Daniel

A few days ago I posted an image of my younger son, Daniel, stretched out on a log at the Bosque Santa Lucia Reception Center. I thought it was a great shot of the log, but my friend Nathan ridiculed me for "the butt shot." So I stand corrected by adding this facial of Daniel at one of our local restaurants in Santarem. He's now back in Belem, where he works as a publicity agent.

Helpers

A little help from friends.

Caterpillar on the move

Wow! I wouldn't want to warm up to this critter in the middle of the night.

Fungi, continued

This tree seems to be a collector of fungi. A real showoff.

Fungi and lichens

Old age and a long rainy season are apparent in this composite of leaves, fungi and lichens.

Camouflaged

This mobile home is so camouflaged, it almost impossible to distinguish it from the fungi on the bark of the tree.

Treehoppers

These are the same "bugs" in an earlier stage of development. This picture was taken about 10-12 days ago. The ones below are from today. Ants seem to be part of the show here.

Treehoppers, continued

The same bugs with some perspective.

Treehoppers, continued

Another shot of the same insects.

Treehoppers

At first I thought these insects were tree hoppers, then I changed my mind. After some research I came back to my original thoughts. Click on image for an enlargement of the image. More coming.

On the log

Daniel, our younger son, visited for three days earlier this week. We spent part of one day at Bosque Santa Lucia, where he made himself comfortable on a log. Hum .....

Red fungus

A not so old leaf faces an intervention in life, fungi in the accented color of rust.

Colors of summer

New leaves are so easy on the eyes. They are so soft and smooth on the hands. They are like babies, new to the world.

Skipper

Possibly a skipper. Click on image for an enlargement.

Friendly butterfly

This friendly butterfly was checking out the virtues of wet cement vs. human sweat. It seemed to have liked both.

Bird nest, continued

When I arrived at Bosque Santa Lucia this morning, I was saddened to find an empty nest. Ants were carrying off the last pieces of the two chicks I had photographed two days before (refer to the previous post). Given the nest had been placed under a palm frond only 1.2 meters off the ground, my first thought was that some of the local dogs had found the birds. But I guess that wasn't the case, since the nest was in tact and there were some remains being removed by the ants. Who knows, maybe they starved to death.

Bird nest

Cleuson was watering the palms when he discovered this neat little bird's nest under a frond. Although I've never seen anything quite like it, he concludes that we were looking at hummingbirds. Just the slightest movement of the palm frond brought the two young birds up for a feed. Sorry folks, but we'll get out of there so that your mother will come back with the grub.

Star fungus

A star is born!

The native scouring pad

I had the pleasure of traveling with Padre Carlos from the diocese of Santarem to the Amazon River floodplain area last week. It was fairly much an all-day riverboat trip to several communities in the need for potable water. Yeah, hard to believe, but living on the largest river in the world doesn't guarantee a drop of good drinking water. As a matter of fact, it's hard to come by any time of the year. But water is another story. What caught my eye was this leaf that Padre Carlos showed us. It's called "lixa unha" (fingernail file) because seems to be a marriage between steel wool and a rough scouring pad. He tells us that the leaf is used for clean pots and pans. Sorry, no scientific name.

Beetle 2416

I assume a member of the scarab beetle family. The hands-like antennae are always interesting to see.

Horned spider

As I stumbled into the web of this horned spider, it quickly made its way over to a bamboo shoot. Interesting physique and colors. I wonder why the horns?

Jucá

The changing colors of the jucá tree (Caesalpinia ferrea) is always a show.

Bug on vase

Small and flighty. That's the best I could do in getting the picture.

Orchid bloom

The first time this orchid has produced a flower. The plant came from Manaus, a gift from Dr. Maurice at the Celso Matos Laboratory atm Maternidade Hospital.