The day got off to a great start with this superb Burmeister's leaf frog Phyllomedusa burmeisteri, found by Rachel on the lodge veranda. Confined to south-east Brazil (distribution map), this species is mainly found in the Atlantic Forest and was first recorded at REGUA only last November. After taking some photos I placed it in a tree in the garden. What a cool looking frog!
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| Burmeister's leaf frog Phyllomedusa burmeisteri, lodge garden, REGUA, 20 September 2012 |
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| Burmeister's leaf frog Phyllomedusa burmeisteri, lodge garden, REGUA, 20 September 2012 |
We spent the rest of the morning at a small lowland forest fragment known as Onofre Cunha, which is part of REGUA but separated from the rest of the reserve by farmland. Onofre Cunha is becoming well known as an excellent site for night-birding, but has also been turning up a lot of scarce butterflies and odonata during the day. Alexandre Soares, and entomologist at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, decided to drive up and meet us, but in the end the weather closed in and all plans to spend the day looking for butterflies were dashed before Alex had arrived.
However, in the few hours before the rain started we did manage to find some good butterflies, including an Meliboeus Stripestreak Arawacus meliboeus (found by Alan Martin) - a new species of hairstreak butterfly for REGUA. Other butterflies seen include a Caulonia Groundstreak Calycopis caulonia, and an Astarte Eighty-eight Callicore astarte codomannus - a very rare species at REGUA that has only been recorded here a few times.
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| Meliboeus Stripestreak Arawacus meliboeus, Onofre Cunha, 20 September 2012. A first for REGUA! |
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| Caulonia Groundstreak Calycopis caulonia, Onofre Cunha, 20 September 2012 |
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| Astarte Eighty-eight Callicore astarte codomannus, Onofre Cunha, 20 September 2012. A rubbish photo I know, but this rare butterfly really didn't want it's picture taken. |
In addition to butterflies there were also a few other critters I pointed the macro lens at.
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| Stenopola dorsalis, Onofre Cunha, 20 September 2012 |
Bird activity was very low in the heavily overcast conditions, with very few species seen. Highlights were a superb Black-necked Aracari, a lifer for me, calling from the top a tree before being displaced by a Laughing Falcon, a showy Channel-billed Toucan, and a Saw-billed Hermit, perched for once.
Back at the conservation centre a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl showed well, and in the afternoon we decided to take the blue Toyota pickup and check out the Common Potoo that Adilei had found nesting on a fencepost near the village of Matumbo. Both the adult and chick were completely unperturbed by our presence.
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| Common Potoo Nyctibius griseus, Matumbo, near REGUA, 20 September 2012 |
As if all this wasn't enough, a gift from Nicholas and Raquel of a penknife and pair of wellies from the Machete Shop, a bottle of Chilean wine from Adilei, and not one but two birthday cakes, made by Sandra, the head cook at the lodge, made a great end to a really superb birthday. Many thanks everyone for a memorable day!
Excellent post as usual Lee, and what a frog....
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