TRIP REPORT

ECUADOR TRIP REPORT

ROGER AND LOUISE MCGOVERN

OCTOBER 26 – NOVEMBER 16, 2008

INTRODUCTION

In the past four years Louise and I have made birding trips to Costa Rica, Arizona, New Jersey, across the width of Canada, South Africa, Madagascar, Texas and Poland. However, the one major region in the world that we had never visited was South America and we decided to make this our destination in late 2008. After sounding out many people with experience of birding in South America, we made the decision to go to Ecuador on our first foray to the continent, based on diversity, ease of getting around, personal safety, availability of good accommodation, and the mixture of Andean and Amazonian . Our good friends Roger and Carol Skan in the UK had made contact with Xavier Munoz, an owner of the Ecuadorian tour company Neblina Forest (www.neblinaforest.com ), at the British Bird Fair in 2006 and again in 2007. They were sufficiently impressed with Xavier and his operation that the four of us made the decision to use Neblina Forest to organise our birding visit to Ecuador in 2008.

After some e-mail exchanges, a 16-day birding itinerary was established based around the high Andean areas and associated lower(western and eastern) slopes in the Quito region, together with a side trip to the Napo Wildlife Center in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin. With Ecuador’s bird list standing at more than 1600 species, it was clearly not viable to visit all areas and habitats in such a short period of time and the final itinerary was based on seeing good numbers of species as well as experiencing both the high country of the Andean paramo and the equally spectacular Amazonian jungle. In the brochure of Neblina Forest, they state that the average expected number of species seen on our itinerary is between 450 and 500. In the event, my final species count was 538 seen, with many more heard. I use the term “my” because we all had different counts mostly because, during intense bird waves in thick dark rainforest, it is very difficult to see and identify every bird that passes through and we all saw and missed that others missed and saw! Of these 538 species, a total of 366 were life birds, which was rather disappointing considering that it was our first trip to South America. However, our previous birding in Costa Rica and Trinidad together with the good numbers of North American migrants led to the lower-than-expected tally of lifers. With such a huge number of birds expected and seen, none of us had any serious wish list birds (with the possible exception of Harpy Eagle, which we didn’t see) and so there were no real missed or seen target species. However, the birds that I particularly remember as special were the pair of low flying Andean Condors in the Antisana Ecological Reserve (the only ones that we saw), a pair of Rufous-bellied Seedsnipes in the impossible high country near Papallacta, and the unforgettable Hoatzins along the black water creek at the Napo Wildlife Center (NWC). Also noteworthy is that we saw 55 species of hummingbirds and 76 species of tanagers but trying to absorb the details of huge numbers of species in a short period of time was extremely difficult.

Our itinerary was as follows:

October 26, 2008 – departed Sydney and arrived in Quito (thanks to the 16 hour time difference)

October 27, 2008 – Louise and I did a little birding in Quito at Parque La Carolina whilst awaiting the arrival of Roger and Carol Skan

October 28, 2008 – easy day’s birding at Parque Jerusalen near Quito

October 29, 2008 – departed Quito for Mido via Nono and the Tandayapa Valley (overnight at Sacha Tamia Lodge)

October 30, 2008 – Milpe Road and Milpe Cloudforest (overnight at Sacha Tamia Lodge)

October 31, 2008 – Las Muna Road, Silancha (Mindo Cloud Forest Foundation), Los Bancos and Rio Blanco (overnight at Sacha Tamia Lodge) November 1, 2008 – Birdpeace Refuge (Angel Pax’s antpitta farm), Alambi River and Reserve and then to Quito

November 2, 2008 – day trip to the Antisana Ecological Reserve in the high paramo

November 3, 2008 – Quito to Coca (by air), canoe trip down the Napo River to the NWC

November 4, 2008 – NWC - lodge tower, canopy tower, canoe trip (rained nearly all day)

November 5, 2008 – NWC - long morning trail walk, late afternoon walk to canopy tower area

November 6, 2008 – NWC - canoe trip to Napo River and the clay licks

November 7, 2008 – departed NWC and returned to Quito via Coca

November 8, 2008 – Quito to Papallacta (overnight at Termas de Papallacta)

November 9, 2008 – Papallacta to Guano Lodge (Papallacta River), the Rio Quijos Valley and San Isidro (overnight at San Isidro Lodge)

November 10, 2008 – San Isidro and Antisana Reserve (overnight at San Isidro Lodge)

