Here Come The Rain Drops!
Well, we are really and truly into the wet season here now. We´ve had tremedously heavy rainfall nearly every day, the creek has risen over the bridge and the river is running really fast and carrying lots of debris, and I don´t just mean small branches, there are whole trees floating down river too!!! With the rainy season the sounds in the jungle have subtly changed and increased in volume, we realised this is due to frogs! They have come to the creek and other water ways to breed and are constantly calling for mates, its a wonderful symphony of sounds...
Monday was a slow day for us, Lee and I headed back into town in order to check our flight directly to New Zealand had been sorted. Fortunately our travel agent had already sent us an email so there was no need to ring her, this meant we had the whole day free in town as we were waiting for Staurt to arrive back from Cusco on the plane. (He spends a week at Taricaya and a week in Cusco). Mid afternoon and the rain thundered down! It got so bad Staurt´s plane was diverted back to Cusco and didn´t arrive untill 4.30pm, by this time it was too late to head back to Taricaya and so we had a free nights stay in Peurto.
Early Tuesday morning we headed for the boat to go back to Taricaya, with us we brought a new animal for the release programme, a juvenile White Bellied Parrot. Arriving back at Taricaya at about 9.45am we helped some of the other volunteers feed the other animals at the lodge and then put some new branches in the enclosure where the new parrot would go.
That afternoon, after the heavy rains had done their bit, we both went to do observations, Lee was at New Farm Platform, while Rachael went to HOB. Lee saw numerous birds again, including a Double-toothed Kite, a new species for him! Although Rachael didn´t see as many types of birds she did spot a Gibba Toad-headed Turtle and a BLACK CAIMEN in the swamp below the HOB platform. This is the first time either opf us seen a Black Caimen (it turns out the Black Caimen we thought we had caught on the first caimen hunt we did was actually a young White, or Spectacled Caimen)
Arriving back at the lodge Rachael found Lee half way up a tree, cutting down a termites nest to feed to the young anteater! He is quite the Jungle Jim now!
Wednesday morning Lee headed to New Farm to help feed the animals there, rachael went on a walk with Alex and James. While carrying out duties at New Farm, Lee managed to catch a small toad and took it up to the platform to show Daniel (our reptile and amphibian expert) it turned out to be a young Cane Toad, but while he was there Daniel asked him to help identify a few birds they were struggling with. One turned to be a species Lee had never seen!
While Lee was busy helping people identify new birds at New Farm, Rachael had a really good walk: as well as seeing a tiny tiny hummingbird, called a Reddish Hermit, we spotted over 40 South American Coati´s in one tall tree! After the walk Rachael slipped across the river to Enrique´s in order to pick up a suprise for Lee.... =0)
After breakfast Lee went clearing trails further into the reserve, a while its not the most enjoyable of tasks he did manage to see some Brown Capuchin monkeys, which are a little more difficult to see on this side of the river.
Rachael was doing lodge maintenance, one her favourite jobs as you get to go in with all the animals, and this week she got to feed the jaguar as well. Once the animals were all fed the next task was to place some more branches in the Saddlebacked Tamarin enclosure to encourage them to keep off the floor, as is their natural behaviour. They are very inquisitive little chaps and kept coming over to investigate what she was doing, but they seemed to really enjoy the new array of branches. Next the same task needed to be done in the Ocelot enclosure, now going in here Rachael does not mind at all, the Ocelot is her favourite animal! In between hauling in and hammering large logs into place, she also gave the Ocelot lots of attention. The Ocelot is very friendly, chewing at Rachael´s clothes and playfully taking her hand in its mouth and jumping on her legs, biting but never breaking skin. (Some one will definately have to check Rachael´s luggage before she leaves!!!)
That afternoon Lee was at HOB, where he spotted a Fasciated Antskrike, which turned out to be a new species for Taricaya!! Rachael was working on the new monkey enclosure, today´s task was to start nailing the wire onto the roof. Climbing on the frame work and perching on the planks placed across the gaps, she felt like a monkey herself!
In the evening we all went on a frog hunt, Lee´s group saw 3 frog of which Lee was the only one that managed to catch one! Rachael was with Alex and Julie, and while Rachael spotted one frog which Alex managed to catch it promptly jumped straight back out of the bag and escaped! However the walk was still really good, both of us saw lots of tarantulas and Rachael´s group spotted 2 Caimen in the swamp.
Thursday morning it was Lee´s turn to do lodge maintenance and feed all the animals, they also placed some fresh sawdust down in the parakeet enclosure. Rachael was helping to carry large planks to New Farm in order to repair the fence around the goat field. Not as difficult as it sounds since we brought Nando the donkey down the trail to carry the planks there on his cart so we only had to carry them across the creek. While we were unloading we saw the resident family of Dusky Titi Monkeys that are hanging around New Farm, there are five members in the group including a mother and baby and one with a shortened tail, which is how we know its the same group we are seeing.
