Belluda Caño & El Dorado River
Today we all woke up very early and in good spirits. Last night we navigated a long way to enter into the Ucayali River, one of the largest tributaries of the mighty Amazon River and one of the two most important rivers that serve as boundaries of the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve in the Upper Amazon of Peru.
At around 6:15 a.m. we headed to Belluda Caño, a narrow black water stream located crossing the Ucayali River from a small community known as Yanallpa. With a lot of patience and equipped with cameras and binoculars we searched for wildlife from our comfortable skiffs.
One after the other several tropical bird species appeared in front of our eyes or were spotted by our eagle eyes team of naturalists. Noisy White-winged parakeets also known as Canary-winged Parakeets (Brotogeris versicolorus), Tui Parakeets (Brotogeris sanctithomae), beautiful Orange-cheeked Parrots (Pyrilia barrabandi), stunning Scarlet Macaws (Ara macao), Black-collared Hawk (Busarellus nigricollis) and an imposing Roadside Hawk (Buteo magnirostris) were just examples of the many rainforests birds we saw.
Another remarkable sighting was a Night or Owl monkey (Aotus vociferans). This rather uncommonly seen animal is the only monkey species in South America with huge eyes and nocturnal activity. Night monkeys live in small family groups of two to five individuals, feed on fruit, insects, and flower nectar and are relatively sedentary. By day they sleep mainly in in tree hollows where they can be seen spending long hours just sitting quietly.
The rest of the morning was devoted to a couple of presentations. I had a Power Point presentation about the morphology, ecology and behavioral notes of the monkey species of the reserve that was followed by an amusing exhibition by one of our Delfin II naturalists, Renny Coquinche who opened, sliced and talked about the many Amazon fruits of the area.
The afternoon started late because we intended to return late. Our skiffs were up the El Dorado River, a waterway which comes from deep inside the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve. We saw several bird species; some Brown-three toed Sloths (Bradypus variegatus) and enjoyed the late sounds of the forest at sunset. On the way back and with the aid of powerful spotlights we came back covered with the night. We spotted some juvenile Cayman alligators (Cayman cocodrillus) and a couple of nocturnal bird species the Great Potoo (Nyctibius grandis) and the Common Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis). Back for showers at around 19:00, dinner and a bit of sensational live music before retiring for the night to get ready for tomorrow and a brand new day of exploration.