November 11, 2008 – San Isidro to Quito

November 12, 2008 – day trip to the Yanacocha Reserve

November 13, 2008 – departed Quito on an evening flight

November 16, 2008 – arrived home in Sydney

We have made many birding trips all over the world and have used many guides, mostly very good ones, but a few somewhat forgettable. Our guide on this trip for the entire duration (other than at NWC) was a young fellow by the name of Alejandro Solano and he rated as probably the best guide that we have ever used. There are many criteria that a guide is measured by, the most important of which is the ability to find and identify birds by sight and by sound and Alejandro excelled in these skills. A good guide also needs to put up with the foibles of his clients in good spirits and not get pressured by the quest for numbers of species and, although our foibles were few, he coped very well with the four of us. In addition, he also had a detailed knowledge of everything else around us including flora, fauna, history and politics but, most of all, he had a wicked sense of humour that kept us all laughing throughout the trip and added immensely to the enjoyment of the experience. Our driver, Alfonso Quinga, was very attentive to our needs and drove with great care throughout despite various hazards including landslips, wet and potholed roads, and the occasional crazy driver. In summary, we highly recommend Neblina Forest as a tour company who will tailor your bird tour in Ecuador (and elsewhere in South America) to your specific requirements.

The quality of the accommodation throughout was very good ranging from acceptable to extremely comfortable. Our lodging in Quito was the Hotel Sebastian which was centrally located, comfortable and had very helpful staff. The only downside with the Sebastian is the constant noise of traffic all night but ear plugs solved most of that problem in my case. We all thoroughly enjoyed the food in Ecuador with excellent home-made soups with every meal and beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables always available. Some of us even sampled the national dish of Cuy which is roast guinea pig and which dates back to Inca times. It looks a little strange on the plate having been roasted whole, but the taste was delicious. Prices of most things including petrol seemed to be very reasonable although of course our tour cost covered almost everything. We drank bottled water outside of Quito and none of us experienced any sickness during the trip except for the altitude. Of the four of us, I was the only one to suffer from altitude problems and I have to say that it is not recommended as it detracts from the birding enjoyment! There is a drug (which I took) called Diamox which can be used for faster acclimatisation to altitude, but perhaps the fact that we continually switched between high and low altitudes through the trip did not allow proper adjustment and I was still struggling towards the end of the trip. In the same vein, we all had yellow fever inoculations before we departed for Ecuador and, although Yellow Fever does not seem to occur anywhere that we went, it is sensible to have the jab as you can run the risk of being put into 30 days of quarantine when you get back home if not inoculated. Louise and I commenced taking antibiotics as anti-malarials prior to going to NWC but the manager there assured us that there is no malaria in that part of the Ecuadorian Amazon so we immediately stopped taking them.

In summary, we had a fantastic experience in Ecuador from every standpoint and we would strongly recommend it as a birding destination.

CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT

Sunday 26 October, 2008

We departed from Sydney at 10.45am on Lan Chile flight 800 which stopped in Auckland en route to our destination of Santiago where we arrived at 12.55pm on the same day. While waiting for our connecting flight, we had a look for bird life from the terminal building seeing only house sparrows and feral pigeons at first. Then we caught sight of a smallish raptor which we later identified as a Chimango Caracara, our first and only lifer in Chile! We departed from Santiago at 4.05pm on Lan Ecuador flight 1447 which arrived in Quito at 8.55pm after a short stop in Guayaquil. It had been 30 hours since leaving our home in Cremorne and so we were delighted to be met by an agent and driver from Neblina Forest who escorted us on the fairly short drive (it being a drizzly cold Sunday night) to the Hotel Sebastian.

Monday 27 October, 2008

With our official tour not starting until tomorrow, and Roger and Carol Skan not arriving from London until late afternoon, we had a spare day to spend in Quito. Our friend from Neblina Forest last night had suggested that a local park called Parque La Carolina might be worth a visit and so we picked up a map from hotel reception and set off on the half hour walk to the park. On the way there, we saw many of the two species of birds which seem to dominate the Quito streetscape, Great Thrush and Eared Dove –and in any patch of thicker vegetation, we would find a lovely Rufous-collared Sparrow. On arrival at the park in the cool of the mid-morning (Quito’s daily temperature range is from 10degC to 20degC almost every day of the year) things didn’t look terribly promising since much of the park was open grass used for picnics and ball games. We did find a pair of migrating Eastern Kingbird (our only sighting of this species in the trip) and a Swainson ’s Thrush before coming across a small fenced off botanical garden with some good vegetation and a small freshwater stream. We spent the rest of our morning here recording Summer Tanager, Solitary Sandpiper, Black Flowerpiercer, Black-and-White Warbler, Sparkling Violetear and Cinareous Conebill. The violetear was our first hummingbird of the trip and, along with the Black-tailed Trainbearer, is a common bird in urban Quito. Hunger and jetlag brought a halt to our brief birding foray and we finished with 11 species for the day.

