I can't remember what time we got up but it was pretty brutal. Bags packed in advance and we off - south on the only road towards Manaus. We probably had just over an hour in the car before the ZF-2 tower turnoff, after which it is a futher 10+ miles west along a track into the forest where the research tower is situated. It's 53m tall, quite staggering, and protrudes well above the canopy. Right at the top are a load of scientific instruments and because of these you have to be accompanied by Amazonian Institute staff. This needs to be organised in advance and a disclaimer signed. There is no lift....
Impressive!
So very early in the morning, still dark, we pulled off the main road and waited for our minder. A big 4x4 pulled up but it was not who we were waiting for, instead it was another guide and two birding clients. Shortly after that the 4x4 we were waiting for arrived and the driver of this got out and got in our car and we got in his - somewhat beefier than our own - and headed a bit further down towards the tower with our original car following us. But only for a short while until the road got a bit wider and there was space for one car to pull over. The slight sticking point was that the driver was scared of the jungle and being left alone in it. I mean the guy lives in Manaus? Anyway Brad bigged him up, said it would OK, gave him a hug and said not to get out or whatever, and off we went.
Excitement was building as it started to get light. The track to the tower is not a good one, I could see why we had swapped vehicles, and the final stretch was essentially a small river. It had clearly been raining a great deal, and the signs for more were rather ominous. At the base of the tower stood a small shelter, and underneath this were the occupants of the first car, two Australian birders on a mega world tour, months and months I seem to remember. Retirees huh. My time will come. Hopefully.
After a bit of coffee and fruit we could wait no longer and started to climb the steps. On and on and on, exhausting for an old guy like me who takes lifts. And then what should happen on the penultimate level? A huge squall blew in is what, and sent us scurrying all the way back down to the bottom to take shelter. Ugh.
I estimate we lost an hour to this storm, but eventually it passed through and we were back on. The second ascent was no less draining than the first but this time we made it to the top and what a view awaited us! The Amazon rainforest to the far horizon in all directions. Words and pictures can't adequately describe it, it is monumental. And it is a long way down!
 |
| Selfie king |
Five Band-rumped Swift were moving above the canopy, and a large distant blob with two smaller blobs turned out to be our second Harpy Eagle of the trip. The smaller blobs were White-throated Toucans, themselves not exactly small. Huge, it had its wings partially stretched out as it dried off after the rain. It was exciting birding but hard work, birds in the Amazon are not as omnipresent as you would expect. We saw our first Channel-billed Toucan and although not as numerous as White-throated Toucan we ended up seeing four. A lot of the birding was about distant blobs, some of which were variously Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, White Hawk, Spangled Cotinga and Purple-breasted Cotinga, the latter two we would have liked to have seen a lot closer but the scope views were ok. Occasionally a feeding flock would pass through trees closer to the tower, and these contained at times Black-capped Becard, Glossy-backed Becard, Olive-green Tyrannulet, Amazonian Elaenia, Todd’s Sirystes, Yellow-throated Flycatcher and Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo. Knocking all of these into a cocked hat rarity-wise, if not on looks, were a pair of Guianan Gnatcatcher which per eBird hardly anyone ever sees. Mega. Various Parrots did flybys, Dusky Parrot, Blue-headed Parrot, Mealy Amazon, Red-fan Parrot, Golden-winged Parakeet and Scarlet Macaw.
 |
| White-throated Toucan |
 |
| Spangled Cotinga |
 |
| Guianan Toucanet. My mate Claude, or one of his mates, has had a go at this, removing lots of branches. It is scarily fascinating what AI can do - to be covered in another post. This is the only photo I've massaged so far on this trip report. |
Rain forced us down again after about an hour, you could see it rolling in from the south-west in good time, but the stoppage was shorter and whilst it meant we had to go all the back to the ground and then back up again we didn't lose that much birding time. Other birds here during the two sessions were Black-eared Fairy, Fork-tailed Woodnymph, Yellow-tufted Woodpecker, Yellow-throated Woodpecker and amazing views of a close Lineated Woodpecker. And last but not least we got excellent views of Guianan Toucanet which was one of the birds that we really needed to see from this tower. What remained of the morning passed all too soon and it was time to go. In fairness activity had really tailed off, but it was already 11.15am and we had a very long drive ahead of us - back to Manaus, over the Rio Negro, and then west unti the road runs out at Novo Airão. By leaving the tower before lunch we could get an hour or so later on in entirely different habitat. We lucked out on the drive back out to the main road with six Grey-winged Trumpeter crossing the access track.
 |
| Lineated Woodpecker |
 |
| Guianan Gnatcatcher. Mega! |
It was indeed a long drive, albeit punctuated by a quick buffet lunch near Manaus airport. I am not sure we stopped at all other than that and it was probably a good thing we didn't dally. The road from Manaus to Novo Airão deteriorates quite badly at some stages, and there is probably a 40km stretch with stupid numbers of dangerous potholes that you have to slalom around and that takes ages. Nonethess by about half past four we pulled off the main road at the Ramal da Sombrinha Cor de Rosa to start our first Terra Firma birding.
Duida Woodcreeper and Dwarf Tyrant-Manakin were both new species, as were Gilded Barbet, Black Caracara and White-fronted Nunbird. Actually there was more cross-over than I had been expecting with Black-eared Fairy and Fork-tailed Woodnymph amongst other species we had seen quite a few of north of Manaus. As the day drew to a close we managed to see a pair of Black-tailed Tityra, and two Yellow-rumped Cacique and over 70 Red-rumped Cacique headed off to roost. And we did too, to the Amazoniaa Park Suites. A long day, but a good one.
No comments:
Post a Comment