calyptura.com

More Bolivian birding adventures

Posted 22nd October 2011

After leaving the La Paz area for the final time, our first destination was an intermontane valley below the village of Inquisivi for the eponymous Inquisivi Spinetail, found only in this tiny part of Bolivia. It appeared birding spirits had smiled upon us when to our great surprise the road was paved for the first 70 km, having expected rough dirt and dust. However, shortly after reaching the dirt section, we rounded one corner to find a giant excavator tearing down the mountainside as part of the road improvement - all being torn down onto our road! Jon had a long chat with a truck driver who pulled up later behind us, and apparently an excavator driver doing a similar job recently along the same section of road died when the mountainside he was working on suddenly collapsed on top of the excavator. Shortly after hearing this story, rocks high above where the excavator was working started to fall, and within a minute a large section collapsed, right onto our road of course. Then there was the task of removing the giant rock pile to get the road open overnight. During a break in the action Jon decided to take a stroll and amongst the few vehicles waiting on the other side of the closure he encountered a remarkable middle-aged Swiss lady who is cycling solo around parts of South America. What were doing seems tame in comparison.

The giant pile of rocks that stood between us and Inquisivi Spinetail. Remarkably the excavator operator had enough cleared within an hour to allow us to squeeze through.

We camped at the side of the road just before the pueblo of Inquisivi and had excellent birding the following day, finding the spinetail, plus two particularly good-looking new birds, Black-and-chestnut Warbling Finch and Green-cheeked Parakeet

We had a lovely campsite that night, next to the river below the pueblo, and the following day found an out-of-range Lesser Shrike Tyrant, perhaps the first record for the departmento (state) of La Paz.

Then we carried on south for several days at a number of sites near Cochabamba. Among the best of these was a reservoir some 65 km from the city where the soldiers at the military checkpoint guarding the dam were very willing to let us camp by their buildings. We had a lovely birding morning the next day, including the hoped-for endemic Black-hooded Sunbeam (yet another gorgeous hummer) in the scrub below the dam.

Impromptu fiesta in a village we passed through on the way to Cochabamba. This was taking place on the main highway to the city, causing inevitable (but brief) traffic chaos. This sort of thing happened all over the place in Bolivia.

After Cochabamba, we finally began our descent of the east slope of the Andes. We camped under a huge electricity pylon for two nights, as it was conveniently situated at the head of a track following a petroleum pipeline that cuts through some yungas forest at the relatively low elevation of 1500-1800m. From there it was on to true lowland tropics on the fringe of Amazonia. We found a wonderful place to camp next to the grass soccer pitch of the Hotel El Puente, tucked into some good jungle a few kilometres outside the town of Villa Tunari. We even treated ourselves to a lovely fish dinner, with surubi (a type of catfish) the local river fish specialty, an early celebration of Jon's birthday.

Villa Tunari is a well-known coca growing area - completely legal in Bolivia - and if you want to go birding in the area, you just have to do so among the coca plantations (the low growing shrubs in the foreground).

How to wash a bus in Amazonian Bolivia? Drive it into a river, obviously.

Not a good sign. We saw large volumes of big hardwood trees being shipped out of Amazonian Bolivia, and everywhere in the region the air was constantly full of smoke (the remaining vegetation is burned off after the trees have been cleared). At least some of the clearing is for large-scale Brazilian-funded cattle ranches.

After a brief stop in the lowland bustle of Santa Cruz (Bolivia's largest city), we then headed back upslope into the arid foothills to the southwest to search for several very restricted-range species. The dry, warm semi-desert habitat was a very welcome change and we enjoyed excellent birding and lovely campsites in addition to the great weather. Best of all, we were treated to prolonged close views of two pairs of Red-fronted Macaws, and Jon got some excellent recordings. Other highlights in this area included the endemic Cliff Parakeet and Bolivian Earthcreeper.

The stunning if stark Saipina Valley. Not the sort of habitat you might immediately associate with macaws, but the area is home to the entire World population of the even more stunning Red-fronted Macaw.