Tuesday 28 October, 2008

Roger and Carol arrived safely last night and this morning at 7.00am (actually, due to a mix up it was 7.35am and we saw Black-tailed Trainbearer while we were waiting) we were picked up at the hotel by Alejandro for our first day of ‘proper birding’ at a park north of Quito called Parque Jerusalen. Alex said that this was just an easy few hours of birding and that we wouldn’t get a large species count. As it turned out, the was different to anywhere that we visited subsequently (quite dry and scrubby) and we saw quite a few species on this day that we didn’t see again throughout the trip. After getting out of the city, we turned off a main highway onto a dirt track which looked out over dry bushy slopes down to a fast flowing stream. Without moving more than a few metres, we saw sixteen new trip birds in about 20 minutes of watching. Several of these were not new species for Louise and me including Blue-and- white Swallow, Blue- grey Tanager, Tropical Kingbird, Streaked Saltator, Southern Beardless Tyrannulet, Vermillion Flycatcher and Lesser Goldfinch. Other species here which were lifers included Hooded Siskin, Scrub Tanager, Dull- coloured Grassquit, Ash-breasted Sierra-Finch and a juvenile Black-chested Buzzard- Eagle perched on a distant snag close to the stream. We were to get much better looks at this bird later on in the trip. This Vermillion Flycatcher posed very nicely for us.

We got back into the bus and continued up the track for another half an hour and arrived at the Parque Jerusalen which is used as an interpretive centre for school groups and the like, but we were the only patrons today. There was not a huge amount of bird activity in the park which comprised semi-open vegetation with some bushland, but we saw some good birds. At first we had Common Ground-Dove, Harris’ Hawk, Southern House Wren (not yet split from the nominate race) and a pair of Vermillion Flycatchers tending a nest with young, all birds familiar to us from North America.

We also started to see some lovely members of the tanager family including Blue-and-yellow Tanager and Golden-rumped Euphonia as well as Southern Yellow Grosbeak, Streak-throated Bush-Tyrant and a skulking, but well seen Azara’s Spinetail. We also added some lovely hummers to our list including Western Emerald, Purple- collared Woodstar and the world’s largest hummingbird, the very impressive Giant Hummingbird.

On the way back to Quito, Alex’s sharp eyes picked up a group of swifts from the bus and we pulled over to get good views of White- tipped Swift. We arrived back at our hotel in the mid afternoon as Neblina Forest had arranged a late afternoon tour of the Old City for us, in the rain as it transpired. However, we were very happy with our first day having recorded 29 new species for the day. Wednesday 29 October, 2008

After a very early breakfast, Alejandro and Alfonso picked us up from the Sebastian at 6.00am and we set off on our first of our three major side trips from Quito, this one being a four day trip to the western slopes of the Andes based out of Sacha Tamia Lodge in Milpe. After leaving the urban sprawl of Quito behind us, we turned on to the narrow and mountainous Old Mindo Road, normally devoid of traffic but unfortunately this morning, very busy, as the main road to Milpe had been closed. We started in quite high country and the weather was distinctly chilly, not to say almost freezing! After a frustrating sort of start when we heard five new species (of which four were antpittas) without seeing them, we began to start seeing some birds. With the habitat being a mixture of open grassland and semi-forested areas, the mix of species was very good. Our first new bird of the day was a hummingbird, a Tyrian Metaltail followed by an impressive Andean Guan, Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager, the wonderfully named Supercilliaried Hemispingus (a member of the tanager family), Spectacled Whitestar, Sapphire-vented Puffleg and our first woodpecker of the trip, the very handsome Crimson-mantled Woodpecker. As the morning progressed, we eased into steadily lower elevations and the cool morning air slowly warmed up, although the weather was still fairly overcast. We continued to add new species to our list with a whole variety of tanagers, hummingbirds, flycatchers and warblers. A very brief sighting of a fast-moving White-rumped Hawk was somewhat frustrating as this is a scarce bird in Ecuador and Alejandro was disappointed that we didn’t get a good view – however, we were to have spectacular views of this species later in the trip. As lunchtime approached, we had good views of a huge Black-and- Chestnut Eagle and then Alex showed us our first Andean Cock-of- the-Rock of the trip sitting on a nest in a dark overhang of rock at the side of the road.

