Brazil - The Amazon - June 2026 - Day 2 - Marchantaria boat trip and up to Presidente Figueredo

After the storm at Manaus

An early start saw us take a taxi down the CEASA port in Manaus. Our boatman Herculano was coming across the river to pick us up, but just as we arrived and he might have been leaving the most immense electrical storm blew in from the west. Under the corrugated roof of CEASA the noise was deafening, this was not weather to be out on a boat and we had choice but to wait it out. Just as you thought it could not become more intense it did exactly that. Incredible, and actually quite exciting despite being frustrating. The shed we were in was the loading area for the ferry across the Rio Negro and Amazon to connect with the southbound road. For a road supposed to undriveable there was a lot of traffic but I suppose that most of it wasn't going very far, just connecting to the communities on the south side. There were plenty of small boats too, but everyone was simply waiting as the rain thundered down. The gutters became rivers, then torrents - the ground here is sloped down to the river bank for the roll-on-roll-off ferries - low affairs with no superstructure, just a floating platform really. We spent the time we unexpectedly had to have little breakfast as the skies lightened and the rain and wind began to ease. And of course we started to note birds as well. Short-tailed Swift were over the water, a Black-crowned Night Heron flew by as did a Ringed Kingfisher, Large-billed Tern and Osprey. It was still only just gone six so we had probably only lost half hour. Meanwhile Brad and Herculano kept in touch, both wanting to know what the weather was like on the other side that they could not see.

Team Amazon - Bob, Richard & Brad (L-R)

Leaving Manaus

We were on our way by about 6.20am, heading across the water to the Furo de Catalão, a channel through the river islands to the Amazon proper. What was genuine island and what was floating vegetation was hard to distinguish but there were birds everywhere. Black-bellied Whistling-Duck were on a small island with eight Brazilian Teal, and as we approached Nacunda Nighthawks rose and flew ahead of the boat. Wattled Jacana padded along some floating greenery, with Snowy Egret and a Striated Heron, and a Yellow-headed Caracara was overhead. Even out here you get parrots, with two fly-by White-winged Parakeet, two Chestnut-fronted Macaw, and a pair of Festive Amazon in a tree, most of which was probably underwater. An Oriole Blackbird spotted by Richard showed nicely in the early morning sun.

Rio Negro river community

Matupas on the Amazon

A little further on, at a site called Ponta de baixo, Herculano slowed the boat down and we started to bird the Marchantaria properly, seeking out individual species that live here and only here. The floating vegetation here held numerous Yellow-hooded Blackbird, and amongst these Brad was able to tempt out Azure Gallinule and Purple Gallinule, the former a really tricky species. Things were off to a good start. In a quiet lagoon Herculano stopped the engine and switched to an oar. This proved the ideal way to see birds. We tracked down Green-throated Mango and Olive-spotted Hummingbird here, and close by were some roosting Ladder-tailed Nightjar which we were able to maneuvre quite close to. The real specialities here are the Antbirds and Furnarids, and with Brad clearly working to a mental list we gradually added them all. Black-and-white Antbird, Yellow-chinned Spinetail, Red-and-white Spinetail, White-bellied Spinetail, Dark-breasted Spinetail, Straight-billed Woodcreeper and a Zimmer’s Woodcreeper were all seen in vegetation just above the water. There were also Spotted Tody-Flycatcher, a Little Woodpecker, a Spot-breasted Woodpecker, White-winged Becard and Cinereous Becard. It wasn't even 7am.

Yellow-hooded Blackbird

Azure Gallinule

Oriole Blackbird

Festive Amazon

Black-and-White Antbird

Ladder-tailed Nightjar

As we carried on we passed Horned Screamer on the side of the bank, the only ones we were to see. Out on the river we could see more Large-billed Terns and some Black Skimmer, meanwhile the vegetation had perched Cocoi Heron and Straited Heron. The number of parrots continues to astound in this watery landscape, with Short-tailed Parrot, Tui Parakeet, and White-winged Parakeet. It was around here that I also saw my first Hoatzin, a much wanted bird. More furnarids were seen on the edges of the Ilha Nova, including three Dark-breasted Spinetail, two Yellow-chinned Spinetail, Red-and-white Spinetail, White-bellied Spinetail, and two Parker’s Spinetail in some tall reeds. Also excellent views of Lesser Wagtail-Tyrant.

