This weeks photos

This is a picture of a male lizard displaying to any females around. Quite cool as they can hide the bright throat patch and become near invisable.

Giant otters at Lake Sandoval. There were about 12 of them fishing in the lake. Great animals growing to about 2m in length. They caught many fish while we were there but soon swam off as you can see by the bottom photo.

These are Long Nosed Bats roosting on the bottom of a tree. Quite common around the lake.

This is Rachael and Daniel at the New Farm Platform looking for birds on one or our observation sessions. You can see the river in the background which we live next to. Quite a wide one, and its surprising how much the amount of water in it can change.

From Jungle to Lakes and back again...

Monday morning, Lee was at New Farm Platform doing observations while Rachael was at the farm helping with feeding the guinea pigs and goats. Oddly enough it was Rachael that spotted a new bird species, walking around the farm was a type of wader, which she identified it as an Upland Sandpiper. However, Stuart, a new member of staff who had just returned this week, told us you don´t get that type of bird here! Confused Lee and I headed back at lunch to get a better look and take some photographs. Turns out it is an Upland Sandpiper (no doubt from the photos) and this means we have found a first for Taricaya i.e. a bird thats never been seen there before!

Monday also saw us both taking a dip in the creek, a very muddy dip I might add, in order to try and remove the recently constructed fish enclosure, which due to the drop in the water levels was sitting miserably on the bottom of the creek.

Early Tuesday morning we took another couple of volunteers mist netting again, with the nets in a new location we were hoping to catch a different niche of birds. It was a great mornings session, the pick of the bunch being a beautiful male Red Headed Manakin. The afternoon session was not quite as productive although we managed to catch one Hummingbird and they are always pretty to look at!
That evening we went on our second Caimen hunt, this time Alex managed to catch a Spectacled or White Caimen, and Rachael got to hold it! Hope fully some photos will follow once downloaded from the camera! The nights wildlife watching did not end there however, heading along the board walks to bed we saw a Paca - a large rodent with no tail, brown fur and white spots down the sides, actually pretty cute!

Wednesday and we had another early morning mist netting session, however again it was really slow, we only caught 4 birds however one of these was a new species for us called a Swainson´s Thrush. Plus a Pygmy Kingfisher flew into the net, then managed to escape right before our eyes! The one that got away...
That afternoon Lee was back in the creek putting the fish enclosure back in, on the other side of the dam, while Rachael headed to New Farm Platform for observations. She got a really good view of a Dusky Titi Monkey in the trees and spotted 23 different species of birds!

Woke up on Thursday to the sound of Squirrel Monkeys crashing through the trees outside our room, went out to watch them feeding on bits of fruit twice the size of their heads! THey would then drop them with a loud crash onto the roof of one of the other rooms, scaring the life out of themselves!! Very funny to watch!

After a morning collecting the mist nets in, the volunteers all had a special treat - we headed for a place called Lake Sandoval. This magical oasis in the middle of the jungle is a haven for birds, monkeys and most special of all a family of Giant Otters! An hour up river in the boat, we then walked for 5km into the jungle before finally arriving at the lodge by the lake, only to be greeted straight away by 4 Dusky Titi Monkeys! After a brief swim, the water was suprisingly warm, we headed out in a canoe for an evening meander on the lake.
It was a beautiful, tranquil evening, first to be spotted was a very large Caimen just ahead of the boat and only a few hundred yards from where we had just been swimming! Next there were Brown Capuchin monkeys, not to mention the hundreds of birds most of them ones we have not seen before. After a beautiful sunset out on the lake we headed in for dinner and an early night.

Early Friday morning we headed back out in the canoe in search of the otters. We circled the lower part of the lake, finding lots of birds and sooner than any of us expected Stuart spotted a group of otters in the distance! We slowly made our way over and sure enough up ahead there were 12 GIANT OTTERS! Feeding all together their heads would pop up sometimes with a fish, chew on it for a while before diving back down. They were beautiful! Although they did not come really close, it was enough to watch them in the binouclars and take some distant photos.

