Jamaica de Arras: Brazil

We had a long but uneventful drive north to Jamaica de Arras on 28th June. The heavy truck traffic turned the drive into an eight hour sojourn. We were welcomed by our hosts & quickly settled in. The place is rustic but quite charming & very comfortable.

Pousada Jamaica de Arras

Cocktail hour!

We were up before dawn on 29th June & after enjoying breakfast started exploring in & around the garden. 

Agouti

Quite common in the garden.

Red & Green Macaw

Drinking from a flooded hole in a Palm Tree.

Amazonian Motmot

Pale-crested Woodpecker

Swallow Tanager

Birding was quite slow, but we saw a few good species before deciding to bird the access road, which was quite good.

The fish was cooked in a very traditional way.

Lunch!

We awoke to heavy rain. Looked outside, strong winds & fog as well! It didn't look good for birding on 30th June! However, we gave it a good go!

Cerrado habitat. Blue sky lasted for five minutes!

It rained a lot after 

this photo was taken!

Narrow-billed Woodcreeper

Chapada Flycatcher

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Male Barred Antshrike

Female

Rusty-backed Antwren

Caatinga Puffbird

White-rumped Tanager

Pair displaying.

Male Red-crested Finch

We had to abort our birding early afternoon & returned to the pousada. This proved to be a good move, as the weather steadily deteriorated. This was a real shame as we never really saw the national park.

Leaving our very nice home from home!

We woke well before dawn on 1st July, hoping for a break in the weather, but alas in vain! It was tipping it down! We decided to try for the Collared Crescentchest once again, as the location is at a slightly lower elevation. As we drove, the weather improved slightly & once at the site the rain stopped. We played the tape & heard a bird in the far distance, but it didn't respond. We spent the next two hours trying for this bird & persistence finally paid off! One of my most wanted birds was finally in the bag!

Collared Crescentchest

Incredibly skulking & difficult to see.

One of my most wanted species

for this trip.

I never did capture the whole bird

in the camera frame!

We ended this section of our trip on a high, but because of bad weather never did get to see the splendour of this great national park. We had a wonderful time here with our hosts, but felt a little cheated by the bad weather.