Red-and-white Spinetail

White-bellied Spinetail

Lesser Wagtail-Tyrant

By mid‑morning we arrived at the innundated Ilha da Marchantaria, but we couldn't even land the boat, there was no point getting off. I think I got as far as putting my wellies on but they were not needed. There were more Hoatzin here, along with five Buff-necked Ibis and Great Black Hawk, Savanna Hawk and a Roadside Hawk. We anchored the boat in the strong current for great views of Short-tailed Parrot and the Hoatzin. Further on we took a narrow channel called the Paraná Xiboreninha, a short cut to where we were having lunch. Along here were our first Chestnut-eared Aracari. Good numbers of Flycatchers here as well, with Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatcher, Olive-faced Flatbill, Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet and Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet alongside the ever present Great Kiskadee and White-throated Kingbird.

Hoatzin

Short-tailed Parrot

We parked the boat at the floating restaurant and walked through the shop to the boardwalk. Our timing was excellent and we had the place - the Parque Ecológico Janauari - to ourselves. Two Great Potoo were noted at the start, and as we went deeper in the birding got better and better with Black-fronted Nunbird, two Spotted Puffbird, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, Cream-coloured Woodpecker, two Long-billed Woodcreeper, Striped Woodcreeper, a Straight-billed Woodcreeper, two Zimmer’s Woodcreeper. At the far end of the boardwalk was sheltered lagoon with Amazon water lily pads - the Victoria amazonica species made famous by English aristocrats in the 1800s, and latterly by Kew Gardens. We had a fine buffet lunch at back at the restaurant, our timing once again excellent as we were just finishing when the first boats of Manaus day-trippers started to arrive.

Great Potoo

Black-fronted Nunbird

Striped Woodcreeper

Spotted Puffbird

Tui Parakeet

A Woodcreeper, probably Striped....

We made a quick stop at the Meeting of the Waters, where the black Rio Negro meets the white water Solimoes to become the Amazon. For many miles the northern water remains black, the southern side a muddy brown, they are quite different temperatures as well. Gradaully they blend into one to form the mightly Amazon.

The Meeting of the Waters

Herculano dropped up back at the port shortly after midday and we returned to the hotel to pick up our stuff and pack the vehicle for the trip north to Presidente Figueredo. But first came the big twitch. Agami Heron. I forget how much time we spent, fruitlessly, searching for Agami Heron in the Pantanal - and this is the bird Brad's company is named after!! It was stinking hot in Manaus, and as we made our way to the National Institute of Amazonian Research at the Bosque da Ciência. There is only one pond here and after a quick look at some Amazonian Manatee in a tank we headed straight to it, Richard striding ahead as always when a 'big' bird is in the offing. I don't think we were really expecting it to be there, but surely this was it, under a rock on the left hand side. I casually pointed it out, directions deliberately a little vague to see how many expletives I could get out of him. I wasn't entirely sure myself to be honest, it was under an overhang but for a supposedly invisible bird was essentially out in the open and the only obvious bird in sight although later we would also pick up Black-crowned Night Heron, a Striated Heron and a Cocoi Heron. Richard stayed reasonably calm in the circumstances but nonetheless it was good to see a bit of classic behaviour. The bird stayed in the same spot the entire time we were there, an overhanging rock on a tiny ornamental island the only habitat that, to the bird, felt like a dark cool forest. What it was doing there I have no idea, but juvenile birds presumably disperse and work their way down streams and rivers, and occasionally, like this one, hit civilisation. We tried to work out where we could best photograph it from but the answer was nowhere. A sudden squall forced our retreat to the car, my umbrella helped a bit, but no amount of actual dampness could dampen our high spirits after this unexpected success.

Agami Heron. Look at that bill!

