(pic: leaf-cutter ants)We had breakfast at 5:45 in order to leave at 6:30. The sky was partly cloudy and the day looked good. We drove through the lingerie capital once again and entered the trim and prosperous community of Caledonia. We started climbing on a one-lane cobbled-stone road leading up to a radio tower-covered mountain top. The road was incredibly steep and our van labored up around hairpin turns until it petered out at 5400’. We set off with our lunches and worked our way up to 6400’. We climbed for five hours and only went 1.1 miles, partly due to the inherent slowness of birding and partly to the ~20% slope. Several of us quit early and returned to the van as backs and knees were hurting, but Bob and I managed to stay with the leaders. Our goal was to hike up to the tree line at approximately 7000’ and see bird specialties that live only up there, but that was based on the van’s being able to deliver us to a higher elevation. Nevertheless we saw quite a few new species and some lovely wild hydrangea and fuchsia.
Our driver took us to a lovely small ranch called Sao Bernardo where we saw the beautiful Campo Flicker sitting on a fence lined with blooming Crown of Thorn euphorbias and a host of other birds. We got back to the Lodge at 5:15, cleaned up, did the List, and had a good dinner of chicken stroganoff, cheese potatoes and Brazilian biscuit & condensed milk pudding which was our favorite.
Friday, Oct 1 - Serra dos Orgaos National Park
We left the Lodge in heavy mist at 6:30 and headed south and west through small towns and past several horse-drawn carts being ridden in the break-down lane. We turned onto a freeway of sorts and then exited towards Serra dos Orgaos National Park (Mountains of the Organ Pipes - tall thin geological structures, that we never saw due to fog!!).
The entrance to the Park was impressive as were the park buildings, information signs and trails. (Brazil seems to be able to put quite a lot of money and expertise into their parks unlike our under-funded dilapidated ones!) We walked around a picnic area seeing lots of good birds in pleasant 70 degree weather before driving to the upper section of the park at 3800’. We set off walking on a fabulous boardwalk, the Trilha Suspensa, built on the path of a former aqueduct.
The boardwalk extends for almost a mile through bamboo and palm forest and varies from ground level to 18’ in height. After slipping, sliding and tripping on the Bamboo trail a few days ago, this was very luxurious. We saw wonderful birds like the Dusky-legged Guan, a brown and black stripped hen-sized bird with a brilliant red wattle under its beak, that runs along the ground. The fog cleared and then flowed over us again, but the temperature remained very pleasant. We walked back to the van and got our ham/cheese/lettuce/butter sandwiches. We had asked Andy, the Brit Lodge owner, for some cucumber slices which added crunch and moisture to the sandwich and improved them a lot.
After lunch we walked the boardwalk again and this time got wonderful displays from a Giant Antshrike, a great bird over one foot long, grey breast, black and white stripped wings and tail and a big black topknot. He flew around us three times, landing on the boardwalk railing each time, and each time I didn’t have my camera ready! Actually with ten people either struggling to see a bird or trying to explain where the bird is, it isn’t always easy to get in position, although we are always very polite to rotate places. Our group gets along with each other very well ,fortunately, as we are with each other almost every waking moment!
We finally started back home at four and hit three highway construction projects which required closing one side of the highway each time. Since this is Friday night, everyone is leaving Rio for country homes and the traffic backups were awful! We finally got home at six and John said we could compile our bird list after dinner. I dashed in, showered and dashed out to the pool, in the rain, and tried to get the computer to work, but then it started thundering and lightening and I though the better of it and quit for dinner, which was smoked sausage stew, rice and their famous lemon meringue pie.
(pic: bromiliads)Note: either the computer, under difficult conditions, or the blog, is refusing to properly down load the pics I select..others show up...very frustrating!
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