[James Lowther]

just been looking at the Amazonia lodge website and found this
http://www.amazonialodge.com/Natural_History_Tours.html
which seems to suggest there's a clay lick nearby?
Does anyone know anything about it? Is it worth trying to visit? Is it likely to attract any of the large macaw species?
cheers,
James

[etudiant]

Have stayed at the lodge on a Manu Expeditions trip and would recommend it as a birding site.
Large macaws can be seen from the Madre de Dios in that area, as they are strong fliers and cover long distances daily. See a pair flying free against the open sky and you will be cured of the desire to keep these wonderful creatures confined to a cage. With luck, they can be seen in the treetops as well.
I did not go to the clay lick near the lodge, but rather one further downriver near the Manu Wildlife center. However, there are a number of suitable sited for clay licks along the river, formed when the river undercuts a bank during a spring flood and then left dry when the river shifts its bed. Do expect to see many more parrots than macaws.

[James Lowther]

thanks etudiant,
the clay lick at MWC is of course very famous, but i've never heard anything about this one near amazonia before..
James

[Birdingcraft]

I haven't heard of that one before either. Although I could be wrong, my guess is that it's a smaller clay lick that could attract macaws but might also just attract smaller parakeets. I would email Amazonia Lodge to get details.
Even if its a smaller clay lick, it could still be very exciting. Case in point is when I used to work at the Tambopata Research Center- in addition to monitoring large clay licks that were frequented by macaws and parrots, we also monitored smaller licks frequented by such exciting birds as Black-capped Parakeets and Amazonian Parrotlet.
The birding as always fantastic!

[James Lowther]

cheers Patrick,
it might be worth a look if it's possible and not prohibitively expensive.
I just won't expect dozens of blue-and-yellow macaws and hundreds of scarlets and red-and-greens then!
James

[Phaethon]

Patrick:

I have heard there is a great Clay lick near Puerto Maldonado that is much less expensive to visit than any of the ones near Manu. Also at the Los Amigos Research Center (visited w/Kolibri Expeditions0 Macaws are extremely common.
I had six species there visible every day and the antbird variety was incredible.

[Birdingcraft]

Originally Posted by James Lowther

cheers Patrick,
it might be worth a look if it's possible and not prohibitively expensive.
I just won't expect dozens of blue-and-yellow macaws and hundreds of scarlets and red-and-greens then!
James

No, you probably won't loads of the three big macaws coming to a link near Amazonia lodge but you might see those species away from a clay lick.

[Birdingcraft]

Originally Posted by Phaethon

Patrick:

I have heard there is a great Clay lick near Puerto Maldonado that is much less expensive to visit than any of the ones near Manu. Also at the Los Amigos Research Center (visited w/Kolibri Expeditions0 Macaws are extremely common.
I had six species there visible every day and the antbird variety was incredible.

I wonder which one that clay lick is. Good for you to get to Los Amigos! I've always heard good things about the place. In general, southeastern Peru is incredible most places one visits. The bird list for the Tambopata area (Puerto Maldonado surroundings to TRC) is around 620 species of birds. Several accidentals or occasional species such as Laughing Gull, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Nacunda Nighthawk, and others are included, all in the lowlands.

[Illapa]

I know the Collpa which is near Amazonia Lodge, is a good place to see Parrots, Parakeets, but this place is not very common to see the Large Macaw, to see the Large Macaw Macaw is better in the lowlands of Manu or Tampopata.
Grettings
Steve Sánchez

[James Lowther]

Having visited the Mascoitania clay lick last month thought i'd round this thread off with an update.

On the negative side
the site does not attract large macaws - at least not down to the clay
the clay cliffs are very extensive, and when i was there the parrots came down a long way away from the shelter, way beyond IDable range with binoculars

on the plus side
the site attracts lots of common parrots so there is a lot of flying back and forth across the river and along the ridge, quite an enjoyable spectable in itself
amongst the species flying around were a few yellow-crowned parrots, which i didn't see or hear at Amazonia itself
we had reasonable flyover views of both red-and-green and blue-and-yellow macaws! I never saw any blue-and-yellows flying over the lodge. The previous day there were blue-headed macaws also apparently.
The beach in front of the viewing shelter had some good birds - capped heron, waders including collared plover, little ground-tyrant, yellow-browed sparrow etc.
The boat trip to and from the site produced good views of cocoi and fasciated tiger herons, and black caracara.

So overall quite an enjoyable sidetrip if not a 5 star experience like the more famous colpas. Make sure you take your scope if you have one, and bear in mind that non-birders might not find it too thrilling!

The price of the boat is currently 250 soles (£50), so quite expensive for an individual or a couple but better value if you're in a big group.

cheers,
James