Puerto Maldonado and Tambopata Macaw project

I was very tired when we got to Lima in the middle of the night. we slept on the floor all the benches were being used.

Our plane to Puerto Maldonado

Tuk tuks everywhere! 

only 3 soles to go anywhere, I like to pay

Mom says Adam is going to get fleas

Puerto Maldonado

The market is colorful

Our first macaw

 Macaw project

The macaw project is in the Tambopata National Reserve.
 It is in the amazon rainforest in the south basin by the Madre de Dios river.

Mom will put in the pictures when we have internet that is faster we tried and tried but couldn't get them to work!

www.macawproject.org
Facebook tambopatamacawproject

TRC- Tambopata Research Centre
There are scarlet macaws that come to the lodge they call the chicos. They are awesome! I have met Tabasco, Inoccencio, Chuchuuy, Tabasco junior and her boyfriend, Tabasco junior and her boyfriend are not Chicos but the chick of Tabasco who is a Chico. They like to fly into the researchers office and our rooms they have nests nearby but come and visit. Inoccencio and Chuchuuy have a chick together.
The chicos are 32 macaws that were hand raised at the lodge when Edwardo Nycander saved them or they would have died. There were 5 red and green macaws, 21 scarlet macaws and 6 blue and yellow macaws. He saved them because he wanted to learn more about them and reintroduced them into the wild. That was in 1992-1995.

At the research centre they do a lot of different things, they are trying to learn all about the macaws.
There are 45 nests that they monitor and climb. 25 are artificial 15 are made out of pvc and 10 are wood.
51 eggs were laid
31 eggs were fertilised
22 egg were hatched
11 chicks were predated that means they did not survive.
11 Chicks survived, 2 of them are red green macaws and 9 are scarlet macaws.
There names are, Cumbria, Hugo, Mandy Lu, LA, Tapir 1&2, Senati, Max and Bill are scarlet macaws Vaginito 1&2 they are red and green macaws.
Max just died so now there is 10 alive right now. We had a necropsy on Max's body to see what happened. I went and watched it wasn't to terrible we think he choked on food. A necropsy is a autopsy for bird, Max was a scarlet macaw and 79 days old he was only 4 days away from fledging.


This year was not a good year for nesting because of the El Niño. El Niño is a Change in weather. It didn't rain very much during the breeding season so the trees didn't provide enough food and nutrients for the birds to make good eggs or feed the chicks. Normally they have lots of rain and the trees give nutrients and food that more chicks hatch and survive.

Things you do at the research centre

A LOT of walking! The longest trail we do is 3630m. You also do a lot of sitting!

Census
You stand for 10 minutes at each spot marked on the map and look and listen for macaws, parrots and parakeets. You have to mark down if the Macaw, parrot or parakeet was flying or perched. If it is perched you mark down how far it was away and the direction using a compass. You are in the forest for 2-3 hours walking.

The first census I went on it was muddy and wet some of the water was over the top of my rubber boots they had a flood 5 days ago. We saw 4 scarlet macaws and we heard blue headed parrots, mealy parrots, red belly macaw and a orange cheeked parrot. I loved it. It was a amazing day.
My second census I saw white throated Toucans, a bright orange and yellow bug and a Tamarin monkey, Cool!

Foraging walks
Foraging walks are between 1 and 4 km
In a foraging walk you walk slowly through the forest and you look for macaws, parrots and parakeets eating if you find them eating you walk through the jungle to the bottom of the tree they are in and pick up a sample of the food they eat. You write down what you found or if you can't identify it you bring it back to the research centre so you can figure it out.

Nest OBS
Is from 5 -11 in the morning or from 11 till 17:00
First you have to set  up the camera with your t.v, second thing you set up your chairs and sit down, there you write all of the things that happen in the tree like what the nesting male or female (mom or dad) are doing outside nest, on top of the nest, entrance of nest, inside nest and weather. You also write down if there is a outsider macaws or predators like avian or mammals like a spider monkey or toucan in the tree. You also write down if they make alarms calls or fight.
It can be very uneventful sometimes but it can get very eventful some times too you can look at the t.v. And see what is happening inside the nest too.



