My two nights at the Explorama Lodge were now completed, so after a nice early breakfast at 05:30, we piled into the boat and headed downriver towards the Napo River. Once there, we turned upstream and headed towards the next lodge, the ExplorNapo Lodge where I would spend another two nights before returning to Iquitos.
On the way we stopped off at an island called San Alejandro where we had another chance to pick up on some species we had so far missed. This plan worked well, and it did not take us long to track down the Brownish Elaenia in the trees here. A nice additional bird was the Olive-spotted Hummingbird, which I had not realized was a target until a conversation with Luis earlier in the morning. Other nice birds on the island included two Pied Plover and a Pectoral Sandpiper, although distant for any nice photos.
We arrived at the ExplorNapo lodge at around 08:30, to find it full of guests. Fortunately after a short break we headed off into the trails and found ourselves some peace. The cooler weather from the previous days had already passed, and as such the heat of the mid morning was already taking its toll on the birdlife. That said, we still managed some nice species on the walk, including new species for me with Yellow-billed Jacamar, Black-and-white Tody-Flycatcher and Slate-coloured Antbird, as well as other goodies such as Sooty Antbird and Plain-throated Antwren.
Towards the end of the walk we found a very special bird for me, in the Wire-tailed Manakin. This species was the bird that introduced me to South American birds, whilst watching the 2000 BBC documentary ‘Andes to Amazon’ which featured the birds erratic and comical lek. Sadly I did not get to witness the lekking behaviour today but it was still nice to see two males together, presumably waiting for the opportune moment to begin their lek, just not when we were around.
As a nice addition to the walk, we also had two species of Monkey. The first was the unexpectedly stunning Yellow-handed Titi, when we stumbled across and an adult and well grown juvenile together just above the trail. Shortly after this there was a really nice bonus when we saw two Saki monkeys high in the canopy above the trail. Although they quickly moved away, they stopped long enough to get some nice pictures. Once back at the lodge the Squirrel Monkeys from the previous days put on an excellent show, although it was strange to see them begging for tourists to throw bananas at them…
After lunch we travelled across the Napo to Yarina Lake where we spent the hot hours of the afternoon. Luis had some species he wanted to try during this time and the plan worked well, with two new birds for me showing very well; Yellow-crowned Elaenia and Dot-backed Antbird. There was also a nice Pygmy Antwren and two White-eared Jacamar which made for a pleasant start to our afternoon birding.
After a short break back at the lodge, we set off again. This time we walked the main trail to the canopy tower at the ACTS lodge, not far from the ExplorNapo Lodge which I was staying at. The forest was fairly quiet, as you would expect from this time in the afternoon, but there was an excellent bonus bird for us when a flock of Band-tailed Cacique flew through calling loudly. They stopped occasionally in the open are from which we were watching, but we were always looking up at them, and they were always on the move.
The canopy tower at the ACTS is actually a canopy walkway, composed of 14 platforms that are connected by bridges. The main platform that we visited during the afternoon was platform six, and from here I enjoyed several new birds. White-necked Puffbird started me off, followed by Opal-crowned Tanager and then Paradise Jacamar. In addition there was a new sloth species for me here with the two-toed sloth from the north of the Amazon. It was sleeping almost directly below one of the bridges.
Our plan was to stay in the canopy walkway until well after dark, so that we could concentrate on the most important target of my stay here; the Nocturnal Curassow. Sadly, despite waiting until 22:00, the bird did not call and if it does not call then it is nearly impossible to find. The forest was generally silent for birds, with only a distant singing Crested Owl to break the silence. For mammals however it was excellent. First I had the same Two-toed Sloth moving around rather than sleeping, then we saw a Bicolor-spined Porcupine and as we were leaving there was a Southern Opossum. Frustratingly there were several other medium-sized mammals that were just too quick to be identified. The same problem persisted on the boat back, with several promising looking heat signatures, eventually producing no definite IDs on any mammals.
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