We hit the road at about 3pm for the drive north out of Manaus. Brad made good time, and so at about 4.30pm we pulled into a petrol station on the outskirts of Presidente Figueiredo. These places don't scream birds, but anywhere where you are near the edge of forest is going to be good around here and so it proven. Swifts overhead were Band-rumped Swift and Fork-tailed Palm Swift, and on the southern edge Hummingbirds fed. The star of the show was a Crimson Topaz, but Long-tailed Hermit and Black-eared Fairy were pretty cool too, The real prize here is Point-tailed Palmcreeper, and there were a number of the correct palms in the neighbourhood. We could hear the bird calling, but Brad said the only time we would likely see it would be as it flew between the crowns. How odd then to find it in a bare-branched tree some way from the relevant palms - we got amazing scope views before it flew towards us and vanished into a palm crown before creeping up the top of a frond. Another bird then followed it - excellent! Also here were Yellow-tufted Woodpecker, Lineated Woodpecker, Chivi Vireo, Variegated Flycatcher, Sulphury Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Small-billed Elaenia and Fulvous-crested Tanager.

Point-tailed Palmcreeper

We pulled into our lodge, the Pousada Paraiso do Calango Azul at around 6pm in a habitat totally different to that we had birding in the morning, with a whole new set of birds. This was the Guianan Shield, and we had two full days in which to try and do it some kind of justice. In the meantime Caipirinhas all round.

Brazil - The Central Amazon - June 2026 - Day 1 - Arrival into Manaus and Iranduba

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.

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.

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.

Wing-banded Hornero

Orange-fronted Yellow-Finch

Sand-coloured Nighthawk

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.

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.

Short-tailed Parrot

Short-crested Flycatcher

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.

Brazil - The Amazon - June/July 2026 - Logistics and Itinerary

Logistics

• A nine day guided trip with Bob and Richard, my companions from the first trip to Brazil a few years ago. This time we were going to the Amazon, centering on the improbable city of Manaus and birding on the Amazon and Rio Negro rivers as well Guiana Shield forest around the town of Presidente Figueredo.
• Guide: We were with Brad again, the same guy who led us on the Pantanal trip and drove me to hospital when some ants tried to kill me. It is getting to the point  where I really don't want to travel with anyone else. Although I would rather he guided us and us alone, his company is called Agami Nature Tours and I recommend that you check them out for all your Brazilian birding needs. As I have said before, he is an excellent birder, but better than that he is also one of the least flustered and most calm people you could ever wish to meet. In a crisis, or even just a slight hitch, he is the guy you want. And he is great company to boot.
• Costs: This particular trip is another long one and also quite expensive with a few boat trips. I think it was perhaps marginally cheaper than the Pantanal trip coming in at $3750 excluding the flights, which equates to £3000 or thereabouts. It was worth every penny frankly. This is of course all inclusive - guiding services, hotels, meals, and all transport. A 30% deposit is required up front, with the remainder due three months before departure. You get hit for foreign exchange charges that I have yet to find a way around, so plan for about +6%. Outraged? Yes I am.
• Flights: We flew on one ticket purchased from LATAM from London to Manaus return via Sao Paulo and, on the return leg, via Madrid, which cost around £1200 in economy. The transatlantic leg left at 9.20pm arriving in South America at 5am lcoal time the following morning. This left us with a perfectly easy two and a half hour connection on to a LATAM flight to Manaus which takes a further four hours. With a further one hour time change west we arrived in the Amaaon at 10.30am local time. Brazi is huge. On the way back we left Manaus at 4pm which was supposed to arrive back in Sao Paolo at 9pm local time, which would have left us about two hours. In the event it arrived quite late and we only just made our onward flight to Madrid, needing to change terminals and charge through Guarulhos at high speed. Once back in Madrid we changed to British Airways flight to London. A direct flight GRU-LHR was available but at the point of booking was unaffordable. 
• Transport:  A regular SUV was included in the package with Brad as the driver.  The roads, albeit that there are not many, are largely fine. Be prepared for pothold hell up near Novo Airao. We also went on three boat trips.
• Accomodation: All included in the price, we stayed in regular hotels in Manaus, and in lodges at Presidente Figueredo and Novo Airão. We shared a three person room almost everywhere we went which brought the price down a bit.
• Literature/Resources: The day-by-day trip itinerary provided by Agami told us most of what we needed to know, and I think Richard brought Van Perlo which likely didn't get touched. We eBirded the whole thing. And of course we had a walking talking encyclopedia of Brazilian birds on hand the whole time.
• Clothing - light clothing that dries quickly is recommended, and as this is a wet landscape, also wellies. This is as much for the mud and puddles you will need to wade through as a method for defeating chiggers that for whatever reason cannot conquer a rubber slope of this height. I don't know what a chigger is but I suspect I don't want to know. Fun fact - the same wellies I trudge around Shetland on have now been to the Amazon.
• Food - Vast quantites of stunningly good local fish. You will never want to see a Tambaqui again.

