A couple of days around Quito, Ecuador
Day 1
Ostensibly I was in Ecuador co-leading a trip to the Galapagos which was a fantastic experience in and of itself but I also wanted to make the most of my first trip to South America and decided to tack on a couple of personal days to do a little birding around Quito on my own time. My first day I hit Papallacta and then down to Guango Lodge. I had a driver for the day but was very much on my own bird-wise. I was not overconfident but armed with my trusty field guide I thought I'd be OK and almost as a scientific experiment I was intrigued to discover how hard birding tropical birding would be making the ID's on my own.
I started the day up at the Papallacta pass at the towers for the seedsnipe, but with one small problem, I was dressed for the temperate Galapagos (in fact it was unseasonably hot while we were there) and the weather was as I'd expect it would be in New England in January (but with more fog/cloud cover). After 10 minutes my Helly Hansen had about soaked through, ice sheets of rain were ripping my face and hands raw and a quick slip on the mossy terrain onto a now rather muddy ass had me heading back to the car and calling it quits on the much sought after seedsnipe (wimpy huh!) - visibility of about 30 meters was something of an inhibitor as well. Still, I managed to add Bar and Stout Winged Cinclodes to my list as well as Paramo Ground-Tyrant and Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant, Tawny Antpitta and my favorite many-striped Canastero just the name is fantastic and the bird is quite the little charmer.
Next a stop a little lower down at the Thermos springs. Although the waters looked very appealing I decided that although it was still tanking it down I couldn't get much wetter and decided to slog it out along the road behind the baths and see what was around. Shining Sunbeams (what a beautiful hummer) perched up and showing their unbelievable rainbow tinted backs were a real reward in the gloom and a White-sided Flowerpiercer rounded out the 5 species that I saw on the trip. I soon added another cracking colibri in the shape of the monstrous Great Saphirewing. When I first glimpsed it it was so huge I barely could believe it was a hummer - pretty slow wingbeats as well which was throwing me! Still the weather was miserable and the couple of little flocks of passerines I kept hitting were difficult to ID with wet /foggy bins and I added just a few new species to the list including the rather cracking Blue-backed Conebill and the jaunty Rufous-breasted Chat-tyrant.
Time to head for somewhere dryer I decided so we made our way down to Guango Lodge a fantastic place with loads of hummers literally buzzing everywhere - almost too many to even concentrate on one. The first one I spotted on entrance was a Chestnut-breasted Coronet, a stunningly beautiful hummer but I hardly had time to appreciate it as the delights just kept coming thick and fast. My dream hummer the Collared Inca, then Tourmaline Sunangels, Buff-winged Starfrontlets, clouds of cheery little White-bellied Woodstars, the simply outrageous Long-tailed Sylph and the preposterous Sword-billed Hummingbird. All in all there were hundreds of hummers all vying for the 10 or 15 feeders set up around the garden.
It was hard to drag myself away from the constant action but after adding a another couple of species including a subtle but rather beautiful Speckled Hummingbird and the somewhat less common Golden-breasted Puffleg I decided to have a little hike of the grounds along the river behind the Lodge. Birding heaven is all I can describe as the moment that you hit your first flock of passerines in the tropics. All the raw excitement of hitting a wave of warblers in migration in the states but with more variety of birds - it makes me wonder how I am going to be able to replace that level of excitement now I am back at home (apart from moving abroad!). Of course being new to the majority of these birds I was somewhat struggling with a couple of ID's but managed to pull out Spectacled White-start, Cinnamon Flycatcher, the rather wonderfully named Supercilliaried Hemispingus, Rufous-naped Brush-finch and apparently a rather nice Gray-hooded Bush-tanager. A few birds had to be left unidentified but I was pleased to manage to crack one of the Tyrannulets and get it ID'd as Black-capped (and happier still when my guide the next day confirmed that it was one of the two most likely suspects at Guango). Just like that though the raucous flock was gone leaving my heart racing and a couple of mysterious unidentified flying objects spinning around in my head.
A little further down the trail at Guango I managed to pull a motionless Andean Guan out of the background perched across the road in some dense vegetation, I hit a group of rather noisy Turquoise Jays stripping fruit from one of the trees and they were joined by 3 more Andean Guans, a flock of Northern Mountain-Cacique and a both Hooded Mountain Tanager and a rather badly viewed Buff-breasted Tanager.
As a special treat at the end of my lodge visit Alex, who fills the feeders at the lodge, pulled out his grand finale. Leading me to a small stone slab near the gated entrance to the lodge he started to whistle in a Chestnut-crowned Antpitta and, showered with offerings of worms the bird appeared just like that. What a moment and a great finale at the lodge. I had doubled my Antpitta expectations for the trip and now had my very own terrible Antpitta photo's to share with the world. A jaw-dropping moment - I could have just stayed with that bird all day, but by now it was time to turn for dinner so reluctantly I said goodbye to the lodge. On the way home a forlorn scan of the skies in the hopes of adding Andean Condor did at least allow me to pull a Black-chested Buzzard Eagle out of the mist and a scan of a few powerlines found me watching an enormous Giant Hummingbird - unbelievable - how does this thing hover - it's almost the size of a small dog!!!!!!!
An unbelievable days birding. Probably nothing to write home about if you are an old hand in Ecuador but for a South-American beginner like myself, the kind of day dreams are made of.
