Last week was spent mainly in preparing the new aviaries for the captive blue throated macaws we have on site. These 6 birds were originally bred in England at Paradise Park, and donated to Bolivia as part of a programme to increase the wild population from captive born birds. Our 6 are too closely related to interbreed but we hope to pair them with other birds from zoos such as Santa Cruz, a nearby city in Bolivia.
Our project is run by the World Parrot Trust (their Facebook site Savetheparrot is worth a look). Our site in Sachokere near Trinidad, Bolivia, is privately owned by a local person who is interested in this flagship species, as the blue throated macaw is endemic to Bolivia but is only found in this department of Beni so it is important that locals get to know about it and take pride in it.
We have completed the wiring of the 2 aviaries, and have been cutting branches of ficus trees to plant in them. These should root easily and grow away, producing fruit that the birds can eat. We are also planting other tree species such as motacu, their staple diet which is available year round so they can learn about what to eat in the wild. The young our birds produce should be able to be released into the wild with a good chance of survival to augment the current population.....only about 200 birds total!
A bit of work to complete double entry doors and feeding arrangements and I'm hoping to still be around for the transfer of our macaws to their new surroundings. Their current aviaries (2) will then be available for breeding pairs to occupy.
As new fruits come into season that are suitable we are starting to introduce our birds to them. Current we collect motacu (palm fruit) for them and have been supplementing with sliced banana and Brazil nuts, ready shelled which they love. We've now stopped the Brazil's and tomorrow will give them their first taste of chontillo fruit (another small palm fruit) , lucky birds!
I spent my last day off visiting a village on the river Ibare, about 12km from Trinidad, so after the taxi to reach Trini I took a mototaxi (motorbike) to get there. The first one broke down after about 100m so I found another who was even cheaper 10 bolivianos or about £1. It was a lovely day so very pleasant way to travel, keeping cool and mosquito free! He took me to the village and drove through to the river pointing out the comedors where you can eat lunch. It's a quiet place with a naval base (interesting for a landlocked country, but they hope to regain some coast from Chile which they lost at some stage of history!). As much traffic in the forest goes by river they have quite a lot of work on the river for their men to train on.
There were 3 macaws being kept as pets in the comedors, blue and yellow macaws and a scarlet, both found locally. Often they poach the young birds from nests just before fledging to keep as pets or sell commercially, one of the reason so many species are threatened. At least the CITES convention no longer permits imports of wild birds into most countries but much smuggling continues locally.
The other main cause of low populations of many macaws is habitat loss, in part due to cattle ranching, clearing forest for grazing and the cattle eat new young trees so prevent regeneration and renewal of the forest.
It was lovely sitting eating my lunch in the restaurant by then river watching the floating clumps of grass and plants pass by, though I didn't see any more dolphins. Some cold beer and a huge plate of fried local fish with rice and plantain followed by a home made passion fruit ice cream - yum!
A pleasant stroll around the village chatting to a few locals and seeing lots of birds, then I made my way to the main road back to Trinidad. It was really hot walking so when there were no mototaxis in sight I was glad when a motorbike stopped to give me a lift - fortunately hitch hiking is pretty safe in this area. The guy was interested in where I came from and the work I'm doing here so it was a great trip back and he wouldn't take any money either!
Then I bought my goodies for the week - local cocoa solids to make choclte and a couple of bottles of wine plus some items for the other volunteers before getting the taxi back. I'm certainly having some different experiences here!!
On Tuesday I finally had a day out in the field with José on horseback, long promised! He picked me up at 7.15am and we drove to Loreto to pick up our rented horses, small but very sturdy and patient, with small western style saddles, though pretty hard despite the sheepskin cloth! We had to carry all our equipment in our backpacks plus waistpacks and I also had the extending pole which we mount the mini camer a on to look inside the nest cavities. It was about 2.5h ride to reach the remote property, la Cantina, inaccessible by vehicle due to swamps at this time of year. We crossed through swampy grassland and forest islands seeing hundreds of birds, huge groupsmod egrets and herons, ibis and southern lapwing plus some enormous southern screamers (well named!).
In parts our horses were in water up to their chests, weaq had to raise our feet to prevent them getting wet despite our wellies!
On arrival a quick lunch before checking various nests, mainly purpose built nest boxes on this property which is helping to conserve the blue throated macaw. We saw several adults and some eggs and young. Some nests had ducks, others wasps and bees so care was required before inserting the camera not to get stung! All went well and were finished in time to get back just as dusk fell, though the last hour jogging with all that weight on my back certainly left me with a sore backside! It was a long day but very satisfying, with an encounter with a caiman in the swamp on the return journey - fortunately only a young one about a metre long....
Another trip to prepare for on Saturday, a new volunteer started today too ,but more about that next time. A bientot!q
Thursday 26 March 2015
Tuesday 17 March 2015
16th March
Sunday we took a taxi into Trinidad to meet up with José, then another one for the 12 km trip out to the beautiful river Ibare, surrounded on both banks with forest. There we had a motor boat hired with pilot and his 2 young sons to help bail out the bilge water just for our group.