Itinerary

• Day 1 - Mid morning arrival into Manaus. Leaving Sao Paulo the southern Amazon is quite fragmented but after a while all you can see is green. Brad picked us up right on time and we went straight to lunch, In the afternoon we travelled south to the várzea at Iranduba to get the list started. This is the area where the Solimoes and Rio Negro meet to become the Amazon proper.
• Day 2 - An early start CEASA port on the west side of Manaus was delayed by a monster electrical storm rolling in from the east. All morning boat trip around the Marchanteria islands, flooded at this time of year so you bird from the boat amongst the top third of the trees. After lunch a quick twitch for an improbable Agami Heron at the INPA Bosque da Ciencia, and then north to Presidente Figueredo where we managed about an hour of forest edge birding before last light.
• Day 3 - Birded the Ramal do Tucumanduba all morning, and the Ramal do Bacura in the afternoon, both east of Presidente Figueredo. We tried for a juvenile Harpy Eagle that had been seen back at the nest site with no luck. In the evening a successful excursion for White-winged Potoo.
• Day 4 - A quick change of plans this morning involved returning to the Harpy Eagle site and this time the bird was there! This did mean we started our planned birding at the Cachoeira da Neblina a little later than we would have wanted but we all felt it was a wothwhile trade-off. In the afternoon we birded Aldeia Mari Mari, well known for a Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock lek. The birds were magnificent, but this low forest was unpleasantly hot and humid and not for the faint of heart.

• Day 5 - We departed in the middle of the night to head south back towards Manaus, with the aim of being at the ZF-2 Tower at first light. This is permit only and representatives from the university met us on entrance track and as first light dawned we started climbing this extraordinary research tower that extends 40m upwards and above canopy. We hadn't even made it to the top when a passing squall had us scurrying down again. I think we went up and down three times as the weather forced us to abandon birding for lengthy periods. We were away by midday for the long drive around Manaus and up the south bank of the Rio Negro to Nova Airão, our base for the remainder of the trip. We managed an hour or so at the Ramal da sombrinha cor de rosa before heading to the hotel. 

• Day 6 - Boat trip to the PN Anavilhanas with Vermelhinho, also flooded this time of year, starting at the Furo do Tamuata. Words cannot describe how beautiful the Rio Negro is. All day on the boat, simply wonderful birding. In the evening a quick outing to try for Rufous Potoo.

• Day 7 - Morning trip by boat up to some land owned by Vermelhinho where we got off and had a look around his little parcel of forest. In the afternoon we tried the Sombrinha cor de rosa again.

• Day 8 - Birded the well-known Ramal do Medico all the morning before departing for Manaus in the afternoon.

• Day 9 - Morning birding from the MUSA tower in northern Manaus, accessed via the Adolfo Ducke botanic garden. Organised in advance we got early access to the reserve and at first light you have the tower to yourself. Once the gates open a stream of regular visitors start to appear. Back to the hotel to pack, clean up, and Brad delivered us the airport for our mid-afternoon flight back to Sao Paulo.

Pressing on

So that was France, all the way back in late May. I had not intended to write even a single word about it but then I encountered a streak of bloody-mindedness and so here we are. It is done now, and - once started at least - came to a very rapid conclusion by my standards. Part of the reason I raced through it is that I have loads of bird news to share. Ha! As if. I've managed a bit of time on the patch but it has not been particularly interesting. However seeing as I am here typing here is a summary.

June: Only kidding.

July: I saw my one and only Hobby for the patch in 2026

August: Much better, the latter half of the month saw the usual arrival of Spotted Flycatchers and Redstarts. I jammed a Pied Flycatcher on the 15th and a Shelduck flew over my head on the 24th, but it took until the end of the month before Spotted Flycatcher fell.

