A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush, or in This Case, a Mist Net

One of the focuses of our work in the Amazon was birds. I will readily admit, I am not very knowledgeable about birds. I like to observe them, but not necessarily touch them. However, on this trip I had an open mind and was ready to learn. I learned a lot about birds in just a week...more than I ever thought I could.


We were fortunate to have Ursula as one of our professors, and I was amazed at the amount of knowledge she had about birds. With a PhD in Ornithology, she should know a lot, but I enjoyed how the information just seemed to roll right off of her. She was excited about birds and it genuinely showed. I don't think she succeed in turning me into a "bird nerd," but I did learn a lot from her.


One of the first things we did on this trip was to set up some mist nets. A mist net is a long net that is used to catch birds. The birds can't see the net, so they fly right into it and get caught. It doesn't hurt the bird, but the person removing the bird does have to be careful. Only Ursula, Jose (our other professor), and Raoul (one of the workers at CECCOT) removed the birds from the nets. The rest of us just watched.


We did get to help set up the nets, though, and then about every 45 minutes we went to check them. Amazingly, we did catch a few birds (and a bat...see my earlier post about bats). Once a bird was caught in the net, a knowledgeable person would remove it and place it in a special bag. Ursula assured us that the birds were fine in the bags and that being in the bags actually helped to calm the birds down. We then took the birds back up to the main lodge to be tagged.


The tagging process actually entailed several things. It was more than just tagging. The bird was weighed and measured. Measuring involved the length of the beak, the legs, and the wings. The colors and markings of the bird were also observed. The eventual goal was to be able to identify the type of bird. Ursula knew many of the birds, but the rest of us typically had to look them up in a book. The Birds of Peru was the book we used to try and identify the birds. Sometimes it was very difficult because many of the birds looked very similar with just slight differences in appearance. After all the observations were made and noted, tags were placed on the bird's legs. The tags were very tiny. They had to be because birds don't weigh very much. To place heavy tags on the birds would greatly interfere with their ability to do what they need to do in order to survive.


After the tags were on, the bird was ready to be released. The bird was held in such a way that it could simply fly away when it was ready. We were told not to give the bird a toss or a push because some of the birds who had been struggling during the tagging process might be weakened. If we tossed them, they could fall to the ground and be injured. Most of the birds we tagged were happy to get away from us. No injured birds during these tagging sessions!


Another thing we did was to listen to birds and try to identify them by their calls. I would like to say that I got really good at doing it, but that would be an exaggeration. By the end of the trip I could pick out about five birds every time by their calls. At the start of the trip, I couldn't do any, so I would consider this some success. Some of the birds I could identify by call at the end of the trip were the oropendola and the macaws. The oropendola also does a really cool "show." (Watch for a video that I will post later.) The macaws are very loud, and I thought their calls were quite easy to identify.

All in all, I do not think I will ever be a bird expert, or a "bird nerd," as Ursula liked to say. However, I feel pretty pleased with the amount of knowledge I now possess about the birds of Peru. Like a good student, I learned something! It's amazing how much there still is to know about this wonderful world.

Refugio Amazonas...A Little Slice of Paradise

One of the places we stayed in the rainforest was Refugio Amazonas. I would best describe this as a "jungle lodge," and even though it was in the middle of the rainforest and there wasn't electricity for most of the day, it was a great place to stay. I think it probably felt especially nice because we had just come from three days of no running water, flushing toilets, or electricity of any kind.

We had to take boats to get to Refugio, and it was about a two hour boat ride. I loved the time we spent in the boat. The sun was shining and we were moving quickly enough that there was a great breeze which kept us all cool. It was very refreshing. When we got to Refugio, we had to walk the trail for about ten minutes to get to the lodge. Fortunately, we did not have to carry our own suitcases because the staff took them to the lodge for us. At first I thought they carried them by hand, but later I saw that they had carts and a pulley system. Very sneaky!