It was a lovely tranquil cruise, watching the many cormorants who nearly always took flight just before we reached them, perching in the next group of trees to repeat the sequence as we approached them again. Keeping our eyes peeled for the dolphins was not so easy as the water is a muddy brown - the dolphins can't use vision to find their way in the turbid water, they use a type of sonar. There were not many other species of birds visible in the mid morning, and no monkeys either. By the time we had spent an hour and had to turn round we hadn't had any sightings of the dolphins and were beginning to think they were in another part of the river. But suddenly I spotted one break the surface, and after that we kept sighting them, each one for just a second as they don't leap out, just surface enough to breathe. We could see their pink colouration and their strange narrow angular beak, I even caught one on film as evidence! So an inspiring trip, followed by lunch at another of the 4 restaurants managed by the owner of the land where where our Centre is situated. Caiman casserole with rice and plantain, washed down with 2 huge jugs of natural fruit juice (cant remember the name of the fruit, with added sugar, but very refreshing!), very nice and too much to finish all of it.
As we waited by the church for the taxi back it was interesting to see a cow in the side aisle eying us with suspicion, eventually she leapt over the wall to return to her grazing outside! There were lots of colourful butterflies and quite a few macaws and parakeets flying overhead, all of which José could identify by sound alone, he has amazing knowledge about parrots, a real addict.
The week settled to a rhythm of training with Rebecca, and waiting for the planned field trip to materialise, with problems hiring horses, sudden work commitments cropping up for José and torrential rain (glad we didn't go that day!). On Wednesday we usually do our weekly shop as the fresh fruit and veg come in by boat that day. However this time they were on strike, and as Rafa was too busy to go till the afternoon, by then there was nothing left. So we have had a week of surviving on tins, bread meat, rice and lentils and my cake.
Eventually José Nic and I set off on Sunday morning in the car with the intention that we would do a day's work with the wild blue throated macaws together, then leave Nic to take a taxi back whilst José and I took the two horses available to ride for 2.5h on to the next property and camp there for the night. We would then check the nests in that area before returning on the horses and drive back in the afternoon. As it turned out to be one of the hottest and most humid days so far, the long walk was quote a challenge for us all, and by the time we reached the nest area we were glad of the break in a lovely shady woodland glade for our picnic lunch of bread rolls with tuna and tomato, plus an apple. Even the mosquitoes didn't bother us too much!
Then we spotted our first pair of wild blue throated macaws, a magic moment, having seen the captive ones in our aviaries, it was wonderful to see what our work is striving to achieve - to keep them free in their natural habitat! We checked various nests, most of which are man made boxes at this site: one had 3 eggs, the next 2 chicks which were fully feathered and almost ready to fledge. Those we needed to weigh and take blood samples from (with the necessary permit of course) so José climbed up the palm tree using ropes, very tiring, then he had to avoid very strong beaks and claws in manipulating the chicks.
All completed, but we needed permission to ring the chicks and take the moulted adult feathers (very important genetic information for our study) that were in the nest boxes. After checking the final nest box to find 3 chicks, José decided it would be better to return later in the week to get all the information we needed from this site, and postpone the horse ride to the next property. So we all returned to the car and drive to nearby San Lorenzo to cancel the horses and speak to a local guy about the problems facing the macaws (political and social as well as habitat loss)
We bought coca cola for us all, as there were no tamarind ice creams to be had! We certainly needed to rehydrate! He then gave us fresh cheesy bread rolls still warm from the oven, yum! And his son hitched a lift with us to Trinidad, dropping Nic and I back at the Centre in Sachojere en route. A cool shower and clean clothes enabled us to enjoy some local beef with the few veg we had remaining, and a glass of wine to end a very special experience.
It was a lovely tranquil cruise, watching the many cormorants who nearly always took flight just before we reached them, perching in the next group of trees to repeat the sequence as we approached them again. Keeping our eyes peeled for the dolphins was not so easy as the water is a muddy brown - the dolphins can't use vision to find their way in the turbid water, they use a type of sonar. There were not many other species of birds visible in the mid morning, and no monkeys either. By the time we had spent an hour and had to turn round we hadn't had any sightings of the dolphins and were beginning to think they were in another part of the river. But suddenly I spotted one break the surface, and after that we kept sighting them, each one for just a second as they don't leap out, just surface enough to breathe. We could see their pink colouration and their strange narrow angular beak, I even caught one on film as evidence! So an inspiring trip, followed by lunch at another of the 4 restaurants managed by the owner of the land where where our Centre is situated. Caiman casserole with rice and plantain, washed down with 2 huge jugs of natural fruit juice (cant remember the name of the fruit, with added sugar, but very refreshing!), very nice and too much to finish all of it.
