Birding Big Month Day 1, The Hell Road
Published: Thu, 10/04/18
Hello , Oct 1, 2018. Big Day – sort of, on the Road to
Hell. Two potoos and several owls and tinamous responded one after the
other, but after 45 minutes it was time to move on. Next. Night birding on Infierno Road. Yes, Infierno means Hell. Apparently so named by the locals because of the immense number of mosquitos. In reality we did not see many mosquitos, but the road was a hell, full of potholes and
bumps. Additionally, we already know it was there was hell of chiggers. For two days, Juha and I had walked the trails of Saona and the access trail there, and we both got our fair share of chiggers. Juha even more than normal. We really should have worn wellies from the first day here. But we got some good night birds, and managed to get some bits of micro sleep in the van in spite of the bumps. Saona is owned by the Durand’s, brothers and sisters of our legendary guide Alex Durand. I have been
there a few times over the years and always impressed by such complete ecosystem so close to the big city of Puerto Maldonado. It should be ideal to combine in a big day, had it not been for the horrendous condition of the road. It is also quite wild. We saw Red Howler Monkey, Large-headed Capuchin and Tippin’s Titi-Monkey on our short visit Big Day planning is not easy. There are so many things that can go wrong and today they
did. It looked at just before dawn that it was going be an overcast day which would be the ideal, but the clouds took off the wrong direction and soon the whole forest was under the blearing sun.S sun is the Big Day’s biggest enemy. There was not as much vocal response and by 7 o clock we only had some 80 species, with Great Jacamar and Black-capped Parakeet as the best birds. As the rest of us travelled light we had a later departure and had another hour to bird. Things picked up when we birded the Tilapia farm at the beginning of La Chachuela. We got Southern Lapwing and Brazilian Teal which likely will not be seen again in the month, so those were important. Also an out of place Wilson’s Phalarope, which seems to be very unusual for Puerto Maldonado and a Horned Screamer. Just as we were about to leave, Juha approached the little creek to photograph the turtles that were sunbathing, a large dog charged at him at bit him on the arm. Yet
another thing going fantastically wrong! Now we had to get Juha to a hospital for rabies shots. I have been using iGoTerra to log my sightings, but being a bit of a newbie on the system and somewhat sleep deprived, I screwed up, and may have deleted the data. In any case, Trevor has a backup. For a big day, it was a bit of disaster. Only 144 species overall. Having said that, we did get a fair number of birds that shall be difficult or impossible elsewhere, so all may not be at loss. There are still 30 days to go. More to come Regards Gunnar Gunnar Engblom is a Swedish birder who has
lived in Peru since 1998, where he operates bird watching and nature tours for Kolibri Expeditions. He is popular guide both for hard core birding groups, as well as for groups who combine photography, nature and/or culture. Gunnar also sings and write Swedish punk/eco-rock songs with humor and ironic twist. Connect with Gunnar on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. |