By  Nancy Lee, Arizona, USA  BIRDING TRIP TO MANU / PERU October - November 2001 I just got back yesterday ( 07. nov. 2001 ) from the IAATE Peru Bio-tour guided by Charlie Munn and Steve Martin. It was the most vivid, memorable, fun experience I've had in my adult life ( and I must again thank my husband for arranging this trip as a midlife birthday surprise). We traveled by bus from Cuzco over the Andes and then down again to the Amazon basin, seeing several distinct ecosystems along the way. Scrub forest, elfinwood, cloud forest and rain forest were the main ones I think, with sub-types between. Each type of forest hosts its own set of indiginous species. The Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge is located in cloud forest. We woke early one morning to walk a short distance in the dark and to wait in a blind. Shortly, we started hearing the loud eery calls of the Cocks-of-the-Rock. They started slowly, as single calls, first from the right, then from the left, then high and low. As daylight began to filter into the forest, we started seeing the grey forms of trees, leaves, and an occasional moving bird. The calls got closer together as the light got brighter and we started seeing flashes of red. Soon we could see several males entirely, raising their crests, calling "Eeerp!... Eeerp!" and bowing and raising their wings energetically. At the height of the display, there were 12 - 20 birds ( others would know the count better ) all calling at once and filling the forest with noise and birdie glamour. And that was just the beginning. As a group, we saw over 100 species, including lots of birds and an unexpected number of large mammals, including giant river otters, a white-lipped peccary, tapirs at their nighttime clay lick, a red brocket deer (only one person saw but she got it on video), a tayra, a few 3-toed sloths. Each morning and evening at Manu was accompanied by Blue-and-gold, Scarlet and Greenwing Macaws flying overhead, either to forage or to return home. You know they're arriving because you hear them calling before you see them. Never again will I consider a screaming bird a "problem"; it's not the bird that's the problem but we humans and the human environment we've stuck them in. Parrots in nature holler A LOT. It's how they know where everyone is, among other things. The large macaws fly in pairs except when a juvenile accompanies its parents. Greenwings and Scarlets are usually seen only in pairs but Blue-and-golds often fly in small groups of pairs. These birds live and work up HIGH. It's odd that we  put them in houses (low-ceilinged caves) and on perches below eye level (so they don't get aggressive, cough cough) when they're adapted to fly along the treetops at 100 feet or so. My my... I plan to sleep for a couple of days now. I can only say that I highly recommend doing this. Manu was great, Charlie Munn was an incredibly astute, generous and interesting guide, and the whole trip in general was just unforgettable. I fervently hope to return. Nancy Lee, Arizona, USA nrlee@earthlink.net