A few minutes later, we arrived at our lunch site, a lovely secluded house in the thick forest of the Tandayapa Valley owned by a couple devoted to all things related to birds, Tony Nunnery and Barbara Bolz- Nunnery. He was away guiding a VENT bird tour in Panama and she produces wonderful artwork of the many hummingbirds which come to their feeders around the house. While we sat and ate our boxed lunches at the back of the house, we saw no less than 12 new species of hummingbirds – it was absolutely incredible. Even more incredible is that their regular yard list of hummingbirds is between 15 and 20, and their total yard list is a massive 40 species, both of these figures being world records. All hummingbirds are works of art but probably our favourite at this location and for the trip was the lovely Violet-tailed Sylph.

We reluctantly departed from our lunch stop having stocked up with Barbara’s hand-painted postcards of all the hummingbirds that we had been watching. We continued down the western Andean slope entering dense cloud forest as we approached the Milpe area and the weather became even gloomier. New birds kept on showing and we had our first sightings of some of Ecuador’s most brilliantly-coloured tanagers including Grass-green Tanager, the amazing Golden Tanager, Beryl-spangled Tanager and Golden-naped Tanager. Unfortunately, the dark conditions did not show the birds at their best nor did it allow any possibility of photography, but we did see many of these birds again in better light during the trip. We began seeing our birds in waves of up to 15 or so species travelling together, and seeing them and identifying them in the poor light became quite difficult not to say fraught! Alejandro would be drawing our attention to each bird that he saw, sometimes pointing his green laser to indicate the approximate location, but we all missed some birds during these frantic sessions and hence finished the trip with somewhat different species counts.

As we approached the Milpe area, we parked the vehicle and walked along a well-formed track to search for one of the locality’s major target birds, the Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan. Having been told that some of the commercial bird tours spend two days looking for this bird without success, and with us walking in thick cloud fog late in the afternoon, our expectations were not high. We did hear a Spillman’s Tapaculo calling on the ground in dense vegetation near the track. From our experiences of tapaculos in Costa Rica we knew that our chances of seeing this skulking little non-descript bird were very low as they never venture from the undergrowth. However, Alex moved to one side and played his tape just at a point where a one metre wide cleared track could be seen in the undergrowth. “Watch that track and don’t take your eyes off it” said Alex as he started the tape and, suddenly, our little brown bird ran at 100mph across the little clearing and was gone! At about two nanoseconds, it was probably our briefest sighting of a bird ever and we were all in fits of laughter at such a bizarre experience. It was extremely quiet now in the cloud forest, but I caught sight of a large bird landing in a high tree in the fog which I initially thought to be a raptor. However, Alex got the scope on it and it turned out to be a Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan which was then joined by its mate – we were all delighted to see this elusive and impressive bird. Shortly afterwards, we found our second guan of a long day, this time a Sickle-winged Guan and during another late bird wave, we had more tanagers including Lemon-rumped Tanager, Orange-bellied Euphonia, Flame-faced Tanager and Blue-winged Mountain- Tanager the latter bird bringing our day’s tally to 76 new species and the trip list to 116. We arrived at Sacha Tania Lodge in steady rain where we had a bit of a walk to our chalet. Then it was a quick shower, dinner and a final surprise when we left the main lodge after dinner, when we found that Alfonso had located a Black-and-White Owl in the tree right outside the entrance, and we all had good views of this handsome bird.

