Rick Simpson Birding Services

This weekend I had the pleasure of the company of Paul Varney, a birder from the UK. Although we didn’t actually, consciously, meet at the time, our UK twitching days, and a number of our acquaintances coincided. Apart from the great birding we had, we spent many hours talking about the ‘good old days’ and about birds we saw and how we must have been at the same twitch on the same day many a time. It is highly likely that I served him beer in one or other of the pubs on Scilly, I worked in a few of them during my many stays there, and certainly in the Porthcressa bar, where the nightly log was held. Oh well, less of the nostalgia, and back to present day birding. Paul has been to Brazil a few times and has got a good percentage of the Atlantic Forest species, so he came to me with a ’shopping’ list.

Paul and me at Salesópolis, a far cry from windswept Norfolk after a Little Whimbrel!

Male Festive Coquette.

Our first day together was a bit of a wash out. I picked him up at the airport, and took him straight to Biritiba Mirim, where it started to rain. We managed to get good views of a Rufous-sided Crake, before the rain got so hard that we had to return to the car. It continued to rain very heavily, so we by-passed all the Salesópolis sites and the São Paulo Antwren site, it just wasn’t possible to get out of the car! We headed down the Serra to the coast. Here at least the rain was less heavy and we headed straight for Folha Seca, here we notched up a few birds for him, Festive Coquette, White-chinned Sapphire at the feeders and a very obliging (eventually) Spotted Bamboowren.

From there we moved on to the Ubatuba Birdwatching Centre, currently located at Rancho Pica Pau. We were after the purpletufts naturally, but they were being awkward, so we spent some time looking around. Doing so we uncovered some goodies such as the Fork-tailed Tody-Tyrant and good views of a Spot-backed Antshrike.

Buff-throated Purpletuft.

Walking back to the feeders, I happened to glance over my shoulder and caught sight of two Buff-throated Purpletufts landing in the top of a tree, we scoped them and got good views, the male singing a couple of times and showing off his purple tufts. At the observation area we were treated to a male Blond-crested Woodpecker and a Lemon-chested Greenlet. Leaving the site for town we stopped to admire a bedraggled Aplomado Falcon and on the sea a couple of Brown Boobies.

Male Squamate Antbird © Rafael Fortes.

Day two saw Paul and me arriving at Fazenda Angelim with his ’shopping’ list in my hand. The first to fall was the Chestnut-capped Antthrush, which sat up obligingly on a fallen branch in the forest. This was followed swiftly by a pair of Orange-eyed Thornbirds. Next came the White-bearded Manakins, fine males displaying at the usual lek site. Along the back trail we notched up Large-headed Flatbill, White-tailed Trogon, Reddish Hermit and, to Pauls great delight, great views of a pair of Squamate Antbirds. Some fly-over  Red-rumped Caciques would have been a tick for Paul, but his strict rules didn’t allow him to count them, he didn’t see the red rump!

We went then back to the UBWC, stopping en route to tick off Long-billed Wren. We looked again for the purpletufts, but time was short and we didn’t catch up with them this time. We did however notch up Grey Elaenia for Paul. We returned to town to pick up Paul’s gear and Elis and ticked off Cliff Flycatcher on the wires outside our apartment building.

Firewood Gatherers at nest site.

So now we headed for Salesópolis again, this time in good sunshine. First stop, Firewood Gatherer, three together at the nest site. Next stop the lake, here Paul scored some more ticks; Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture; Chestnut-capped Spinetail; Brazilian Teal; Southern Pochard and Sooty Tyrannulet.

Although not a tick, we were treated to great views of an Osprey flying over the lake.

From here we moved on to Biritiba Mirim and the, for me, new São Paulo Antwren site. A pair performed well for us giving views down to about 6 feet! We then moved on to the old site and picked up Red-eyed Thornbird, Rufous-capped Antshrike and Bran-coloured Flycatcher. Our last stop was the marshy pools near Mogi das Cruzes to try to get another look at the crakes. This we did with the added bonus of another tick for Paul, Yellow-rumped Marshbird. As it was getting dark I said it was time to get him back to São Paulo and his hotel, as we were packing up, a last minute tick showed up in the form of 13 Nacunda Nighthawks that flew right over our heads. This last bird was particulaly pleasing to Paul, a bird that was top of his wish list, that I had given him little hope of seeing. Talk about going out on a high!

Osprey over Salesópolis lake..

Southern Pochard. A fine male at Salesópolis.

Singing Rufous-capped Antshrike at Biritiba Mirim.

All photographs, except where indicated otherwise, © Rick and Elis Simpson.