Then it was finally time to head back down slope and south toward Argentina. We spent two nights bush camping in the Bolivian chaco...hot, dry, and breezy. We both enjoy warm climates, and we didn't mind the temperature at all, even though it got up to 40 degrees C (104 F) one afternoon, but the fridge in our camper wasn't quite as happy and kept going almost non-stop. Most importantly, we were able to find almost all of the chaco endemics for which we were searching, the best of all being Black-legged Seriema, one of our most wanted species.

Into Argentina....eventually

Posted 22nd October 2011

Our departure from Bolivia and first day in northwestern Argentina was a real mixed bag. Despite being the only crossing between these two countries with paved road on both sides, it was a challenge to actually find the border post, because it required negotiating a maze of crowded narrow streets in the border town on the Bolivian side. The confusion was not helped by the fact it was market day and the Argentinians flock to the Bolivian side for cheaper goods - and perhaps coca leaves, illegal in Argentina, for sale in huge drums at most stalls on the Bolivian side - making it rather difficult to drive through the streets.

Having finally made it to the border, we discovered several bus loads of people in the immigration line. So we split up, with Jon going to take care of the vehicle paperwork and Anne waiting in the immigration line. In the end, we were pleased to get through all the necessary steps and be ready to go in under two hours, much faster than we had been led to believe by a guidebook. But our joy did not last long as we returned to find our vehicle had been wheel-clamped! Because of the limited space and line of buses, we didn't have many parking options, but apparently our choice wasn't acceptable. As it was almost lunchtime, we didn't have high hopes of getting the wheel boot removed anytime soon, and we feared a steep fine given the opportunity to take advantage of the gringos in a difficult situation. So we were very pleasantly surprised when Jon was able to get a municipal official he found on the street to call and get someone to come down to collect our fine and remove the boot. Best of all, they didn't even seem to contemplate trying to charge more than the normal $4 fine. At that price, we weren't interested in arguing the merits of the parking situation, but just happy to get rolling and across the border.

The main two-lane road across the Bolivian-Argentinian border at Yacuiba, but you could be fooled into thinking it was a street market (we were).

Feeling good again, we headed south to Parque Nacional Calilegua. Things couldn't have been better by the time we made our way up the dirt road to a ranger station in the middle elevations of the park. There is an official campground lower down, but the very nice ranger allowed us to park next to his house instead, as the species we were seeking were in the upper section of the park. Our pleasure was significantly dampened, however, when we discovered there was a major problem with our camper battery charging system. Our battery charge was low when we had headed out in the morning, because the fridge had been running so much in the heat of the chaco and we had not driven much in several days, limiting re-charging time. So we were dismayed to find that the battery charge had not improved at all during our several hours of driving and there was no power getting from the alternator to the camper batteries when the vehicle was running. Jon's checking of connections, fuses, etc. didn't reveal any easy fixes, so we were going to need an auto electrician to help us out. Unfortunately, it was Saturday, and the ranger informed us Monday was a holiday, meaning it would be two and a half days before we could get anyone to look at it. Ugh! So we decided to just enjoy the great birding at Calilegua until Tuesday morning, and the park was fortunately cool enough that we could switch the fridge off overnight to save what little power remained.

Our friendly park ranger even recommended an auto electrician in the nearest town to the park, so Tuesday morning we were there early. He went through the same steps as Jon, and quickly narrowed the problem down to the battery separator, as we had started to suspect. This device prevents the camper electrical system pulling charge from the vehicle battery, thus avoiding us ever having a flat truck battery. However it had apparently overheated and failed in the opposite direction, i.e. the charge from the alternator while we were moving wasn't making it through to the camper batteries. Our excellent auto electrician quickly had us on the road with a bridge that circumvented the faulty separator, allowing charge into the camper (but now we have to hook and unhook the wire manually from the truck battery every time we start and stop, respectively). Nevertheless, we were up and running again, and happy to push on to the altiplano of the far north-west of Argentina.

The story doesn't quite end there. In the process of trying to buy a new separator online, we found a website that indicated our device had been subject to a recall due to a spate of failures...especially overheating, exactly what our electrician had suspected was the problem. With a little more time online, we quickly found that our serial number fell within the recall, and we have since heard by email from the company that they will courier a new separator to us, all expenses paid of course. On the plus side, apparently in some rare cases the fault resulted in a fire, so we got off easy....