When we came out of the forest, there was the lodge rising up in front of us. It was two stories tall and it looked like a little slice of Heaven to me. As we came in the front, they handed us each a washcloth that was cool and wet because it had been kept in the refrigerator. I laid the whole thing across my face and just left it there for a few minutes. I'm not sure if I've ever felt anything so refreshing and wonderful in my whole life. It was almost as good as air conditioning. They also had juice for us to drink. Delightful!

Our rooms were big and beautiful. One whole wall was open to the forest, but it just seemed so peaceful and serene. I was happy to have some creature comforts...a bathroom with running water and a flushing toilet. An actual shower with nice big towels to go along with it. The water was cold, but after being so hot all the time, it felt really refreshing. The beds were comfortable and had the requisite mosquito netting. The staff came and set up the netting while we were at dinner. This was definitely my style of life.

One night we went out on a caiman search. This was fun. We got back into the boats and cruised up and down the shore looking for caiman. (I've included a picture of a caiman that I took during the day so that you can see what they look like. I couldn't really take good pictures like that at night.) The guides would shine lights along the riverbank trying to get reflections from their eyes. We really only saw one, but it was still fun to look.

When we got back to shore, some of us stayed on the beach for awhile. We just sat and listened to the sounds of the forest. I thought that this was one of the best moments of the trip. We could hear frogs and insects, and it was very peaceful . The moon was full, so even though the rest of the forest was very dark, we had a lot of light. The night sky looks different in the southern hemisphere than it does in the northern hemisphere. The view of the moon is not the same...there's no "man in the moon," and there are other constellations that what we're used to seeing in the north. After awhile, I laid back on the sand and just watched the moon and stars and listened to all the animals.  The sounds of the forest were so soothing, I could have stayed there all night.

Several nights later I was walking back to my room. Most other people were already asleep, so it was very quiet. Again, the moon was bright, and it was a surreal moment to stand on the walkway in the moonlight with nothing else but the sounds of the forest. I felt very small in a big world

that night.

Bats...Why Did It Have to be Bats?

Of all the things in this world that I am afraid of, bats are pretty close to the top of the list. So, I should have known that I would have some bat encounters on this trip. I think in the back of my mind, I knew that I would have to deal with this bat fear of mine. I guess I was hoping that wouldn't be the case. Wrong!


The first place we stayed, CECCOT, was fairly rustic. There was no running water, no electricity, no flushing toilets, and the cabins were all open air. This would not have bothered me too much except for the bats. There were bats roosting in just about every cabin. They were definitely roosting in mine, and when I realized this, I knew it was going to be a long three days.

When I first went into the cabin and saw bats flying around, I turned right around and ran back out. It was daytime! Why were there bats flying around during the day? Bats are nocturnal. I guess we must have disturbed these sleeping bats, and now they decided that flying around in the cabin would be a good thing. They seemed to really like hanging out in the bathroom part of the cabin, so I took the bed farthest from the bathroom. Thank goodness for my cabin-mates, Julie and Sue. I called them my "bat buddies." They helped shield me from bats as best they could. Bless them. I don't know if I would have survived without them.

So, anyway, I was particularly annoyed by these bats because they didn't just fly around at the ceiling. Oh, no. They liked to fly back and forth under our beds, too. There were several times that I was standing by my bed, and I could feel the wind on my legs that was created by their wings as they flew back and forth. That was nearly enough to send me into a panic attack. Wind on my legs from bat wings ...are you kidding me??

If I had to go back to the cabin by myself, I usually felt some trepidation about that because of the bats. So, I would stand at the door and slowly open it to peek in and see if any bats were on the move. If they weren't flying, then I felt okay to go in. If they were flying, then it was a toss up. Sometimes I just ran in, grabbed my things, and ran out. There were a few times that I just didn't go in at all. I decided that whatever it was that I needed, I wasn't that desperate for it after all. I will admit that there was more than one occasion when I didn't think the bats were around, I went into the cabin, they started to fly, and I went running right back out the door. I don't think anyone ever saw me do that, but if they had, I'm sure they would have gotten a pretty good laugh over it.

