Our only full day at Chunco Lodge saw us set off in the dark at 04:30, in order to make it upriver to the Macaw clay lick in time for dawn. We suffered something of a setback with the river being extremely foggy early morning meaning we could not scan for mammals. Fortunately with the thermal I could still do some searching and spotted several Capybara in the darkness.
The clay lick was busy with Blue-headed Parrots
along with a few Yellow-fronted Amazon and Mealy Amazon Parrots. There was also
a single Orange-cheeked Parrot on the clay, my first new species of the day.
The Macaws themselves arrived later and did not seem so interested in the clay,
more lingering in the trees above. Three species were in attendance; Blue-and-yellow,
Red-and-green and Scarlet all were present. There were also brief appeareances
from two more parrot species, Cobolt-winged Parakeet and White-bellied Parrot,
both of which were new for me.
The journey back down the river was a little
more interesting, with a daylight Capybara and a few Spectacled Caiman sunning themselves.
Birdlife was also not bad, the highlight being a pair of Black Skimmers
roosting on a sandbank, alongside two Yellow-billed Terns. Otherwise it was
mostly commoner species, with King Vulture and Swallow-winged Puffbird making
up a tidy backup cast.
In the afternoon, after a siesta and lunch,
we went for a walk into the forest behind the lodge. Unsurprisingly there was
limited bird action during the hot and humid afternoon, but there were a few
standout species. The highlight was a pair of Pale-winged Trumpeters, but they
sadly ran away before I could get any photos. White-fronted Nunbird was another
new species for me, while Screaming Piha and Golden-collared Toucanet made up
the other notable species.
The evening night walk was reasonable, with a
rabbit and a bat being the mammals, but a Goeldis Antbird and a Myrmotherula
Antwren made for an excellent pair of birds, even if the latter could not be identified
fully to species.
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