Amazon Part 2
Birds were every where night and day. Chirping, squawking, catching fish, and just kind of hanging out. None of them seemed to care a tiny bit about people being around. The notable exception was the Horned Screamer, which would fly off in flocks the instant it saw us. Interesting fact: the name ‘horned screamer’ comes from tow facts, it has two feathery horns and makes a screaming sound. The birds preferred to stay close to the river where there is an ample supply of bugs and fish, which made spotting them easy and mosquito free.
Here is Anjie’s favorite bird, which she dubbed an ‘Anjie Bird’ because she claims it bore a resemblance to her. I don’t see it.
Mammals were a bit harder to spot. They had a tendency to be deep in the dark forest high in trees, making them hard to see and near impossible to photograph. But we managed to see a fair number of different types of adorable monkeys and sloths. The sloths were the best, since they wore to sluggish to get away. My favorite here is the sloth.. we watched it for about 10 minute while it… very… slowly… scratched… its… head.
We almost missed these bats who where just hanging out on a tree next to the river during the day. They are harder to see in real life, I had to turn up the contrast to get the little bastards to stand out.
The toughest to spot were the dolphins, but we managed to see both the grey and the pink types. Getting a picture was even harder, a hump was the best I could get out of 30 shots.
Then there were the frogs. I’ve been a sucker for since I was a kid, and the Amazon is a cyclone of frogs. You could hear the chirping in the trees and reeds day and night. Went eh boat pushed through water lilies you could see frogs jumping into the water or onto a safer lily. I spent a large time of the boat trips peering over the edge of the canoe, lunging at every frog I saw. This required a keen eye, since there were just as many grasshoppers and awful looking spiders diving out of the way of the boat that I sure a hell did not want to grab. One of the following is not a frog; see if you can tell which one!
The highlight of the frog catching was when I passed a freshly caught frog to Anjie. It was sealed completely in her hands, but she wanted to get a good look at it. When she opened up her hands a little and put her eye right up to the hole, the frog seized the moment, and jumped directly onto her glasses. Needless to say, Anjie screamed and I laughed, and the frog jumped in the water.
One night, we went night hunting for baby caimans. It was less hunting and more catching, rubbing its scaly little tummy, and releasing it.
The next day came the piranhas…
Here is Anjie’s favorite bird, which she dubbed an ‘Anjie Bird’ because she claims it bore a resemblance to her. I don’t see it.
Mammals were a bit harder to spot. They had a tendency to be deep in the dark forest high in trees, making them hard to see and near impossible to photograph. But we managed to see a fair number of different types of adorable monkeys and sloths. The sloths were the best, since they wore to sluggish to get away. My favorite here is the sloth.. we watched it for about 10 minute while it… very… slowly… scratched… its… head.
We almost missed these bats who where just hanging out on a tree next to the river during the day. They are harder to see in real life, I had to turn up the contrast to get the little bastards to stand out.
The toughest to spot were the dolphins, but we managed to see both the grey and the pink types. Getting a picture was even harder, a hump was the best I could get out of 30 shots.
Then there were the frogs. I’ve been a sucker for since I was a kid, and the Amazon is a cyclone of frogs. You could hear the chirping in the trees and reeds day and night. Went eh boat pushed through water lilies you could see frogs jumping into the water or onto a safer lily. I spent a large time of the boat trips peering over the edge of the canoe, lunging at every frog I saw. This required a keen eye, since there were just as many grasshoppers and awful looking spiders diving out of the way of the boat that I sure a hell did not want to grab. One of the following is not a frog; see if you can tell which one!
The highlight of the frog catching was when I passed a freshly caught frog to Anjie. It was sealed completely in her hands, but she wanted to get a good look at it. When she opened up her hands a little and put her eye right up to the hole, the frog seized the moment, and jumped directly onto her glasses. Needless to say, Anjie screamed and I laughed, and the frog jumped in the water.
One night, we went night hunting for baby caimans. It was less hunting and more catching, rubbing its scaly little tummy, and releasing it.
The next day came the piranhas…