I travel along many rivers when I visit this part of the northern Peruvian Amazon, but I always see the greatest diversity of birds when traveling along the Tahuayo River.
During our two day trip visiting Chino, Esperanza and Santa Cruz we saw various black collared hawks (locally called "Mama vieja") perched on branches looking for fish and occasionally emitting their unmistakable cry. Cormorants swam along looking down and then left little pools of water as they ran across the water to gain enough speed to take off when we got too close. Blue kingfishers darted from perch to perch and swallows swooped back and forth across the river. A rufescent tiger heron crouched low near the water. My prize sighting was spotting two iridescent white chinned jacamars in the forest edge while leaving Santa Cruz.
Andrea spent months working with this designer and four artisans to make dozens of colorful balsa wood birds and giant chambira butterflies. The birds included an egret, tiger heron, toucan, macaws and a kingfisher. When we stopped at the mall after visiting the aquarium, I loved seeing these creatures twirl around in a mild breeze.
I was most happy to hear the Chino artisans wanted to resume attending our bird ornament workshops. Half of them have made some birds based on what they learned five years ago, but they were eager to improve the quality of these woven animals they could sell to their visitors and have secure sales to us.
I selected a few baskets laid out on benches and placed an order for elegant two-color models. Lindy reported good progress making lady bug ornaments and planned to attend our artisan facilitator training. We were happy the group looked forward to hosting a bird-making workshop in July with artisans from 3 Tahuayo communities.
by Campbell Plowden
