Bob and I joined the others for eggs and fried plantains and then hiked down the trail to our bus. We continued up the 5N, the highway we have been following from Tarapoto that runs over the Andes to the north coast of Peru.
We stopped at an overlook and watched the fog flowing over distant hills and spotted several birds. The highway has fairly heavy traffic of huge trucks and large buses which we have to be constantly aware of as in most places there is only a deep concrete culvert separating us from the traffic!
It started to rain so we returned to the bus and drove south to lower elevations trying to find sunnier weather. The rain pursued us but we had several nice stops. We found a female Blue-fronted Lancebill, a green hummingbird with a patch of iridescent powder blue on her forehead, feeding on a cascade of tiny bright purple flowers - a lovely sight! At a wooded area there was a flock of White-fronted Nunbirds crammed on a branch and chatting up a storm like a bunch of noisy schoolchildren.
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| White-fronted Nunbirds |
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| Great Thrush with bromiliads |
We returned to the lodge for a good lunch of chopped salad and beef stewed with tomatoes and peppers and another drink, this time made from toasted malt and tasting slightly of chocolate.
We have an hour off and then are to meet at the head of a steep muddy trail near our bus park where we are going to hike slowly down to a spot where the rare Long-whiskered Owlet can be seen at dusk. The owlet was only discovered in 1976 and lives only in this vicinity. We will not get back until after dark and are taking flashlights, rubber boots, umbrellas, etc!
At 3:30 we all assembled at the trail head and started down. Bob and I wore our Costa Rican rubber boots - purchased 25 years ago and with a few patches are still surviving very well - and were very happy we had as the trail was steep and quite muddy. It took us two hours to arrive at the owlet site. We dropped 500’ in 0.6 miles and since part of that was an open level meadow, most of the trail was very steep, and also was full of loose rocks, sapling stumps and high steps. When we could stop and look around, we found ourselves in a Shangri-La of bamboo, flowering trees, palms, and views of jungle-shrouded mountains. Once at the owlet site we sat on two benches to wait for sundown. Bob brilliantly had a large plastic bag in his pack so we could sit dryly!
The sun set at six and it grew rapidly darker. John and Pepe played the owlet tape and one of the very rare owlets answered! Several of us noticed a small black shape fly by, but the owlet never came to the branches in front of us as we had hoped. We moved down the trail about 50’ and assembled on a slight rise, standing rather precariously on a muddy slope. We all stood there in the dark perfectly still watching brilliant fireflies and heard the owlet hooting some distance away. It would answer our tape but never came nearby. Finally after 45 minutes we moved very stiffly back to the benches, and decided to call it a night. The full moon was rising over the mountain tops and it was quite lovely as we started the steep climb back. Several of us had a tough time climbing up but all of us made it to the lodge by 8:30 and collapsed into a good reviving dinner of soup, linguini and tomato sauce with chunks of fish, and rice pudding supplemented with large Cusqueño beers! Breakfast at 6 AM mañana! The rain resumed as we headed back to our cabin.
We have an hour off and then are to meet at the head of a steep muddy trail near our bus park where we are going to hike slowly down to a spot where the rare Long-whiskered Owlet can be seen at dusk. The owlet was only discovered in 1976 and lives only in this vicinity. We will not get back until after dark and are taking flashlights, rubber boots, umbrellas, etc!
At 3:30 we all assembled at the trail head and started down. Bob and I wore our Costa Rican rubber boots - purchased 25 years ago and with a few patches are still surviving very well - and were very happy we had as the trail was steep and quite muddy. It took us two hours to arrive at the owlet site. We dropped 500’ in 0.6 miles and since part of that was an open level meadow, most of the trail was very steep, and also was full of loose rocks, sapling stumps and high steps. When we could stop and look around, we found ourselves in a Shangri-La of bamboo, flowering trees, palms, and views of jungle-shrouded mountains. Once at the owlet site we sat on two benches to wait for sundown. Bob brilliantly had a large plastic bag in his pack so we could sit dryly!
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| Waitiing for dark at the Owlet site |
The sun set at six and it grew rapidly darker. John and Pepe played the owlet tape and one of the very rare owlets answered! Several of us noticed a small black shape fly by, but the owlet never came to the branches in front of us as we had hoped. We moved down the trail about 50’ and assembled on a slight rise, standing rather precariously on a muddy slope. We all stood there in the dark perfectly still watching brilliant fireflies and heard the owlet hooting some distance away. It would answer our tape but never came nearby. Finally after 45 minutes we moved very stiffly back to the benches, and decided to call it a night. The full moon was rising over the mountain tops and it was quite lovely as we started the steep climb back. Several of us had a tough time climbing up but all of us made it to the lodge by 8:30 and collapsed into a good reviving dinner of soup, linguini and tomato sauce with chunks of fish, and rice pudding supplemented with large Cusqueño beers! Breakfast at 6 AM mañana! The rain resumed as we headed back to our cabin.
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