Somehow I managed to find the time to twitch both the long-staying Long-tailed Shrike in Gloucestershire and the even longer staying Black-winged Kite in Norfolk. This latter was particularly satisfying as I had dipped it way back in January and picked up a speeding ticket whilst doing so. This killed what had at the time felt like a bit of a twitching renaissance, possibly a good thing. I didn't take photographs of either and so I didn't bother writing about them, or at least I don't remember doing so. I got in the car, drove for a bit, saw the birds and came home again. Fun huh? Actually the Shrike was quite fun. When I got up on Saturday morning I had no intention of going to see it whatsoever but then I looked where it was and it was only two and a half hours away. I had to be in Reading at lunchtime for a birthday party in the afternoon, this looked like it was just the other side. We had been going to take the train until I reaslised that I could drive to the Shrike and still get to the party in plenty of time, and furthermore that I would be in posession of a car with which to drive the family home. Brownie Points were in the offing! If you were reading this blog in 2023 you may perhaps remember that this has happened before, in fact involving the same friends in the same house. Back then they had just moved in. Now they are fully installed and even have a pet snail called Long Eye Eye. Eastleach Martin in Gloucestershire is not as far away as Wales thankfully, but it is conveniently in the same direction. And so with no prior planning I set off with a fiver for the famer's field and had seen the bird by about 11am. I was in Reading before 1pm and able to help our friends get set up for the party, I think I made prawn kebabs or something. Mrs L and a child arrived a short time later, we had a thoroughly lovely afternoon and then I drove everyone home like the hero I am. 

Eastleach Martin twitch. I am solidly in the pictured demographic

With the Wilson's Storm Petrel I saw off Scilly in late July that makes four UK lifers this year which feels if not unprecedented, highly unexpected. Maybe I'll make 500 yet? It would require four a year for another ten years. Actually now that I write that, maybe not. No, that seems far too many, far too much like hard work. I intend to get to Scilly in due course, but there is the small matter of Brazil first. I am not going to be fully happy with the way things are going until I've written up Brazil. The prep work is done, I gave my mate Claude a csv file of the relevant checklists and developed a prompt. I kid you not but in less than 20 minutes it "wrote" nine blog posts. This is the difference between me being able to get this done and not. Worry ye not, I have not ceded editorial rights to our machine overlords. It has simply laid out a text version of what were lists. I will not have to type out the name of a single bird, they are all there waiting for me in the order in which I saw them. That 20 minutes a few days ago has saved me hours. I just need to go in and put some words and photos around them. It couldn't do the customary itinerary post, nor did I ask it to. That is my next job.

Wilson's Storm Petrel

Chablis and home

I always forget where Chablis is. In my head it is north-east of Burgundy, closer to Champagne. In fact it is more or less in a direct north-westerly direction. Draw a straight line from Beaune to Paris and you will drive through Chablis. I think the problem is rather that I have no idea where Champagne is, and so if I am trying to find Chablis starting from there then inevitably I am going to get lost. Champagne is in fact more or less due east from Paris, but much further west than Burgundy. Where I think Champagne is appears to be somewhere near Nancy. I digress.

Back in our youth Mrs L and I used to stop in Chablis on the way down to Beaune from Paris. Seems it was on the way, who knew.... My parents lived in Paris for a while, and when we came to visit it was our habit to squeeze in visits to Burgundy. Sometimes as part of a longer trip we would leave Paris in the morning and be in Aix for lunch. Anyhow, as all of you bird fiends may know, Chablis is an excellent source of white wine. Chardonnay, so the same as Burgundy - indeed in my head Chablis is in Burgundy - but the wine is very different. I'll spare you the lecture this time, but the soil there is a mixture of chalk, limestone and follisised shells, and this translates directly into the grapes, and subsequently into the glass. STGT as John Livingstone-Learmonth would put it. Chablis is (or can be at any rate, choose wisely) wonderfully chalky, saline and somehow steely.  A sip from a classical bottle can transport to a beach of wet pebbles and salt spray, like licking seaweed. It pairs brilliantly with shellfish as you might expect, and it is a Chateau L favourite. You need to be quite strict with your selection, stricter than the growers often are in fact, as rising temperatures in the region are causing to Chablis to lose its character. With excessive summer heat the wine takes on rich tropical notes, about the last thing you could want in Chablis. If a critic bangs on about yesteryear classicism in a bottle of Chablis that is a good sign. 