Thursday 30 October, 2008

As was to become the norm, we were up at 4.30am for an early breakfast and an early getaway so that we could be on the Milpe Road, some 30 minutes drive away, at dawn. It was still overcast as we left the lodge and we had our first new bird of the day before boarding the bus, a White-lined Tanager. By the time we reached the Milpe Road, we were out of the thick cloud and the countryside was bathed in early morning sunshine. The plan was to walk for some distance along this quiet road with our bus just following along a little way behind. It was really my sort of birding with a mixture of open fields, hedgerows and a few stands of trees providing a good variety of habitat. We immediately started seeing many species in the sunshine including Pacific Hornero, Masked Water- Tyrant, Scrub Blackbird, Yellow- faced Grassquit, Black- striped Sparrow and Bran- coloured Flycatcher. A superb Swallow Tanager made a wonderful picture in the morning sun as did a Bronze- winged Parrot and their photograph s are showing here. As we continued our walk along the road, the wonderful variety of new birds continued, with our first motmot of the trip, a Rufous Motmot, Choco Toucan, Fawn-breasted Tanager, Blue-necked Tanager and Guira Tanager along with a whole array of flycatchers including Common Tody-Flycatcher (ssp esclateri), One-coloured Becard, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Sooty-headed Tyrannulet and Golden- faced Tyrannulet. At mid-morning, we were seeing less new species and re-boarded our bus and drove the short distance to the Milpe Cloudforest Foundation’s reserve. At the reserve’s hummingbird feeders at the entrance we added White-whiskered Hermit, Green-crowned Woodnymph and Green Thorntail to our burgeoning list. Within just a couple of minutes of starting our walk, we saw the amazing quinella of Pale-mandibled Aracari, Broad-billed Motmot and Crimson-rumped Toucanet each of them spectacular birds. More tanagers kept coming including Yellow-throated Bush-Tanager, Ochre-breasted Tanager, Silver- throated Tanager and Rufous-throated Tanager and we also started to see some of the skulkers of the deep forest including Slaty Antwren, Red-faced Spinetail, Russet Antshrike, Grey-breasted Wood-Wren and Spotted Barbtail. However, the avian highlight of the Mindo Cloudforest Reserve was undoubtedly our first sighting of manikins with firstly the lovely Golden- winged Mannikin followed shortly after by the scarce Club-winged Mannikin performing his typical weird display at his lekking perch. As we moved into a more open area where an experimental planting of shade coffee was in its early stages, we saw birds typical of the semi-open habitat including Ruddy Pigeon, Squirrel Cuckoo, Olive- sided Flycatcher and a very obliging Barred Hawk. It was now late morning and we reluctantly departed from the reserve to drive to the small town of Los Bancos where we went to a lovely restaurant for an excellent lunch. As a major bonus, the restaurant was located at the top of a high escarpment overlooking a fast flowing river and also had a large array of hummingbird feeders in the back garden. Despite the large numbers of hummers, we only recorded one new species for the trip, a Long- billed Starthroat. However, we did have some photographic opportunities and below can be seen Green-crowned Woodnymph, Rufous-tailed

Hummingbird and Green Thorntail.

We set up the telescope and spent the afternoon searching the distant river margins and keeping an eye out for raptors which might go unnoticed amongst the large numbers of circling Black Vulture and Turkey Vulture. Along the river were flocks of Cattle Egret and Snowy Egret along with Neotropic Cormorant and Smooth-billed Ani. We had overflies from Osprey and Hook-billed Kite and then a medium-sized accipiter flew over which I confidently called as a Cooper’s Hawk having seen hundreds of these birds when we lived in Canada. Alejandro was very bemused to say the least as, although he agreed that it certainly appeared to be a Cooper’s Hawk, the species has never been confirmed as occurring in Ecuador. The only regularly occurring accipiters in Ecuador are Plain-breasted Hawk sometimes considered to be conspecific with Sharp-shinned Hawk, and hence significantly smaller than Cooper’s Hawk, and Bicoloured Hawk which has very obvious rufous thighs. We decided to record the bird as an accipiter sp. Around the restaurant gardens, we continued to pick up additional species including Slate-coloured Grosbeak, Band-backed Wren and a superb Guayaquil Woodpecker our first ‘big’ woodpecker of the trip. With another 82 new trip birds seen today, it was time to drive back to Sacha Tamia Lodge for the customary quick shower before drinks and dinner.

Friday 31 October, 2008

After our usual pre-dawn start, we headed for the Las Minas-Bikas Road where we would bird for most of the morning before heading to the Silancha Reserve. When we arrived at our first stop on the road we found that, because there was a very active quarry a mile or so down the road, the traffic was annoyingly busy and the walking was very wet and muddy. On the way from Sacha Tania we had stopped in a small village to record our only House Sparrow of the trip – a difficult bird at higher elevations! The birding along the road was very varied and interesting especially after we got past the quarry and into the peace and quiet of the countryside. Our newly seen species came from any number of families and included Streak-headed Woodcreeper, Pacific Antwren, Bay Wren, Cinnamon Becard, Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Lesser Seedfinch, Thick-billed Euphonia, Dusky Pigeon, Masked Tityra and Lineated Woodpecker our second big woodpecker of the trip. It was lovely to see Blue-headed Parrot , the diminutive Pacific Parrotlet, Laughing Falcon and a stunning Golden-hooded Tanager .

