A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Mist Net

I am not a “bird nerd.” So, why in the world would I go on an educational trip to the Amazon rain forest where one of the study topics was birds? That’s a question I often asked myself as I tromped through the forest looking for birds. The answer?  Well, I like adventure. I like to learn new things. I needed college credit hours, and so all those things brought me to the forest to study birds. I learned a lot about birds in just a week...more than I ever thought I could.


On the first day of the trip, my group and I dove right into our learning activities, and one of the first things we did was to set up mist nets. A mist net is a long net that is used to catch birds in the wild. The birds can't see the nets, so they fly right into them. It doesn't hurt the birds to be in mist nets, but the person removing the birds has to be careful. Only our professors, Ursula and Jose removed birds from the nets.


Once the nets were set up, we checked them about every 45 minutes. Once a bird was caught in a net, it was removed and placed into a special bag. Ursula assured us that the bags did not harm the birds and that being in the bags helped to calm them. We then took the birds back up to the main lodge to be tagged.


The tagging process involved several tasks because one of our goals was to identify the types of birds we caught. So, all the birds were weighed and measured. Measuring involved the length of the beaks, legs, and wings. The colors and markings of the birds were also observed. Sometimes it was difficult to identify the birds because many of them looked similar. Ursula and Jose identified quite a few of the birds, but the rest of us typically had to look them up in a book, such as The Birds of Peru. After all the observations were made and noted, tags were placed on the bird's legs. The tags were tiny because birds don't weigh much. To place heavy tags on birds would greatly interfere with their ability perform needed tasks.

I'm in my gear and watching birds!

After the tags were on, the birds were ready to be released. The birds were held in such a way that they could simply fly away when they were ready. We were told not to give the birds a toss or a push because the ones 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, though.


Another learning activity during the trip was listening to birds and identifying 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 felt successful in this venture.

Up until I went on this trip, I thought being an animal researcher was all excitement and danger. In some cases, I’m sure it is. However, I also learned that it can be mundane. This became evident on the day my group sat at the bird researcher’s station at the clay lick.

The clay lick is where birds come to eat clay, which helps aid in their digestion. Our task was to spend three hours watching the clay lick and making notes about the activity we saw there. Well, as our luck would have it, just about the time that we took over the duties, there weren’t any birds at the clay lick. For three hours we sat and waited, but we didn’t see anything. Then the bugs descended on us and decided we were good for a snack. It got so bad at one point that we all resorted to wearing mosquito net hats. We looked ridiculous and had a great laugh about it. However, it didn’t change the fact that we had no birds to observe. On occasion, we studied birds in nearby trees. We saw some excellent blue and gold macaws, but they didn’t go back to the clay lick.

I was relieved when the regular researchers returned, and we got to relinquish our bird researching duties. I concluded that patience is one of the key attributes of a good bird watcher. Patience and a lot of bug spray.

A Little Touch of Paradise

   

A silvery moon shone high in the sky. The leaves of tall rain forest trees gently whispered and rustled. The frogs chirped brightly, calling out through the night air. The forest pulsed and hummed as millions of insects conducted their business. Birds and other animals used the forest’s highways and byways to travel and search for sustenance. And thrust into the middle of it all, was one American teacher very far from home.

As I stood in the Peruvian rain forest, it struck me…I was in the midst of true, pristine nature. This place, virtually unspoiled, was about as far removed from Ohio as the moon. Now that my group and I had arrived in a place that wasn’t close to any civilized location, I truly felt that I had come to an exotic paradise, a place where humans were the visitors and nature was at its most virulent.  

It was just me and the moon alone on this walkway at night.

And yet, Refugio Amazonas, a travel lodge two-hours by boat from the closest civilized location, was our oasis in the midst of this vast wilderness. Unseen from the river, it was a ten-minute hike through the woods to reach this slice of heaven. As we hiked, the humidity of the forest once again enveloped us like a thick blanket. Even though I only had my field pack, my arrival at the lodge found me dripping with sweat. Fortunately, we did not have to carry our larger suitcases because I’m sure I would have been soaked to the bone on the walk from the river to the lodge. The staff at Refugio (as we called it for short) took them to the lodge for us.

When we finally emerged from the forest, the lodge rose up in front of us. As we entered, each one of us was handed 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 let it lay there for a few minutes. I'm not sure if I've ever felt anything so refreshing and wonderful in my life. It felt like air conditioning for my face. There was also cold juice for us to drink. Delightful!

I couldn’t help but marvel at this place. Refugio was a big, beautiful lodge dropped in the middle of an already spectacular setting. There were even creature comforts, something we had sorely missed at our last location, CECCOT. Our rooms at Refugio were enormous. One whole wall was open to the forest, and it was peaceful and serene. We had a bathroom with running water, a flushing toilet, and an actual shower with big towels to go along with it. The water was cold, but after being so hot and sweaty all the time, it felt refreshing. The beds had the requisite mosquito netting, which the staff came and set up while we were at dinner. This was definitely my style of life.

