It’s good to be back.... I think.... though the contrast in weather is stark. More on that anon.

Firstly I would like to thank Julie Q for her sterling efforts to keep tabs on our tracked ospreys, Tore, Bynack and Rothes and for keeping you all up to date with the latest news on their whereabouts. Julie has been of invaluable help to us in managing the tracking data, when at other times, Jayne, Alice and I have struggled to keep on top of it. So three cheers, I say, for Julie Q.

Whilst I have been away, I was at times able to access a computer and keep my self informed of our birds’ whereabouts. Just before I headed away, we had appeared to have lost contact with Rothes, so it was great to discover from afar that Julie Q was still getting some data from her and that all was well.

As we prepare to kick the backside of the shortest day next week and as the days begin to lengthen inexorably, it really will not be so very long now, before ospreys are winging their way back to us. In just a matter of weeks really, come early February, those early stirrings within, prompting them to head north again to breed, will begin to kick-in. When will we see or hear of the first sighting? As their return-time approaches, I’m sure a search-image develops in people’s minds, willing, wanting & wishing to see the first returning bird. Many a time my phone has rang in January and February with calls from excited observers reporting seeing an osprey flying up the River Spey. However, whilst always possible of course, such osprey-sized birds, dark on top and pale underneath, flying along a river that must surely be an osprey, more often than not will more likely prove to be large gulls, lesser or greater black-backs. But hey, it does no harm does it, to misconstrue and get excited about their pending return? It’ll not be long now, that’s for sure.

I was lucky enough to see an osprey recently, on 18th November. Not here in Blighty, but on the Rio Claro river in the Pantanal, southern, Brazil, characteristically sat atop a dead tree, ripping into fish. Amongst so much other amazing and exotic wildlife, it was wonderful to see an old friend, as it were, a bird with which I am so familiar.

So what was I doing out in Brazil?  I was on sabbatical leave for a month. Every seven years of service with RSPB, staff have the opportunity to take part in conservation work elsewhere. This might be home-based or elsewhere in UK or indeed further afield. My time was spent at REGUA, which is an acronym for Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu. If you would like to know more I encourage you to Google http://www.regua.co.uk

It is an absolutely amazing place, a now safeguarded part of  the otherwise severely depleted Atlantic Rainforest, or Mata Atlântica, which stretches from north-east Brazil, south along the Brazilian Atlantic coastline just into coastal Uruguay, and inland into north-east Argentina and eastern Paraguay. It once covered an estimated 1,477,500 km2, before centuries of deforestation has reduced it to become the second most threatened biome in the world after Madagascar. Only 7% of the original forest area now remains, an area of 100,000 km2, and only an estimated 2% is still primary forest. Despite the loss and habitat fragmentation, this eco-region is ranked in the top five of the world's biodiversity hotspots.

The objectives at REGUA, and they’ll not mind me quoting from their site, are “to protect the remaining forest and biodiversity from deforestation, hunting and over-extraction of natural resources. If we are to be effective then we need to understand what species are present and their status, and so REGUA is developing a comprehensive monitoring programme. REGUA also aims to improve biodiversity by restoring lost and damaged habitats and reintroducing lost species where practical. Our Environmental Education Programme is critical to the long-term success of the project and we work very closely with local communities, especially children, to convince them of the importance of this work”.

So what was I doing? Well, at REGUA, they are keen to raise further the profile of; the site overall and the habitat restoration project works, the bewildering array of wildlife, not just birds but all biodiversity, the enormous conservation value of the site and to build capacity and encourage, develop and grow sustainably the number of visitor to REGUA and the provision for those visitors. I was there as a volunteer, with my experience of visitor facilities and provision here,  to look at what currently REGUA does for visitors, the infrastructure provided, what thoughts, suggestions and ideas they might consider to raise that capacity and profile. As well as that, I was helping out with practical tasks, including re-making trail markers, marking out trails, building bird hide-screening out of bamboo and palm fronds, helping with other visitor related work and guiding guests, not to mention having a great time. It’s an inspiring place, it’s an inspiring project and they are an inspiring team to work with. Anyway, for more information about REGUA, please take a look at the website and maybe you too might like to visit, volunteer and/or support the fantastic work they do there.

 “It’s a small world” is a much-used cliché, but it’s true. Whilst volunteering at REGUA, all those miles away from Loch Garten, I met a visitor who I thought looked familiar, and lo, it was one of our Osprey volunteers!  If you’re reading this Bill, if was nice to see you there.