After seeing about twenty new trip birds by mid-morning, we re- boarded our bus and drove to Silancha Reserve where we first walked to the canopy tower for an hour’s watching before the birds became quiet for their midday siesta. Although it was not a hive of activity at the tower, we continued to see new birds starting with the uncommon Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift, a striking Grey-and-Gold Tanager, Blue-whiskered Tanager, Orange-fronted Barbet and Yellow-tufted Dacnis. Alejandro had said that the tower was a good look-out for raptors and this proved correct as, in the space of an hour, we saw Short-tailed Hawk, Zone-tailed Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk and an uncommon and beautifully marked Black Hawk-Eagle. We left the tower and walked in the surrounding forest for a few minutes before lunch and, yet again, we found some more good birds including Scarlet-breasted Dacnis, Tawny-crested Tanager, Checker-throated Antwren, White-flanked Antwren, White- whiskered Puffbird and Plain-brown Woodcreeper. The highlight of this short walk was seeing two more manikin species, Blue-crowned Mannikin and the rare but plain-looking Broad-billed Sapayoa. We also saw our first mammal of the trip, a Red-tailed Squirrel and we heard some agoutis in the forest but did not get to see them.

After an excellent boxed lunch at the vehicle, we set off once more for a final walk through another section of the reserve including a stretch along the adjoining road.

In this area we saw Black-headed Tody- Flycatcher, Dot- winged Antwren, Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher, the extraordinarily diminutive (just 9cm or 3.5inches in length!) Olivaceous Piculet , our only Swallow-tailed Kite of the trip, White- bearded Mannikin and a lovely Rufous- tailed Jacamar.

After leaving Silancha Reserve, we walked in to a bridge on the Rio Blanco and we finished our day with Dusky-faced Tanager, Buff- rumped Warbler and Pallid Dove which brought the day’s total of new trip birds to 62.

Saturday 1 November, 2008

We checked out of the Sacha Tamia Lodge at a very early hour as we had a fairly long drive to our first destination, Birdpeace Refuge (sometimes known as the Antpitta Farm), and it was essential that we arrive there before first light. Birdpeace Refuge has become quite a story in Ecuador in the past couple of years with several articles written about it in learned journals. The land is owned by Angel Paz and his two brothers Manuel and Rodrigo and, until three years ago was just another subsistence farm on the pacific slope of the Andes. However, Angel knew that there was an Andean Cock-of-the-Rock lek site on his farm and this could be interesting to visiting birders. He then found out that he had three of the most sought after and difficult to see antpitta species on his property, these being Giant Antpitta, Yellow-breasted Antpitta and Moustached Antpitta. He set about ‘befriending’ these birds over a period of a year or so by calling to them and throwing them worms and, sure enough, these elusive birds became used to Angel’s hand-outs and came to his calls. Now, with many bird groups putting Birdpeace Refuge on their itinerary, Angel and his brothers have become relatively affluent and he has been able to put his son into university – quite a success story.

We arrived before first light and had to quickly descend a small steep track in the rainforest to reach the lek of the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock where the male birds display for just a few minutes at dawn. Before reaching the lek site and still in the pre-dawn gloom, we spied a largish bird on a branch beside the track which turned out to be Maria, which is Angel’s friend the Giant Antpitta. We took up our positions at the hide for the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock lek in the forest but were a bit frustrated as there were only a few birds displaying and these were very hard to see properly through the dense vegetation. The picture below was about the only identifiable shot that i could get.

While watching the Andean Cocks-of-the-Rocks, we also added a few more species to our sightings including White-throated Quail-Dove, Pale-eyed Thrush and Tyrannine Woodcreeper. As the light became better and the lekking activity subsided, we began the steep descent to the bottom of the forest canyon where Angel would try to tempt out Willy, the Yellow-breasted Antpitta. On the way down, we saw some more impressive birds including Masked Trogon, Wedge-billed Hummingbird (the only one of the trip), Slaty-backed Chat-Tyrant and the lovely Golden-headed Quetzal. When we reached the rushing stream at the bottom of the gorge, Angel began calling for Willy and, for a while we were worried that Willy was not going to show up. However, he (or she?) did eventually arrive to take some worms and we added Yellow-breasted Antpitta to our list. We now started to make the precipitous ascent back to the top of the escarpment and, on the way, we saw Andean Solitaire, Barred Becard, Uniform Antshrike, Mountain Wren and finally, the last of the ‘Big Three’, a Moustached Antpitta. After having an excellent Ecuadorian country brunch served by Angel’s wife, we finally set off back to Quito.

