After a spell of heavy rain at the end of April, we are now in a period of quite chilly nights and mornings as winter approaches. For the last few days there has been the typical phenomenon of thick fog lying over the forest until around 8am, when the sun comes through and the rest of the day is pretty much cloudless. That morning light is a great time to see colourful tanagers from the house terrace -- such as this female Golden-chevroned Tanager (Thraupis ornata). There is still enough native fruit in the trees for them to come of their own accord into this area, but we are starting to put extra fruit out as well so that they will continue to appear during the winter proper from June to August.
I continue to hear new sounds in the forest. On an early morning walk the other day in the area with the tallest trees, between the farm and the river, I heard this distinctive flute-like call high in the canopy. I didn't get a clear view but caught the movement of something very large, and on reviewing the recording it seems likely to be a Black Hawk-eagle, the largest bird of prey you get around here, and which I am pretty sure I have seen flying but never positively identified. Apparently it hangs around the canopy picking off other birds like toucans.
Another sound I caught was the chattering of a Brazilian Squirrel (Sciurus aestuans), which I quite often come across in the forest but have still not managed to photograph. This one stayed for a couple of minutes just a few feet up in a tree making this angry noise.
