The flight from Sao Paulo to Manaus was extremely enjoyable. For starters there was virtually nobody on it and we had our pick of seats after take off. This mean that I enjoyed some pretty decent sleep for a couple of hours across a row of three towards the back, making up for sleep I perhaps didn't get on the long haul. Before I did I spent some time looking out of the window at the world below. The green was in pockets, vast tracts cut out. Small shapes moved below. Cattle. This is the reality of the southern Amazon, unrestrained ranching. By the time I woke up, perhaps an hour south-east of Manaus, all you could see was green. The odd river tributary snaking through the landscape in wide bends, but no roads, no sign of habitation or human intervention. There are two roads in and out of Manaus, one from the south and one from the north. The northern one is paved and runs all the way to Venezuela. The southern one is at times virtually impassable. That a city of two million people should lie at the end of it is entirely improbable until you consider the rivers. Manaus is at confluence of the Rio Solimoes and the Rio Negro. Built on the Rio Negro as the black water is less viable for mosquitos, it started life as a fort in the 1600s. The real explosion was the rubber boom towards the 1800s, but when rubber started to be grown elsewhere for cheaper the city fell into decline and it was not until the 1960s that a recovery began that continues to this day. The city continues to grow, an important manufacturing hub, with the products shipped out towards the coast or flown out. As you approach from the air it is scarely beliebable that Manaus is here at all. Of course it is the rivers that made it all possible, these replace highways in the Amazon basin and throughtout our trip we noted small ferries festooned with hammocks plying up and down. The Amazon is so wide that you can't see across it, it is no surprise that some pretty large ships can get as far as Manaus.
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| Manaus |
Brad met us at the airport and we went straight for an early lunch at the Morada do Peixe where were introduced to Tambaqui for the first time - a staple part of the Amazon diet. It's a big fish with really meaty flesh and bones large enough that they are easy to deal with and it is quite delicious. After our marathon trip from London it was good to be sitting around with a nice juice, chatting with Brad for the first time in two years and quizzing him on the plan. Pairs of Scarlet Macaw flew overhead and a Pale-breasted Thrush fed in the grass near a wall. American Black Vulture and Turkey Vulture cruised around, and as we got back in the car three Common Ground Dove were seen.
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| The shore at Iranduba |
Although Richard had been at pains to tell Brad about an Agami Heron at the INPA Bosque da Ciencia we decided it would be best to continue with plan A and head down to Iranduba to bird the Várzea forest. This involves crossing over the Rio Negro on the sole bridge, and heading across the peninsula to the Solimoes (what the Amazon is known as in Brazil before it merges with the Rio Negro downstream of where we were). At this time of year the water is at its highest, a full 15m above the low point. Certain roads were impassable and the water lapped at our feet as we started birding near the small port. Our main target here was Sand-coloured Nighthawk, they roost by the riverbank during the day and sure enough we found three birds on the corrugated roof of a small barge. More Scarlet Macaw were overhead and two Large-billed Tern fished on the river. We had arrived! This was a really birdy area, with a River Tyrannulet loads of Striated Heron in the reeds, Cattle-Egret and Great White Egret in some fields, and a couple of Roadside Hawk in the trees. We had our first views of Wing-banded Hornero and Lesser Hornero here, and about 25 Orange-fronted Yellow-Finch fed along the fence. I got my camera out but it fogged up immediately, a constant issue on the trip for the first few moments after any lengthy car journey. As we birded along the edge of some vegetation we found Common Ground Dove, two Spotted Tody-Flycatcher, several Fork-tailed Flycatcher and a Barred Antshrike, whilst in the air were Short-tailed Swift, White-winged Swallow, Southern Rough-winged Swallow, and Barn Swallow. Parrots here included pairs of Tui Parakeet and White-eyed Parakeet, with three Spot-breasted Woodpecker chasing each other around, a Yellow-rumped Cacique, two Orange-backed Troupial, a Shiny Cowbird, two Yellow-browed Sparrow, three Russet-backed Oropendola, a Red-capped Cardinal, and three Pearly-breasted Conebill. And breathe. We didn't know where to look, there were birds everywhere - that first session abroad after a long journey always seems so good - maybe the bird guides know this and take newly arrived birders to an area which will just blow them away. A sudden downpour brought these marvellous proceedings to a premature end and we had to run back to the car - you can have too much of a good thing, or so say the Birding Gods. As we left the area a veritable cloud of Sand-coloured Nighthawk rose up from larger buildings near the coast road - they had been roosting on the roofs and we had not noted them as we drove in - we estimated 250 birds.