On the way, we stopped off at the house of a friend of Alejandro on the banks of the Alambi River and, although his friend was absent for the day, we sat in the backyard eating our boxed lunches and watched the birds coming to the feeders. Many of the birds were species that we had already recorded on our trip but we added Flame-faced Tanager, White- tipped Dove, White- necked Jacobin and Ecuadorian Thrush to our list. After finishing lunch, we went for a short stroll along the river bank and were rewarded with good views of White-capped Dipper, Brown Violetear, Torrent Tyrannulet and Spotted Sandpiper.

On the way back to Quito we had one more stop at the Reserva Orquideologica El Pahuma where we were taken by a very knowledgeable botanical guide around a reserve that had several hundred species of orchids growing in natural habitat. The orchids were fascinating but we only added Black Phoebe and White-tailed Hillstar (another one-off trip sighting) to our bird list. We arrived back at the Hotel Sebastian having added 24 new species to our list today and with a total of 284 for the trip.

Sunday 2 November, 2008

We were up at our usual early hour today for a 6.00am pick up by Alejandro to take us on a day trip to the high paramo in the Antisana Ecological Reserve south east of Quito. Antisana is one of the higher active volcanoes in Ecuador at 5758 metres (18,900ft) and we were looking forward to seeing the volcano (subject to the ever-prevailing cloud cover) and the chance of seeing the iconic Andean Condor. When we arrived at the entrance to the huge reserve, we were at an elevation of about 3,400m and, during the course of the morning, we would slowly climb to about 4,200m. We commenced birding by the side of the road in an environment dominated by stands of low bushes and the temperature was decidedly cool at about 5degC. The bush habitat was fairly quiet but we saw some new trip birds such as Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant, Tawny Antpitta, Plain-coloured Seedeater, Green-tailed Trainbearer and Grass Wren. As we began to climb, we came across a small lake near the roadside which contained Andean Gull, Yellow- billed Pintail and Andean Teal. We now began to leave behind all treed vegetation as we entered the vast paramo grassland and immediately started seeing many Carunculated Caracara. We were very pleased to get good looks at Andean Lapwing after some disappointing long-range scope views and birds continued to come in good variety with Red-crested Cotinga, Brown-bellied Swallow, Black-winged Ground-Dove, Streak-backed Canastero,and both species of the now-split Variable Hawk, Red- backed Hawk and Puna Hawk. As we progressed ever higher, we saw a lovely Cinereous Harrier and began to see good numbers of Plumbeous Sierra-Finch, Bar-winged Cinclodes and Stout-billed Cinclodes, a photograph of the latter species being shown below at the entrance to its nest burrow.

At an abandoned mountain hut, we found a Ecuadorian Hillstar (the highest elevation hummingbird in the world) and a pair of dark-looking Barn Owl up in the rafters of the roof. A Many-striped Canastero meant that we had seen both species in this genus, and a very distant soaring Andean Condor was frustratingly far away. At a large high elevation lake, we found the rare Silvery Grebe along with Andean Coot and Andean Ruddy Duck. As we looked out over the wind- swept landscape, I could see a large mammal which, on inspection through the telescope, turned out to be a White-tailed Deer. As we drove away from the lake disturbing large flocks of Andean Gulls on and beside the road, we suddenly saw two Andean Condors approaching. We all leaped from the vehicle and watched in awe as these two magnificent birds flew right over us at quite low elevation and made some low level passes around us. It was for me, the avian highlight of the whole trip, especially as they proved to be the only condors that we saw, other than the very distant one earlier this morning.

After all this high octane excitement, we headed off to the only visible habitation in the reserve, the hacienda shown below, for an excellent lunch in front of a blazing log fire.

While we were enjoying our lunch, another party of birders arrived and during some quiet words between their guide and Alejandro, there was some exchange of information on where a group of a group of the rare and local Black-faced Ibis had been seen feeding earlier in the morning. Although it had begun to rain quite solidly and the vehicle was steaming up and making spotting difficult, we finally located the Black- faced Ibis feeding quite close to the road and we had excellent views of them.

We headed back to Quito quite early as the rain was quite insistent and we had successfully found our main target species. With another 32 species on the list today, my list has now risen to 316 for the trip and we are off to the Amazon Basin tomorrow!

