One early morning (though that doesn't really distinguish it from other mornings which were equally early), we motored down the Rio Napo to visit the Yasuni National Park clay lick. Part of the parrots' diet includes a lot of seeds, which contain toxins. To neutralize these toxins, they need to eat clay. The first clay lick we visited was on an exposed cliff side over the river. Mealy Parrots dominated the scene with their incessant squawking and bickering. Blue-headed Parrots and Yellow-crowned Amazon Parrots also joined - scraping the clay from the cleared off patch. The smaller Dusky-headed Parakeets seemed to wait for the larger parrots to leave before flying down to the clay lick. Even then they would keep a good distance away from any remaining larger parrots.
While we were watching the parrots, the ranger (using the term loosely) came up to collect our $30/person fee for the park. We were the first ones at the clay lick and had beached ourselves on an exposed sandbar to watch the birds. Soon other tour boats idled in the river so they could see the clay lick. One boat pulled onto the sandbar as well to setup their scopes. Half of the tourist (if not more) looked bored, so I wasn't sure why they signed up for the tour in the first place. Soon the other boats motored off, while I still sat enamored by the great commotion of the green, yellow, and blue feathers and the constant squawking on the cliff side.
Imagine my surprise when Domingo said we were going to a second clay lick! We motor only a short ways up the river and unloaded onto the riverbank. We walked a short distance on the paved walkway, stopping at the popping sound of peccaries (a warning signal created by their teeth clacking) and to see the two roosting Crested Owls. At the end of the walkway was a large thatched "blind" where we could sit and watch over the second clay lick. The second clay lick was a seep in the clay wall that pooled into mineral rich water at the base. A small cave and manmade rock wall added security for the birds, which would be vulnerable on the forest floor. When we arrived the trees surrounding the clay lick were fully of parrots (loudly calling, of course), and no birds were in the clay lick pool. Over the next hour we watched as the birds trickle down from the canopy and inched closer to the clay pool. A few birds reached the pool but were skittish to be the first. However, once one bird began drinking the water, all parrots descended into a crescendo of blue, green, red, orange, and yellow flurry. The squawks of the Cobalt-winged Parakeets seemed twice as loud, perhaps reflected off the clay wall and toward the blind. The Orange-cheeked Parrots and a few Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlets added to the noise. But it was the Cobalt-winged Parakeets that were the star performers. Once full on the mineral rich waters, the parrots would fly off only to be replaced by another set of parrots.
We were the only once watching this spectacle in the beginning, but were quickly joined by smaller groups of tourists until two boatloads worth of people from the Napo Wildlife Center (which owned the clay licks) poured into the shelter. The noise of the parrots began to pale in comparison to the monkey kind. Soon the activity of the parrots seemed to trickle off until only a few remained to drink the waters. Our guides disappeared once the other tourists poured in. We found them and they said the Scarlet Macaws (which we could hear overhead in the canopy) would also come down to drink the waters.
As we waited, the other tourist left leaving us with only the noise of a few Cobalt-winged Parakeets. A second wave of parakeets descended once more and our ears were filled with the continuous squawking. They drank for another hour or so, but without much warning, a large group of parakeets exploded from the clay lick and flew right over our heads - some of them flying straight through the shelter. There were two more waves of their sudden take offs with one bird narrowly missing my head by a foot.
Without the noise of the parakeets, I noticed I was suffering from auditory fatigue. My auditory system was so overload by the constant sound it had to adjust. Now without the parakeets' screech it felt like I had a head cold so I couldn't hear quite as well. It took me the rest of the day to recover all my hearing back. I was just glad to recover it and not have parakeet-induced hearing loss.
With the parakeets gone, we sat in relative quiet waiting for the macaws to come down. At one point, one came down mid-way, but changed its course and retreated back to the upper canopy. We gave up by early afternoon, and birded the area on the way back to the boat. Of course, we went off the paved path, choosing a trail that meandered in the general direction of the boat. We spent some time pursuing a Thrush-like Antpitta. I got the briefest glance, but heard it calling better than I saw it. Still it was probably a better glance than I would have gotten without Domingo.
Island in the Rio Napo
On the last day of our stay, our guides took us out to one of the river islands in the Rio Napo. The island ecology is interesting - a temporary environment created and destroyed by the flow and floods of the river. Yet these transient islands host a number of species specific to this environment. The islands are comprised of riparian forest on the oldest side of the island (the side the river flows against) and younger grasslands on other side. Domingo showed us several species of birds including the Olive-spotted Hummingbird, White-bellied Spinetail, Black-and-white Antbird, Castelnau's Antshrike, and the Fucous Flycatcher that could only be found on these river islands. It was interesting to see the habitat and these birds, which were obligated to these small pockets on the Amazon rivers.
Weather
We brought our ponchos expecting to use them, but we hardly did. For the wet season, it hardly rained while we were there. During the first few days there was a short down pour in the afternoon, but during the end of our stay the rain stayed away. It got to the point where we hoped for rain in the afternoon to wake up the birds and to encourage the frogs to venture out at night. The level of the Rio Napo was dramatically affected. It dropped at least 10 feet from the lack of rain. We had to hike across the exposed sand in order to load into the boats. On the day of our return to Coca, however, the river filled to an amazing velocity and volume just overnight. Somewhere up river there had to be flash flooding and a lot of rain in order to fill the river to that capacity. Logs and branches raced down the river and our driver had to navigate the river carefully so as to not hit any submerged debris.
Return home
Tor and I had a wonderful time during our stay at the Sani Lodge. We had great guides, saw a lot of animals, had time to relax (during the afternoons when everything quieted down), and enjoyed fairly good (if not too hot) weather. At the end of our stay, we were ready to return to home. [It would take 36 hours from the lodge to our doorstep - this included a 10 hour layover in the Quito airport. We might have chosen to store our bags and headed into Quito, but there wasn't a place to store luggage at the airport. The new airport, while vastly improved in comfort, now has a certain mall-ish feel with high end stores and a food court that could have been found in any US city - TGIFridays, Johnny Rockets, Baskin Robins, etc. The food by the way was overprice and not very good, at least where we ate. However, there was WiFi, outlets to charge batteries, and places to sit!] We were looking forward to fresh clothes (the ones that we worn 3x without a proper wash and as a result were starting to take on lifeforms and a stink of their own) and get off the anti-malarial drugs, which were reeking havoc on digestive systems and causing mouth sores (painful when you really want to eat all the fresh citrus fruit!). Home was beaconing us as we were full of the memories of beautiful sunsets over the lagoon, parrots calls in our heads, monkeys swinging through the canopy, and the night's chorus lulling us to sleep.