Speaking of laughing, I really didn't admit this fear to the entire group until the end of the trip. My bat buddies knew, of course, and there were several other people to whom I confessed my fear, but overall I tried not to broadcast it. I didn't want people to laugh at me or think I was a wimp. It's amazing how peer pressure works, even for adults. By the end of the trip, we had to share with the group what one of our challenges had been, and mine was the bats. I'm sure some of people thought it was ridiculous, but for me it was a big deal. It's still a big deal to me, but it was a fear I had to deal with. I couldn't ignore it on this trip.

The best time to be in the cabin was right after night had fallen because the bats weren't in the cabin at that time. We liked to say, "They were out for dinner." It was great, though. That was when I would take a shower or do anything I needed to do in the cabin because I knew it was a "bat free" time. That's not to say I never ran into them after dark. I could hear them flying around during the night as they were eating insects. I am very thankful that we slept under mosquito nets. The safety of the net, plus the fact that I slept with earplugs in, helped me get a good night's sleep. The earplugs served really two purposes: one, I couldn't hear the bats as well, and two, I couldn't hear other people who snored. Since every cabin was open-air, there was virtually no privacy in terms of sound. I could hear snoring from other cabins, so the earplugs were a lifesaver in more ways than one.

The last two places we stayed, Refugio Amazonas and the Tambopata Research Center, were not quite as bad in terms of bats. They had a type of netting in the ceilings that kept the bats from roosting up there, so the only time I came in contact with bats was if they were flying around at night. After CECCOT, I felt that I could handle the nighttime flying and feeding. There was one night, though, that I woke up at about 3:00 a.m. to loud screeching...it was the bats. I even heard them with my earplugs in. Talk about the stuff of nightmares (at least for me). What could I do, though? Nothing. I put the pillow over my head and went back to sleep. That's when I knew that, while I still wasn't fond of bats, I had come a long way in just a few short days. I was way out of my comfort zone, but I was surviving.

(Thanks to my friend Dave for sharing the picture of the bats roosting on the ceiling!)

Hanging Out at the Clay Lick...Again (Day #2)

After the first great visit to the clay lick, we got set to do it all over again on the next day. This time, though, my group would get to stay longer and help the researchers count birds. I was all for this because it meant avoiding another long hike. By long hike I mean, four hours. This was how long we hiked after the first day at the clay luck, and frankly, it was a bit much for me. I started calling that experience the "Four Hour Death March." That's what it felt like after waking up at 4:00 a.m., watching birds at the clay lick, and then hiking for four hours in those rubber boots. I was spent!


Anyway, so I was looking forward to extra time at the clay lick since it meant that I wouldn't have to take another four hour hike. I was also laughing with some mean-spirited glee at my friends who missed the four hour hike on the previous day, but would probably have to take it today. I know, that wasn't nice, but sometimes misery loves company.


Since we were assisting the researchers, we got to go to a different viewing place than the rest of our colleagues. We also got "breakfast on the go," which basically consisted of scrambled eggs in a plastic container. That is exactly why I always travel with a stash of granola bars. They've saved the day more than once! We had our little aluminum folding chairs and we hunkered down again to wait for the birds.


The birds decided to go to a different part of the clay lick than where they had been on the previous day. This worked out really well for us because they were closer to where we were sitting. We got some pretty good views of them, and we could see them really well with the telescope. As they did on the previous day, it seemed like they all just left at once. Some were still perching in nearby trees, but they weren't at the clay lick anymore.

It was about that time that the researchers left and gave us the job of counting birds. Every five minutes we were supposed to write down how many birds were at the lick. It was our job to do this for about the next three hours. We also were to make some other observations of the birds that were perched in the trees and describe what exactly they were doing.

So, once we had the directions and the researchers were gone, we were ready to do our jobs. There was only one problem...there weren't any more birds at the clay lick. For three hours there weren't any more birds at the clay lick! Wow, talk about boring. If the birds would've been there, it would've been great. But it was like a graveyard. So, we sat. And we watched. And we waited. And that was about it. 