Of course, as much as I wanted to lounge in the lap of luxury, we still had tasks to accomplish and things to learn. One evening’s activity was a caiman search. Caimans are relatives of alligators, and they like to come out at night. So, we all hiked back down to the riverbank, got into the boats, and cruised up and down the shore looking for caimans. The guides shone lights along the riverbank trying to get reflections from the eyes of any caimans that were out there. We only saw one, but it was fun to search.

When we got back to shore, some of us stayed on the beach for awhile. We sat and listened to the sounds of the forest. The moon was full, and it was a bright orb hanging in the sky, keeping us company and lighting our way. After awhile, I laid back on the sand to watch the moon and stars and listen to all the animals. I saw constellations that were new to me, and as I listened to the frogs calling in the trees, I was in awe of the beauty and splendor of the forest around me. The symphony of the forest were so soothing, I could have stayed on that beach all night.


Several nights later, I walked back to my room alone. Most other people in the lodge were already asleep, so it was just the jungle and me. As before, the moon was brightly shining, casting its silvery light all over me. There was something eerie and beautiful about that light. The forest seemed to glow with it, and yet, I couldn’t see into the forest’s depths. I stopped and stood on the walkway by myself, taking it in. It was just me, the forest, and the moon. I felt very small in a big world, but so happy to be standing in the middle of paradise.

On the Road Again...In a Motortaxi

 

My transportation adventures in Peru were unique. In the two weeks that I spent there, I experienced planes, trains, busses, automobiles, taxis, boats, my own two feet, and motortaxis. Yes, that last one was, “motortaxis.”  Allow me to explain.


It is expensive to own and fuel a car in Peru. Since roughly 36% of the population lives in poverty, alternative modes of transportation are often seen. I didn’t notice this too much in Lima, the capital, but when I got to Puerto Maldonado, I saw it in full force.

I'm ready to ride in the motortaxi!

Puerto Maldonado is a growing city on the edge of the rain forest in southeastern Peru, and this was the meeting place for the teachers in my group. Motorcycles were the most popular mode of transportation there, and all the taxis in town were either motorcycles or motortaxis.


A motortaxi is like a motorcycle and a rickshaw combined. It seats two comfortably and three uncomfortably. When my group traveled by motortaxi, of course we always had three people wedged in the seat, which was the rickshaw part. Any luggage or other large bags were bungee-corded to the back, and the driver rode on the motorcycle part.

The native people of Peru are short, with the average height being about 5 feet, 1.5 inches. So, clearly, three Peruvian people in a motortaxi was quite different from three American people in a motortaxi. Riding three to a seat was survivable when the three people were all women or were the smaller people of the group. It got interesting when the bigger men were factored into the equation. All of the people in our group were physically fit, but we did have some men who were bigger…taller, huskier, and more muscular. I found myself in a motortaxi with those guys on a few occasions, and those close quarters made the entire motortaxi experience even more memorable.

Roads in Puerto Maldonado were paved in some areas, but a lot of them were just dirt roads. When we drove on the dirt roads, the dirt flew all over us and we choked on it. It was a 25-minute motortaxi ride to get from CECCOT, the place where we stayed, into Puerto Maldonado. The roads for that entire journey were dirt and gravel. So, by the time we got to town, we had been bumped around, hip to hip in the back of a motortaxi, for 25 minutes straight.

On our last day at CECCOT, we needed to leave there and travel by bus to get to the river dock. At that point we were going to board boats that would take us to Refugio Amazonas, our next stop on the trip. The road that ran by CECCOT was a basic road, so the bus could not come down to retrieve us. Motortaxis were organized to take us to a place where we could meet the bus.

I was in a motortaxi with another gal and one of the larger men from the group, Brian. Our luggage was strapped to the back, and we were headed on our way to the rendezvous point. All was well until we came to a hill. The motortaxi groaned and strained under the combined weight of us, our luggage, and the motortaxi driver. The driver urged the motortaxi on, but to no avail. So finally, Brian got out and started running alongside the motortaxi and pushing it to help it get up the hill. We girls stayed in the seat yelling encouragement to Brian, and trying not to laugh. Brian huffed and puffed as he ran alongside the motortaxi, which was still struggling to conquer the hill. When we finally got to the top of the hill, the motortaxi took off with a burst of speed and poor Brian got left in the dust. The driver stopped and waited while Brian jogged to catch up with us. Panting and out of breath, he was not as amused by the ordeal as we were. We packed him back into the seat with us, and we were off, making the rest of the trip without incident. The whole situation was strangely hilarious to me, and I couldn’t stop giggling to myself for the rest of the journey.