The mountain peaks that form the dramatic backdrop to REGUA are simply stunning. The high, sheer, jagged shards of forested granite, scarred with landslips make much of the forest impenetrable, but a network of excellent trails enables most forest levels to be explored, albeit with a bit of effort, for some. It is the range of elevations in such a foreshortened distance that leads to REGUA’s variety of birds. Whilst some species occur at all levels, others do so only in higher elevation forest, so the birds you see change all the time as you ascend a trail, such beautiful birds too, like the delightful shrike-like cotinga for example, more nicely also called, elegant mourner. Another absolute cracker at high level include the aptly named saffron toucanet and the endemic spotted bamboo-wren. Indeed, the relative isolation of Atlantic rain forest from other forest biomes has led to a high degree of endemism amongst birds, and all other wildlife too no-doubt, if only we knew.

It was roasting hot, at times up into the mid 30s, and oppressively humid with it too, too hot for trail work on such days, It also rained a lot too, but hey, what should I expect from rainforest, and all part of the experience. I lived in a cabin on the edge of an amazingly restored wetland, recreated from former cattle ranching pasture. I shared my cabin with a fauna of millipedes, spiders and ants, plus vampire bats in the roof, which made sleep a bit fitful!  At night, a sweep of the torch across the wetland revealed the eye-shine of lurking caiman crocodiles. I was lulled to sleep to the sound of churring pauraques, hooting owls, screeching southern lapwings and the weird, eerie wailing cries of potoos (bizarre, often heard but seldom seen night birds), the alarmed barking of capybaras, spooked by prowling pumas, followed by the almighty rushing “splodoosh” of water as the panicked ‘baras ploughed into the lake for safety. There was so much to be heard going on at night that it was a job to sleep, but it was all wonderfully atmospheric and David Attenborough-esque.

As a measure of the richness of REGUA, just in terms of birds, in my time there I saw over 320 species of birds, many of them endemic to the region or to the Altantic rainforest biome. Many were of unimaginable beauty. Give a child a paint palette and ask them to paint a bird of whatever colour combination they care to, and whatever, Brazil will have a bird that would match – and you need to wear sunglasses to look at many of them. You can see what I mean form the picture below of blue-naped cholorophonia, but also, try Googling this dazzling bunch; red-necked tanager, Brazilian tanager, brassy-breasted tanager and black and gold cotinga.

Blue-naped Chlorophonia by K.Cox

Amongst so many great memories of my time there, one particular fun and exciting one that stands out for me, was the building of the hide screening mentioned above. I did this with a REGUA ranger called Barata. He spoke no English and I spoke no Portuguese, yet by working together with a common purpose towards the shared goal of screen building, we were able to communicate and understand each other perfectly, and knew what each other meant the other to understand, to get the job done. Only to discover that next day, unbeknown to us, capybaras – those Shetland pony-sized rodents, have a liking for palm frond foliage and had begun to munch our newly completed screen! The structure is in place now so Barata will just have to re-new the foliage from time to time or replace with bamboo, which the ‘baras down eat.

I had a great time at REGUA and was sad to leave, but whilst in Brazil I tagged-on some of my annual leave to take the opportunity to visit some other legendary places, seeing wildlife being the quest, but always interested in seeing reserves, their infrastructure and facilities. The vast Pantanal, the mixture of seasonal wetlands, savannah, open grassland and ranching habitat, has always been a place I have wanted to visit since seeing, as child, Geoffrey Boswell’s Wildlife Safari to the Argentine, remember that anyone? It was just one of those captivating and inspiring wildlife programmes that can make such an enduring impact on people, children especially. It’s taken a while, but I finally got to go. It was here that I saw the osprey, amongst so many other amazing sights. It was the dry season and so much of the wildlife had accumulated at drying pools and adjacent to rivers, which was convenient. Driving down the Trans-Pantaneria dirt-road highway, roadside pools would host giant jabiru storks, an array of herons and ibises (ibi?), kingfishers and screamers. As the wetlands dry, caiman crocs seek sanctuary and gather at these dwindling pools too, often in their hundreds. Continued drying-out can mean that the crocs gradually become entombed in the drying mud and set like concrete, hoping to survive the drought and await the liberating arrival of the rains. Some don’t make it and the stench of rotting croc was overpowering. Some of these menacing predatory reptiles were getting their come-uppance as they now became the prey, of vultures, sat about sinisterly, biding their time, awaiting the next meal. It was a fascinating scene to witness-nature red in tooth & claw an’ all that.