To make matters worse, the bugs were trying to munch on us like crazy. We even resorted to wearing mosquito net hats for a little while. I don't think I have ever worn a more ridiculous outfit in my life: convertible pants, knee-high rubber boots, long sleeved shirt, and a mosquito net hat. I'm sure that my students would have rolled with laughter if they'd seen me. It doesn't get much funnier than that! Just look at the picture and you'll see what I mean.

While we were waiting for the birds and swatting away mosquitoes, I took the opportunity to get caught up on my journal. We did get to make some observations of the birds in the trees by using the telescope. For one minute we watched a bird and reported on its behavior. There was a checklist to mark with information about what the bird was doing. We took turns observing the birds this way, and it also helped to pass the time.

Finally, it was time to head back to TRC. We hiked back down to the river, but the boat wasn't there yet to pick us up. I suggested that we wade in the river for a few minutes to cool down. What a great idea this turned out to be! It felt so good to dunk my feet in the water. I could've stayed there all day. In fact, I was really sad when the boat came and we had to put our boots back on. I actually took off the lower parts of my convertible pants and wore the boots with them as shorts. It looked funny, but it felt much cooler.

I learned something very important during our extended time at the clay lick....being an animal researcher can be extremely boring at times. (Oh, and my friends didn't have to take a four hour hike, so I guess I shouldn't have been looking forward to their pain and agony. Serves me right.)

Hanging Out at the Clay Lick, Day #1

While we stayed at the Tambopata Research Center (TRC), we got the visit a nearby clay lick. This is a cliff of clay where birds, such as macaws and parrots, come to eat the clay. Researchers think that they do this because the clay helps neutralize the toxins from other things they eat, such as berries.

Going to the clay lick involves an early wake-up call. And by early I mean around 4:15 a.m. Those of you who know me well are probably laughing because you know that I do not like to get up early. However, you would have been proud of me...I got up on time every morning that we had to do this. And, sometimes I even got up early! Anyway, we'd leave TRC at 5:00 a.m. so that we could be in place at the clay lick before the birds came. We took boats over to the clay lick, but that boat ride was only about ten minutes long.

The first morning we went to the clay lick, it was still pretty dark. The sun had just started to peek over the horizon. It was beautiful! We loaded into the boats and headed out. I was wearing my knee-high rubber boots, and I took them off for the boat ride. The guides told us that if we happened to end up in the river, the boots would fill with water and drag us to the bottom. So, I always took them off when I was in the boat.

The river was shallow in places, and as we were heading to the clay lick that morning, we hit a set of rapids. Now, I'm not usually afraid of boating or water, but I thought for sure we were going to capsize. We boat rocked from one side and then back to the other. I grabbed a hold of the sides and held on for dear life. It was the only time in all our of boat rides that I was afraid. The boat driver and our guide in the front (who's job was to push us off protrusions in the river) maneuvered the situation with ease, but I was really glad when we reached shore.  

To get to the viewing area for the clay lick, we had to walk for about five minutes. We each had a little aluminum folding chair (and I use that word lightly) to carry as well as our own backpacks. The viewing area was across from the clay lick with an inlet from the river in between. We set up the chairs, and then we waited. There really wasn't anything to do at this point except wait for the birds to show up. We could hear birds and monkeys in the forest, and occasionally we would see birds fly in the sky. At one point the howler monkeys started to make noise. It sounded like a freight train! Then other birds and monkeys started in until it was the most awful din. And then...it started to rain. Amazing! It was like the animals knew the rain was coming and starting calling out a warning. I don't know if it was just a coincidence or not, but it was a surreal moment. The rain didn't last very long, but it was heavy enough that I was really glad to have my raincoat and umbrella with me.

Finally, the birds showed up at the clay lick, and it was an amazing sight. They would swoop in and out to eat the clay. We saw about five different types of parrots and three different types of macaws. When they were done at the clay lick, some of them would perch in nearby trees, so we were able to watch them. The guides had brought along a telescope, and through it we could see the birds really well. After awhile, all the birds left. Why did they all come when they did and then leave at the same time? Who can know, but it was a sight to behold.

