This is the final post recounting from my perspective a very enjoyable trip to Northern Peru with Mike Catsis, Chris Gooddie, Nick Preston and our excellent guide Juvenal CCahuana Mirano (Juve). With most of the trip behind us we had two sites left to visit, San Lorenzo where Juve had not been before and Aconabikh. Most of the photos are mine but I'm pleased to include some much better ones taken by Chris.
14 July. We left the hotel just before 07:00 for the five minute
journey to the airfield at Yurimaguas. We waited 15 minutes for the office
opposite to open and then we and our baggage were weighed. We crossed the road
to the airport where we paid airport tax and after a short wait were led out to
our charter, a twin-engined six seater Cessna. Two White-winged Swallows were on the tarmac to see us off. Mike sat next to the pilot, Chris,
Nick, Juve and me behind and our bags were in the back. This definitely felt like
a twitch and in many ways it was. We were after White-masked Antbird and it was
the only reason for our visit. No pressure then although there were a few other new birds for
us at San Lorenzo (and rather more than a few for Chris). We took off soon after 07:30 and
headed north, flying low over good looking forest with the occasional small
cleared patch for about 40 minutes before reaching the Maranon River. Here we
touched down on San Lorenzo's gravel runway at 08:10 with small flocks of White-winged Parakeets flying over. It had been a really nice
flight. We collected our bags and Juve’s contact Roger Bedoja (quickly to
become known as Roger the Dodger) was waiting for us with his mototaxi and quickly found us another.
We were taken to La Posada del Apu, one of only two hotels in town and dumped our bags. It had nice rooms but did not serve breakfast. We wandered
around town rather aimlessly without finding anywhere suitable for breakfast before returning to the hotel to buy some cereal bars and watch football while waiting for Roger to reappear. When he did we hired another mototaxi
and in convoy headed out of town on a dirt road heading northeast. After 8 kms we reached
the start of a trail into the forest. It was already 10:30 and quite hot in the
open, somewhat cooler in the forest but with more mosquitoes. We had birded
along the trail for two hours, a female stipple-throated type antwren the best
I had seen, when we encountered a small ant swarm. The few birds attending it
were quite secretive but White-masked, Lunulated and White-cheeked Antbirds
eventually showed to us all with varying degrees of briefness. Early success
with White-masked took the pressure off and we returned to the road after
14:00. Roger had arranged for the mototaxi
that had come out with us to return at 13:30 and fortunately it was still
waiting. We returned to the hotel for a late lunch (I had chips) and a
half hour rest before hiring two mototaxis to return to the same trail, this time without Roger who
had a class to attend. We birded the same area without encountering any more
ants but did see Great Jacamar, male Fasciated Antshrike, female Black-necked
Red Cotinga and Greyish Mourner. We arrived back at the road at 18:15 and a
Short-tailed Nighthawk showed briefly while we waited for the mototaxis we’d asked to return for us. They arrived at 18:30 and we
set off for town but the one Nick, Chris and I were in, which was behind, died half way back. Our driver
fiddled around for a few minutes and managed to start it again but a km further
on it ran out of fuel. We flagged down the next vehicle which took us back to
our hotel although I had an unfounded concern that I wouldn’t be able to find
it in the dark. Chips again!
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| San Lorenzo runway |
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| Nick arriving at San Lorenzo, already looking anxious about White-masked Antbird! |
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| our plane on the only concrete at San Lorenzo airport |
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| Fasciated Antshrike (photo: Chris Gooddie) |
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| Great Jacamar (photo: Chris Gooddie) |
15 July. We were due to leave with Roger at 06:00 but when he had
not appeared by 06:20 Juve phoned him to be told he wasn’t coming. We flagged
down two mototaxis and started back
to the km 8 trail when he appeared. One mototaxi
was dismissed and we were taken to a different site down smaller and smaller
tracks southeast of town to an area of more patchy secondary and primary
forest. It was perhaps not quite so hot but there were still lots of mosquitoes
biting through my shirt. We birded the area until 12:30 encountering another
small ant swarm with attendant White-masked, Lunulated, White-cheeked and
Scale-backed Antbirds. Most improved on their White-masked Antbird views but I only saw it in flight which was
disappointing but had nice views of male Lunulated. We also encountered White-chinned
Jacamar, Amazonian Barred Woodcreeper and Black-banded Crake, although only
Nick saw the later. The earlier mototaxi
we’d asked to come back for us hadn’t turned up and so some of us left with
Roger. We soon saw another mototaxi
and directed them back to the others. We were back at the hotel soon after
13:00 for lunch (more chips for me). It was too hot to go back out immediately
so we relaxed to 15:30 before going just out of town to the pipeline road. We
spent the last hour of the day along a trail leading off it. It was generally quiet but for me the day
was saved by a superb Rufous-capped Nunlet. We also saw Green-tailed
Goldenthroat and male White-shouldered Antbird and heard more Black-banded
Crakes. We returned to town at dusk to find the restaurant was closed and Gunnar
Engblom in residence with a small group. I still had some biscuits and couldn’t
be bothered going out with the others to look for something more substantial.
