This video covers the 2,5 days at Cristalino Lodge Pre-Camera Crash, where I mostly stroll around the lodge's area on my own... It's dense jungle, I didn't get that many birds on photo, but I managed to spot a Little Woodpecker and a Black-eared Fairy. Those photos were certainly no close-ups. I think the biggest-in-frame bird was a Red-throated Piping Guan (yes, this time: no question about the species) but that might be bcs it's a big bird... The Blackish Nightjars roosting on the roof of my bungalow took much of my energy/focus, I needed to get just a little higher up in elevation, but that proved difficult. I managed to find a chair to stand on, on the lawn, but it was a bit wobbly.
I found some very nice butterflies, during the hottest and sunniest hours of the siesta time.
I only climbed the high birding tower once, bcs it *swayed*, especially when there were more people up there than only me (= always). I got stricken by a mild vertigo, and no birds were close by to get me out of it, so that was that. I didn't return, thereby missing closer, eye level views of Red-fan Parrot. (Chicken!) But, at least I spotted one from the ground, through a tiny gap in the foliage... Not ideal, it resulted in lousy photos, but a Cult Lifer is a Cult Lifer!
We also take a boat ride on Rio Cristalino, where we see Bare-necked Fruitcrow, Curl-crested Aracari and Channel-billed Toucan (far away), Ladder-tailed Nightjar, Hoatzin, Giant Otter and more. The return took forever, since the propeller pins kept breaking until no reserves were left, then we used a weak electric motor until the battery was dry, and we still had a kilometer or so left to go. Paddling ensued. We were over 1 hour late to lunch that day.
Then the camera crash happened, and my new Canon 10D was no more. The lens survived the stone floor, but I had emptied my cash reserves when buying the camera (combined with the cost of the trip), so I had no compatible reserve camera body. The only other camera I had was a point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix, that had an adapter for my spotting scope. I had to learn to digiscope on the fly, while still in chock/camera-mourning/gear-accident PTSD, I wasn't really up to the task.
This camera crash has forever put a dark cloud over this whole trip, and I somehow avoid looking through the material I actually got. It has been a good therapy (bordering on catharsis) to work through the photos, gathering a decent pile of freshly edited bunch of pictures in video format for this video series!
Негізгі бет Birding Brazil Part 5: Amazonas habitat at Cristalino Jungle Lodge Oct 23-25 2004 (Slideshow)
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