alan lee el gato expedition report 2006

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Posada and Refugio Amazonas Macaw Project Summary

July, 2006.

Special Edition: Expedition El Gato

Alan Lee and Leonor Yesenia QuispePhotos by Alan Lee

Introduction

From 30 June to 7 July a field course was held at the lodge Inotawa for 7 students fromthe Manchester Metropolitan University on Neotropical monitoring methodologies.Following the completion of this successful course, all students decided to stay to workon projects relating to the Tambopata Macaw Project until 12 August. David Keable iscurrently doing a project at Posada Amazonas to investigate the impact of playback of

bird activity around claylicks at the colpita (Blind II), where feeding is irregular. PeterCohen is at Refugio Amazonas looking at flight bearings and call rate, a project beingdone in conjunction with Steven Ward and myself looking at the impacts of clay lickson flight bearings. 3 other students are at Inotawa, doing studies based around activityat the Explorers Inn clay lick. 2 Students, Liam Soden and Chris Wills decided to do

projects at the El Gato Clay licks. Unfortunately, they did not decide to complete theirprojects, and this report revolves around what was observed so that future touristoperations can be considered to these sites.

The second part of this report is a summary of activities by Yesenia Quispe, a Peruvianfrom Puerto Maldonado whose participation in the project has been sponsored by theNGO TReeS-UK


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Study Site and Locations

Map of key sites along the El Gato River.1. Familia Ramirez, El Gato Waterfalls2. Colpa del Puente, Parakeet claylick3. Colpa Gato2, Parakeet claylick

4. Colpa Wasai5. Giant Otter Campsite6. Mammal Colpa7. Puerto El Gato8. Refugio Amazonas

Activities and Observations

9th July I set off from Refugio with Liam Soden and Christopher Wills in peke peke tothe El Gato waterfalls. We arrived around 9.30am, but Eduardo Ramirez, the man whoowns the house near the waterfall was not there, only his wife. As the peke had to go

back down river, I decided we should unload everything and risk a welcome. In themeantime, I decided to test my memory of the trail I have walked only once manyyears ago on a trip with Inotawa. I found the trail head, and we walked for about 35minutes, eventually coming to a cleared area on the edge of the El Gato river, with anobvious clay lick on the opposing bank. We started clearing the area in preparation formaking a blind. My initial reaction was that it was smaller than the Biosphere reporthad made out, but it was clearly in use, with cavities hollowed out from use probably bycapybara and tapir.

Back at the house, we met Eduardo, who was kindly disposed to having us stay in

return for $10 per person for which he would prepare meals. We had brought someprovisions, luckily, as there was nearly nothing in the house apart from some dried fish.


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They also have 2 pet Dusky-headed Parakeets, who give a mean bite, but they were abit too small to eat.

After lunch the boys and I headed out to the claylick to build our blind. On the wayback, we were crossing the fallen tree which acts as a bridge to get to the other side,

when we heard loads of Cobalt-winged Parakeets in a tree a bit further upriver. Wenoticed that there was a cleared area on the bank, with signs of a clay lick. This ishereafter referred to as Colpa del Puente.

10July, we headed out early. We all went to the blind at Colpa Gato2, where loads ofMealy Parrots arrived in the trees. However, they were skittish, maybe because we were4 people in the area. I could see by the constant flushing that they would not comedown. I decided to go to see where else the birds could be going. Heading to Colpa delPuente I could hear Dusky-headed Parakeets ahead. Creeping through the bamboo Icould see them in the branches over the clay, and as I watched they were joined byMealy Parrots. I was expecting them to go down at any second but there was a massive

flush, and I could see around 100 Mealy Parrots flying downriver. I wondered what Ihad done. I waited a further 10 minutes, to see if they would come back, but they didnot, so I went to the water edge. Above the clay lick a Slate-colored Hawk was perchedin a palm, which was probably the reason for the big flush.

Liam and Chris had not seen any feeding. Liam continued to monitor, observingpigeons and Spix Guan, while I went with Chris to build another hide at the other claylick. Since we had no more material, only rope, we cut loads of bamboo, which we tiedtogether to make a blind. We did this as there is hardly any shapaja close by to make a

palm leaf blind. At about 10:00, Liam took over from Chris for hide building duties,and we went off to find palm leaves as we had run out of rope. On our return, I couldhear that there were more Cobalt-winged Parakeets and Black-capped Parakeets in thetrees. Suspecting they would come down, we made ourselves comfortable in the new

blind. Not more than 10-15 minutes later and the first birds landed on the clay. For thenext hour we were counting 20 to 60 parakeets on the lick. In the afternoon I went tothe Colpa Gato2, where loads of Cobalt-winged Parakeets were busy descendingthrough the trees. However, they were headed for a part of the lick out of sight, a bitupriver, and behind some vegetation. I estimated 30-60 were feeding, and again feedinglasted nearly an hour. Meeting up with Chris and Liam, again they had not seenfeeding, as a raptor, which fitted the description of an Ornate Hawk Eagle hadfrightened everything off.


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Cobalt-winged feeding activity at the Colpa del Puente.

