Waking up at 5:30am is not something that I would usually do in Lima, but in the Jungle everything changes, I wake up early, I eat food that is typical to the jungle, I bath in cold water, instead of the sea we have the river and everyday there’s a unique adventure. I have learned to respect and like the rain forest and I am sure that humans need the rain forest and we are not treating it correctly, maybe governments from all over the world should come to TBS and have a one week internship; I am sure they will understand it better, value it more and make even better decisions.
Since we didn’t have luck yesterday with our first male, we decided to give him some rest today and went to our second male territory. We got there, did the normal routine: Nets placed correctly, found a waiting spot 50 meters away and waited. It looks like our second male was curious because we got him in our first net round (4 nets placed). My first male White Crowned Manakin, what a great moment! Next to our individual we had a Woodcreeper whose scientific name is Glyphorynchus Spirurus but English speakers know him as Wedge-Billed Woodcreeper. First check and our Manakin was waiting for us, this felt well. Wendy took our Manakin from the net. We checked the other three nets and there were no birds there but we had our objective in our first early shot; 6:30am and JB3090 (the code we gave him) was with us. Wendy showed me how to color mark the Pirpa-Pipra with some special bands and our Manakin needed a three color mark (each color combination is unique). The sequence went Yellow in the left leg and Pink Pink on the right leg. I learned how to weigh (11gr) our individual and measure its tail (29mm) and wing (66mm), everything with special required equipmentand then it was picture time! My first photo with a male White Crowned Manakin, he got so excited that he even pooped on my hand, what a great experience.
Once we finished with our second male and let him go, I learned how to close-up the nets. I have to say that it was easier than what I thought, I saw Wendy close one and then I closed the other three. You have to be very careful that the straps don’t get tangled and have to maintain a balance between both sides so the net doesn’t get messed up since it is made from a strong but thin material. Once we finished, we walked 1k through Harpia Trail and got to Terry Erwin Trail; since it was still early we were going to try to find other leks in the plot. In Terry Erwin we walked 400 meters north and about 600 meters east and got to our next lek. Once you get to the lek, you say goodbye to the trail and get into the forest. Today was different, for the following days, I had been next to Wendy always, but today things changed. Wendy told me that I would be looking through one territory and that she would be searching for another territory some 100-200 meters away. This distance may sound small but trust me, 100 meters in the jungle is long, and with all of the vegetation it is hard to walk. My first time alone, walki- talkie on and off I went searching for Pipra-Pirpas. I heard its advertisement song and tried to follow it, it’s complicated to follow a bird in the jungle and detect its song. The closest I got to the Manakin was about 10meters away, I didn’t realize that I was so close until I saw it flying and I didn’t see him again, but I know he is there somewhere. It looks like time was up because they stopped singing so Wendy told me that we would be going to 1k north to the last Lek in the plot. We got to the last Lek but weren’t lucky, the White Crowned Manakins were not singing, but that’s part of field work, animals behaviors are not the same and it looks like climate change is affecting most rainforest animals as well.We talked with other researchers and they told us that they have found that TBS was getting much more rain lately than it was supposed to get and that this seems to be affecting the bird populations negatively. Since birds reproduce in the dry season, having a rainy year affects their reproduction rates and populations are getting smaller.
When we were going back to the station we saw a Puma footprint in the middle of the trail. Researchers say that there are about 21 jaguars and many other Pumas, Ocelots and cats in general, but they are so quiet and have such good vision that they are hard to see. In the station, Tomas and Ovidio the “Tigres” showed me their baby turtles. They had gone to some sand banks in the river and collected some turtle eggs. At first I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing, but then they explained to me that if they didn’t do this most of they would be eaten by the local tribes: the Waoranis. They had about 100 turtles and had already released about 200 into the wild, what a great project.
Since we didn’t have luck yesterday with our first male, we decided to give him some rest today and went to our second male territory. We got there, did the normal routine: Nets placed correctly, found a waiting spot 50 meters away and waited. It looks like our second male was curious because we got him in our first net round (4 nets placed). My first male White Crowned Manakin, what a great moment! Next to our individual we had a Woodcreeper whose scientific name is Glyphorynchus Spirurus but English speakers know him as Wedge-Billed Woodcreeper. First check and our Manakin was waiting for us, this felt well. Wendy took our Manakin from the net. We checked the other three nets and there were no birds there but we had our objective in our first early shot; 6:30am and JB3090 (the code we gave him) was with us. Wendy showed me how to color mark the Pirpa-Pipra with some special bands and our Manakin needed a three color mark (each color combination is unique). The sequence went Yellow in the left leg and Pink Pink on the right leg. I learned how to weigh (11gr) our individual and measure its tail (29mm) and wing (66mm), everything with special required equipmentand then it was picture time! My first photo with a male White Crowned Manakin, he got so excited that he even pooped on my hand, what a great experience.
Once we finished with our second male and let him go, I learned how to close-up the nets. I have to say that it was easier than what I thought, I saw Wendy close one and then I closed the other three. You have to be very careful that the straps don’t get tangled and have to maintain a balance between both sides so the net doesn’t get messed up since it is made from a strong but thin material. Once we finished, we walked 1k through Harpia Trail and got to Terry Erwin Trail; since it was still early we were going to try to find other leks in the plot. In Terry Erwin we walked 400 meters north and about 600 meters east and got to our next lek. Once you get to the lek, you say goodbye to the trail and get into the forest. Today was different, for the following days, I had been next to Wendy always, but today things changed. Wendy told me that I would be looking through one territory and that she would be searching for another territory some 100-200 meters away. This distance may sound small but trust me, 100 meters in the jungle is long, and with all of the vegetation it is hard to walk. My first time alone, walki- talkie on and off I went searching for Pipra-Pirpas. I heard its advertisement song and tried to follow it, it’s complicated to follow a bird in the jungle and detect its song. The closest I got to the Manakin was about 10meters away, I didn’t realize that I was so close until I saw it flying and I didn’t see him again, but I know he is there somewhere. It looks like time was up because they stopped singing so Wendy told me that we would be going to 1k north to the last Lek in the plot. We got to the last Lek but weren’t lucky, the White Crowned Manakins were not singing, but that’s part of field work, animals behaviors are not the same and it looks like climate change is affecting most rainforest animals as well.We talked with other researchers and they told us that they have found that TBS was getting much more rain lately than it was supposed to get and that this seems to be affecting the bird populations negatively. Since birds reproduce in the dry season, having a rainy year affects their reproduction rates and populations are getting smaller.
When we were going back to the station we saw a Puma footprint in the middle of the trail. Researchers say that there are about 21 jaguars and many other Pumas, Ocelots and cats in general, but they are so quiet and have such good vision that they are hard to see. In the station, Tomas and Ovidio the “Tigres” showed me their baby turtles. They had gone to some sand banks in the river and collected some turtle eggs. At first I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing, but then they explained to me that if they didn’t do this most of they would be eaten by the local tribes: the Waoranis. They had about 100 turtles and had already released about 200 into the wild, what a great project.