Oh dear, another digression. When we used to drive from Paris and back, half a lifetime ago it seems, we had small children. Chablis was an ideal break point for two reasons. 1) see above, and 2) on the banks of the the Serein, sandwiched bewteen the river and the hillside of the Grands Crus, a gently sloping crescent of vineyards, there is a small public park. It has picnic benches, and crucially it also has playground equipment. Slides and swings. We used to stop there just in time for lunch. If we were lucky there would be a Saturday market in full swing in the town, and there we would source baguettes and Chaource, a locally made soft cheese. Laden with fresh goodies we would head to the park and have a feast whilst the children played. Bougros, Les Preuses, Vaudésir, Grenouilles, Valmur, Les Clos, Blanchots - those are the seven Grand Crus north to south. The park is probably between Les Clos and Grenouilles, at the point Valmur spears into a point and meets the road. After lunch had been consumed and the children had rid themselves of excess energy we would head to La Chablisienne, the regional cooperative. We could not afford the Grand Crus at that stage, but if you picked carefully from the Premier Cru, the next level of wines down, you could come away with really lovely wines. The hillside of Grand Crus continues south and starts to curve east and away from the town. That slight change in exposition is all it takes for the downgrade, and Montée de Tonnerre and Mont de Milieu make excellent wines in their own right. If you go the other way you reach Fourchaume - this was always a favourite of ours and I still buy it and the other two today from certain producers. But I have not had any wine from the Chablisienne for many years. Today was the day we would put that right (and they had half bottles of Montmains and Vaulorent, yay!)

We had a late start from Beaune. A bit of a logistical hassle to find somewhere to park the car close enough to the accomodation so that we could bring all the wine we had accumulated down to the street. The back seats were down, but two adult bikes take a lot of space. In the end we created a thin layer of boxes such that the bikes lay on top of the wine, and off we went. Destination, a small park with some swings near a quiet river. It wasn't market day, and we had no small children with us, but we found what we needed for a casual lunch and headed to our favourite bench to relive the old times. It was just as we had left it. Well, maybe the slides were new ones, but you get the picture. Great.

Les Grand Crus

Nuits-Saint-Georges and the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune

Today we were going north of Beaune into the Côtes de Nuits, Nuits-Saint-Georges is the major village here, sitting just up from the Hill of Corton. We did a tour of the hallowed vineyards around Vosne and Gevrey, gazed at the plots belonging to the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti whose wines are as legendary as they are mythical. I mean they do exist, they are not fictional, but the chances of Mrs L and I ever coinciding with one are virtually nil. I remember them being sold in Waitrose in Canary Wharf in the early 2000s. Would that I had bought some at that point but alas. Instead of ingesting wine we soaked in the scenery, the sense of place - this is genuinely a pilgrimage for some. For my part I wouldn't take it that far, but I adore the entire area and am committed to sampling as many of its wares as I can. Lunch was a picnic at some convenient benches near the Mairie looking out towards Malconsorts and La Tâche. I have two bottles of the former, and zero from the latter for it is a monopole of the DRC. It's not exclusive necessarily, you don't have to be a member of some secret society. I have a credit card and I could go and buy one from Berry Brothers in London this weekend if I so chose. Neither are they especially scarce as something like 20,000 bottles are produced in a normal year. The issue is simply unaffordability for all but a tiny tiny minority of the population. In fact I am not sure that many people actually drink them at all and instead treat them as investment vehicles. Whatever it is that drives demand means that the 2006 is £5,700. That's for a single bottle. Even if money were no object that just seems and outrageous thing to do, to blow such an amount on a few glasses of liquid. Imagine the other things you could do, the places you could go, the good you could do?

