Peru Adventure Part 3

After a couple of days at Amazona Refucio (a camp/lodge at the edge of the wilderness area on the Tambopata River) we left early on the morning of June 8 to travel about 5 hours by motorized canoe upriver to Tambopata Research Center (TRC). On the way we passed a government checkpoint to register, as no one is allowed in these area's without permission from the government. The river became faster and shallower as we traveled, and at one point some had to get out of the boat and literally pull it up through the shallows.

Saw the first of two Spectacled Caiman shortly after we left the checkpoint. These gigantic alligator type amphibians are not particularly aggressive toward humans, but clearly have their differences with each other, and perhaps other local wildlife. This one is missing a big chunk of it's tail for example, but doesn't seem to be much bothered by it.


Not long after we saw the Caiman, Terry made a classic birder mistake. He pointed toward the bank and said "what is that... a snake?"




A mistake many of us have make when we see an Anhinga in the water for the first time. This long necked bird frequently walks on the bottom with it's neck sticking out. It is a rather tall bird, and this neck is really slender. Total length of the bird is about 3 feet.


Among the many raptors on the river is the ubiquitous Black Vulture. A relative of the Turkey Vulture (with the naked red head) of North America, this version has a naked black head, and is also about 26" with a wingspan of over 5 feet!


Other raptors which are seen on the river include the Caracara family. These falcon type birds are fairly common in the Amazon basin and are omnivorous scavengers. This pair was actually fishing on the shoreline from some beached snags. These are 34" or so birds with a wingspan about equal to the body length.


After grabbing a fish out of the water, this individual was caught drying out it's wings.

One of the most interesting sights on the river was this Otter family. It looked like Mom and a bunch of kids. The smaller ones were really curious.

After watching for a bit, it was very interesting to see the adult pull a large crab off the bottom of the river, tear the legs off, and chomp down on the shell. Notice the legs on the log near the bottom of the picture.


After they were all fighting over the crab, this little one just looked at us like maybe we could help him get his share!


Though you don't see it too much from the boat, the river is teeming with life. This Cocoi Heron was fishing very carefully on the edge. I can't imagine what the bill of this 4' spear fisherman looks like coming at you from above!


One of my favorite birds anywhere in the world are the swallows. On the Tambopata, the Blue and White Swallows are beautiful whether stationary or swooping. These little 4 inchers are really striking.


One of the rare finds as we travelled up the river was the very hard to see and shy Sunbittern. Unfortunately this one was on the edge of the river directly between us and the sun and very hard to photograph. The bird is very distinctive with it's "BUICK" white portholes on the side. Only a little over 2 feet long, it is very elegant both in appearance and walk.


One of the most entertaining of all the birds along the river is the Yellow=Billed Tern. Often seen soaring, they are always looking for food.


These little 10 inch birds look much larger as they swoop right overhead. They have little fear of man it seems, and are great fishers.


Often looking straight down at the water, they must have incredible eyesight.


And here he is with his catch, making sure that he does not get it stolen!


Among the most elegant of all the river birds in flight is the Snowy Egret, easily identified by it's black bill, black legs and yellow feet. This little 2 footer is so pure white that it is dazzling.


I don't know the names of the butterfly's, but they are just as beautiful as the birds. I finish this post with a picture of what greeted us on the bank of the river when we landed at TRC.


In the next post i will show some of the amazing birds at TRC.

Peru Adventure Part 2

Traveling the river is an excellent way to see a lot of wildlife. We started out among people, including this family that was dredge mining for gold in the river. They were clearly living on the boat, and the tailings were all up and down the river.


Lot's of turtles sunning themselves on logs in the river, seemingly oblivious to us going by.


A lot of monkeys in the trees, including this Dusky Titi Monkey.


The White Throated Toucan is one of the most beautiful of the jungle birds. It is often the first of the birds to be seen as it likes to perch at the edge of the canopy. This is one of the larger Toucans, being about 2 feet tall. The bill is huge, but weighs almost nothing. Almost always seen in pairs.


There are a number of beautiful herons in Peru, and we began to see them almost immediately.


The black patterning on the neck on this Cocoi Heron identifies it as a breeding adult. Foraging on the river edge for fish etc., this very large bird (about 4 feet tall) is intimidating.