After the otters had moved off we continued around the lake, spotting more birds and even some Long Nosed Bats clinging to a tree trunk. We then heard some crashing in the nearby trees, classic sign of monkeys but which ones? We moved in closer and soon realised they were Red Howler Monkeys! There were 5 including a young one feeding in the trees by the lake bank. We have often heard Howler monkeys near Taricaya, they sound like the wind rushing through a canyon, but none of us had ever seen them until now! The trip was over all too soon and after breakfast we headed back to the boat and Taricaya.

Friday afternoon and for the third time this week, for Lee and the second for Rachael, we were back in the creek removing the fish enclosure, which now had sunk!

We then had a meeting with Stuart to discuss some of the birds we had caught in the mist nets, it turns out that four of the birds were new species for Taricaya! Both Lee and I felt really pleased to have found these birds, the photographs of which are going to be published in a book describing the Birds of Taricaya! We both feel we have really achieved something and contributed to the research at Taricaya.

Snake!!!!

Daniel (our Herpatology expert) has a Yellow Tailed Cribo. Its a type of snake that goes round eating other snakes. It is non venomus but you don´t really want to get bitten by one. This snake has bacteria in i´ts mouth so would get infected quite rapidly.

One Month In The Jungle!

Well there we go, Saturday the 18th of November was our 1 month anniversary of arriving at Taricaya! What a busy month, and what a busy week!
Its been pretty hot and humid, compared to last week when we had quite a bit of rain and the creek rose right up over the bridge, this week we´ve had little rain and the creek has dropped to the lowest its been since we arrived. In one day it dropped over 2 metres!

Monday saw a bonazana day of bird watching for both us, Rachael was at New Farm Platform and had quite a few new birds plus a very cool view of some Roadside Hawks circling around the nearby trees. Lee had a brilliant session up in the Canopy, he decided to take our telescope which really impressed the staff and other volunteers with him as it gave them much better views of distant birds, aiding with ID. A total of no less than 8 new species!
That afternoon we all went over to Enrique´s, he lives across the river with his family. They are from a traditional local tribe, but left as they did not agree with some of the laws. Taricaya volunteers have recently helped him to build some houses in their traditional style, using no plastic, hammers, nails or planks of wood...simply as it comes straight from the jungle! Enrique now shows tourists his way of life and we went over to find out for ourselves. He showed us their traditional clothes and bedding, made from the bark of a particular tree, showed us how they make fire and cut things down with out macchettes or knives, told us about how they hunt with bow and arrows and about their traditions.

Tuesday was quite quiet on the wildlife watching front, Lee helped build a predoor to the ocelot enclosure while Rachael helped dismantle and move one the bridges along the trails. In the afternoon Lee went for a walk and took some wax casts of some peccary, paca and agouti (all mammals) footprints he had found. Rachael rode through the jungle on the donkeys =0)

Wednesday was a real adventure, we headed into Peurto with 6 other volunteers with the aim of canoeing back to Taricaya! The canoe trip was stunning, no engine and only two paddles, which we used to keep us in the right direction and simply let the current take us down river. It was so quiet! and at the same time alive with sounds of the jungle, we could see loads of birds as they were not scared off by the boat, Lee and I saw over 30 species of birds including quite a few new ones!
It was very hot and sunny, so we plastered ourselves in suncream, drank bucket loads of water and wore hats, then simply jumped into the river to cool off! It took us five and a half hours to get back but it was one of the best trips we have done since being here.

Thursday saw Lee carrying arm loads of wood up from the boat for a new monkey enclosure, while Rachael helped feed the animals and clean the lodge. A troop of squirrel monkeys again came past, crashing through the trees. That afternoon Lee had a quiet observation session at a platform called HOB, while Rachael went on an herpetology walk looking for frogs, lizards and snakes. During this walk she spotted a huge snake skin, which Daniel (the herpetology expert) thought it might be that of a Yellow-tailed Cribo - similar to the one caught the other week at the lodge which was 2.5 metres long!

