Ecuador and Galapagos Margaret and I Have Enjoyed Overseas Travel and Have Always Taken a Passing Interest in the Birds of Any C
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Ecuador and Galapagos Margaret and I have enjoyed overseas travel and have always taken a passing interest in the birds of any country we travel to. However on our trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos we focused on the birds while still enjoying the life and culture of a different country. I need to point out that when in a different country for a limited time we don’t always pursue the rarities, so we probably spend a lot of time looking at the equivalent of the Noisy Miner. My photos are more in the nature of holiday snaps but occasionally the birds co-operate. South America, like Australia, is a large country and one could spend almost as much time in airports as on the ground. We decided to limit ourselves to Ecuador and even there confined ourselves to three sites, the Galapagos which are a part of Ecuador, the village of Mindo and the surrounding cloud forest and the Amazon Basin. For details about Ecuador follow this link: https://www.britannica.com/place/Ecuador Getting to the Galapagos from Australia is a long-winded process. On Wednesday we flew from Sydney to Santiago, capital of Chile, on Thursday we flew from Santiago to Guayaquil in southern Ecuador and met up with four friends from Newcastle, and on Friday we flew to the airport on the Island of Baltra and boarded the boat on which we were to spend the next five days visiting six different islands. Situated in the Pacific Ocean some 1,000 km from the South American continent, these 19 islands and the surrounding marine reserve have been called a unique ‘living museum and showcase of evolution’. Located at the confluence of three ocean currents, the Galápagos are a ‘melting pot’ of marine species. Ongoing seismic and volcanic activity reflects the processes that formed the islands. These processes, together with the extreme isolation of the islands, led to the development of unusual animal life – such as the land iguana, the giant tortoise and the many types of finch – that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection following his visit in 1835 (UNESCO). It is not a tropical paradise with growing population and tourism pressure and a conflict between conservation and the need for residents to make a living. After lunch we set out to Bacchus Beach on Santa Cruz Island where we saw our first deep pink American Flamingoes and the stately Great Blue Heron. Overnight we moved on to Genovesa Island, and saw Eight new birds, including Short-eared Owl, Lava Heron, Storm Petrels, Red-billed Tropic Bird and a feeding frenzy by Great Frigatebirds as newly-hatched turtles made their way to the sea. Moved on to Plazas and then Santa Fe islands getting a taste of the unusual adaptations of the natural life of the Galapagos including marine and land iguanas and their staple diet of prickly pear cactus but not as we know them. The Prickly Pair has developed into 14 separate types ranging from the Opuntia Echios variation Gigantea which grows to 12 metres high, to the Opuntia Echios, variation Barringtonensis found on Santa Cruz whose trunk measures 1.25 metres in diameter! Another adaptation to this isolated environment is the so-called Darwin finches. These birds were to play an important part in Darwin’s explanation of natural selection. Darwin was no expert ornithologist and there has been recent research into his ‘finches’ which are now being recognised as tanagers (not to be confused with teenagers). With time running out we moved on to San Christobel Island where we got up-close to Blue- footed Boobies performing their mating dance. To see a well-worn Youtube video of their dance Click Here Lava Gull Galapagos Pigeon We flew back to Quito, capital of Ecuador, a well-preserved Spanish colonial city high in the Andes at about 3,000 metres. This caused a one-day delay in our itinerary as we recovered from altitude sickness, a new experience and one we don’t want to repeat. Then on to next stage of birding around the village of Mindo a village in the Andes Mountains of northern Ecuador. It's known for the many bird species, butterflies and orchids found in the surrounding cloud forest, staying in the aptly-named Yellow House Next morning we were picked up by a driver at 4 am for what would be one of my best-ever birding experiences to see the display at the lek of the Andean Cock-of-the-rock, and the Giant Antpitta and a variety of other special birds on the property of Angel Paz. 425 species have been found here. For more details about this magic property follow this link: https://www.refugiopazdelasaves.com/ We were privilege to witness the dawn chorus and dance of the weird-looking Andean Cock- of-the-rock, not an easy performance to photograph. We then trekked down into a valley to find the rare reclusive Giant Antpitta nicknamed Maria. These are the highlights but there was no shortage of other colourful birds. Angel does feed the birds, mainly bananas and worms but can be forgiven for that because most people depend on subsistence farming and Angel found these rare birds on his property and earns more showing birdwatchers the birds than he would ever earn from growing bananas or cutting down his timber. He is preserving the environment which does not have a high priority in Ecuador and he assures us that the birds are not dependent on his feeding to attract birds for tourists to see. All this plus breakfast for $20. Even today it is only $US35 to see a wonderful array of birds. Back to Mindo and absorbing the village atmosphere. We spent the next two days doing our own thing on the property walking up to the cloud forest discovering a variety of birds including two different toucans and Squirrel Cuckoos). Being equatorial (hence the name Ecuador) it rains like clockwork every afternoon but the birdlife is so prolific you can sit at the window and watch a never-ending parade of birds in the garden. Reluctantly, we returned to Quito along an incredible road over the Andes regularly blocked by landslides. The next leg of our trip was to the Amazon rainforest, not on the Amazon itself but on a tributary, the Napo River. This involved a half hour flight over the Andes to Coca where we met our fellow travellers. As so often happens in out-of- the-way places when we said we were from Newcastle two of our companions were Jane and Ted from New Lambton. We then travelled by motorised launch for 2 hours to Napo Welcoming Centre where we transferred to a canoe and were paddled for another one and a half hours through thick jungle, bird and animal watching, before entering a small lake to be greeted by the idyllic Napo Wildlife Centre which was to be our home for the next four days. During that time we climbed a 36 feet observation tower to catch glimpses of macaw and vultures and various monkeys and went spotlighting for bats, monkeys and nightjars. We also paddled up the creek to visit parrot clay licks On our way back our launch regularly ran aground on sandbanks and it was all hands off deck to push it clear but we eventually arrived safely back in Quito. Our trip wasn’t all birds. Quito has a rich history and culture with Spanish colonial influence and its own Inca civilisation. Overweight Frigatebird? Ecuador was memorable for the sheer number and beauty of its birds: 1,674 bird species in a country not much bigger than Victoria. Robert Stewart .