Luke
day 2 to follow....
Day 1
Ostensibly I was in Ecuador co-leading a trip to the Galapagos which was a fantastic experience in and of itself but I also wanted to make the most of my first trip to South America and decided to tack on a couple of personal days to do a little birding around Quito on my own time. My first day I hit Papallacta and then down to Guango Lodge. I had a driver for the day but was very much on my own bird-wise. I was not overconfident but armed with my trusty field guide I thought I'd be OK and almost as a scientific experiment I was intrigued to discover how hard birding tropical birding would be making the ID's on my own.
I started the day up at the Papallacta pass at the towers for the seedsnipe, but with one small problem, I was dressed for the temperate Galapagos (in fact it was unseasonably hot while we were there) and the weather was as I'd expect it would be in New England in January (but with more fog/cloud cover). After 10 minutes my Helly Hansen had about soaked through, ice sheets of rain were ripping my face and hands raw and a quick slip on the mossy terrain onto a now rather muddy ass had me heading back to the car and calling it quits on the much sought after seedsnipe (wimpy huh!) - visibility of about 30 meters was something of an inhibitor as well. Still, I managed to add Bar and Stout Winged Cinclodes to my list as well as Paramo Ground-Tyrant and Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant, Tawny Antpitta and my favorite many-striped Canastero just the name is fantastic and the bird is quite the little charmer.
Next a stop a little lower down at the Thermos springs. Although the waters looked very appealing I decided that although it was still tanking it down I couldn't get much wetter and decided to slog it out along the road behind the baths and see what was around. Shining Sunbeams (what a beautiful hummer) perched up and showing their unbelievable rainbow tinted backs were a real reward in the gloom and a White-sided Flowerpiercer rounded out the 5 species that I saw on the trip. I soon added another cracking colibri in the shape of the monstrous Great Saphirewing. When I first glimpsed it it was so huge I barely could believe it was a hummer - pretty slow wingbeats as well which was throwing me! Still the weather was miserable and the couple of little flocks of passerines I kept hitting were difficult to ID with wet /foggy bins and I added just a few new species to the list including the rather cracking Blue-backed Conebill and the jaunty Rufous-breasted Chat-tyrant.
Time to head for somewhere dryer I decided so we made our way down to Guango Lodge a fantastic place with loads of hummers literally buzzing everywhere - almost too many to even concentrate on one. The first one I spotted on entrance was a Chestnut-breasted Coronet, a stunningly beautiful hummer but I hardly had time to appreciate it as the delights just kept coming thick and fast. My dream hummer the Collared Inca, then Tourmaline Sunangels, Buff-winged Starfrontlets, clouds of cheery little White-bellied Woodstars, the simply outrageous Long-tailed Sylph and the preposterous Sword-billed Hummingbird. All in all there were hundreds of hummers all vying for the 10 or 15 feeders set up around the garden.
It was hard to drag myself away from the constant action but after adding a another couple of species including a subtle but rather beautiful Speckled Hummingbird and the somewhat less common Golden-breasted Puffleg I decided to have a little hike of the grounds along the river behind the Lodge. Birding heaven is all I can describe as the moment that you hit your first flock of passerines in the tropics. All the raw excitement of hitting a wave of warblers in migration in the states but with more variety of birds - it makes me wonder how I am going to be able to replace that level of excitement now I am back at home (apart from moving abroad!). Of course being new to the majority of these birds I was somewhat struggling with a couple of ID's but managed to pull out Spectacled White-start, Cinnamon Flycatcher, the rather wonderfully named Supercilliaried Hemispingus, Rufous-naped Brush-finch and apparently a rather nice Gray-hooded Bush-tanager. A few birds had to be left unidentified but I was pleased to manage to crack one of the Tyrannulets and get it ID'd as Black-capped (and happier still when my guide the next day confirmed that it was one of the two most likely suspects at Guango). Just like that though the raucous flock was gone leaving my heart racing and a couple of mysterious unidentified flying objects spinning around in my head.
A little further down the trail at Guango I managed to pull a motionless Andean Guan out of the background perched across the road in some dense vegetation, I hit a group of rather noisy Turquoise Jays stripping fruit from one of the trees and they were joined by 3 more Andean Guans, a flock of Northern Mountain-Cacique and a both Hooded Mountain Tanager and a rather badly viewed Buff-breasted Tanager.
As a special treat at the end of my lodge visit Alex, who fills the feeders at the lodge, pulled out his grand finale. Leading me to a small stone slab near the gated entrance to the lodge he started to whistle in a Chestnut-crowned Antpitta and, showered with offerings of worms the bird appeared just like that. What a moment and a great finale at the lodge. I had doubled my Antpitta expectations for the trip and now had my very own terrible Antpitta photo's to share with the world. A jaw-dropping moment - I could have just stayed with that bird all day, but by now it was time to turn for dinner so reluctantly I said goodbye to the lodge. On the way home a forlorn scan of the skies in the hopes of adding Andean Condor did at least allow me to pull a Black-chested Buzzard Eagle out of the mist and a scan of a few powerlines found me watching an enormous Giant Hummingbird - unbelievable - how does this thing hover - it's almost the size of a small dog!!!!!!!
An unbelievable days birding. Probably nothing to write home about if you are an old hand in Ecuador but for a South-American beginner like myself, the kind of day dreams are made of.
Luke
day 2 to follow....
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