Thursday, 10 July 2025

Peru - Day 23; Los Amigos Biological Station

   Once again I awoke at 05:10 to walk trail 10 in the dark. I assumed that the previous nights mist-nets set up for catching bats would have been taken down, but I was wrong. So much of the walk was spent dodging furled up nets, whilst the walk back I encountered the bird ringing team opening them up, so had to dodge them as well. In terms of nocturnal activity, there was not much to report but in the early morning light I encountered a group of Bolivian Squirrel Monkeys, as well as two lifers with Grey Antbird and Flammulated Pygmy-Tyrant. 

  After breakfast we took the same trail as the previous evening, hoping to explore the distant varzea forest. We started well on trail 19, with another new Tinamou for me with Great Tinamou, which waddled across the path in front of us. Once on to trail 25 I added another new species with Purple-throated Fruitcrow; at least four birds in the canopy overhead and apparently displaying to a female. On the primate front there was another new species with a nice group of Humbolts White-fronted Capuchin, as well as the usual Peruvian Spider Monkeys and Tufted Capuchins. But the highlight on the mammal front was a Collared Peccary, when a single individual emerged from the foliage, stood on the trail staring at us, and then crossed and descended the slope!

  Once we descended the slope to the trail 11, trail 31 and trail 26 the activity seemed to drop off. There were still a few nice birds to be found, such as Common Scale-backed Antbird, and we flushed a group of five Starred Wood-Quail, but otherwise little. We found a short trail to the Los Amigos river and from there we had some excellent views od a pair of Caiman, as well as both Drab Water Tyrant and a Sunbittern, the former being new for me. After that we returned to the camp for lunch. 

  After the afternoon siesta we completed one final loop through the forest to try pick up some final species. The loop started on trail 1, followed by trail 20, then trail 8 and finally returning to camp on trail 10. The walk started in excellent fashion we I spotted three White-throated Jacamar in a tree not far along trail 1. Although always distant, it was great to finally catch up with this localized species. However it quickly quietened down, with a White-fronted Nunbird being the only other bird of note, and we failed to see much else. A few rarer species that were known to be at locations along this trail failed to respond, and once we reached trail 10 the bat researchers were already opening their nets. 

  At night we set off on what was the final night walk, exploring the varzea forest around trail 15, which had been my plan the previous night before the Ocelot appeared and I considered my work done. This time there was no spectacular animal encounter but there were still goodies to be found with two Black-faced Night Monkeys which were mobile in the canopy, and best of all; a Kinkajou. On the walk back to the camp a Black-banded Owl started calling and with the thermal it was easy to find sat in the canopy. Sadly it was too distant for amazing pictures, but a great way to round off our last night walk at Los Amigos.#

No comments:

Post a Comment