That afternoon Lee was once again promoted to a member of staff and took Rachael, James and Molly up to Canopy Walk Way for observations, the first time we both have been up at canopy doing observations together! Although it was quite quiet up there the sighting of the afternoon had to be the one Blue and Yellow Macaw that flew over, very good sighting and a beautiful bird!
Friday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE!!!!
First task for the birthday boy was an early morning observation session at his faviourite platrform, New Farm. An excellent morning with 23 species of bird seen including a Masked Tityra, Lee´s 150th bird since arriving in Peru! (Rachael only has 3 to go to reach this =0)
Rachael was on another early morning walk, this time with Daniel and Liam, who had a specific place in mind he wanted to go. First we went to the bottom of the Canopy tree, its massive! Then Liam led us along a trail along a depression in the ground to a small glade in the forest. It was beautiful, though was caught Rachael´s eye was the hundreds of orange, black and yellow butterflies that were clinging to small white flowers. Out of the glade we followed the trail back towards the lodge, as we were walking we suddenly heard, very loudly and very close a Screaming Piha and so we stopped to see if we could find it... although always heard throughout the jungle Screaming Piha´s are notoriously difficult to see, even Nando (the guy who runs Taricaya) as only ever managed to spot 4. Daniel and Rachael headed off the trail to try and find the bird and after five minutes searching solidly...there it was, a small drab, grey flycatcher with the fantastic call (sounds a little like a wolf whistle), the Screaming Piha!
After breakfast both of us went with Daniel to move one of the reptile traps at New Farm to a new location. Once we had found a suitable new location, we dismantled the old trap, collected the buckets and rolled up the plastic sheeting. At the new site we rolled out the plastic, staked it to the ground and dug some new holes for the buckets.
Back at the lodge, after lunch, we both joined in with a game of football. It was really good fun particularly as half way through the heavens opened and it started to pour down! We were soaked but it was great fun!
Afternoon activity was cutting flowers, for both us, there were not too many to cut today as there is a large order coming in next week.
That evening Rachael suprised Lee with a birthday present, quite hard to buy one without him finding out! but she´d managed to slip over to Enriques and buy a really cool, tribal blow spear! Zander and Molly then brought out a suprise cake, which we all enjoyed with custard and chocolate flakes!!
Our final weekend in Peurto Maldonado was quite quiet, although we did manage to find somewhere else other than the pizza place to eat dinner...
Right so here we go, into our final week at Taricaya....
Well, we are really and truly into the wet season here now. We´ve had tremedously heavy rainfall nearly every day, the creek has risen over the bridge and the river is running really fast and carrying lots of debris, and I don´t just mean small branches, there are whole trees floating down river too!!! With the rainy season the sounds in the jungle have subtly changed and increased in volume, we realised this is due to frogs! They have come to the creek and other water ways to breed and are constantly calling for mates, its a wonderful symphony of sounds...
Monday was a slow day for us, Lee and I headed back into town in order to check our flight directly to New Zealand had been sorted. Fortunately our travel agent had already sent us an email so there was no need to ring her, this meant we had the whole day free in town as we were waiting for Staurt to arrive back from Cusco on the plane. (He spends a week at Taricaya and a week in Cusco). Mid afternoon and the rain thundered down! It got so bad Staurt´s plane was diverted back to Cusco and didn´t arrive untill 4.30pm, by this time it was too late to head back to Taricaya and so we had a free nights stay in Peurto.
Early Tuesday morning we headed for the boat to go back to Taricaya, with us we brought a new animal for the release programme, a juvenile White Bellied Parrot. Arriving back at Taricaya at about 9.45am we helped some of the other volunteers feed the other animals at the lodge and then put some new branches in the enclosure where the new parrot would go.
That afternoon, after the heavy rains had done their bit, we both went to do observations, Lee was at New Farm Platform, while Rachael went to HOB. Lee saw numerous birds again, including a Double-toothed Kite, a new species for him! Although Rachael didn´t see as many types of birds she did spot a Gibba Toad-headed Turtle and a BLACK CAIMEN in the swamp below the HOB platform. This is the first time either opf us seen a Black Caimen (it turns out the Black Caimen we thought we had caught on the first caimen hunt we did was actually a young White, or Spectacled Caimen)
Arriving back at the lodge Rachael found Lee half way up a tree, cutting down a termites nest to feed to the young anteater! He is quite the Jungle Jim now!
Wednesday morning Lee headed to New Farm to help feed the animals there, rachael went on a walk with Alex and James. While carrying out duties at New Farm, Lee managed to catch a small toad and took it up to the platform to show Daniel (our reptile and amphibian expert) it turned out to be a young Cane Toad, but while he was there Daniel asked him to help identify a few birds they were struggling with. One turned to be a species Lee had never seen!
