Manu Forest, Amazon, day 2.

A long day!
By 6am, with just over an hours boat trip and walk behind us, we stepped onto a viewing platform overlooking a clay bank, at the back of a narrow waterway and the forest margin. It was early light and what a racket from the hundreds of parrots in the trees over the bank. This was a clay lick where they congregate on a daily basis. The clay bank is behind a small flood channel, separate from the river and with only a little water. Enough however for the two Caimen crocs we immediately spotted in it! The exposed clay bank has minerals the birds like to eat, but on a seasonal basis depending on their current diet. We knew this was a quiet period in their feeding at the lick but still hoped to see the main event, a visit by Macaw parrots.
It was to be a long wait but we were well entertained by the abundance of bird life, plus breakfast had been carried in so we had fruit salad, pancakes, maple syrup, and coffee to enjoy. A Caimen made a noisy lunge at some stage, maybe at a fish, hundreds of various parrots caroused in the tree tops, and we had regular visitations from a large forest hawk also contemplating breakfast but causing a commotion amongst the parrots.
We also had several views of the beautiful Sun Bittern, a bird we had both read about as youngsters in Gerald Durrells "Drunken Forest." It spread its wings occassionally to reveal a spectacular patterned display.
The parrots gather daily but dont necessarily decend onto the clay lick, including today. But over the morning Macaws had been gathering. They are large parrots, the Scarlets 75cm long, and colourful in flight as they open their wings and tails. They screech the whole time, earsplitting if it is near you or if there are a lot of them. They are wonderfukl aerialists´and spent their time either preening and chattering, or wheeling about to inspect the scene. Finally about 11 am it was time to visit the clay lick and down they came, lining up mostly on a horizontal fracture on the bank and knawing away at it. We were relieved as much as delighted to see it, having already thought of it as a key sight we wanted to see in the area. Its a very colorful and noisy spectacle which we could just sit back and enjoy at close range. Generally speaking, with the high canopy and flat terrain you dont get the close views of wildlife that we have had elsehere. Everything seems to be on a larger scale including viewing distances, reflected in a lot of my photos in the area.
We headed home very happily, for lunch and a brief siesta before the next event, a 1.5 hr walk into another clay lick, this time one that attracts mammals, the tapir specifically. Grazing mamals like the Tapir and even Monkeys also eat crtain clay deposits, as a dietary and digestive supplement. Their importance is that these sites can often be the only way to view the otherwise elusive animals that visit them. The walk in to the lick was timed to get us there late afternoon, and we would stay on to see a Tapir, being a nocturnal animal. The walk in was another enjoyable but sweaty walk through the primal forest, with plenty of stops to listen for and to see the sights. We met the Army ant, swarming in a line across the forest floor. They dont build nests but keep moving and devouring anything edible they can subdue on the the way. They are respected for their bite and we kept our distance. We also met another very large ant, a tree trunk dweller, reputed to have one of the three worst stings in the Jungle, the others belonging to the scorpion and the fresh water sting ray. These ones patrolled the tree trunk in which they lived, so casual leaning against tree trunks is not a local habit. We also met a third ant, the fire ant, which is also a hollow tree trunk dweller, in this case keeping the tree stripped perfectly clean of any foreign plants, so the trunk shines like a beacon compared to the bedecked trunks of everything else. The fire ant is so called for the effect of its bite, so again its to be watched out for and a further benefit of having a track to walk versus bush bashing.
We made the lick by late afternoion and climbed into the 4m high blind, complete with mattresses and mosquito nets. We had only settled in and sitting in silence for minutes when our guide alerted us - a Tapir was approaching, and it was not yet dark. We could hear the occassional snap of a twicg, then 10m into the forest could just make out its shape. The Tapir is a large, 300kg grazing animal, smooth skinned, with an extended nose which it uses to grip vegetation on which it feeds. Its a difficult animal to see and this one was showing its caution in waiting and watching before it came forward. Research showed that it has poor eyesight, average hearing and good sense of smell, but also that it was very concerned with ground level but indifferent to activity in the canopy. Therefore with reasonable quietness, it would not be concerned with us on a 4m high platform. Thats what happened and it came forward into the small muddy area at our feet and licked away at the mud. We could move about quietly, whisper and take photos without disturbing it. Perhaps for 20 minutes we obseved before it slipped away, then we lay down (and dozed) waiting for the next one. However time was passing and we were very happy with what we had seen anyway, so we commenced our walk home in the pitch black. This part of the trip was intended to look for night life and we found plenty. Bats flicked around us and the screech Owl called repeatedly. We saw numerous spiders on trackside vegetation, the best would have been shantis full hand size, with its legs spread. We found the black bush scorpion, a good size, and biggest find was to see two of the three poison arrow frogs that natives use to dress their arrow tips. They are small, colourful, and its surprising to think how toxic they are, easily fatal through mishandling.
A bronze coloured snake crossed our path and we also disturbed an Armadillo which crashed of into the forest. At times we passed close to Peccaries, the forest pig with a reputation for agression but that was an exageration, said our guide. They have a distinctive musky smell, when close, like for example our red deer. Finally we reached the bridge over the creek next to the lodge, and in the panel of clear sky saw it was blazing with stars, including the southern cross. We fell into bed whacked, but not without a new respect for the crawling night life and an interest in checking our cabin before we walked around its floors (even though the cabin was netted in). On our first night we had sprayed the room because we could hear mossies, and next morning there was a monster spider dead in our shower - i picked it up in the dim light before realising what it was. Im surprised the thud didnt wake us up in the night when it dropped!
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