Hide built at the Colpa del Puente

11 July we headed to the clay licks again. It was misty, but there were lots of MealyParrots building up. However, around 7am they started dispersing, for no apparentreason. I could hear lots of activity a bit further upriver, and suspected another clay lick.I left Chris, and headed off through the forest to see what was going on. I finally caughtsight of a piece of clay covered in Dusky-headed Parakeets and Orange-cheekedParrots. This was obviously the clay lick that Biosphere had monitored 2001. While wewere cutting a trail there we heard Scarlet Macaws and Red and Green Macaws in thevicinity.


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Colpa Wasai.

Eduardo Ramirez told me Wasai used to use the lick, but not anymore due to accessproblems as their trail crossed the land of several comuneros. Sometimes they enter togo to the licks via his farm, paying 5 soles for access.

In the evening of the 11th we all headed to Refugio Amazonas. I carried one of thedouble Kayaks to the El Gato port with Elvis. A Short-eared Dog was seen on the way.

Short-eared Dog seen at Refugio Amazonas in March 2006.

12 July Liam and Chris headed back to El Gato to continue monitoring, especially ofthe Colpa Wasai.


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Merel and I did a canoe trip down the El Gato, to see if we could find any new claylicks on the upper section closer to Refugio. We left at 5am to try and get to KarimsMammal Colpa for a time to see if there was any parrot activity. Heading down theriver went well, although there were many poles and beaches to navigate, and we onlyarrived at a colpa found by Karim on a previous expedition at 7:20, not having seen any

other colpa before then. There were Mealy Parrots and Chestnut-fronted Macaws in thearea, but if there had been feeding we had missed it. We had not seen either of thosespecies on the way down, only White-eyed Parakeet, Orange-Cheeked Parrot andCobalt-winged Parakeets flying overhead. The colpa is definitely a mammal colpa, withloads of tracks of tapir, deer, paca, sajino, even ocelot. I suspect it is used by parrotstoo.

El Gato River very dry!

Another hour or so later we saw 4 Giant River Otters in the water before us. We halted,2 saw us, while 2 kept playing, as we struggled to get our cameras from the dry boxesand bags. Surprisingly enough, we had time to shoot a few shots. We had an amazingsighting of one on land, but they were stressed and headed downstream ahead of us.However, we did have 2 more sightings on the way down, until eventually I suspectthey headed into an oxbow lake to escape us.

Giant River Otter on the El Gato River.


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Passing the Colpitas on the lower section of the river around 10:00 where we had builtthe hides in the previous days we heard many Cobalt-winged Parakeets and also Black-capped Parakeet.

We arrived at the end of the El Gato at 10:30 or so. From there it took us 2 hours to getto Refugio, a long paddle as the Tambopata River was low and wind was high.

13 July Liam and Chris monitored Colpa Wasai. Blue-headed Parrots, Dusky-headedParakeets and Orange-cheeked Parrots were observed feeding in the early morning.Mealy Parrots and Chestnut-fronted Macaws were observed in the vicinity. ScarletMacaws were observed feeding both mid-morning and late-afternoon.

14 July Liam and Chris monitored Colpa Wasai and the Colpa Puente. Feeding wasagain observed at Colpa Wasai, but Wasai tourists disturbed activity at Colpa Puente,

passing by at 7:30.

Liam and Chris decided to head to Refugio on this day and forego any furthermonitoring, as they were not happy with the living conditions with the Ramirez familyand the lack of running water and bathroom facilities.

I conducted my own transects in the early morning. At about 10am I headed off to tryand get to the Karim Mammal colpa by land, I followed the trail to the water pump,across other side, and then walked up the stream for a while, passing a small possibleSajino clay lick. I then continued up the left side for a while, until running out of trails,when I crossed over and started heading west through the jungle. I came out onto ahuge logging road system, and headed south on a major road, cutting vegetation as Iwent. I came around a corner and to my surprise, only meters from me a Short-earedDog was on the trail. It stood there looking at me, me looking at it, it almost seemed to

be saying Well here I am, in the sunlight, so close, where is your camera? Eventuallyit got bored and started to walk away, but stopped to sit down and scratch its ear. At afallen tree on the path it headed off into the jungle, and I followed, watching it wonderaway, relaxed. I continued south for a long way, before realising I needed to go westotherwise I would end up at El Gato again. I headed into the jungle, using compass as aguide, for about half an hour. I then came out at the El Gato river, where I was able toturn on my GPS again, only to see I was still 1.5km from the clay lick. Unfortunately,

possibly due to cloudy weather, my GPS had not been able to maintain a signal. As it

was already 13:00 I knew I would not make it, so headed back. I had to navigate manyfelled Tornillo trees until coming out onto a big logging road that eventually broughtme to the Potrero across the way from Refugio. To reach the Colpa de Mamiferos on ElGato, a trail of about 2.5km will need to be cut from this access road. I suggest thatexplorations be undertaken from properties acquired further upriver where access to

both major clay licks will be of a shorter distance.

After all this walking Elvis and I carried the double Kayak to Puerto El Gato inpreparation for the following day departure to try and see if the mammal clay lick hadparrot activity.

