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| A tern atop a tree, stretching its wings (bigger image). |
Saturday, April 18, fifth day in Perú ( I )
On the Amazon
A change from the routine today. Breakfast on the waters of the Amazon, but I’ll let my journal speak:
«Wakeup call was at 6:30, but we both rose well before that. Departure by skiff at 7:00, to do a little nature-observing before an al-fresco breakfast, with the three skiffs tied together [side by side, for stability]. Fruit skewers, ham and cheese sandwich, then a bacon and egg sandwich, then a little muffin, then Brazil-nut cookies, then another cookie, this one filled. And coffee. More exploration after breakfast. We saw squirrel monkeys, loads of birds, and more birds.»
I’m surprised that I got a few relatively clear shots this day. On the extreme left, Mark identifies the yellow-and-black bird as a black-capped Donacobius, and next to that, a yellow-headed caracara. Generally speaking, this day I snapped the shutter many times, and got precious few decent pictures. The picture of the slate-colored hawk to the right is the only one I got of that bird. I do like the nice orange socks he’s wearing, though.
If you compare these pages with those of, for instance, Chile or New Zealand, you’ll see that there are far fewer pictures of plants, flowers, or foliage here. Partly it’s that our naturalists, who knew everything about animals, did not share much information about plants; partly that being not on foot, we could not, in most cases, approach the vegetation very conveniently or very close. So it was a nice treat to be able to get a good and clear shot of the passion-flower to the right. There’s a similarly-colored flower available in the trade if you’re living in Florida, but its corona is yellow. Not every wildflower can be tamed for your garden!
There were still interesting things to see—like the bats you see to the right, hanging from the underside of the tree. Identification? Almost certainly lesser long-nosed bat, though the description in the always-reliable Wikipedia doesn’t fully agree with what I think I see in the picture. I was surprised that they had their eyes open, though. And how about that insect nest to the far right? Mark thought it was ants, but I would have guessed wasps. Some kind of (anti-)social insect, anyhow.
Later on, we passed a crowd of large-billed terns, and I took inordinately many pictures, some few of which turned out (ahem). It might be surprising that I took so many snaps, considering my dicey history with the birds. But the picture of one in flight over there to the extreme left was pretty good, and I got several decent pictures, beyond the one at the top of this page, of the bird playing stylite.
In the second row of pictures to the left, there’s another one of those nests, but if you look closely, you see that it’s definitely an ants’ nest this time; and the construction is sufficiently different from the previous one that I’m still not convinced that that other one wasn’t some wasps’ abode. The soaring bird next to it is hard to identify because it’s so backlit, and face it, even the big version isn’t all that clear. But Mark and I both think it’s some kind of vulture, probably black vulture. Nice display of the flight feathers of the wings, though.
| Another clip, giving an idea of the density of Amazon vegetation (29 sec.) |
Just a few more pictures before lunch time, but I definitely wanted to crow (ahem) about that nice shot of the yellow-rumped cacique over to the left. I only wish that all my shots of birds were so clear. These birds build hanging nests out of lengths of vines or lianas as you see here; Mark has some pictures of these nests, but I managed not to take any shots of them.
Just before noon, we got a spectacular sky to admire; the thumbnails to the left need no comment.
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| What greeted us midmorning when we returned from our skiff excursion (big image, small). |
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The pictures from after lunch are mostly of an entirely different kind, and I have put them on the next page.