Is it that time already!

MARCH 6^th

Stupid o’clock had arrived and Sean and I were up and out way before the crack of dawn (More like the middle of the night!). The challenge was to paddle the boat out to the top end of the lagoon (approx 4km) in the dark to check and re-position the gill nets. This was a slightly eerie journey using our head-torches and the GPS as navigation but we made good time and located the nets, which incidently is not easy in the dark even with a GPS! Both nets had lost weights and did not have any fish in them which was a bit of a downer with the return journey in sight!

Having arrived at base and changed I took a hike into the Cerrado before daybreak hearing the Red-Legged Seriema along the way.

There had been a couple of new arrivals on the bird front one of which I await confirmation of its id from photos another escaped me before it was photographed but suspect it to be a Greater Thornbird.

Mark departed at lunchtime to return to England which was a shame as he had been very helpful on the birding and Spanish fronts.

Victoria had arrived the previous evening. She is staying at Para La Tierra as a volunteer to assist with the primate study. Becca myself and Victoria went into the forest before dark in an attempt to find the monkeys but we could not locate them! On exiting the forest trail a more welcoming guard greeted us in the form of a Little Nightjar! Twitcher Joe had already predicted this proclaiming “I told you one would be there!” on our return.