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
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