Other people in the group also had interesting moments in the motortaxis. One group’s motortaxi broke down. Another person got hit in the leg by a large piece of rock that flew up from the road. One group’s driver made a wrong turn, and they were lost for awhile. As a non-Spanish speaker, I’m glad I wasn’t in the motortaxi that got lost. All of these mishaps aside, it was a novel thing to ride around in a motortaxi, and I actually looked forward to it each time. Maybe this will be the next big motor trend for the United States. Motortaxis for everyone!

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

 

Of all the things in this world that I am afraid of, bats are close to the top of my list. So, I should have known that I would have some bat encounters on my trip deep into the Peruvian Amazon rain forest. I didn’t want to have to face my fear, but once I got to the rain forest, I realized there would be no escape. There were bats, lots of them.

One of the many bats in the rain forest.

The first place our group stayed, CECCOT, was rustic. It didn’t have running water, electricity, or flushing toilets. The cabins were all open air. This would not have bothered me too much except for the bats. They roosted in every cabin, including mine. When I realized this, I knew that these three days were going to be long ones.


The first time I walked into the cabin and saw bats flying, I turned right around and ran out as fast as I could. It was daytime! Bats are nocturnal. I could not believe they were active during the day. I guess we must have disturbed the sleeping bats, and so they decided that flying around in the cabin would be a good thing. 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. I don't think I would have survived without them.


The bats didn't just fly around at the ceiling. Oh, no. They liked to fly back and forth under our beds, too. I would often stand by my bed only to 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. When we brushed our teeth each morning, we all stood by the side of the cabin wall, brushed, and then spit the toothpaste over the wall onto the ground. I got “buzzed” by a bat every time I brushed my teeth. By the second day, I learned to keep my eyes closed while brushing so I wouldn’t see the bats flying around my head.

If I had to go back to the cabin by myself, I felt some trepidation because of the bats. I would stand at the door and open it slowly to peek in and see if any bats were on the move. If they weren't flying, then I could enter the cabin with confidence. If they were flying, then I had to make a decision. How badly did I need to go into that cabin? Sometimes I ran in, grabbed my things, and scooted right back out the door. There were a few times that I didn't go in at all. I decided that whatever I needed wasn’t important. There was more than one occasion when I didn't think the bats were around, and I went into the cabin. They started to fly, and I ran right back out the door. I’m sure my jumping around and shouting outside the cabin was a funny sight to anyone who might have been watching.


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." During that time, I would take a shower (in traditional camp shower-type fashion) or do anything that needed done 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 ate insects. I am thankful that we slept under mosquito nets. The safety of the net, plus the fact that I wore earplugs while I slept, helped me get a good night's sleep.


The last two places we stayed on this trip, Refugio Amazonas and the Tambopata Research Center, did not have as many bats. They had netting in the ceilings that kept the bats from roosting up there, so I only came in contact with bats when they flew around at night. After CECCOT, I felt that I could handle the nighttime flying and feeding. There was one night, however, that I woke up at 3:00 a.m. to loud screeching. It was the bats. I even heard them while wearing my earplugs. Talk about the stuff of nightmares (at least for me). I knew I couldn’t do anything about them, though, so 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.

Not Just Animals in the Rain Forest

The Amazon 2010 Group and friends at CECCOT

Before I left home for this rain forest adventure, I was a little nervous. I was getting ready to head into the jungle with 19 other people that I didn't know. Traveling across the globe to meet up with complete strangers and then trek into the wild is a situation that's fairly unusual. I certainly felt it would test my ability to adapt and make friends quickly. Would I have the mettle? Even as an adult, I always have the fear that no one will like me and no one will want to be my friend. It's amazing how some of those schoolyard insecurities hang around. Fortunately, on this trip, they were fears that were completely unfounded because most of the people in the group found ourselves in the same exact situation. We all needed to make friends quickly. We all had to adapt. We all had to step out of our comfort zones a little bit. It helped that we were all educators, so we at least had one thing in common. I think this was a good exercise for me. It stretched me, made me grow.


What's interesting about teachers is that we tend to be slightly obnoxious at times. Most teachers are take-charge kind of people. We're used to being in control and giving orders. We like to talk. It can be hard for a group of teachers to acquiesce to another authority. However, in this group, we did, and it worked amazingly well. We got along great, we got along well with our leaders, and everyone seemed focused on the common goals of learning and growing. As a group, we were a well-oiled machine, and that's saying something.

I am grateful to the people on this trip who spent time with me, got to know me, and even tolerated some of my quirks (like my fear of bats). I never would've survived without my "bat buddies" who shielded me from the winged beasties. I enjoyed the conversations we all had about school, life, and the awesomeness of the experience we were having. Traveling is great, seeing the world is awesome, but it's even better when surrounded by people who make it memorable. The people on this trip helped to make it memorable for me, and for that, I am truly thankful.

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.

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!)