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Category: BRAZIL
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GARUVA 
BRAZIL

SANTA CATARINA (near), (Compass)

 Lat:00o00´S/00o00´W ha topography msl 
Protected/registered status 
Best Time for visit (19th December, 2006)

 

Birding Site Guide

The small town of Garuva is on the main highway between Curitiba and Joinville. There are regular buses from Joinville and it only takes half an hour and costs about 7R so there is no real reason to stay in Garuva although there may be a hotel. The first bus leaves Joinville at 5:30am. From Garuva I tried to follow the instructions on the www.arthurgrosset.com homepage.

Click on Site Notes, then Santa Catarina. Near town there are some small marshes where Marsh Antbird has been found. Unfortunately the instructions are for drivers in kms from Garuva and it is not so obvious if you are walking or hitching. As in the instruction on the page, from the Rodoviaria in Garuva, head towards Guaratuba and after about 100m turn left at the main junction and follow the road straight out of town, going straight as a die and not left further on. From the Rodoviaria the patches are at 15.5 and 17km.

I started walking at 6am and managed to get on a bus which took me for about the first 5km. When the bus turned round, I got off and continued walking. After several kms there was an area of reeds where I heard Yellow-chinned Spinetail and Rufous-sided Crake and saw Blackish Rail in the nearby rice fields. I don’t think this first patch is the one referred to. After here, the road goes up a hill at a banana plantation. Further, on the left hand side are the 2 patches of reeds with forest in the background. I walked past these and tried some playback with no success. It was getting a bit late though so try and get there earlier and spend more time. I didn`t know these were the patches until it became much more obvious later on when I found no others. The land in this area is a mixture of banana, palmito plantations and rice fields. Further on, the road is flanked by forest patches. The rice fields were quite dry and had only a few waterbirds. Other seasons maybe much more productive. It got very hot by late morning and activity died down quickly and birding was not so good. A car is strongly recommended although hitching is possible along the road. I went as far as the small town of Cubatao. In the notes, it refers to a turning here that leads to good forest. 


I saw 84 species including 1 lifer 


Species seen


Other Fauna 
A total of -- species of mammals. 

There are -- recorded species of amphibians and reptiles. 

Flora 

Author: Charles Hesse 

 

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