As we waited by the church for the taxi back it was interesting to see a cow in the side aisle eying us with suspicion, eventually she leapt over the wall to return to her grazing outside! There were lots of colourful butterflies and quite a few macaws and parakeets flying overhead, all of which José could identify by sound alone, he has amazing knowledge about parrots, a real addict.
The week settled to a rhythm of training with Rebecca, and waiting for the planned field trip to materialise, with problems hiring horses, sudden work commitments cropping up for José and torrential rain (glad we didn't go that day!). On Wednesday we usually do our weekly shop as the fresh fruit and veg come in by boat that day. However this time they were on strike, and as Rafa was too busy to go till the afternoon, by then there was nothing left. So we have had a week of surviving on tins, bread meat, rice and lentils and my cake.
Eventually José Nic and I set off on Sunday morning in the car with the intention that we would do a day's work with the wild blue throated macaws together, then leave Nic to take a taxi back whilst José and I took the two horses available to ride for 2.5h on to the next property and camp there for the night. We would then check the nests in that area before returning on the horses and drive back in the afternoon. As it turned out to be one of the hottest and most humid days so far, the long walk was quote a challenge for us all, and by the time we reached the nest area we were glad of the break in a lovely shady woodland glade for our picnic lunch of bread rolls with tuna and tomato, plus an apple. Even the mosquitoes didn't bother us too much!
Then we spotted our first pair of wild blue throated macaws, a magic moment, having seen the captive ones in our aviaries, it was wonderful to see what our work is striving to achieve - to keep them free in their natural habitat! We checked various nests, most of which are man made boxes at this site: one had 3 eggs, the next 2 chicks which were fully feathered and almost ready to fledge. Those we needed to weigh and take blood samples from (with the necessary permit of course) so José climbed up the palm tree using ropes, very tiring, then he had to avoid very strong beaks and claws in manipulating the chicks.
All completed, but we needed permission to ring the chicks and take the moulted adult feathers (very important genetic information for our study) that were in the nest boxes. After checking the final nest box to find 3 chicks, José decided it would be better to return later in the week to get all the information we needed from this site, and postpone the horse ride to the next property. So we all returned to the car and drive to nearby San Lorenzo to cancel the horses and speak to a local guy about the problems facing the macaws (political and social as well as habitat loss)
We bought coca cola for us all, as there were no tamarind ice creams to be had! We certainly needed to rehydrate! He then gave us fresh cheesy bread rolls still warm from the oven, yum! And his son hitched a lift with us to Trinidad, dropping Nic and I back at the Centre in Sachojere en route. A cool shower and clean clothes enabled us to enjoy some local beef with the few veg we had remaining, and a glass of wine to end a very special experience.
Saturday 7 March 2015
7th March
Another week gone, and I hardly know where the time goes! Our new volunteer Rebecca, from England, arrived on Monday, and with her extrovert character and love of music, she has livened up the centre. On Tuesday we started another project, a phrenology study, of the trees that provide food for the localarrot species. This is an ongoing study, where 223 trees of around 12 different species have previously been tagged and their stage of flowering/fruiting, or not noted. We now had to repeat the rounds and update the information to learn about food availability for the birds in the wild. Nic and Rafa did the first day, and I did the second with Rafa ( he did the initial round and can identify the flowering/fruiting stages) - 7h walking through marshland and flooded forest with some drier paths, pretty tiring with water levels over the tops of our wellingtons so wet feet all day too. But I made it, and learnt a lot about the species of trees, and we saw some interesting birds, monkeys and insects, plus tadpoles, bright pink frog's eggs and an amazing spider. I've just come back from my second day and we finished the last trees, so very satisfying, having logged the last of the data in the computer.
Thursday it rained all day so it was a quiet day at the centre, as was Wednesday for me as the others all spent the day in
Trinidad at meetings and doing the weekly food shop, along with exciting things like visa renewals! So I communed with the macaws and gave them lots of fresh branches to chew their way through. Friday was my day off, time for a haircut and a good lunch at a fish restaurant, very tasty! And some exploring of parts of Trinidad I hadn't been to.
Tomorrow there's a possibility of a trip to see the pink river dolphins which would be great, but it depends on weather and availability of the boat. José is back on town after a week of meetings in La Paz, so we should be doing more field work this week with him, and see blue throated macaws in the wild. Looking forward to that!
Thursday it rained all day so it was a quiet day at the centre, as was Wednesday for me as the others all spent the day in
Trinidad at meetings and doing the weekly food shop, along with exciting things like visa renewals! So I communed with the macaws and gave them lots of fresh branches to chew their way through. Friday was my day off, time for a haircut and a good lunch at a fish restaurant, very tasty! And some exploring of parts of Trinidad I hadn't been to.
Tomorrow there's a possibility of a trip to see the pink river dolphins which would be great, but it depends on weather and availability of the boat. José is back on town after a week of meetings in La Paz, so we should be doing more field work this week with him, and see blue throated macaws in the wild. Looking forward to that!
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