Subject: [Tweeters] FW: Off topic--birding expedition to SE Peru
Date: Thu Aug 29 20:10:00 PDT 2019
From: byers345 at comcast.net - byers345 at comcast.net





From: byers345 at comcast.net <byers345 at comcast.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2019 7:47 PM
To: 'tweeters at u.washington.edu' <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Off topic--birding expedition to SE Peru



Second try at this message-the first time the message went out before I had
finished it and with the wrong Flickr link!

Hello Tweeters,

On the 20th of July Bill and I left for a birding adventure
in SE Peru, a country we hadn't visited before. We flew into Lima, a city
apparently often shrouded in clouds. From there we flew to Puerto
Maldonado, sunny and warm in contrast to Lima and situated on the Madre de
Dios River and not far from the Bolivian border. After birding in that area
for 2 days, we boarded long, thin flat-bottomed boats and headed south west
and upriver on the Tambopata River. Rainforest Expeditions runs 3 beautiful
lodges on this river and collaborates with researchers and other agencies
interested in keeping this area as pristine as possible. The only access to
this area is by boat: no roads, no air traffic. There is WiFi a few hours
a day and electricity in the rooms a few hours a day. We spent 8 nights at
the various lodges and spent time cruising up and down the river and
visiting ccolpas, places where macaws, parakeets, and parrots congregate to
eat mineral-laden clay. We also logged many miles walking through the
forest, including bamboo groves and some "old-growth" type forest with
massive Brazil nut trees looming over everything, in search of the birds
that call this place home.

Photography in the dark forest is challenging, especially
since many of the birds living there are also quite reclusive. But we like
the challenge and are occasionally rewarded with a good photo opportunity.
We have become particularly fond of any bird with "ant" in its name. These
birds are notorious for being among the hardest of the hard to get to show
themselves. On this trip we saw or glimpsed over 20 antbirds, antwrens,
antthrushes, antshrikes, etc., but only got photos of 5. In the link to the
Flickr album here I attempted to give a sense of the river and forest along
with a sampling of the birds. Some pictures are nice and sharp, others are
not so great, but included anyway.

We would definitely recommend this trip as a good
introduction to birding in the Amazon region (these rivers all flow into the
Amazon downstream).



https://www.flickr.com/photos/29258421 at N07/albums/72157710329601757





Happy birding, Charlotte Byers, Edmonds



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