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| Wing-banded Hornero |
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| Orange-fronted Yellow-Finch |
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| Sand-coloured Nighthawk |
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| Fork-tailed Flycatcher |
We had to take an inland road to our next stop as the direct route was underwater. This was no bad thing with a five minute stop on the way yielding two pairs of Least Grebe, Southern Lapwing, Ringed Kingfisher and three White-headed Marsh Tyrant. Remarkably the Grebes were a tick for Richard and they hadn't really been on the list of expected targets at all. Shortly afterwards, at another short stop on the track between Ramal 26 and Caldeirão, we flushed Undulated Tinamou from the roadside. Seeing as there obviously birds here we stopped for maybe a quarter of an hour and pulled out loads of things. White-eyed Parakeet moved overhead with Blue-headed Parrot in smaller numbers, and a Pale-vented Pigeon was with larger numbers of Common Ground Dove and Ruddy Ground Dove. We also got Roadside Hawk here, a Laughing Falcon, Ringed Kingfisher and White-throated Toucan. You simply cannot beat a Toucan for a sense of place. We had arrived.
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| The river is vast, the far bank isn't even the other side, it is just an island. Fully fledged islands of grasses, some with small bushes growing on them were floating downstream. The bank you can see is just under 2km away. The far side is 9km! |
At around half three we arrived back the river at a site called the Estrada do Caldeirão, where we spent the remainder of the birdable day. This was the most birdy site yet. Here Brad deployed his best Owl impression, a high pitched piping whistle repeated at one second intervals. Later when his lips dried out he would use a tape. The results from either method were remarkable with tons of birds coming down to mob this terrible interloper. We pulled in a Barred Antshrike, Long-billed Woodcreeper, two Chestnut-crowned Becard, two White-winged Becard, three Spotted Tody-Flycatcher, two Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher, a Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet, three Three-striped Flycatcher and a Social Flycatcher. Additional species we saw along the way without the Owl included Pale-vented Pigeon, Grey-fronted Dove,Greater Ani, Smooth-billed Ani, Green Ibis, Black-tailed Trogon, Black-fronted Nunbird, White-throated Toucan, a Crimson-crested Woodpecker, Buff-breasted Wren, a Black-billed Thrush, a Pale-breasted Thrush, eight Red-breasted Meadowlark, 10 Giant Cowbird, a Yellow-rumped Cacique, two Hooded Tanager, a White-shouldered Tanager, two Silver-beaked Tanager, a Blue-grey Tanager and three Turquoise Tanager. I love Tanagers.
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| Short-tailed Parrot |
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| Short-crested Flycatcher |
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| White-winged Becard |
As the day ended we were treated to a highway of Parrots heading off to roost, including 38 Blue-headed Parrot, 17 White-eyed Parakeet, six Orange-winged Amazon, two Festive Amazon, two Short-tailed Parrot in a tree - a bird we had very much wanted to see well and a real river margin speciality here. There were also six Tui Parakeet and two White-winged Parakeet. Somewhere close to 300 Russet-backed Oropendola crossed over the road heading north to roost. I don't exactly know how many of these birds were new but we ended the day on 88 species having only started birding in earnest at 1.30pm. Elated we returned to our hotel to take stock and get ready for the next day, a boat trip out of Manaus onto the river Amazon.
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