Parrot Clay Lick in the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador

On March 23, 2018March 22, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn South America3 Comments

When visiting Yasuni National Park in the Amazon, one of the tours will take you out to see the parrots and parakeets licking the clay on a cliff along the banks of the Napo River in Ecuador. The tours are organized by the Napo Wildlife Center, whose property is where the licks are located, and the best time to visit is just after dawn in the morning. Activity at the clay lick is even more abundant on mornings when it isn’t raining, so we were fortunate to have a clear day during our visit since it is called a rainforest for obvious reasons.

The night before our tour, our nature guide offered us the choice of sleeping in an extra thirty minutes and having breakfast on the boat or getting up at 4:30 am to eat before departing on the tour. Since we had be up so early every morning, we gladly chose to stay in bed for any extra time that he would offer us and the chef of the lodge prepared a variety of food for us to eat on the boat. Despite being in the jungle, it was surprisingly cool on the water as we made our way to the first of two clay licks that we were to visit that day.

The parrots, parakeets, and macaws visit to the clay lick almost daily because the minerals in the clay counteract the toxins that are in the berries and fruit that they eat in the jungle. Without the clay licks, the birds wouldn’t survive the toxicity that builds up in their small bodies. The birds certainly seem to fully enjoy their time at the clay lick as they chirped and squawked incessantly as they hopped around and flew in and out of the group. There were so many birds that it was hard to distinguish one from another at times. We sat there on our boat for almost an hour as we ate our breakfast and watched the birds eating and playing.

Afterwards, we went to the second clay lick where we had to hike our way into the jungle to get a spot in an observation deck. There was the possibility of a variety of animals from birds to mammals coming to the location, so our group sat there quietly waiting for anything to appear. At one point, we saw a couple of parrots come to the clay lick, but that was all that we saw. After seeing so many birds at the previous clay lick, sitting quietly for three hours to see two birds was a little anticlimactic.

We saw so many different birds and animals during our time in the Amazon, but watching the feeding frenzy at the clay lick was certainly a highlight of our time in the rainforest. It is hard to believe the way that animals learn to adapt to their environment, eating things that are toxic to their systems and then finding ways to counteract what is poisoning their systems. If only there was a clay lick for humans who have gone out at night and had too much to drink, wouldn’t that be nice 🙂 .

Birds of the Amazon Rainforest

On February 20, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn South America19 Comments

We saw over 55 types of birds during our time in the Amazon Jungle. We purchased a bird and mammal spotting book at the wildlife center where we were staying and at the end of every day our nature guide would mark all of the different birds and animals that we saw during our tours. We didn’t get photographs of everything that we saw, either because the canopy was too thick to get a good picture or because we saw them so quickly that we couldn’t get our camera out and focus in time. Capturing images of the wildlife was certainly a highlight of our time in rainforest.

Hoatzin (Stinky Turkey) in a Tree above the River

The colorful macaws certainly enjoyed showing off and we were lucky enough to see four different types of macaws including the scarlet and blue and yellow macaws. We also captured a photo of a white throated toucan, but it is hard to see off in the distance. Our guides had powerful binoculars and when they found a bird, they would sometimes take a photo from our phone through the eye-piece, capturing them up close. We also used our telephoto lens, but certainly could have used a more powerful lens.

Toucan Barely Visible (Black and White in the Center of the Photo)

One of the most common birds was called the stinky turkey by the locals and we saw them all along the river. Another common, and noisy, bird was the yellow-rumped cacique, which nested all around the grounds of the eco-lodge. Not all of the birds were colorful and some of them camouflaged themselves to blend in with the trees around them. It was quite common to see vultures circling in the sky at various times and they looked like giant black birds from the distance. There were also a lot of river birds, like the king fishers and swifts that were very graceful to watch as they surveyed the water for food. One of the special trips that we took was to a salt lick where the parrots and parakeets would gather at dawn to eat the nutrients from the muddy cliff.

If you plan a trip into the Amazon Rainforest, be sure to pack your camera and binoculars along with your jungle clothes. If you are willing to get up before the sun rises and stay out until the sun sets, you should be fortunate enough to see a wide variety of wildlife. With over 600 species of birds to see in the biodiverse Yasuni National Park in Ecuador, the opportunities to see unique birds can be found around almost every bend in the river.

Taking Random Photos

On January 9, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge, South America11 Comments

Just like everyone else, when we travel we take photos of all of the major sites to see as well as a selfie here and there. We love taking photos of the various architecture, cityscapes, landscapes, and major landmarks. With that said, we often take random photos that don’t necessarily represent the place that we are visiting. If we happen upon some beautiful flowers, perhaps a courtyard with a fountain, or perhaps just an interesting scene or group of people. Although the photos don’t necessarily represent the place that we are visiting, we find the pictures interesting never the less. This week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge are photos that contain the words that contain a U and an O, so we have decided to share some random photos that we took while we were in Quito. Do you ever take photos of random things while you are traveling?