Pousada Piuval
Pousada Piuval is a cattle ranch and ecological reserve at the same time.
The property is quite extensive, and we spent the entire day here.
We started by walking out into a pasture, then birding along roads and
wandering into woodlands.
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| Wood Storks |
The Buff-necked Ibis were obvious before we started
walking out, as was the stunning Black-collared Hawk
(one of the most beautiful hawks). We could easily pick out the big
Jabirus. The Greater Rheas
were distant, but easy enough to see because of their size. We noticed a
Solitary Sandpiper by a small pond.
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| Hyacinth Macaws |
Pretty soon, we had a first Hyacinth Macaw
flyby. We got better looks later. Still in the pasture, we
managed to find a Yellowish Pipit.
There was another parrot flyby, this time of
Blue-fronted Amazons (Parrots), and a
Roseate Spoonbill flyby. We found some
Chaco Chachalacas in a tree.
We added Long-tailed Ground-Doves and
Narrow-billed Woodcreeper before moving on.
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| Yellowish Pipit |
Yellow-chinned Spinetail |
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| Narrow-billed Woodcreeper |
Greater Rheas |
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| Chaco Chachalaca |
Hyacinth Macaws |
Hyacinth Macaws |
After entering a wooded area,
an orange bird was a Orange-backed Troupial. We also found
Rufous Cacholote and Solitary Black
Cacique. We came back out in the open, finding Red-crested
Cardinals, Chestnut-eared Aracari, and Yellow-billed Cardinals. Some White-winged Swallows were
harassing an Aplomado Falcon. One of our group thought there was an owl in a
tree. As we heading toward it, we noticed that Purplish Jays were also flying
in. It turned out that there were two Great Horned Owls
there. We continued to look overhead, adding Lesser
Yellow-headed Vulture.
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| Yellow-billed Cardinal |
Smooth-billed Ani |
Gray-necked Wood-Rail |
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| Owl and Jay |
Great Horned Owls |
We passed a small pond while driving to nearby woodland. The pond contained a Sunbittern!
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| Sunbittern |
We then went into a dense woodland, finding a pair of
Mato Grosso Antbirds. We continued working
the general area, finding
Great Rufous Woodcreeper,
Plain Tyrannulet, and
Ashy-headed Greenlet.
Walking down toward the water, we added
White-lored Spinetail,
Black-backed Water-Tyrant,
Southern Screamer,
Grayish Saltator, and
Unicolored Blackbird.
Fortunately, it remained cloudy all morning, meaning that temperatures
were comfortable (it had reputedly been over 100 a few days ago).
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| Little Woodpecker |
Helmeted Manakin |
Great Rufous Woodcreeper |
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| Chestnut-eared Aracari |
Jabirus at Nest |
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| Hyacinth Macaw |
Hyacinth Macaw |
We returned to the lodge for lunch. They put some food out from the
kitchen, attracting Bay-winged Cowbird as well as
a number of other birds (e.g., White Woodpecker, Great Kiskadee, Purplish
Jay, Yellow-billed and Red-crested Cardinals, Giant Cowbird, Chopi Blackbird, etc.).
A Plumbeous Ibis was spotted at some distance,
near a Bare-faced Ibis. We got a reasonable view through the scope.
A little farther afield, there were some
Picui Ground-Doves.
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| Southern Screamer |
Bay-winged Cowbird |
Great Kiskadee |
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| Rufous-bellied Thrush |
Ruddy Ground-Dove |
Giant Cowbird |
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| White Woodpecker |
Kiskadees and Woodpecker |
Picui Ground-Dove |
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| Chopi Blackbirds |
Red-crested Cardinal |
Cattle Tyrant |
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| Yellow-billed Cardinal |
Jacanas and Lapwing |
Plumbeous Ibis |
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| Black-and-white Tegu Lizard |
Saffron Finch |
Hyacinth Macaw |
After our mid-day break, we went for a boat ride to an observation tower.
Things didn't look so good when we noticed that one boatman had the gasline off
the engine, but we headed out anyway in two boats. We had barely gotten away from
the dock when the other boat (the one he worked on) quit. The boatman didn't have
the right tool. Our driver, Leo, hopped over to our boat and we returned him
to the dock. He got a tool from his bus. It seemed to be what was needed
and we had no further problems with that boat. However, our own had some difficulty,
possibly from running through weed.
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| Red Brocket Deer |
Roadside Hawk |
Yacare Caiman |
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| Cocoi Heron |
Striated Heron |
Rufescent Tiger-Heron |
We walked a boardwalk over to the tower. From the town, we spotted more birds, including
Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks,
Black Skimmers (skimming),
and Nacunda Nighthawks (sometimes in the air, in broad daylight).
Finally, when it was getting near sunset, we returned to the ground. Near the
boardwalk, we found Red-billed Scythebill,
Little Cuckoo, and Great Antshrike.
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| Pantanal Waders |
Red-billed Scythebill |
Monk Parakeet |
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| Snail Kite |
Orange-backed Troupial |
Nacunda Nighthawks |
When we returned to the tower's dock, we found that the cover was off the engine
of the boat with the weed problem. There were some anxious momemts when he had
difficulty starting the engine shortly after they left the dock. Finally, he managed
to get the engine running reliably, and both boats returned us to our bus.
We had nice sunset views on the way. Some people saw some distant nighthawks believed
to be Band-tailed. Finally, we spotlighted a Pauraque this evening.
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| Pantanal Sunset |
Common Pauraque |
My bird total for the day was 116 species, including 22 lifers. The trip
total increased by 38 to 528 species (522 seen), with 313 lifers. As you may have noticed,
I took well over 400 photographs today.
Pousada Piuval, Pantanal