Belluda Caño & El Dorado Caño
With high spirits we boarded our skiffs and headed out in the early morning at 0630. We explored the Ucayali River looking for Macaws nesting sites. We were successful, for after looking around for approximately 20 minutes our patience paid off, and we had a wonderful sighting of a courting Blue and Yellow Macaw couple. The interchange of short flights, beak contact, and raucous calls was more than appropriate to celebrate in a very unusual way Valentine’s Day!
When we were turning off the Ucayali River and heading up a small tributary Belluda Caño, we a very unusual sighting. We observed a hummingbird, later identified as a juvenile Long-tailed Hermit (Phaethornis superciliosus) falling into a spider web! We were just some few feet away. After struggling for a couple of minutes the hummingbird escaped alive leaving in us the feeling that we witnessed an extraordinary event. It is the first time in my career of way over 20 years as a naturalist that I can observe such extraordinary event.
Belluda Caño was as its best today. This small tributary, about 20 feet wide, offered us wonderful personal glimpses of the rain forest and its abundant wildlife. We spotted Jacamars and Tanagers and several parrot species including the fairly large Mealy parrot.
The solitude and peacefulness of drifting along the creek, observing and listening to the forest sounds, makes you feel in connection with nature and makes you think that the outside world seems so far away. As our skiff slips into a narrow section of the forest, we observed a dead hollow tree with several holes. In one of the holes that were directly overhead us, four small heads were peeking down. We spotted a family group of Night monkeys, the only genuinely nocturnal monkey species in the world. These not-well-known primates have a beautiful owl-like rounded big head with huge eyes surrounded by white fur. The latter characteristics are good indicators of the monkey’s nocturnal habits. At night these creatures forage eating fruits, buds, insects and flower nectar.
Then more surprises were waiting for us. We spotted a family of Monk Saki Monkeys, a male, a female, and the offspring. For long minutes we observed these monkeys collecting fruits, interacting with each other, moving around, and even the juvenile playing with one of its parents.
Just when we were extremely happy and commenting how good the morning has been, a large Saddle Back Tamarin monkey troop appeared on the scene. It was extremely amusing watching the little creatures running up and down everywhere. The most amazing sighting was watching how one of the monkeys attempted to cross the creek by jumping from one tree to the other at about ninety feet high! A brave one tried it, we saw how the little monkey literally flew over in front of us missing the tree in the opposite shore and falling in the water! It took us by surprise provoking laughter and amazement.
We returned for breakfast which was followed by one of my favorite natural history talks on “The Morphology, Ecology and Behavioral Notes of the Primates of the Pacaya Samiria Reserve.” I included in the talk some monkey pictures that I just took earlier in the morning as well.
After lunch at three o’clock, Delfin II naturalist Renny Coquinche delighted us with his knowledge of some of the medicinal plants he collected in last couple of days. We left at four heading up “El Dorado” River for a long excursion returning after dark to the ship. On our trip, we saw several Three-toed Sloths, one with a baby, and some Squirrel Monkey troops.
The transition from day to night in the neotropical rain forest is an amazing time to see the wildlife transition along the river. As the light faded, naturalists used big spotlights to locate nocturnal wildlife. Fishing bats were flying up and down the river, using their echolocation techniques to find fish from the ripples fish make as they come to the surface to catch insects. We also found some small spectacled caimans in the floating vegetation.
After dinner, some talented musician members of the ship’s crew entertained us with lively music in the dining room putting a golden finale of a remarkable day of exploration.
