Rejuvination!

Hello to anyone, who still follows this blog! I imagine there are very few of you as I've been without posting in nearly a year.

Unfortunatley university has meant my birding is now down to a minimum, as I've highlighted in previous posts, but I am now toying at the idea of doing a weekly post on monday nights about interesting things that have occured, maybe not in my first hand birding experience but in what I've been researching for projects/general interest.

So I'll treat this as a prelude and try and give a catch-up of whats being going on since Christmas last year. I have been bird ringing when I've been home and have managed to ring a brood of Raven chicks back near the beginning of the year. After the bad year for Barn Owls that has developed across much of the country I continued to help out in monitoring the state of affairs in Lincolnshire. The news is better here than it was in most of the country, though still bad in general (a brood of 7 was a highlight however, the later season proving more productive than early brooders).

During August I spent 3 weeks doing a research project in the Peruvian Amazon studying the effects of ecotourism on the Tambopata National Reserve. We set up remote camera traps and spent our time performing vegetation structure surveys alongside to make our results more viable.

 The 'Colpa' a parrot claylick, close-by to the ecolodge 'Explorers Inn' where we were based for the most part of our stay.

 A very big tree! The roots don't extend far into the ground here as the soil layer isn't very thick. So instead the roots span out across the ground. Look incredible.

 A Tortoise. I have no idea of the species, but he/she was pretty sweet.

Control Point Malinowski. We met here with SERNAP who act as reserve security to hand over camera's by which the project could continue without our teams prescence.

 Something bird related! I have no idea of who was responsible for this nest (maybe someone out there does?) but there were Screaming Piha calling around us. Cool little nest.

 Vermillion Flycatcher. Pretty bird that kept dropping down and picking invertebrates off of the surface of the rather swollen river. It rose dramatically after an amazing storm the night before. Didn't stop us dodging tree's on our journey upriver to Malinowski though.

Another 'Colpa'. got the privaledge of watching Red and Green, Blue and Yellow and Scarlet Macaws all communing together to get the vital nutrients from the clay.

 Black Caiman. Very big. Very awesome.

A little hummingbird that was present everyday on the bushes outside our lodgings. I think it's a Reddish Hermit but I'm not certain.

Proof that maybe I can get over my fear of heights...42 metres up the canopy tower. The canopy below and 2 specs of people below that.

 Why I decided climbing 42 metres was worth it. Simply stunning.

The walk back after sunset brings a new side to the rainforest. The nights were just a diverse as the days and the critters were mainly different.

 Lake Cococotcha. An amazing night. We stayed in a hide and watched out over the lake for sunset before undertaking a Caiman count. Was great fun. Then up at daw for sunrise and to watch Giant River Otters play. Didn't get close enough for photos of them but it was still something incredible to tick off the list of amazing things I've wanted to do for a long time.

 Where we set up the hammocks on the Cococotcha night.

The resident Russet-Backed Orapendula's. Amazing bird call to wake up to every morning and a sound I miss waking up to.

Recently I've joined the facebook page Next Generation Birders. Really good to find some people of a younger generation sharing an interest in birds. Ringers, twitchers and general birders. All a good laugh and some interesting debates.