Peru: Day 17 – Hike to the Ccollpa and Tigrillo Trail

It’s a two mile hike to the end of the longest trail here at Manu Wildlife Center, and it leads to an open mud wallow/salt lick used by mammals (mostly at night) and birds. The local word for such a wallow is ccollpa, the double c trying to impart a harder Quechua sound than is present in the Spanish language. Sometimes it’s even written with a “kc,” such as we saw in a sign for the town of Kcosñipata.

Our plan for today, our last full day here, is to bird all morning along the 2 miles, arriving at the clay lick around noon. Then Carlos and Pancho will backpack our lunches in to us while we sit and watch birds coming to the clay lick. Then, after a short rest, bird our way back.

Birding was very productive along the entire trail, and there were some terrific finds. One of the best was this Slate-colored Hawk, screaming from the top of a tree.

Another was this Spotted Puffbird, which Gary noticed just before he was about to walk right underneath it. It sat there for several minutes while everyone got photos from every possible angle. This species is rather scarce, but I wonder how many go undetected as they sit so still and rarely make much sound.

Another bird highlight from this hike was a Pavonine Quetzal.

But better than any bird was this Three-striped Poison Frog, Ameerega trivittata, which I spotted perched on the end of a rotting log about a foot off the ground.

It was really shy and hopped off before I could get a good picture, but I had just gotten some recording of the calls of what I had assumed was a poison frog, and did some playback to lure it back in. It never responded, remaining with its back to me. Suddenly another frog began calling from the opposite side of the log, hopped on it and began charging me. But as soon as I moved to position my camera, he dove for cover. With much patience, I managed to coax him back again but could only manage this distant head-on shot with a flash. The first one must have been a female, and this was obviously the male.

This Three-striped Rocket Frog, Allobates trilineatus (in the same family as the poison frogs) was much more aggressive and didn’t mind my getting close.

An extensive viewing platform has been built at the mud wallow, complete with about 20 mattresses and linens, each with its own mosquito net.

Here is a track of a South American Tapir, one of the night visitors that tourists hope to see. This is the largest land animal in the American tropics, and the three species are the only extant, native New World members of the order that includes horses and rhinoceroses, Perissodactyla.

We just sat and waited quietly for birds to begin appearing (actually, I lay down and began snoring). While we waited other things attracted our attention.

Such as this Rayed Longwing, Laparus doris, enjoying the salt on my sock. It kept coming back for over an hour.

And this syrphid fly, a pretty good wasp mimic.

Finally, our target birds began coming down to the mud, first these Black-capped Parakeets.

Then this gorgeous Rose-fronted Parakeet, a recent split from Painted Parakeet. There were also several Dusky-billed Parrotlets.

Lunch arrived in the backpacks of Carlos and Pancho right at 11:50 (it was a 45 minute hike for them), in the form of a delicious hot rice, vegetables and pork strip dish, cookies, juice and fruit. Not your typical box lunch.

When it was time to begin heading back to the lodge, I decided to head out on my own and take the long way back, the Trigrillo Trail. It was even swampier than the trail in, and going was slow at times. But I had a great time with the bugs, plants, and birds and frogs. I even saw another Spotted Puffbird and another Pavonine Quetzal.

Some of the butterflies:

Black-banded White, Itaballia demophile

The metalmark Euselasia eumedia

A hairstreak in the genus JantheclaAnother metalmark, Macella Eyemark, Mesosemia macella

A skipper, Two-barred Flasher, Astraptes fulgerator complex. This is the skipper that Dan Janzen and others discovered was actually 10 species in northwestern Costa Rica alone. Their caterpillars and host plants were each different, but the adults looked virtually identical, and they used DNA barcoding to confirm that each caterpillar type correlated with each DNA type in adults. Who knows how many species there are undetected in other areas of the tropics?

A Nervous Skipper, Udranomia kikkawai

The rainforest is overwhelmingly green. It comes in many shades, to be sure, but it’s always a shock to see color like this jump out. It’s quite a rarity.

Or this hot pink inflorescence subtended by huge leaves.

This is the kind of dark-loving ground cover that was destined become a house plant.

A Selaginella, known as spikemoss or lesser clubmoss. I’ve never seen one with such open, long branches, very fern-like. This group, along with clubmosses and quillworts, are the most ancient vascular plants. They used to be considered close to ferns, but DNA research has shown that they are very different.

A katydid with an interesting horn on its head

Leaf-cutter ants, genus Atta. They’re a common sight in the rainforest, but this was a particularly active colony. They don’t eat the leaves but rather carry them and other plant parts to their underground nest to grow fungus.

