REGUA, Atlantic Forest, Brazil: 6 June

Heavy rain for most of the day made birding very difficult to say the least. Rachel and I decided to team up with Sue Healey and her group to bird the Waterfall Trail. An American Kestrel and 2 of the regular Burrowing Owls were seen on the dirt road to the trail head at Casa Pesquisa, but once on the trail it began to rain heavily and before being forced to turn back we had managed to see only 1 Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant, 1 male Blue Manakin and 1 Red-crowned Ant-Tanager, and hear Spot-billed Toucanet, Scaled Antbird and White-eyed Foliage-gleaner.

A superb immature Bothrops jararacussu trying its best to warm up on a wet rock in the middle of the trail, went a long way towards making up for the poor weather. These highly venomous, and potentially deadly snakes are very well camouflaged and almost all of our group had stepped over it before it was spotted!

Immature Bothrops jararacussu, Waterfall Trail, 6 June 2012. Bothrops is a genus
of pit vipers found throughout Latin America. 32 species are recognised, but at
one time all were considered conspecific and were often referred to collectively as
fer-de-lance or lanceheads, although nowadays this name is only applied to the
Mexican species B. lanceolatus. Two species of Bothrops have been recorded
at REGUA, the other being B. jararaca.

Back at the lodge, 2 Black-legged Dacnis, a few Swallow Tanager and a Reddish Hermit in the garden, and a White-necked Hawk and 7 Channel-billed Toucan scoped from the veranda on the nearest forested ridge, brightened the day a little.

In the afternoon it stopped raining just long enough for a dash to the wetland where 3 Blue Ground-Doves (2m, 1f), 1 male Black-legged Dacnis, 1 immature male Red-legged Honeycreeper, 1 Blackish Rail, 3 Yellow-browed Tyrant and several Blue-winged Parrotlets were seen.