It's a shame that the internet does not (yet) have the facility to post scent-files -- I guess it is only a matter of time. These very delicate white flowers have come out in abundance on a species of shrubby tree that grows prolifically on the forest edge and by the river bank. I have not yet identified it, but by the leaves it seems to be of the Melastomataceae family. Whatever it's called, it sends the most intense scent around the whole farm and forest, especially early morning and in the evening.
Another very characteristic sign of the season is the call of the Bare-throated Bellbird (Procnis nudicollis) which since this last weekend has been sounding almost continuously during the day, echoing around the forest with its distinctive metallic ring. I still haven't spotted one yet, but got this picture during last-year's palmito-fruit season of this brilliant white bird, unfortunately threatened with extinction due partly to trapping for the caged bird trade.
Speaking of palm fruit, I caught this colourful combination of the male Brazilian Tanager in the fruit of the Queen Palm or jerivá just behind the house -- this tall palm goes right through the year in a more or less continuous cycle of fruiting and flowering, a very important food source for birds which will soon be competing to nest in its crown.
One new sound I captured the other day was this agitated singing of a small bird in the undergrowth just at the edge of the forest where the trail to the river begins.l I couldn´t see what was making it, but Bruno correctly identified it as an endemic hummingbird species called the Dusky-throated Hermit (Phaethornis squalidus). I went back the next day and heard the same sound in exactly the same spot, and this time caught a glimpse - confirming this as the ninth hummingbird species identified (so far) at the farm.
Another beautiful tree frog caught on camera here -- this one had somehow got itself on the inside of the kitchen door and I snapped a picture before letting it out. It reminds me that the night life is a bit neglected in this blog, even though it is every bit as varied as the day. So here are a couple of characteristic sounds -- tree frogs singing in the bromelias just after dusk, with the faint warbling of the Black-capped Screech Owl (Megascops atricapilla), which in fact can easily be confused for a frog-song. And here, the unmistakable sound of a night-jar, the Common Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis), whose Portuguese name Curiango nicely describes the call. It can sound for hours on end at intervals of 30 seconds or so. It is the same species you often see flying up in front of car headlights at night, as it seems to like resting on dirt roads, possibly to take advantage of the warmth stored in the dust.
Finally, I got a nice recording of the full cycle of the call of the Dusky-legged Guan (Penelope obscura) from one I came across this morning just in front of the main trail entrance -- it can be difficult to get the build-up to the extraordinary alarm screech, but here you can hear it starting off with the soft "jacu" call that provides its Portuguese name. A Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) is heard flying overhead about halfway through. Warning -- it's about 2MB.
Comments
Having such situation and caught them in to a camera is surely a matter of luck. We doesn't realize the true beauty of nature, but when we start doing so the world seems more beautiful.
