Sunday 11 October

I had originally planned to join the 10th and 11th of October into a single report but found that the first day was long enough already (too long,  you cry!) so have added this page in as well.  It also solves the problem of how to include several parrot photographs.

We were up very early to get out to the Blanquillo clay lick to watch the parrots come in to feed.  This is done on a shift basis with species taking their turns after gathering in the nearby trees to check out the safety of the site, and it might go on for several hours.  Thus breakfast accompanied us to the hide.

Getting to the hide was a bit tricky as the riverbank was rather muddy and slippery.  However thanks to the plank, and the assistance of the boatmen no-one face planted.  {When we got back about 4 hours later the mud had been consolidated, a good bunch of steps had been cut and some branches laid as corduroy.  These guys are all magicians!}  The hide was a bit larger than the normal bird blind (the image below shows about half of it!).  The clay cliffs are just visible through the bottom of the structure.

After we had been there a while Blue-headed Parrots appeared.  They were joined by Yellow-crowned Parrots, Mealy Parrots and Orange-cheeked Parrots as shown in the following images.  Tui Parakeets also appeared towards the end of this stage, but I don't think appeared in any of my images.






 

Macaws appeared a little later.  We recorded one Chocolate-headed {Que? Where did I pull that one from?}Chestnut-fronted Macaw but the main business was the Red and Green Macaws, of which at one point I counted 80 on the cliff face and in the vegetation above.  This was a truly magical moment (actually more like a magical hour, following the magical hour with the smaller parrots earlier and the extremely good time between flocks looking at the other birds in the area).

Amongst the other birds seen was the only King Vulture of the trip, soaring in the distance over the forest.  The shape and colouration was unmistakeable, once Stephen commented on it, but unfortunately most of the group was in another part of the hide at the time and shouting out was not an option.  (On a more mundane note, I think this was where I came up with the theory that all pigeons in Peru were of the Pale-vented persuasion.)

We then walked back to the boats and motored back to the Lodge for a free middle of the day.  I did  a bit more 'streetlight-model' birding with about the same level of success as before.  An interesting sight was the large Caiman resting up in some driftwood: it was discovered by one of the boatmen taking a swim!  I suspect he would have set some sort of record for emergence from a river.

We heard a hummingbird in the vicinity of some Heliconia flowers  and I put in about an hour trying to spot it without success.  Of course as soon as I left it appeared and posed long enough for Stephen to ID it!

After lunch the main business was a walk for about 1km through the jungle (along a cleared path) to another cocha to look for other Black Caiman: the word 'spotlight' was mentioned so most of us took our headlights, reckoning that natural illumination might be a tad deficient when we returned.  We would also try to nail some forest birds as we went.  

We did add a few forest birds to our lists, especially when waiting for a herd of Peccaries to clear the area.  A few days earlier the Itinerary mentioned them, using the word 'noisy'.  This was certainly the case, which was hardly surprising as they travel in herds of up to 200.  They are hunted by the locals using a clever technique, of killing the alpha male first.  This disorients the whole herd so they stay in the same place until a new leader emerges in 2 or 3 days time: since the hunters are taking out a lot of pigs each day the leader inherits a much smaller herd than his predecessor.  {I had wondered what model formed the basis of Australian politics, and now I know.  Hint: the politicians aren't the hunters.)   The business of birds was very difficult: with about 8 of us - including 3 local guides - really trying to locate and identify them we ended up with some 4 names (I only got a tickable look at one of them - even I couldn't bring myself to mark some of the dark brown blurs.)

On getting to the cocha we found another catamaran.  This one was based on rather more modern technology, albeit lacking such things as bench seats.  So those of us feeling game hopped on, the paddlers assumed their position and we cruised around  the lake for about 2 hours.  We added quite a lot of additional birds, including a Razor-billed Curasow which made an appearance just on dark.  As the light diminished it

was notable that the paddlers removed their feet from the water.  Using the large flashlight to pick up the eyeshine of the large Black Caiman justified this.  After a while further we headed back down the pitch black trail,, the headlights earning their keep.

An absolutely excellent day!