjoying yet more lovely scenery and systematically tracking down the endemic birds restricted to this small region. There were also interesting cultural aspects to note, as this is the area in which a lot of European immigration was focused, particularly German. Apparently, there are towns in which 80% of the inhabitants can still speak German (we had one petrol pump attendant say auf wiedersehen to us as we drove away!). We also encountered evidence of Italian, Finnish, and Japanese influences. The latter became especially apparent as we moved into Sao Paulo state, which contains the largest population of people of Japanese descent outside Japan.

The Uruguayan parliament building in downtown Montevideo. We really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and lovely maritime climate of the Uruguayan capital. We stopped here for a few days ostensibly for Anne to get the visa necessary for Americans to enter Brazil, plus some servicing on our exceptionally hardworking truck. Among other more routine jobs, the windscreen needed to be replaced having been badly cracked in northern Argentina. We literally found the only F150 windscreen available in Uruguay, which was a big relief as our model of truck is not found in Argentina and Brazil, so this was the only chance to get it replaced in a one-year period!

Although the birding in Uruguay is overall relatively poor compared to other South American countries, there are some interesting areas, especially in the far east. One priority here was Saffron-cowled Blackbird, an endangered species that is rapidly declining throughout its small range. We had missed this species in eastern Argentina, where recent drought has added to the species problems. Fortunately we found them in a couple of areas in each of Uruguay and Brazil, and made an effort to systematically search for the species in these areas, gathering data for BirdLife International.

Typical habitat of Saffron-cowled Blackbird, Baados de San Miguel, eastern Uruguay. Occurring in small areas in the grasslands where Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina meet, available habitat for blackbirds has disappeared for many reasons, but in recent decades the planting of eucalypts (for wood and cellulose) and soya has especially fragmented the habitat. In the area shown in this photo we found a flock of 164 blackbirds, apparently the largest flock observed outside Paraguay in about a decade.

Another sought-after species. Black-and-white Monjita (this one a male). Generally quite scarce, although for reasons unknown to us it was easy to find in eastern Uruguay and southernmost Brazil in January 2012. They have an unusual relationship with Saffron-cowled Blackbird, often leading blackbird flocks around. While the monjitas clearly act as sentinels for the blackbirds, it is unclear what the monjitas get from the relationship. Searching for the much more obvious monjitas was often a good way to track down blackbirds (that were often hidden feeding in the grass).

Scarlet-headed Blackbird is a fairly widespread species in marshland in several countries in south-east South America, but seemed especially numerous locally in eastern Uruguay. Occasionally we saw them with Saffron-cowleds, which created quite a riot of colour.

We have simply seen too much spectacular scenery in the past couple of years. Anne takes a nap rather than continue to admire the canyons of Parque Nacional Serra Geral, situated on the border of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina states, southern Brazil. This was yet another of innumerable parks and reserves that have let us camp despite not allowing camping. Theres just no harm in asking. The remarkably friendly park guard, Jose, radioed HQ to get special permission for us to camp just inside the entry gate. This proved to be the best possible spot, right next to an excellent forest patch with most of our key species. The species we most wanted to see here, Striolated Tit-Spinetail, sang from a bush two metres from the back door of the camper while we were having tea our first afternoon!

Long-tailed Cinclodes, Serra do Faixal, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 22 January 2012. One of the prize endemic birds of southernmost Brazil. Although the Atlantic rainforest of south-east Brazil is quite heavily visited by birdwatchers, the areas south of Sao Paulo are much less well known, but have plenty of special birds too.

With all the attention that the Amazon rightly receives, the habitat pictured above is not what first comes to mind when thinking of forest in Brazil. Relatively cool, damp Araucaria (monkey puzzle) dominated forest formerly covered much of southern Brazil and adjacent border areas of Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. Although the total area is now much reduced - technically it is more threatened than the Amazon rainforest -we were still impressed by large tracts in some of the southern states, especially Santa Catarina. Many birds and other wildlife are found only inthis forest type.