Friday, and we both were at New Farm Platform in the morning doing observations with our scope! It was a really good session again, Rachaels favourite were the two Red and Green Macaws that flew over a couple of times, these are the large, classic parrots. Walking back to the lodge we were really lucky to see 4 South American Coati´s, racoon type mammals. They were climbing a tree, pulling all the bark off.
After breakfast Lee was strimming grass around the lodge and Rachael was clearing trails and was lucky enough to see the Coati´s again, including one which burst out of the undergrowth in front of us, ran along the trail a short way before disappearing once again.
That afternoon Lee went on an herpetology walk, and unfortunately caught nothing. Rachael went to New Farm to cut flowers, this is quite time consuming work as all the leaves need to be trimmed off and there are lots of flowers, but as we were doing this we saw an Agouti - a large rodent, which calmly walked between us and the river bank, picked up a piece of fruit and calmly walked off. Quite a day for mammals!

Back into Peurto this weekend, and its heaving with people. Its the local elections and everyone from the surrounding area has to come to town to vote, one positive is that all the main bars and clubs are shut (Peruvian law so people should be sober when they vote) which meant the very loud kareoke bar next to our hostel was quiet for once!
We had quite a busy weekend popping all over Peurto, booking our flights to Lima for the end of our stay and we even went up the Obelisk - a observation tower which gives great views of the whole of Peurto and the surrounding jungle. We are now off for a refreshing icecream - at 1 soles (about 17p) for two huge scoops who can argue with that!

Getting the hang of adding photos now


















This is a picture of us on the opening night to our bar we made. Me and Rach are there and to the right is Liam. All the other people are staff.













The whole team is here outside the bar. Some people were leaving that day so the group has got a bit smaller since then. Luckly some are also coming back after doing a bit of travelling.
















This is a Cane Toad that hands around lodge at night, trying to catch insects that are attracted to the lights. There will be no water in the pond if this chap jumps in!!!!















Rachael photographing the secretive white capuchin monkey. He was running about creating as much trouble as possible. Here he was distracted by a high branch.















The Butterflies here are fantastic!!! Some being about as big as a dessert plate. Others like this one are semi or totally transparent, note fingures on the other side of the butterfly.

More pictures from the jungle

Here is Lee holding a Green and Gold Tanager on a ringing session in the jungle. James (left) is taking a picture. The tent is our processing centre and mozzie keeper outer!

This is a white bearded hermit (hummingbird) we caught on another ringing session.

This is a shot of a wild Jaguar I found when walking in the jungle... Not really. Shes part of our release program at the reserve.


This is Billy and Lucus. Billy is a bit of a trouble maker but its always good to see what he´s up to or what he has put in our wellies.













This is the Nursary where the food for the animals are stored, and the odd orphaned baby animal is kept here before it can be released. The downstairs is now a social room for volunteers and tourists.

Another week over... a new one just begun...

Well here we are again, the end of another week in the jungle and of course the start of a new one!

This week started in great fashion, on the boat trip back to Taricaya we saw 3 Capibarri, one of the largest rodents in the world!
Activities this week included hauling huge planks of wood from Percy´s farm across the river to the lodge in order to repair a bridge to the Caopy Walk Way, building this bridge, building the final wall in the Interpretation Centre, Lee did some donkey training for the first time and weeding at Percy´s farm.

Tuesday and Wednesday morning saw Lee and I getting up at 4.30am to take some of the other volunteers mist netting. Both morning sessions were really successful, with 14 birds caught on Tuesday and 11 on Wednesday. There was no member of staff with us so Lee was in charge, Rachel (member of staff) had said before that Lee knew a load more about mist netting than she did and felt there was no need for her to come along! Way to go Lee!

Monday evening we all went on a night walk, a very strange sensation to be walking through the jungle with only a torch for light. Its even stranger when you turn off the torches, there is not a single bit light and the sounds around you seem all the more intense. Lee´s group spotted a Mouse Apoussom while Rachael´s group found some good sized Tarantulas and heard a Caimen splash into the creek.