Hiking the Trails in the Rainforest

We did a lot of hiking in the rainforest. We were in search of animals. What I very quickly learned is that although there are lots of animals out in there in the rainforest, they don't just come right on out to say hello. For the most part, they are pretty hard to find. I think in my mind, I expected something like I've seen on TV. I've watched those shows on the Discovery Channel or on National Geographic, and all the animals are right there in living color, up close and personal. Well, in reality, they're pretty well hidden, and you've got to be quiet and observant if you want to see anything.


Thank goodness for the guides that we had during the trip from Rainforest Expeditions. Vico, Rodolfo, and Ruben were awesome. They found animals that I never would have seen on my own. They knew just where to look and what to listen for. They could identify lots of animals by sound, and they would also see animals that took me a few minutes to pick out even after the guides were pointing them right out to me.


As we walked through the forest, we had to keep our eyes open and our mouths closed. In all the areas where we were, paths had been cut. This didn't mean that there weren't things to step over or around, it just meant that we had a clear trail to follow. One of the things they taught us was to always look before we put our hands anywhere. When hiking, people tend to reach out with their hands and touch trees or rocks. Well, in the rainforest that could be a big mistake. There are lots of animals that bite and sting (like bullet ants), so we learned quickly to look before we touched.


We were always hiking with a guide. They really didn't want us to wander off alone. I was okay with that. Even with the trails, it would have been easy to get lost. As we walked, the guides would stop periodically to point out interesting plants and animals. Sometimes we didn't see the animals, but we would see tracks, nests, or holes that they had left behind. I used my little waterproof journal to make notes as we hiked.

When we were hiking in the rainforest, we all usually wore long pants. This was to keep off the bugs mostly. I didn't like plants brushing against my legs, so long pants were good for that, too. Most of us had those convertible pants that zipped off into shorts. I think they look ridiculous, but they were the best pants for this trip. Sometimes we wore knee-high rubber boots. I hated those things. They were not comfortable for long hikes, like the four hour hike we took one day, and they were really hot. I only wore them if I had to. I much preferred my hiking shoes, so if I thought I could get away with wearing just those, I did. On some hikes we really had to wear those rubber boots, though. They were good for walking through mud and tall grasses. For shirts, sometimes I wore a long-sleeved shirt and sometimes I just wore a regular t-shirt. Again, the long sleeves were hot, so during the day I tried to go with short sleeves. I had a few shirts where the sleeves rolled up, so those weren't too bad. I always had on bug spray, too. I usually wore my hat (unless I just got too hot). I felt braver with it on, and I didn't have to worry about bugs falling into my hair.

We hiked a lot on this trip, but I didn't mind it too much. It was the only way to experience the rainforest...we had to get out in it.

Sleeping in the Rainforest

So, you may be asking yourself, "Where does one sleep when one goes to the rainforest?" Well, I'm sure the answer to that question can vary, but for me, the answer was, in a bed! For my trip, we stayed in either cabins or in tourist lodges. In all of these places, we had regular beds. However, these places were all open-air, which meant there were no screens on the windows. Bugs, bats, and critters could come in and out, and they often did. Because of that, we always had mosquito nets over our beds. I had never slept under a mosquito net until this trip.


Here's how a mosquito net works. The net itself it suspended from the ceiling. The ones I slept under all had a wooden frame at the top and the net was attached to the frame at the four corners. To use it, I simply let the net down from the frame to cover the bed. When I got into bed at night, I'd have the check inside the net to make sure there weren't any bugs or other creatures hanging out in there. If there were, I'd just shoo them out. Or, if there was a really big spider on the bed (like one person in the group had), I'd use something to scoop it up and toss it out. Once the net was bug free and I was inside, I'd tuck it under the edge of the mattress. This was not always as easy as it might seem, and I was more than a little paranoid at times thinking that I wouldn't get it tucked in very well, and I'd wake up with a big nasty insect on me. Thankfully, that never happened. Anyway, if the net did its job, then I wouldn't get eaten alive by mosquitoes as I slept. I also enjoyed an added benefit of the net...it kept the bats away from me. I will elaborate more on bats in a future post because I have a lot to say about them.