Dawn over a bush camping site near Sao Paulo. We camp in reserves and parks whenever possible for obvious reasons, but the distances in Brazil often make it impossible for us to get between sites in a day. Fortunately the largest South American countries have great networks of petrol stations with free facilities for truckers - water, showers, big spaces to park, even wifi internet sometimes - and we just muck in with them.

Fazenda Santo Antonio

Posted 19 February 2012

Although we have much to write about from our brief time in Uruguay and our first month in Brazil, we wanted to first do a different sort of posting. Three recurring features of the trip recently came together in one remarkable turn-of-events: serendipity, the friendliness of virtually everyone we have encountered, and the attention the vehicle attracts (the latter has been the case throughout our trip but is an order of magnitude greater in Brazil).

On our way to the well known (among birders) Parque Estadual Intervales in southern So Paulo state, we stopped at the nearby town of Capo Bonito to check email. Anne finished early and wandered back to the town plaza where we were parked. While she waited for Jon, a guy pulled in next to our truck at the only available parking space around the whole plaza. He had noticed the California license plates and immediately came over and asked Anne if she was American. He was excited by her answer as he and his wife had recently been to California. Despite extreme communication challenges (i.e., neither of them being able to speak much of the others language) Anne and her new friend, Hlio, persisted with a conversation. Within ten minutes, Hlio had invited us to his house. Even though Anne tried to graciously decline, he called his wife on the phone to warn her of our potential arrival and proceeded to wait with Anne for Jon to return. Jon also thanked him very much for the offer but tried to politely decline several times before we finally agreed to follow him home!

A few kms outside town, we arrived at a lovely fazenda (farm) where Hlio and Jaqueline live with their sons Hlio (Helinho) and Antonio, 20 and 16 years old, respectively. We were so enchanted by the exceptional welcome (and abundant homemade cheese!) that after tea and snacks and a tour of their soya farm, we agreed to stay for dinner and then to camp in their yard. We were joined at dinner by another lovely local family and treated to a delicious traditional meal of chicken and rice prepared by the two mothers. Conversation at dinner was made a bit easier by Fabiana, the daughter of the visiting family, as she spoke excellent English, having lived in Canada and Australia. Her brother Leandro spoke a fair bit too from his time competing in rodeos in the U.S. As we sat around enjoying dinner and conversation, being treated like family, it was a bit surreal to think that we had met Helio in the town plaza only a couple of hours before.

We had little option but to promise to return after birding at Intervales, and stayed two nights on our second visit at the fazenda. We had a wonderful time, including more lovely food and very enjoyable conversations despite our communication challenges. With Helinhos moderate Spanish, we were fairly easily able to get by with Sportuguese! A highlight was when Hlio and Jaqueline took us to the farming cooperative to which they belong. All of the people there were very welcoming and interested in what we are doing. Many of the members, including the director, are of Japanese heritage....not surprising given Sao Paulo has the largest population of people of Japanese descent outside Japan.

It wasnt easy to tear ourselves away, but we eventually had to move on. The generosity and kindness of Hlio and family was truly remarkable. Within an hour of meeting him, Antonio had given Jon a soccer jersey from his favorite team (Corinthians), and Jaqueline gave Anne a beautiful scarf as they parted. Hlio's engaging personality was evident in him almost instantly welcoming us to his home, and young Helinho had a unique warmth and skill in communicating that helped us feel especially comfortable. We learned a great deal of Portuguese very quickly, and much about Brazilian soya farming, a topic which we had recently been reading about. We plan to return to Fazenda Santo Antonio in the future......

Anne in front of Fazenda Santo Antonio, with Antonio and Jaqueline on the left and the two Helios on the right (plus Pandora the dog).

View of the 240ha of soybean fields (and Helinho) during our drive aroundthe fazenda.

Dinner the first night with our new friends. Unfortunately, Fabiana is behind the camera, but her brother Leandro and their parents are on the left with Jon, Helio and Jaqueline at the head of the table, and Anne with sons Antonio and Helio on the right.

Jon trying his hand at milking the family cow (which provided all the milk, and hence cheese, for the fazenda). If you look closely, you can see he was actually pretty effectivedespite beinga rookie.