No less intimidating is the bill of the Chestnut Eared Aracari. The smaller Aracari's have the same type of serrated bill that all Toucan's have. About 18 inches not including the bill, they are easy to see, but tuff to photograph as they are foraging in the tops of fruiting trees.


My personal favorite among the heron's is the "Capped Heron". With its beautiful crown, and blue coloration in the beak, it really stands out. Generally found only in the Amazon basin, at about 2 feet tall, with it's long yellow neck it really shows much larger.


The antbirds, antwrens, antpitta's etc. are usually way out under the canopy. The White-Browed Antbird however has somehow found it's place along the dense scrub of the river banks. As a result, we were able to call in this individual and I got a lucky picture. About 5 inches long, (including bill) this bird has a song that is huge!



One bird who's call certainly matches it's size with it's voice is the aforementioned Toucan. When it opens that huge bill and let's it fly, you definitely pay attention.


The Capped Heron on the other hand has a very soft low hoot that is really fun to hear. Very consistent with the elegance of this bird.



Even though this little guy is only half the size of his toucan cousin, the very intimidating nature of his bill makes him one of the really fearsome looking birds of the Amazon. Omnivorous, these beautiful birds spend most of the time high in the canopy with the fruiting tress however and are realy harmless.

Tomorrow, more birds and wildlife from the Amazon basin.

Rich and Terry's Peru Adventure Part 1

This past winter when friend and Home Teacher Terry Mecham was helping us install the floor, stairways and some finish work on the Rainbow house, he made the mistake of saying that someday he would like to do a jungle type thing and see the wildlife. I had participated in a trip to Ecuador with a great bird guide, Rudy Gelis last November, and knew that he was interested in doing a trip to Peru. A number of e-mails later, we were on our way! We got our yellow fever shots, stocked up on mosquito repellant, and headed for the Amazon basin!

On June 5 we left Portland early for Houston, Texas where we met birder and friend Ned Hill, and then went on to Lima arriving at nearly midnight. Rudy met us, took us to a hotel in Lima, and the next morning at 5 am we were on our way back to the airport. From Lima we flew to Puerto Maldonado via Cusco. We met our native guides there, and took a motorized canoe upriver on the Tambopata to the first of 3 camps where we would spend the next 8 days. With us were 2 Australian couples, both trained orthinologists. It was really fun!


These camps or lodges are really nice. Although they don't have electricity or hot water, the food is great and the rooms are really interesting with being open to the forest and all of it's sounds. flor a couple of hours a day they fire up a generator so that batteries can be recharged. They provide what we used to use on the farm in the form of rubber boots, as the trails are very muddy.

This is tough birding. The forest is very dense, and it can be very hard to find and identify the birds. In the next picture we are just getting started, and you can see our native guide Rodopho calling in the bird we are looking for with his ipod! Many of the birds would never be seen if you didn't give them a reason to come to you to investigate who is in thier space!


When in Ecuador, I was disapointed in my pictures due to the lack of light under the canopy. Since then I found a 20 year old "prime lens" for my Nikon camera's. It is a 400 mm f2.8. It has great autofocus (good cause my eyes are not so great anymore), but the sucker is heavy. I walked with it on my shoulder for several weeks before we went, but it was still wearing me out on the muddy trails. As future posts will show however, it was worth it for some pretty fun photo's.


We spent hours sometimes searching for a single bird. But, for those who are really interested in seeing the birds, this is the way to do it.


With tools like the tower rising about 200 feet up into the canopy, it was not all understory, but most of it was pretty dark.


Here Rudy, Ned and Terry are discussing with Rodolpho the bird they are in search of.


In future posts, it will primarily be about the birds, but throughout the trip we kept track of many other things that we saw. While we concentrated mostly on flying things, the Jaguar tracks Terry found in the trail reminded us that we certainly had big company in those woods.


Things that flew came in all sizes, colors, and locations.


The variety of butterfly's was amazing.


So here is a couple of the early birds.


White Fronted Nunbird Rare in subcanopy and midstory of tall humid montane forest (most of the Amazon Basin). About 9 inches tall.


Squirrell Cuckoo. (Actually, Rudy just e-mailed me and said this was a Black Tailed Cuckoo. Funny because we didn't record one that day. But, trust me he knows his birds!) Common in the humid forests of eastern Peru, but hard to see. Often heard first, it's sneezing KEEK WAH can be heard from quite a ways off. About 18 inches. The eye ring is distinctive.

Stay Tuned!