I always slept with my flashlight inside the net with me. This was really important because the places we stayed didn't have electricity in the rooms. If I wanted to see anything during the night, I had to have the flashlight. We had to get up many times before dawn to get ready for the day, so I also needed it in the mornings. When I woke up in the mornings, the first thing I always did was turn on my flashlight and shine it all around inside my net. Then, I would shine it outside the net onto the floor. This was vital. We were told on the first day to never step out of bed without checking the floor first. You never knew what was going to be down there waiting for you.

So, my nightly routine was to get ready for bed, check the mosquito net, and get into bed. Before I tucked in the net, I always put my flashlight and alarm clock in there with me right next to my pillow. After I was sure I had everything I needed, then I would tuck in the net. It was very hot, and the worst thing about the mosquito net was that it allowed very little air circulation. Not that any air was circualting anyway...we had no fans (no electricity), and there typically wasn't a breeze. So, I would just lie there and sweat away in my little safety mosquito net in the middle of the rainforest and try to sleep. Ah, the joys of high adventure in the Amazon rainforest! It was all part of the experience.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...and More!

Transportation while in Peru was very interesting, for sure. My two weeks there included all these types of transportation: planes, trains, busses, automobiles, taxis, boats, my own two feet, and motortaxis. "What is a motortaxi?" you might be wondering. Allow me to elaborate!


Puerto Maldonado is a growing city on the edge of the rainforest in southeastern Peru. This was the place I had to fly into the meet the other people who were traveling in my group. Motorcycles are the most popular mode of transportation there. I saw families of four to five people all riding on one motorcycle: the dad driving, the mom sitting behind, one child in front of Dad, and the other child wedged in between the parents. Interestingly enough, the local law says that only the driver has to wear a helmet. So, the other three people on the bike (including children) were helmetless. And we worry about childseats...


Anyway, to get around town, you could catch a motortaxi. This is kind of like a motorcycle and a rickshaw combined. It seats two comfortably and three uncomfortably. So, guess how many of us were usually in a motortaxi? Yup, three. Nothing like experiencing the local culture firsthand, I always say. I didn't mind the motortaxis too much. The biggest downside (in my opinion, at least) was when we were on dirt roads. The dirt would fly up and we'd be choking it down. Many of the roads were dirt, so this was a pretty common experience for us. Otherwise, it was kind of fun to ride around in a motortaxi.


When we were ready to head deeper into the rainforest, we traveled on the river by boat. These boats were long and narrow. They were pretty low to the water, too. They were powered by a motor at the back, and the ride was actually pretty good. Because we were moving so fast, there was a great breeze, and this provided some needed relief from the heat and humidity. Our first ride was about 2.5 hours to Refugio Amazonas, one of the places we stayed. From there, the next ride was about 5 hours down to the Tambopata Research Center, our final destination. On that leg of the journey, one of the guides' job was to ride in the front of the boat and push us away from protrusions in the water with a big stick. We laughed and said that it would have been like the Jungle Cruise at Disney World except we didn't have a guide telling really bad jokes. I really liked all the boat rides. I thought they were relaxing and the scenery was great.

On the Machu Picchu part of my trip, I had some train travel. Travelers can't go all the way to Machu Picchu by train due to the landslide that happened back in February. Parts of the tracks are still not repaired. So, the train company, Peru Rail, sent us part of the way by train and part by bus. I took the VistaDome train, which had windows in the top. I was able to look out and see more of the Andes Mountains as the train traveled along. The views were spectacular! The train was as slow as molasses, but better for sightseeing, I guess. The bus ride back to Cusco was harrowing. Let's just say, driving in the USA is much more orderly than in Peru. I was grateful for my nerves of steel!!