A search for the Masked Antpitta

Posted 21st September 2011

Jon just returned from a short side trip to the Amazonian lowlands of Riberalta in northern Beni province (far northern Bolivia). The primary purpose was to find and study one of the least known of all the antpittas (all of which are poorly known!), the Masked Antpitta. Recognised as a separate species less than twenty years ago, perhaps only a couple of dozen non-Bolivians have seen the species.

He flew there with the Bolivian military airline, Transporte Aereo Militar. On the plus side, all the pilots are Bolivian air force, which may not be saying too much, but at least they have plenty of airspace to practice in, unlike the Bolivian navy which hasnt sniffed salt water in over a century. The flight was surprisingly full, perhaps because the rival commercial airline, Aerocon, had lost one of their flights on a similar route the previous week, which created some international headlines when the sole survivor was found alive in the jungle three days after the crash (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14863163).

On the otherwise uneventful flight, Jon was sat next to an elderly Aymara Indian lady, as wide as she was tall (not as unlikely as it sounds, given that most Aymara women are well under five feet tall). Shortly before take-off he noticed her studying one end of the seat belt as if it was one of the great unsolved mysteries of the globe, and politely explained how to attach it to the other part of the belt, for which she was very grateful. Many of us in developed countries fly so much these days that we take such knowledge for granted. After staring out of the window for a minute, Jon looked over to see the lady digging around in her skirts, pull out a mobile phone, switch it off prior to take off, and put it away again! A superb example of the technology leaps so typical of modern developing countries - no idea how to operate a lap belt, but a cell phone? No problem.

Riberalta is famous in Bolivia as the motorbike town. Even with steadily improving roads, they remain the only really practical means of transport on the dirt tracks of Amazonia, where torrential rains are common and driving conditions can change from hour to hour. Everyone in town seems to have one, and cars are remarkably scarce. Jons moto taxi driver from the airport to his hotel was named Emilio, who he used regularly over the next few days.

Despite being the heat of the afternoon (mad dogs and Englishmen...), as soon as he dropped his gear at the hotel, Jon jumped on behind Emilio for the five minute ride out of town to a known area for the antpitta, and even at 3pm it became virtually the first bird he saw in the area. Although rare and almost unknown, they are not hard to find or see in the right place! Jon then spent parts of five days recording, watching, and studying some 20 Masked Antpittas in at least eleven territories in this area of scrubby, vine-choked, palm-dominated secondary varzea (seasonally-flooded) forest. Although common here, the antpitta was found to be much scarcer in, or absent from, many potentially suitable areas, and it appears that their requirements are quite specific. A nice bonus was seeing many other excellent bird species in this forest area.

Jon managed a great side trip to San Lorenzo de Pampas, some 36km closer to the Brazilian border, to savanna habitat that was remarkably reminiscent of outback Australia. Here the birds were completely different to Riberalta, with the main target being another poorly-known bird, Rufous-sided Pygmy Tyrant. He found a couple after an hour-and-a-half of searching, and they very obligingly let their songs and calls be well recorded. Jon had been gone so long that Emilio, who had been dutifully waiting back at the road in the shade of a large tree, started to get concerned that the gringo had wandered off into the grassland never to be seen again. He was visibly relieved when Jons shape started to reappear from the heat haze.

It was a really enjoyable trip, and Masked was the 35th antpitta species we had seen just in this calendar year 2011, which is almost certainly some sort of record (albeit a rather arcane record of interest to just a few birdwatchers!). The information gathered about the Masked Antpitta is being written up, and hopefully may be of some use for organisations interested in working for the conservation of the species.

A still image of Masked Antpitta from one of Jon's videos of the species, Puerto Hamburgo, near Riberalta, Beni, Bolivia, 18th September 2011.

The preferred habitat of Masked Antpitta, dense vine patches in secondary palm forest. Under water for half the year, the forest was so dry during Jons visit that the antpittas could even be found by the noise of them hopping among the dry leaves.

The antpitta habitat is found adjacent to dozens of brickworks, all small family operations. As can be seen, firing lots of bricks requires lots of wood, and this is one of many threats to the habitat of the antpittas.