Tuesday saw a troop of over 100 Squirrel monkey´s pass through the trees around the lodge, its quite a sight to see them filing one behind the other along the branches and then jumping one aftre the other across the same gap in the trees.

Wednesday evening we went on a frog hunt, this is where you spend an hour along one of the trails searching intensely for frogs. Lee managed to catch an Amazon Sheep Frog and our group caught a total of five, including 3 Basin White Lipped Frogs. We also saw a scorpion, heard a owl and saw a really big spider hanging from its web!

Friday morning Lee was doing observations at New Farm Platform, while Rachael was up in the canopy. Both had really good sessions and spotted a few new species of birds.

The end of the week saw the large Spider monkey, Antonia, Billy the White-fronted Capuchin and Lucas the Brown Capuchin all escape from their enclosure again! We took the opportunity to take quite a few pictures before trying to get them back into their cage. However Antonia is still managing to get out!

Its been a pretty relaxed weekend, Rachael has not been feeling too great and so we just spent it relaxing at the hostel, while Lee has been practising his spanish. We will be heading back to Taricaya later this afternoon but hope to get a few things from the market before we go.

Please feel free to leave comments about what we are doing on this Blog, there should be an option to leave a comment at the bottom of the posting, we would love to hear what you think!

PICTURES!

Here a only a few of the many pictures we have taken so far, we´ll try and get some more of the lodge and us in the near future...

The Jungle! Taken while on the boat to Taricaya down the River Madre de Dios. Its pretty much like this on both sides all the way, nothing but trees and the occasional little hut or eco resort.


This is the view from one of the observation platforms called HOB. It over looks a small swamp and lots of jungle. The bridge you can see is the Canopy Walk Way, it leads up to another observation platform 42m up in the canopy! The walk way is a little wobbly, ascends very steeply and is very high!

Here is Lee holding a Black Caimen, which Alex one of the guides had managed to catch from the boat. It´s done in the dark so we can spot the caimen from the light of a torch shining in their eyes.

Below is a photo of a Squirrel monkey mid air as she jumped from one tree to another, if you look closely she is actually carrying a baby on her back!

Quite an eventful week

Monday morning started early for Rachael with an observation session at HOB. She saw quite a few things including Hoatzin (primitive birds) and a toucan. Lee did trail clearance, where you walk to a part of a path in the jungle and make it a bit wider. It took us quite a while to get there so we only did a very small stretch before it was time for lunch.
A troop of about 20 squirrel monkeys passed through Taricaya and some got so close you could see that some of the monkeys were carrying babies.
There was a bit of exitement when we found that a couple of monkeys that we have in captivity had escaped and were wondering around outside. It took Rachael 1.5hrs to get the Spider Monkey back in and the other had to sleep outside before hunger made him go back in.
Lee was ill again on the 31st but that only lasted 24hrs and is now back to full health, minus a few mozzie bites. Rachael went weeding and picking flowers. In the evening we had a bit of a party to say good bye to a few people that were leaving Taricaya.
On the 1st while we were sewing a fish enclosure one of the Peruvian staff came over and shouted for Daniel (the frog, snake and reptile expert). We found out that they had found a 2.45m Yellow tailed Cribo!!! A type of snake that eats other snakes (not poisonous). It only escaped the bag once.
3rd Lee and Rachael woke at 4.30am to go mistnetting. It was great fun and cought 14 birds! We hadn´t seen any of them before as they were deep forest species. They where all smaller than a black bird, and most about robin sized. We also caught a hummingbird but we looked 3 bird books and couldn´t find it so looks like a new species for the Taricaya reserve. We just have to email the picture to the local ornithologist. Rachael took plenty of photos of most of the birds so should be able to get a good identification.
Lee has been to do observations at NFP and on the way saw a small collection of Peccaries (Sorry about spelling), wild pigs. He followed them for a while until they disappeared. Sorry folkes no photos on that one.
Today we´re off back to HQ and another weeks work. The boat leaves at 3.30 so should be back about 1 hour later.