Pantanal is of course famous for such classics as the beautiful hyacinth macaw and the less than beautiful, yet curious ostrich-cousin, the greater rhea, a bird so bizarre looking, that it’s hard to take them seriously. The other Pantanal “biggy”, is of course jaguar. And yes I was lucky, and saw one. Out lamping one night, shining a spot-light across open pastureland in search of any critters really, my guide, suddenly brought the sweep of the light beam to an abrupt halt, fixed to the eye-shine of a jaguar glaring back at us. It was a hair-standing-up-on-the- back-of-the-neck, moment, if ever there was one! It was about 30m away, it turned broadside to us and nonchalantly sauntered off unconcerned, followed, for as long as we could by our light beam. Wow! The beauty of these creatures apart, their immense strength and power, yet poise, grace and lissom movement, were plain to see.

Boat trips along Pantanal rivers enable you to get close to wildlife, sometimes uncomfortably close, when caiman loll on the surface just feet away from the boat’s gunwales. Contrasting with this, were the charming romp of giant river otters that came cavorting, porpoise-like alongside. Compared to our cute & endearing native European otters, they have this strange pale, bug-eyed look about them, which together with their whopping size, makes them look quite menacing.

After Pantanal, I figured you cannot go to Brazil without going to the Amazonia, so it was that I ventured to the rainforest of the southern Amazon, to a place called Cristallino. It too was all that I hoped it would be. This area of rainforest along the Cristallino river, seemed untouched by man’s activities other than very sensitively established eco-tourism, enabling people to see the wonders that are rainforests, and is the Amazon. To climb, or wobble & sway, up a 50m steel tower in the heart of the forest, up through the canopy to tower over the surrounding forest, and to see the sun rise and the mist and forest dampness burn off before your very eyes, is simply magical and sublime.  And then, all hell breaks loose as the forest wakes up and comes alive, with a deafening discordant cacophony of sound, not just from the myriad of birds but grouchy howler monkeys too, givin’ it laldie, with their bellowing. If you’re able to download sounds/bird song, take a listen to the amazing blasting cry of screaming piha, a truely astonishing sound, that’s now my phone’s ringtone, as a reminder.

Birds were everywhere, again of unbelievable colour and beauty. Everyone knows of or has seen, sadly often in captivity, birds like scarlet, blue & yellow, and red & green macaws, but to watch these huge birds waft and flap leisurely across the canopy top was completely enchanting, spoilt only by their somewhat raucous squawking cries. I guess they can’t be both “lookers” and sound good with it, that’d be greedy. Many of these colourful birds have exotic names to match, like pompadour cotinga or spangled cotinga. This latter species, its striking purple-throat apart, also happens to be of a shimmering, iridescent turquoise riot of colour too!  What a poseur. Google it, but be warned, have those shades ready again.

Anyway, I ought to leave it there. All in all it was great trip, both my time at REGUA and elsewhere. It was the trip of a lifetime and I feel very fortunate to have had the experience, one I’ll never forget, on so many fronts, and all very reaffirming as to the wonders of wildlife and why wildlife conservation is so vitally important.

Back to reality now though, and the weather’s far from Brazilian. The winter has been generally mild so far, but I was back in time to experience the almighty storm in Scotland last week. Not a great deal of snow to contend with (yet) but the wind was ferocious. Several trees blew down across the Loch Garten roads, blocking them until we were able to get there to clear them, and there was any amount of forest debris blown down too, with branches and limbs everywhere. It was frightening and two of my colleagues here had trees blow down right in front of them as they drove along in tractors. (I was a bit envious actually as I’ve always wanted to witness that, from a position of safety). As mentioned though, the osprey nesting tree survived the blast. I’ve no-doubt top-layer nesting material will have been stripped off, but hey, that’ll soon be put back again when the birds return.

There not much more to report on the local wildlife front, it seems like I missed the redwing and fieldfare passage, most of which blasted straight through our area here on account of there being no berries for them. It’s not been cold enough yet for the likely appearance of wayward waxwings or great grey shrikes form further north, but there’s plenty of winter to come yet for that to occur. The only other snippet is the has-beans. They’ve gone now, but apparently there were a few bean geese locally, which is very unusual for here, together with an even more unusual Ross’ goose – though of questionable provenance.

That’s it for now. Julie Q will let us all know the osprey latest next Tuesday. All that remains for me to do, is to wish you all the very best for the Festivities ahead.

Merry Christmas

PS. re vampire bats above, I was embellishing, don't be put off, they were free-tailed bats