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| An Afuaninga by the trail at San Lorenzo, apparently harmless |
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| White-chinned Jacamar |
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| Amazonian Barred Woodcreeper (photo: Chris Gooddie) |
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| Lunulated Antbird at San Lorenzo (photo: Chris Gooddie) |
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| Lunulated Antbird, one of my favourites (photo: Chris Gooddie) |
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| Fabricius Sabrewing. It didn't stay still for any longer than the antbirds |
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| Buff-throated Woodcreeper (photo: Chris Gooddie) |
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| Green & Gold and Paradise Tanagers |
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| Green & Gold Tanager |
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| Paradise Tanager |
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| White-shouldered Antbird (photo: Chris Gooddie) |
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| our transport. Mike auditioning for a new job had the relaxed posture off to a tee |
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| rainbow over the San Lorenzo 'pipeline' road |
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| Golden-green Woodpecker at San Lorenzo |
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| Scarlet-crowned Barbet (photo: Chris Gooddie) |
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| Rufous-capped Nunlet |
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| sunset along the 'pipeline' road |
16 July. A boat trip had been organised apparently to some primary
forest on the other side of the Maranon River. I had hoped to return to the km
8 trail, which we had never done first thing, as I felt it provided the best
chance of better views of White-masked Antbird and male Black-necked Red
Cotinga but had been outvoted in my absence. I chose to stick with the others and not return to km
8, even though that trail was easy to find and hard to get lost along, but it
was a decision I soon came to regret. Roger was supposed to meet us at the
hotel at 05:30 but he was late. I decided that if he hadn’t shown by 06:00 I
would go to km 8 anyway but regrettably as it turned out he was only 15 minutes
late. A few distant Band-tailed Nighthawks were hawking low over the river as
we departed soon after dawn and the boat took us up river for 20 minutes to a settlement where
we disembarked to obtain permission to use their trails. The chief was away but
we were led to his house where another villager appeared and gave us the OK.
Back on the boat there were no decent tall trees in sight so it was
disappointing, to say the least, when five minutes upstream we disembarked. We
headed inland along an indistinct muddy trail through poor riverside habitat.
There were few birds in evidence although three White-eared Jacamars in a more
open area were excellent. We again heard a Black-banded Crake but it wasn’t
responsive and the trail soon petered out. On the promise of primary forest elsewhere
we returned to the boat, crossed to the other side of the Maranon River and
almost returned to San Lorenzo before taking a narrow creek for almost 45
minutes. We disembarked and followed a muddy track through a cleared
area to a farm where, with no decent forest in sight, our frustration became
the better of us. Roger told us it was at least another 25 minute walk to the
forest but as it was already 11:20 and very hot we decided to return to San Lorenzo having
wasted enough time already. We were back La Posada del Apu at 13:00, I had
chips and salad for lunch and we relaxed until 15:30 when we returned to km 8.
It was quiet along the trail until we had to turn back when we briefly heard a
distant White-masked Antbird calling. Unfortunately it was unresponsive in the
limited time we had left and after a brief search we quickly returned to the road, keen not to have to
do so in the dark. We arrived soon after 18:00 and after a short wait one of the two mototaxis we had arrived in returned. Nick, Chris and I having had the worse return journey the first evening were taken back in it. Mike and Juve waited for
the other but it did not show and they had to walk almost half way back before
flagging down a ride, finally arriving at La Posada del Apu an hour after us. Not the greatest of
days although as well as the jacamar we had seen Black-tailed Trogon, Black-fronted Nunbird,
Scarlet-crowned Barbet and Great Antshrike.