Collpa and Arrivals
Is also from 5 -11 in the morning or from 11 till 17:00 you get take a boat to the collpa it is only 2 mins away.
The best time to go is in the morning because there are usually lots of birds around getting their breakfast of clay and coffee ;) When you get to the collpa you set up your chairs and start watching the collpa when the birds land on the clay lick you write down when and what kind and how many birds there are every 5 minutes. You also write down the weather cloud, sun, rain or fog. Its like a really busy restaurant  there sometimes more than a hundred birds on the clay lick and you have to identify all of them fast! It's crazy! You also have to figure out what the family groups are. You have to figure out if the group has adults and juveniles. Juveniles usually have a smaller tail and when they are flying they are awkward and bump into the adults. When they are juveniles they have black eyes and once they get mature they get yellow irises. Sometimes there are peccaries, spider monkeys or Tayras they scare the birds away when all the birds fly away it is called a flush if only some fly away it's called a partial flush. When you go to the collpa you sometimes get to see the black camain that we think lives in the spot they call the fish pond.
Arrivals you go to the lost Island and write all the birds you see that are going to the collpa. You also have to write down what direction they are coming from and how many groups and total number of birds.


Nest Fights
There are 45 nest that are split into 6 different routes and you have to stand under each tree for 10 minutes and you are looking for birds if they are interacting with each other or fighting or being territorial. You write down everything that happens. It takes from 2-3 hours to do a route.


Training for climbing
Before you you climb a tree you have to do 35 practice climbs in the lodge 2 stories tall. 20 times with jumars and 15 times with a Ochoa then you can climb a tree. It is very hard, well I think so, I finished all my practice climbs and I got to climb a tree called molinaro two chicos nested in it last year. It was 19 meters high it was amazing I saw monkeys, blue and yellow macaws a lot of animals I loved the view I could see every thing. I go down with a Ochoa, the Ochoa gets you down faster. The tallest tree to climb is 37 metres.

Climbing nests and vet checks
One person climbs the tree that the nest is in and one person stays on the bottom and makes sure the ropes don't get loose and helps with the rope for the chick to go up and down. Isaac did ropes today. I was the vets assistant!
The climber puts the chick in the bucket and puts a lid on it. I would feel claustrophobic in the bucket with the lid on.
The chick comes down to the nursing matt so we can weigh them, measure their culmen (beak), tarsus (leg), tail feathers, wings, crop (food pouch). They check their eyes, ears, if they have been fed and take their picture.
When they are first born the nest gets checked everyday for 15 days then from 15-70 days they check every 3 days when they are 70 they start to climb and check the nest everyday again until they fledge (learn to fly) Macaws fledge around 83 days.
I got to help measure and weigh Hugo and Mandy Lou they are baby scarlet macaws and are going to fledge really soon.
Cumbria is the only chick that has fledged when we got here.

List of animals
Scarlet macaws
Blue and yellow macaws they are my favourite!
Red and green macaws
Mealy parrots
Red bellied macaws
Yellow crowned parrots
Chestnut fronted macaws
Dusky headed parakeets
Oropendelas
White tipped trumpeters
Orange cheeked parrots
White bellied parakeets
Blue throated guans
Spixs guan
Blue headed macaw
Yellow footed tortoise
White billed toucans
Squirrel, tamarin, spider, red howler, and capuchin monkeys
Black camain
Cappbari
White lipped peccaries we have seen lots of them, they smell like Isaac after hockey!
Harpy eagle, they are so big they can catch and kill a full grown blue and yellow, scarlet or red and green macaw in a heart beat.
Crested eagle
Tayra
Baby spider monkeys
Wandering spider
Humming birds
Cane toad
Orange legged turtle
Decoy spider
Tailless whip scorpion
Scorpion
Tree frogs
A lot more birds

We have met a lot of artists here in the rainforest.
Sophie she is taking sound recordings of the forest.  Sophiemorrish.net
Ellen made a sculpture out in the forest.  Elladawn.com
Colin took pictures.  Colinminer.com
Ben and Sally were making hydro cels from the rainforest. I got to go watch and help make a hydro cel.  feralstudio.co/tambopata_hydrosols/index.html 
Hydro cels, we got a big spaghetti pot put a small bowl up side down in the bottom in the middle put what you think smells good around it with a little bit of water. We ripped up different types of leaves and some bark and put it in the pot. You put small bowl on top facing up then get a big bowl that will cover the entire spaghetti pot and put ice in it on top. Put it on the stove turn on the stove to low and then wait until all the ice melts 10-15 minutes. When the water starts to heats up the smelly water will turn to steam and will float up until it hits the cold roof and then turns into condensation. The condensation will rain down into the bowl underneath. Then you have your smelly water or hydro cel! I had a lot of fun doing it, it's a really cool idea. The hydro cel I helped make smelled like earthy peppery lemon. They let me keep the hydro cel I helped make!

There was a group of kids that were here for a week. They were kids that home school and travel places to learn about the world it was a lot of fun to have kids to play with.
ProjectWorldSchool.com
ywam.org
teenmissions.org

It was a lot of hard work but I learned A LOT!

There is only Bill, Tapir 2 and the vaginitos left in the nests. They will fledge really soon.

I will miss the chicos, We are going to make a nest for my macaw Tabasco when we get home.