One of the largest weevils I’ve ever seen, about 1 ¼ inches. Its defense mechanism was to tuck its snout tight up against its belly and drop to the leaflitter on its back.

Most termites either travel around at night or under the safety of a network of wood pulp tunnels that they construct. Maybe the dark bodies of this species helps protect them from sun, dessication, and predators (by looking like ants).

There were dozens and dozens of dragonflies in this swampy forest, but most were too shy to photograph easily. This is the skimmer Uracis fastigiata.

This little one is the amberwing Perithemis thais.

The day’s bird list ended up at 114, including five species of tinamou heard. Tinamous are ground-dwelling birds that are at first glance somewhat partridge-like. They are among the most primitive living birds and are the only flight-capable members of the superorder that includes rheas, ostiches, cassowaries, emus, and kiwis. This a recording I made of a Brazilian Tinamou, one of my favorites. It uttered this 5 ½-second, pure e-flat whistle precisely every 34 seconds for the 15 minutes that I sat there and tried to lure it in. I never did see it, and got stung by an ant in the process, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Peru: Day 16 – Manu Wildlife Center Canopy Platform and Day of Mammals and Frogs

Today was amazing. Tons of birds, a few pretty cool butterflies, outstanding mammals and an incredible day for frogs. I’ll try to recount it slowly, as it tends to want to come out all at once.

First thing after breakfast, we all hiked the 6 minutes to the canopy platform that belongs to this lodge. We had to reserve this day, as there were several other couples and small groups staying here, and it’s best if you don’t have to share the limited space with others, especially non-birders. As it was, the nine of us were plenty, though a few more could fit.

It’s very much like the Tambo Blanquillo tower, built into a giant Kapok tree, but perhaps not quite as high. That one is about 150 feet high (still quite a bit shorter than the Cristalino Jungle Lodge tower), while this one is maybe 130 feet. This one is also perhaps a bit better for birding, as you have closer rainforest canopy in all directions, while the other is bordered on one side by a cocha, and therefore a large expanse of open sky.

This is Paul Cozza, and below is the small stream that courses through the lodge property.

We had an amazing mixed flock pass through here, with such great birds as Yellow-shouldered Grosbeak and Chestnut-shouldered Antwren, as well as Paradise, Green-and-gold, Opal-crowned, and Yellow-crested Tanagers, Sclater’s Antwrens, Rufous-tailed Foliage-gleaner, and too many others to remember. It was mayhem trying to get everyone on every species, and in the end, it’s just not possible. The whole troop moves through too quickly, each bird flitting and scrambling through the foliage.

One bird that was on territory here was this Lawrence’s Thrush.

Rather than sing a song of its own invention, it’s a master mimic. Its song consists of short phrases (of ½ to 1 ¾ seconds) that it has borrowed from birds throughout the rainforest, from Slate-colored Grosbeak to Slate-colored Hawk. I recorded the bird in our tree for 5 minutes, during which it averaged 15 mimicked phrases per minute. And by the time five minutes was up, it was still doing birds that it hadn’t done during that time, though some it had repeated 2 or 3 times. One Lawrence’s Thrush in Bolivia was recorded and documented to have learned the vocalizations of 75 species. Here’s a short cut of our bird.

A very distant, but clearly colorful bird was this Spangled Cotinga.

This is a Turtle Ant, genus Cephalotes, totally harmless. I don’t think they even have a biting apparatus. They just bumble around like turtles, and nothing bothers them.

A real nuisance up in the canopy were these stingless bees (this one on my wrist), in the genus Trigona.

There are several species of stingless bees, and the smaller ones have the annoying tendency to fly into your eyes. They are totally harmless, even though they are in the same family as honey bees, Apidae (but different subfamily, Meliponinae). People often call them “sweat bees” because they are after your sweat, but that names is already occupied a totally different family of bees, Halictidae. It’s like calling a Fan-tailed Warbler an antbird because it attends army ant swarms. Yes, it’s a pet peeve of mine. Just ask me about sand flies…

After the huge mixed flock moved through, I decided I had more to learn by wandering the trails I hadn’t been on yet, rather than continue with the group led by Gary.

First I returned to the lodge to freshen up (its seems to be getting hotter and more humid, though that could barely be possible).

Here’s a photo of the front door of the cabin that Tom and Sharon had, Carachupa. All cabins were named after trees or animals, and this one means Armadillo (a transliteration would be “suckface”).

