I'm starting this post with a picture of a bromelia plant growing directly from the ground, by the forest path near a flooded area. It is unusual to see bromeliads growing like this here, as opposed to piggy-backing on trees -- though it is a common sight in the nearby coastal sand forests or restingas. The exception of course is the pineapple, a domesticated form of bromelia.
It is nice to see visiting species return to the farm after a long absence. One returning regular is a Ringed Kingfisher (Ceryle torquatus), a huge crow-sized member of the family that arrives every year about this time and stays until spring -- perching in branches five metres or so above the lake and making the occasional dive. Pictured here last September, it announced its return last week with the loud chattering call it makes while circling high above the farm. I guess it spends the summer by the coast.
Another welcome return is that of a Rufescent Tiger-heron (Tigrisoma lineatum), which first visited our lake in March 2007 and has made periodic appearances since then, with no obvious seasonal pattern. As you can see from the photo taken last year, its markings then were strikingly stripey, really justifying the tiger name -- but in fact that is the juvenile plumage. When I saw the heron again this morning in exactly the same location, the back of the neck was a much more uniform red-brown, the adult colouring. So it may well be the same individual. It flew up into some trees when I approached so could not get a photo, but hopefully it will stick around long enough to show its new colouring.
One nice seasonal sight now is the simultaneous flowering and seeding of the Urucum, Achiote or Lipstick Tree (Bixa orellana) that grows next to the lake. The red, hairy seed pods, which stay on the tree long after the delicate pink flowers have fallen, contain the strong red dye, also known as Annatto, that is used here as a food colouring and also has a slight aromatic flavour. It grows throughout tropical Americas, and among the many stories I've heard about it is that it was the dye used by Caribbean indigenous people to stain their skins red -- giving rise to the name Redskins. No idea if this is true, but I'll keep telling the story until somebody contradicts it.
Now a confession. A few posts back I remarked on the bright yellow flowers that appear on a leguminous tree species all over the farm and hillsides at the moment, and authoritatively described it as guapurúvu or tower tree. In fact this is completely wrong -- guapurúvu although of the same family has much more delicate leaves that fall in winter, and it is a quick-growing pioneer species. These yellow flowers, now starting to fall, seem in fact to be from Senna multijuga, known in Portuguese as aleluia, part of the genus whose seed pods are famed for their laxative properties.
Finally, a brief update on our bird list . We are now at 147 species, with 42 endemic to the Atlantic Forest, nine near-threatened and five vulnerable (threatened). Among the new discoveries are the vulnerable Buffy-fronted Seedeater (Sporiphila frontalis), an inconspicuous finch recognized in this recording of the dawn chorus posted in September; the Star-throated Antwren - (Myrmotherula gularis), another endemic species of the forest interior recorded here by a stream; and these White-faced Whistling-ducks (Dendrocygna viduata) heard flying in formation high above the farm at dusk -- a common enough species, but first time I've spotted them from here so they go on the list.