16 July 06


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Anja and I did the canoe trip down El Gato, leaving the lodge at 4:15. We were on theriver by 5:35. We made good progress until we saw 4 heads dotting in the water afamily of Neotropical otters! They swam off down stream and we had a couple moresightings before they slipped away.

Neotropical Otter on Rio El Gato.

We nearly passed the Mammal Colpa around 7:00 there was no activity and thereshould have been as it was a cloudy day and this is the time they are generally going tothe clay lick at this time of year. We frightened off an agouti from the vicinity, but therewere no birds. When we stopped and waited we heard not more than 10 mealy parrotsin the area.

8 Red and Green Macaws were seen at Colpa Wasai, and 2 capybaras in the vicinitytoo.


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INFORME SOBRE PROYECTO GUACAMAYO N.-001

Elaborado por Leonor Yesenia Quispe, Julio 2006

El trabajo que estoy realizando en el proyecto es interesante y muy importante para miya que se trabaja directamente con la conservacin de los psitacidos encontrndosealgunas de estas especies en situacin vulnerable.Al comienzo me fue un poco difcil aprender los sonidos de los guacamayos, loros y

periquitos pero ahora siento que ya aprendi debido a las constantes practicas y a mivoluntad y esfuerzo por seguir aprendiendo.En el proyecto se realiza distintas actividades como:

1. Transectos.- en las 3 trochas que tenemos con diferentes distancias y endiferentes turnos.

Manana

JOHI.- 0 2000; 2000 0NEW.- 0 5000; 5000 0; 3000 5000; 3000 0; 2000 0; 2000 5000POS.- 0 5000; 5000 0; 3000 5000; 3000 0; 2000 0; 2000 5000

TARDEJOHI; NEW; Y POS de 0 2000; 2000 0

Cada km se hace en una hora tomando en cuenta el clima cada 15 minutos, viento ytratar de ver cuantas especies estan en vuelo y reconocerlo y en caso que las avesestan perchados tomar la distancia desde la trocha medirlo o estimarlo y observarque actividad estan haciendo, comiendo, llamando o simplemente nada. Y apuntarla direccion del vuelo a donde se estan dirigiendo las aves. Esta actividad seempieza a las 5:54 am y en la tarde 15:15 pm.

2. Call Rate Esta actividad se realiza en la torre pero antes tenemos que mirar lapizarra si va haber turistas en la torre. En caso que hayga nosotros buscamosotra opcion y vamos al overlook. La jornada aqu es apuntar el tiempo de vueloy de perchado de las aves, contar el sonido que emiten si es loud o soft, ladireccin hacia donde van; el clima cada 15 minutos y de igual manera elviento.

Se comienza con la actividad 5:54 am.Lo que es mas importante en estas 2 actividades es tener aves perchados.

3. Monitoreo de colpa se realiza en 2 colpas

Colpa de loros y pericos aqu empieza el monitoreo desde las 5:45 hasta 8:00;9:00 o 10:00 esta colpa se encuentra en medio del bosque. Se pueden observarmealy parrots, yellow crowned parrots, orange cheecked parrots, blue headed

parrots, white eyed parakeets, cobalt winged parakeets, black capped parakeets,dusky headed parakeets, spixs guans, y speckled chachalaca.

Colpa de guacamayos La actividad aqui es de 5:45 a 5:00 pm es decir todo el diaaqui tambien se puede observar mealy parrots, yellow crowned parrots, orange


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cheecked parrots, blue headed parrots, white eyed parakeets, cobalt wingedparakeets, black capped parakeets, dusky headed parakeets, spixs guans, speckledchachalaca, y red and green macaws.Aqui se toma en cuenta la primera ave escuchado o visto, la hora que el ave se

percha en el arbol mas cercano a la colpa, la hora que empezo a colpear el ave. Y

despus que termina la actividad se hace el conteo mximo de especies vistas, setoma el clima cada 5 minutos al igual cuando se encuentra colpeando la especie, las

botes a la hora que pasan por la colpa si es fuera de borda o peke la distancia a lacolpa, en caso de peke el ruido que esta causando si es fuerte, mediano o ligero ylos espantos que provoca y tambien otros factores disturbantes como los turistas aque hora llegan y cuando se van y tambien de las rapaces si han causado algunespanto en los arboles o en la colpa.

4. Conteo de arboles con frutas o sin frutas esto se realiza cada fin de mes encada 100 m de cada uno de los km con arboles que se encuentran enumeradosde la A I. Se puede empezar a cualquier hora del dia.

Son todas las actividades que realizo junto al equipo del proyecto guacamayos.

Me siento contenta y feliz trabajando en el proyecto cada dia que pasa y ladistintas actividades que se realiza es una experiencia muy bonita y pienso quesiempre estoy aprendiendo algo nuevo para mi.

Acknowledgements

Elvis El Mozo, Daphne Matsufuji, Merel Breedveld, Anja Kirchdoerfer, Liam Soden,Chris Wills, Eduardo Nycander, Kurt Holle, Mario Napravnik.

alan lee el gato expedition report 2006

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