I chatted with one of the very friendly groundskeepers, Egdaver, and then wandered over to the river to see what was around. Below was this Drab Water-Tyrant.

Looking for salt, this Eurota Purplewing, Eunica eurota moved from our hanging laundry to my spotting scope.

When it flew, it looked like a purple orb darting back and forth.

Later in the afternoon, I hit the trails again and made my way to the Fig Pass Trail, and followed it out to the Lookout. I knew it might take a while, so I brought my headlamp.

In some areas, the trail passes through some swampy forest. It’s relatively flat and the soil not very permeable, so it doesn’t take much for stretches of the trail to become very muddy. While here we always wore rubber boots.

In other areas, it was nice and dry. Different birds could be found in each area.

This lovely, delicate palm is one of my favorites, Euterpe praecatoria. The fruits of a closely related species are the source of the Brazilian drink açai.

There were some butterflies in the forest understory, such as this metalmark under a leaf, Nymphidium acherois.

This metalmark is Periander Swordtail, Rhetus periander.

And this is the Malea Sister, Adelpha malea.

No kidding, my favorite event today up to now was this Pachitea Robber Frog, Pristimantis toftae.

Here’s why: At first, I was simply trying to record the call notes of this frog. In case you haven’t tried to find a calling frog in the forest understory, it’s almost impossible. Their call notes call from here, there, and everywhere, and triangulation is only possible from close range. But when you get that close, they stop calling. So I recorded it, played it back with the weak speaker on my Olympus LS-10 digital recorder, and the thing eventually jumped out at me. This tiny frog, less than an inch (maybe 15 mm) was ready to attack. So getting a good recording and a photo of the same critter, clinching the id (just short of getting a DNA sample analyzed) was a major coup. Totally awesome. Here’s a clip of one of the very distinctive songs (must be a record in length for this genus, as most are monotonous tinks).

Just before I began recording the frog, and not wanting to make any sudden movements, I heard some grunting from behind me. I turned around slowly to see this Tayra about 30 yards away, 20 feet up in a tree. I managed this one digibinned photo (my small point-and-shoot held up to my Zeiss 8x42 binoculars). If you can’t tell from the photo, it’s a very large, tropical weasel.

On my way to the lookout I heard a Saddle-backed Tamarin (a tiny monkey) and got some good recordings of its voice. I also recorded Band-tailed Manakin, another White-chinned Woodcreeper, and Bartlett’s Tinamou and heard some more familiar birds such as Scaly-breasted Wren and Variegated Tinamou. This latter bird calls so infrequently (once an hour?) I still have never recorded it.

Here is a view of the Madre de Dios River from the overlook just before sunset. Such a beautiful, peaceful place.

I lingered on the trails and walked a bit further “inland” until I heard my first night bird – an Ocellated Poorwill. Bird #112 for the day, and no water birds at all.

Then the frogging started. As I walked back to the lodge to be in time for a shower and 7:00 dinner, I noticed eyeshines in the trail. Especially in the muddy spots there were frogs. Sadly, I did not have recordings of their voices to go along with the photos, so figuring out which species they are is a challenge.

These next four may all be the same species of Leptodactylus.

But this Leptodactylus frog is definitely a different species, possibly L. didymus, judging from how common it is in the area by voice.

These three are probably all the same species of toad, Rhinella margaritifera, even though they all look quite different, with variation between individuals and age. I actually photographed a couple of these in the morning.

This last photo is of a treefrog in the genus Osteocephalus, a notoriously difficult group, though only two species should occur here, O. taurinus and O. pearsoni.

Ah, but I’ve saved the most exciting find of the day for the end. I’ve already had one thrill after the next today. What more could there be? Well, walking down the trail at dark, with my headlamp on, I spotted two astoundingly bright eyes in the trail about 30 yards ahead. Before I could gather my wits, they were gone. But my first impression was that of a cat.

Indeed. When I got to that part of the trail, I looked all around, and below me about 10 yards were the eyes. At first, all I could see was a head with a snout, and then assumed I had a brocket-deer (Montezuma sp.). Then it walked to the side showing its beautifully spotted pelage and a fluffy, long tail banded in black. OCELOT! The only similar species is Margay, normally arboreal and with a much longer, skinnier tail. This animal eventually found a place to watch me, totally silently, from about 25 yards away from which I could see most of its body. My third cat in the tropics, after having seen Jaguarundi in Costa Rica and Jaguar at Cristalino Jungle Lodge in Brazil.

What a day.