Our first visit after lunch was at Domaine Rion, one of two Domaine Rion's on a short stretch of road just south of NSG at Premeaux. I was not sure which it was, and then the dreadful thought occured to me of what if I had booked our visit at the wrong one? It would be easy to do. Such are the laws of succession in France that Domaines have been repeatedly split up, combined through marriage, split up again, a brother takes this, the other brother takes that. Some keep the Domaine whole up the death of the mother or father, it is not uncommon to have one sibling doing the farming and the other doing the vinification for instance. Common family names in Bourgogne include reams of Moreys, Vincents, Colins, Magniens and Bachelets, but I had not been prepared for two Rions right next door to one another. Fortunately the one we wanted, Domaine Michèle et Patrice Rion, was both the one we turned up to and the one we had made an appointment with so all was well.

Great visit with Florence opposite the walled vineyard Clos des Argilliere and tasted through the range of wines, I think from 2023. At one stage Patrice came in, so very nice to meet him. This is what I love about Burgundy, you can actually talk to the people who make the wine. From afar Burgundy might have a reputation of extreme stuffiness and wealth, and it is true that the wines can be obscenely expensive, but almost every single wine-maker I've met at their domaine has been a down to earth farmer more than anything else. M&P Rion is one of my favourite producers, their simple Bourgogne Rouge is from a vineyard near Chambolle called "Les Bons Batons" and produces the kind of tart red-fruited wine I really enjoy. The range of Nuits-Saint-Georges is altogether more serious and will take much longer to come around. Although the prices at the cellar door were excellent versus the UK it made no sense to buy many as storage at home is so limited and these would take up valuable space for years. The way I operate is that the ageing of wine takes place at the merchants I buy it from, and then as the drinking window approaches that is when I get it delivered. But Les Bons Batons doesn't need storing, it is good to go virtually straight away, and so a case of that came back home with us.

Next stop was Le Grappin, recently moved from Savigny to bigger premises in the Hautes-Côtes. This is an up-and-coming area in Burgundy, with climate change a new area that is viable for growing grapes, indeed it does not (yet) suffer the extremes of heat from lower down. Previously grapes wouldn't really ripen, now it is game on and more and more producers are expanding their holdings into this area. As the land is many times cheaper than the Côte d'Or this is also an opportunity for new winemakers to buy land, plant vines or otherwise acquire vineyards and more space. This is what Emma and Andrew at Le Grappin have done. They don't own their own vines but with temperatures in the mid-30s when we visited they were quite happy with that situation. Instead they buy in grapes and manage the process from thereon in. She is English, he South-African, we were introduced by my mate Neil, first to their wines in the UK, and then to Emma herself who he knew as fellow wine nerd when she lived in Kent. Their new premises up in the Haut-Côte are centered around a deep cool cellar of the sort that is hard to find these days, and will be the ideal place for Andrew and Emma to make wine. He is a thoughtful man, entirely unpretentious, a believer in letting the wine do the talking and for the process to be as simple as possible for the land to express itself, working with small parcels of bought-in grapes. It's a double-edged sword of course, and a source of fruit can disappear, as had happened with some of what we tasted. In one instance the vineyard had been pulled up and replanted, in another the owner had died and the descendents had decided to take a different path and so somebody else now gets those grapes. A great shame for what Andrew and Emma make is quite wonderful. We tasted a fair few on top of a barrel - they do not have, nor want, a fancy tasting room. They don't want their name on the gate, and even their online presence is decidedly minimal. It's not an effort to create a cult of mystery; they just want to work hard and make great and expressive wine. That is exactly what they are doing, and it's exciting wine. I detest the word "vibe", but I felt here like I felt at Benda in Montalcino, and that's a good thing.

That evening we had a dinner reservation at the Maison du Colombier in Beaune. Food good, wine list incredible, but I think we were clocked as foreign and dumped in a room with inconveniently low seating and alongside a group of earnest West-coast Americas who were 'making it' by coming to Burgundy. Deeply irritating people, extremely vocal, highly opinionated, each trying to out-cool the other. Young and hip professionals enjoying their ten days of annual leave. I do not begrudge them this, but the timing was unfortunate from our persepective and it did not make for a fully relaxing evening. For those thinking that two people consumed a bottle each we did not, and at least half the Vosne-Romanée came home to London with us the next day. Restraint is my middle name.

