I made it back from camping in one very wet and sleep-deprived piece! We had some terrible luck with our first site – a friaje (cold front) hit the day that we hiked up. We did the entire two-hour hike in the rain, we hacked out net lanes and set nets up in the rain, and we pitched our tent in the rain. We were soaked. We couldn’t even open the nets the next day because it rained on and off. Instead we re-pitched our tent in a flatter location that was closer to water, but unfortunately it had a bunch more tree roots covering the ground. The second and third netting days were better – we opened for five and seven hours but had to close early both days due to rain. That site was also horrendous because of the trail – it very quickly turned into a mud slide, so basically every time we went to check nets (every 30 minutes), we would slip, slide, and usually end up on our butts. By the time we finished our third day of netting we were cold, wet, muddy, and sore. Fortunately we got to make a trip back to camp for a night to restock our food and supplies, and also to celebrate Thanksgiving!
We had Thanksgiving dinner a week early, on November 23, because there were no tourists at the lodge and we wanted to cook for the lodge staff and use their kitchen. Jack and I didn’t get back until late that afternoon, but fortunately for us Ian had been busy cooking all day. We had two chickens, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, stir fried vegetables, and apple and pumpkin pie. *DROOL* It was so good!! Ian rocked that meal. Before eating, Ian made a speech explaining the significance of Thanksgiving to the Peruvians (and the Brit) and thanking them for their hospitality. It was a fantastic dinner.
The next morning Jack and I packed up everything to go back up to our last banding site. Ian insisted that we take the leftover Thanksgiving food – Jack preferred ramen, which we’d been eating for three days and would continue to eat otherwise, but I will NEVER turn down Thanksgiving food!
Of course, it started drizzling just as we set out on our hike, but it wasn’t bad. Once up there, we hacked out net lanes in our last site and set up the nets, and then I enjoyed my Thanksgiving feast, part 2. The second site was much better than the first – our tent was in the middle of the site so we could just roll out of bed and be right there, whereas we had a 30 minute slog through the mud at the first site. We also never had to close early for rain, so we got three full days of netting in. However, there wasn’t a whole lot of activity, at least compared to some other sites. We still caught some cool birds and I saw several new species. During our very last net check on the last day, we caught a barred forest-falcon! That was the first raptor I’d ever caught, and it was AWESOME! When I was holding it in “raptor grip” (you grab the upper part of their legs since their talons are the most dangerous part), it would occasionally start flapping, and it was incredible how powerful it’s wings were. That was the last bird for the San Pedro banding team in 2013 – good one to end on!
Normally the banding team would start their sites over and cycle through until the end of the season, but because we are now down to only five people (we started with ten), there is no more banding team and everyone is back to nest searching and metabolics. So my time on the banding team was short-lived, but I learned a ton, got a lot of good experience, got a nice change of pace from nest searching, and now I get to finish out the last two weeks with metabolics again. Time here is running out! We all leave for Cusco on December 16, so we’re in the home stretch. Hard to believe after nearly 4 months!
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