Amazon life, part 1

So, finally I'm able to update you all. I've arrived (obviously), and am starting to get into the groove of jungle life. I dont really know where to begin... There are 4 other assistants out here, as well as a field leader who acts as our boss (although he's more of a friend than a boss..) everyone gets along quite wonderfully. At first I was a bit intimidated by how close everyone was but now I'm starting to feel like one of the fold and it's all good. We definetly have fun as we work and I think everyone here shares a feeling of being lucky to be part of such a project. We live, work, eat, and sleep together and it feels like a big multi-cultural funny family. There are also a few guys who do maintanance work, an awesome chef and his assistant, the two boatsmen, the lodge manager, and occasionally tourists who stay in a seperate area. We all live upstairs from the bio-labs and the guide rooms (the guides come when the tourists come to show them around and take them on different types of walks through the jungle) in a big thatched roof very simple structure with open ends that let the air, bugs, occasional birds, and bats in. We all have our own little room seperated by bamboo walls and cloth curtain doors. I'm provided with a mosquito net (thank god) and lots of clothing line in my room to hang all my disgusting soaking wet clothes at the end of the day.
An average day usually starts with my alarm at 4:15 when I get up, stumble around with my headlamp to get dressed and get my things together for the morning. I always remember to check down the legs of my pants with my flashlight before I put them on but I have to say, there has been nothing lurking there so far. We leave the lodge by 4:45 and hike out to the boat port where we get into a boat and take a short ride upriver to the colpa (the clay lick) where the birds flock to every morning. (or, alternately, a marsh on the other side of the same island, where we listen and watch for birds arriving to the colpa and record whatever we see/hear) At the colpa we're recording the time and abundance of each species to use the colpa. On sunny days in particular it's an amazing display, with so many colors of birds being illuminated by the sun. My favorites are the blue and yellow macaws who are a sky blue color on their heads and backs and brilliant golden yellow under their wings. When the sun hits the bottoms of their wings it's just incredibly beautiful. Especially when there's 50 or more of them flying at the same time. Amazing. So, around 7:30 we radio back to the lodge and have the boat come back for us, then we eat breakfast and get ready for our other morning activity. Usually we're climing in the late morning, we're split into pairs, one person will climb a tree with rope and a harness and the other stays on the ground to take measurements of the chick that the climber lowers down in a bucket from the nest. I've climbed three nests so far (many more in the future, I'm sure) and it's been interesting. The climbing itself is incredibly physically demanding. By the end of the climb my arms hardly feel like they're attached to my body any more. I'm sure that with time I will gain strength, and so it will get easier. The view from the top of the trees makes it entirely worth it, however. Macaws like to choose the tallest trees of the forest to nest in and so once you're up there, there are not many other trees taller than you. Because you have to lower down the chick and then the other person has to take all kinds of measurements of it, you just sortof hang up in the tree for half an hour or so, waiting for them to return the chick, so you have time to just look around and enjoy the view (or, alternately, be tortured by bullet ants and sweat bees, depending on the tree). Yesterday there were monkeys moving through the branches in the tree next to me and checking out me, a strange site to them, I'm sure.
The actual removal of the chick from the nest is quite eventful as well... The mother usually pokes her head out of the nest as you're climbing up and starts to growl at you and sometimes yell... Once you get to the nest the first thing you have to do is get rid of the parents, which is done by taking a stick and poking it at her, or, if it's an artificial nest hanging from a branch, you can shake the whole nest and throw off her balance so she'll fly off. Some times it's easier than other times and sometimes she'll attack, flying at you all pissed off with her claws out... that's when I just sortof cover my face and yell back and hope she'll leave me alone. Once that's dealt with, you get to the nest and have to remove the very unhappy and uncooperative chick who also likes to bite. Luckily, they haven't made it through the gloves yet, so it doesn't hurt too much, but at first it was a little scary. Once they're in the bucket you lower it down to the person on the ground, they do their thing (measuring the beak, talons, weight, crop, tail, etc, etc, etc) and then they send the chick back up and you put it back in the nest, and lower yourself down (I like this part the best because it's fairly effortless and it feels like flying).

***I have to stop here because it's time for dinner. Part 2 will be coming soon!***