Pootling down the Voie des Vignes

We did not get up especially early, there was no need as we were on holiday, and although the body clock of the working adult kicked in at the expected time we were able to loaf about for a bit. A leisurely breakfast in town and then we walked to the car with what we needed for the day out. Mostly what we needed was in the car, namely our two bicycles. Whereas last time I had brought Mrs L's little fold-up bike, this time we had both brought the real thing. How would we get wine in the car as well? I admit this was troubling me a little but it is a big car and I figured that I could make something work.

We set off around the ringroad and missed our turn immediately. Retracing our steps we found the correct road out and were soon headed into the vines. Unlike November 2021 when it had just been me and the vineyard workers, this visit was in prime season and we were far from alone. Nonetheless it was extremely satisfying to be out and about in the fresh air, amongst familiar fields laden with history. Indeed personal history, I've had many bottles from these specific plots and it is somehow very interesting (to me and me only) that the liquid in my glass came specifically from here.

As I doubtless mentioned five years ago the order of villages south from Beaune is Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny, Chassagne and Santenay. Off to one side, and where better value is to be found, lie, in order, Monthelie, Auxey-Duresses, and Saint Aubin. White wine covers most of the production in all the villages except Pommard and Volnay which are exclusively red. Puligny I think is exclusively white, Meursault virtually all white, but Chassagne and the other villages have a little more red. Red Chassagne can be fabulous, and as the village is so associated with chardonnay can often be a steal (a relative steal) as drinkers and collectors mostly don't know about it.

Despite the heat rising extremely quickly we had a very pleasant ride along the Voie de Vignes. I birded it the whole way, with highlights being Melodious Warbler near the Beaune Tuvilains vineyard and a Hoopoe in Beaune itself. Les Rugiens-bas at Pommard had Cirl Bunting and Black Redstart, both of which were also present around Meursault. 

We glided into Puligny for a late lunch at Maison Olivier Leflaive. The eponymous and debonaire Olivier, now in his 80s, was doing the rounds at the tables. I had missed him in 2021, but was pleased to be able to have a brief conversation, despite being a bit hot and bothered vs his lovely pressed linen - here is a man who knows how to dress in the heat. Mrs L and I have been drinking his wine for what feels like forever so to meet the man who created the Domaine all those years ago after the split was really nice. We drank Lamy with the meal though!

Our afternoon visit was with Ponsard-Chevalier in Santenay. To be honest the very last thing I wanted to do was to leave the cool restaurant and head back into the searing heat, but I got my water bottle filled and off we went. It didn't take too long, and the lovely Coralie was there to meet us in her equally cool tasting room. This was a tip from a buddy of mine called Neil and a very good one it was too - the wines are delicious and very fairly priced. Because they are at the very end of the Côte their holdings are in unfashionable villages like Santenay and Maranges which is good for your wallet. We tasted through the range and placed an order for a fair few that I would subsequently go and collect the following morning in the car. Their white Santenay, Les Daumelles, was particularly good I thought, and I liked the red Cornieres so much I bought a magnum.

Coralie felt so sorry for us having to cycle all the way back to Beaune without a hat that she gave me a cap with a fertliser brand on the brim. My goodness it was hot. We made it back as far as Puligny before deciding we needed a break. Where better than than the Cave de Puligny, a place I'd dropped in at on the last trip. We spent the rest of the afternoon here sampling a few glasses in the cool interior before rousing ourselves for the final leg to Beaune. This last stretch was extremely pleasant, the heat of the day had passed and the large groups of tourists had all gone. We largely had the vineyards to ourselves.

Despite having had a pretty wholesome lunch we decided we were also in the mood for dinner and took a late table at the Relais des Saulx in Beaune. This was fantastic, a small cozy restaurant run by Agnès at front of house and Charles in the kitchen. It was also fully booked but one small table had already become free and they were happy to fit us in. Turns out they knew Andrew and Emma at Le Grappin, our planned visit in the morning, and also introduced us to a new producer called Domaine Chanterêves based in Savigny - another new wave winemaker, I think hailing from Japan. Great food and a great bottle too. I remember sleeping quite well.