While Lee was busy helping people identify new birds at New Farm, Rachael had a really good walk: as well as seeing a tiny tiny hummingbird, called a Reddish Hermit, we spotted over 40 South American Coati´s in one tall tree! After the walk Rachael slipped across the river to Enrique´s in order to pick up a suprise for Lee.... =0)
After breakfast Lee went clearing trails further into the reserve, a while its not the most enjoyable of tasks he did manage to see some Brown Capuchin monkeys, which are a little more difficult to see on this side of the river.
Rachael was doing lodge maintenance, one her favourite jobs as you get to go in with all the animals, and this week she got to feed the jaguar as well. Once the animals were all fed the next task was to place some more branches in the Saddlebacked Tamarin enclosure to encourage them to keep off the floor, as is their natural behaviour. They are very inquisitive little chaps and kept coming over to investigate what she was doing, but they seemed to really enjoy the new array of branches. Next the same task needed to be done in the Ocelot enclosure, now going in here Rachael does not mind at all, the Ocelot is her favourite animal! In between hauling in and hammering large logs into place, she also gave the Ocelot lots of attention. The Ocelot is very friendly, chewing at Rachael´s clothes and playfully taking her hand in its mouth and jumping on her legs, biting but never breaking skin. (Some one will definately have to check Rachael´s luggage before she leaves!!!)
That afternoon Lee was at HOB, where he spotted a Fasciated Antskrike, which turned out to be a new species for Taricaya!! Rachael was working on the new monkey enclosure, today´s task was to start nailing the wire onto the roof. Climbing on the frame work and perching on the planks placed across the gaps, she felt like a monkey herself!
In the evening we all went on a frog hunt, Lee´s group saw 3 frog of which Lee was the only one that managed to catch one! Rachael was with Alex and Julie, and while Rachael spotted one frog which Alex managed to catch it promptly jumped straight back out of the bag and escaped! However the walk was still really good, both of us saw lots of tarantulas and Rachael´s group spotted 2 Caimen in the swamp.
Thursday morning it was Lee´s turn to do lodge maintenance and feed all the animals, they also placed some fresh sawdust down in the parakeet enclosure. Rachael was helping to carry large planks to New Farm in order to repair the fence around the goat field. Not as difficult as it sounds since we brought Nando the donkey down the trail to carry the planks there on his cart so we only had to carry them across the creek. While we were unloading we saw the resident family of Dusky Titi Monkeys that are hanging around New Farm, there are five members in the group including a mother and baby and one with a shortened tail, which is how we know its the same group we are seeing.
That afternoon Lee was once again promoted to a member of staff and took Rachael, James and Molly up to Canopy Walk Way for observations, the first time we both have been up at canopy doing observations together! Although it was quite quiet up there the sighting of the afternoon had to be the one Blue and Yellow Macaw that flew over, very good sighting and a beautiful bird!
Friday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE!!!!
First task for the birthday boy was an early morning observation session at his faviourite platrform, New Farm. An excellent morning with 23 species of bird seen including a Masked Tityra, Lee´s 150th bird since arriving in Peru! (Rachael only has 3 to go to reach this =0)
Rachael was on another early morning walk, this time with Daniel and Liam, who had a specific place in mind he wanted to go. First we went to the bottom of the Canopy tree, its massive! Then Liam led us along a trail along a depression in the ground to a small glade in the forest. It was beautiful, though was caught Rachael´s eye was the hundreds of orange, black and yellow butterflies that were clinging to small white flowers. Out of the glade we followed the trail back towards the lodge, as we were walking we suddenly heard, very loudly and very close a Screaming Piha and so we stopped to see if we could find it... although always heard throughout the jungle Screaming Piha´s are notoriously difficult to see, even Nando (the guy who runs Taricaya) as only ever managed to spot 4. Daniel and Rachael headed off the trail to try and find the bird and after five minutes searching solidly...there it was, a small drab, grey flycatcher with the fantastic call (sounds a little like a wolf whistle), the Screaming Piha!
After breakfast both of us went with Daniel to move one of the reptile traps at New Farm to a new location. Once we had found a suitable new location, we dismantled the old trap, collected the buckets and rolled up the plastic sheeting. At the new site we rolled out the plastic, staked it to the ground and dug some new holes for the buckets.
Back at the lodge, after lunch, we both joined in with a game of football. It was really good fun particularly as half way through the heavens opened and it started to pour down! We were soaked but it was great fun!
Afternoon activity was cutting flowers, for both us, there were not too many to cut today as there is a large order coming in next week.
That evening Rachael suprised Lee with a birthday present, quite hard to buy one without him finding out! but she´d managed to slip over to Enriques and buy a really cool, tribal blow spear! Zander and Molly then brought out a suprise cake, which we all enjoyed with custard and chocolate flakes!!
Our final weekend in Peurto Maldonado was quite quiet, although we did manage to find somewhere else other than the pizza place to eat dinner...
Right so here we go, into our final week at Taricaya....
posted by Lee Barber at
8:38 AM
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