Manu Biosphere Reserve: birds, monkeys and the elusive "Amazonian stick snake."

It rained most of Thursday night. We got up early Friday to spend the morning at the macaw clay lick, the first salt lick studied by biologists in South America. It continued to rain. (And rain and rain. And rain.)

ladies and gentlemen, your 30 seconds of zen

The macaws and parrots stayed away. Many cute little and big giant birds were spotted, though, and it was a very relaxing morning.

great egret

great kiskadee

roadside hawk

On the way back we saw a laughing gull - a coastal bird that doesn't really belong on the river. He looked just as confused about being there as the guide did about him being there.

"donde estoy?"

Red howler monkeys, spider monkeys and a capybara were also spotted along the river.

howler monkey hanging around

Lunch was delayed by four rescued macaws causing a ruckus outside the lodge. Biologists rescued them from a harsher fate and they are fed around the lodge so they're very accustomed to people.

mirror images

I did not take this photo, part I

I did not take this photo, part II

After not seeing any at the clay lick we enjoyed their proximity and poses for a while. "Rescue [insert animal]" would become a running joke amongst our group for reasons that will be obvious later.

The weather cleared after lunch and we watched saddleback tamarind monkeys swinging above the gardens at the lodge...

... then headed to an oxbow for wildlife viewing. From the dock we (and a flock of long nosed bats hanging from the canopy rafters) watched a family of baby otters float across the lake, chattering the whole time.

there were probably a hundred of these guys overhead

romping baby otters

A catamaran took us on a lake tour where we saw another bazillion birds large and small, including a weird prehistoric one (hoaxin), and one of my favorites (purus jacama - aka the "Jesus Christ bird," so named because it walks on lily pads as though it's walking on water).

the truly prehistoric hoaxin

I could get used to this...

PDXers will be interested to note that swifts are here in Manu as well. Different breed, but my ears perked up when I heard the species.

On the way back we saw squirrel monkeys romping in the trees...

... and the tail of an endangered black caimen as it disappeared into the water. One of our group even saw the elusive "Amazonian stick snake" (soooo not a snake, which also became a running joke).

Even with the morning rain, all in all not a bad day in the jungle.