Savanna habitat at San Lorenzo de Pampas near the Brazilian border, home of Rufous-sided Pygmy Tyrant.

How to crash a Bolivian wedding party

Posted 20th September 2011

A couple of Sundays ago we were spending a relaxing day at our campsite in the parking area of the Hotel Oberland in Mallasa, just outside La Paz. It was the first National Day of the Pedestrian, so no vehicles were being driven in the seven largest cities (and surrounding suburbs) across the country. We had been hearing a brass band playing somewhere nearby for several hours, so we decided to take a walk on the car-free streets. Sure enough, there were lots of bikes, kids playing football in the streets, and pedestrians everywhere.

We eventually made our way up a side street to where the music was coming from and discovered it was some sort of private party. We walked on quickly, not wanting to gawk, but stopped briefly to admire the traditional dress of all the Aymara women in attendance. Before we knew it, a nice chap was thrusting a large bottle of beer into Jon's hands while explaining it was the fiesta for a couple that was married the day before. It was only about 4pm, but it was immediately clear that most of the people in attendance were already very drunk. It also became clear that we were fully expected to drink with them, and polite refusal was not an option. Remarkably after just a few minutes there was a shout of Senor Jon! and we turned around to see Mario, our taxi driver from a trip into the city the previous day, weaving his way toward us! At that point we were very much incorporated into the event, and there was no turning back.

So, we did our best to limit our intake without being rude and fully enjoyed ourselves, including dancing with the party through the streets to a nearby community centre where there was another band and, unfortunately, a lot more beer! We survived to tell the tale, but needed the next day to recover.

Several of the ladies in their finest, with the brass band playing in the background

Jon with our new friends Mario and his wife Elizabeth. Mario had been our taxi driver the day before, and subsequent discussions revealed he was a cousin of the parents of the groom.

The dancing couples in the streets of Mallasa in procession to the reception hall. We were the second-to-last couple in line, and the last couple were in charge of shouting out when the ladies should twirl, which created quite an effect with their huge flowing skirts.

The band following behind. They were almost as drunk as everyone else, but played on rather well regardless. We guessed their great style of dress was designed to match the name of the band, printed on the drum, "Intocables" (The Untouchables).

Anne with two lovely women with whom she tried, but largely failed, to carry on a meaningful conversation. The one in the middle had a few-months-old grandchild asleep in the carrying blanket on her back, seriously.

Jon with the very happy (and very drunk) bride. Presuming we were just having a short stroll around town several hours earlier, Jon of course still has his binoculars with him....

Birding northern Bolivia

Posted 20th September 2011

We have made several successful birding excursions from our base near La Paz. The first was several days on the eastern slope of the Andes where we were happy to see extensive tracts of forest still present, despite being relatively close to the capital. As we had spent a fair bit of time on the east slope in Peru, there weren't too many new birds for us, but we did see some goodies. We were fortunate to have multiple close encounters with Hooded Mountain Toucan (the last of this archetypal South American bird group for us), a rare species that is often heard but seldom seen. Jon got excellent recordings of several different calls that appear not to have been previously recorded. There were also close-up views of several other species endemic or largely confined to Bolivia, including Rufous-faced Antpitta, Bolivian Tapaculo, Bolivian Brushfinch, and Orange-browed Hemispingus. Rural Bolivia seemed particularly quiet, and recording conditions have been excellent, so all of these species and many others, several of which have been infrequently recorded, were nicely taped in this area.

A still from a video Jon was able to get of a particularly confiding Rufous-faced Antpitta, literally hopping just a few metres from our overnight camp at Chuspipata near dusk.

After briefly re-grouping in La Paz, we headed out again, this time to an area northeast of La Paz that is the only known location for the very localised Berlepsch's Canastero. We were initially thrown off course by a road closure and somewhat challenging detour but managed to work our way far enough up the far end of the closed section of road to find some suitable habitat. Unlike the area we visited further south, there is little native habitat left in this region. Fortunately this canastero doesnt appear to need undisturbed habitat and is able to tolerate patches of eucalyptus as long as there is an adequate shrubby understory.