17 July. We left the hotel soon after 06:00 and flagged down two mototaxis to take us to San Lorenzo
airport where we arrived at 06:20. It was deserted with a padlocked gate and
two Cesnas on the limited tarmac, the two-engined plane we had arrived in and a
slightly smaller one with a single engine. Small flocks of White-winged
Parakeets and one of Cobalt-winged flew over while we were waiting and at 06:45
the pilot arrived and let us in. He started pre-flight checks on the smaller
plane, collected airport tax and loaded our baggage. We were soon on board, a
similar seating arrangement to our outward flight. A steady stream of people
were walking into town along the runway but soon moved off it when our engine
started. We taxied to the end of the stony runway at 07:05 and really sped down
it to quickly take off and fly low over the town. We were at low altitude (lower than coming in) for
the whole flight with superb views of San Lorenzo and the Maranon River,
including a large river island a short distance downstream of the town that
might have been a more interesting destination for a boat trip. We crossed low
over an area of flooded forest as we headed south towards Yurimaguas with
distant Andean foothills to our west. We were soon over what appeared to be
terra firma forest and closer to Yurimaguas we saw the first small clearings
then a dirt road. We landed at 07:40, unloaded and took two mototaxis back to Hostal Akemi for
breakfast. We loaded Juve’s vehicle and drove to Aconabikh with a brief stop or
two on the way. Roadside birding near km 34 produced two Dotted Tanagers and
Ochre-bellied Flycatcher. At Aconabikh we were taken by Hilder to the
hummingbird feeders which were excellent. We saw 12 species including male
Black-bellied Thorntail, Koepcke’s Hermit (for which the reserve is named) and
Gould’s Jewelfront. Later Hilder led us around the trails where we saw Collared
Puffbird, Golden-collared Toucanet, pairs of Spot-winged Antbirds and Musician
Wrens, male Blue-crowned Manakin and Fulvous Shrike Tanager. A Crested Owl
roost was unoccupied and a calling Russet-crowned Crake remained unseen by most
of us although one did run across the track in front of Chris. We left at 17:00
and drove on to Tarapoto where we checked into Hotel Monte Azul. We had decent
rooms and working wi-fi once I’d rebooted my phone (at Chris’s suggestion). We
walked down to the town’s main square and had a decent meal in a reasonably
posh restaurant beside it.
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| Cliff Flycatcher near the Tarapoto Tunnel |
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| Tamarin |
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| Cinereous Tinamou at the unfinished feeder at Aconabikh |
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| viewing portal |
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| Agouti |
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| its visits provided a nice distraction until we realised it was relentlessly hoovering up all the corn |
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| not much left now |
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| this lizard briefly broke the monotony during our vigil |
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| nice views of White-tipped Dove |
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| our Northern Peru route, Trujillo to Tarapoto (photo: Chris Gooddie) |
20 July. Our last day. Juve was driving back to Cuzco, a three day
journey, so we didn’t try any early morning birding and had a late breakfast.
Juve dropped us at Tarapoto airport for our mid-day flight to Lima. He had been
a brilliant guide and we were sad to say goodbye. Juve was slowly driving back to Cuzco and it would have been
great to go with him birding along the way. Hopefully another time. Our flight
to Lima was on time but we arrived there to find our final leg, British Airways
to Gatwick, was showing as delayed. We had an eight hour wait anyway having decided not to risk booking a later flight from Tarapoto, and now it was likely to be nearer 12.
We had been very fortunate that the trip had gone so smoothly, even the mud
at Plataforma hadn’t caused real problems, but wouldn’t have bet on BA being
the least reliable carrier (even Southern Rail had been on time). We were given a meal
voucher and finally departed before midnight. The delay we were told very
apologetically was the knock-on effect of bad weather in Chicago two days
earlier. To make matters worse it was an old plane and its entertainment system had stopped working
on the way in from Gatwick although some in-flight rebooting eventually allowed a handful of
films to be seen on a loop. We made up some time and Nick returned to Shoreham
with me where we arrived mid evening, Megan meeting us at the station.
Acknowledgements. I've copied the first part of this pretty much from Mike and I agree with him totally. Without the help of local people it is
impossible for visiting birders to be successful in the limited time they
usually have at their disposal, and we were no different. We would like to
thank the following people for their help in accessing habitat or private
reserves, in providing information on site, in guiding us around a particular
reserve or in showing us particular species:
Lino Rico at Quebrada El Limon who has
played a major role in monitoring and protecting the population of White-winged
Guans there, Kenny Rodriguez and Wilmer Montenegro at Fundacion Alto Nieva,
Norbil Becerra at the Reserva Arena Blanca, Darwin Vega who drove us fearlessly and expertly up to Plataforma and Eugenio and Olga and their family who guided us and looked after us there, Roger Bedoja at San Lorenzo and Hilder Delgado at Reserva
Aconabikh.
None of this would have been possible without Juvenal Ccahuana Mirano who arranged for all of the above to help us on top of him expertly guiding us throughout. His knowledge of the Northern Peru birding sights was excellent, more so as he lives in Cuzco so they are by no means local. He put on a brilliant trip for us with for example field breakfasts maximising our birding time. He was good humoured throughout (despite the occasional grumpiness from us and having his camping gas canister and breakfast table stolen from the roof of the vehicle while left unattended during separate short stops). He provided an excellent and well organised service which I would thoroughly recommend to anyone. The only slight caveat being it would help if someone on the trip had basic Spanish but you can't have everything.
Finally I would like to thank Mike for arranging the trip, at least from our end, and inviting me on it. At a time I should add when we'd never met. As it turned out it was our third trip together and I certainly hope its not the last. Nick tells me it was about the 30th trip we had done together so no issues there. Chris was an excellent companion too. He and particularly Mike's knowledge of vocalisations was impressive as was Chris being able to photograph a distant flycatcher or woodcreeper and analyse the images later to firm up an identification. Thanks too to Chris for allowing me to include his images which add much to the blog. Thanks guys, until next time ...