Monday 3 November, 2008

We had the luxury of a late start this morning with our transportation to the airport arriving at the Hotel Sebastian at 9.45am. At 11.10am, we departed Quito Airport on a small plane operated by VIP Airways for the short 30 minute flight to Coca, an oil town on the headwaters of the Napo River, one of the principal tributaries of the Amazon River. As we were transported from the airport to the dock, the heat and humidity were very apparent after all the cool days that we had been experiencing at higher elevations. On arrival at the wharf, we were issued with life jackets and boarded the large motor driven canoe for the 3 hour journey down the river.

Our guide for the next four days, Oscar, accompanied us on the boat and, although there were other non-birdwatcher passengers, the crew happily stopped the boat whenever there was an interesting bird for us to look at. The river was very fast-flowing, very heavy with sediment and was very wide and quite shallow in places, such that we had frequently to manoeuvre back and forth across the river to pick a safe path. With the river so brown, there were not a lot of water birds around but we found some birds on exposed sandbanks and in riverside trees as we wended our way down the river including Black Caracara, Yellow-headed Caracara, Drab Water-Tyrant, Violaceous Jay, Greater Yellow-headed Vulture and Slender-billed Kite. We passed some oil production facilities close to the river in the early part of the journey but then the scenery became fairly wild with not a lot of evidence of human habitation. As we approached our intermediate destination, we saw Russet-backed Oropendola, Crested Oropendola, Swallow-winged Puffbird, Pale-vented Pigeon and Lesser Kiskadee.

We eventually pulled in off the main river and tied up at a wharf on a very small side stream at a place that the guide called ‘The Warehouse’ presumably because it stored the supplies for the Napo Wildlife Centre, the lodge to which we were heading. At this point, the four of us boarded a much smaller paddled canoe for the two hour journey up the ‘black water’ creek to the lodge. The water in the creek was clear but stained quite a dark brown which obviously gave it its name. The journey was one of several that we were to make on the creek over the next four days with our guide Oscar, our front paddler and native guide Bolivar and the young native paddler at the back, Edwin.

Our initial apprehension at being in a canoe in the middle of the Amazon jungle quickly gave way to great enjoyment and a feeling of peace as we quietly paddled up the creek seeing birds at close quarters. Very early in the journey, we came across a group of three Hoatzins a bird that I had long wanted to see after watching old David Attenborough documentaries about the Amazon. They are really strange birds that seem to have difficulty standing on their tree branches without toppling over and, amazingly, the only thing they eat is leaves.

As well as forest birds, there were quite a few water birds in evidence including Ringed Kingfisher, Rufescent Tiger-Heron and the lovely Black-capped Donacobius which is not strictly a water bird being a member of the wren family, but it entertained us constantly flitting around the stream-side reeds on our daily trips.

Other notable sightings on this journey up the creek were Amazonian

White- tailed Trogon, Mealy Amazon (our first Amazonian parrot of the trip), the magnificent Red-bellied Macaw, Grey Antbird, White- eared Jacamar, White- chinned Jacamar and a lovely little Sand- coloured Nighthawk.

As we emerged from the black water creek into a large ox-bow lake, we had our first views of the Napo Wildlife Center(NWC) which was to be our home for the next four days.

We were welcomed at the wharf with cold glasses of fresh fruit juice (as we were after every expedition during our stay) and taken to our spacious and well-appointed rooms prior to an excellent dinner. My trip list was now standing at 349 and the chances of reaching 500 by the end of the trip were looking positive.

Tuesday 4 November, 2008

Although we were not in the official wet season, the day started off very poorly with quite heavy and persistent rain. After breakfast, we were told that Oscar had had to go off for a few hours on another assignment and that he would join us mid-morning at the large canopy tower located some 30 minutes walk from the far side of the lake. With the rain persisting there was no rush to get going and so we did some birding from the small tower above the restaurant which was sheltered from the elements. This proved quite productive as we not only saw some good birds such as White-throated Toucan, Short-tailed Swift, Masked Crimson Tanager, Cobalt-winged Parakeet and Orange- winged Amazon, but we also had good views of a troop of Golden Mountain Tamarinds which appear on the logo for the NWC. We set off with Bolivar and Edwin across the lake to the trail-head for the Canopy Tower and the rain was still falling heavily. After a wet and muddy walk along the trail, we climbed the steps of the massive canopy tower which brought us to a vantage point looking out over the vast expanse of rainforest. We had a miserable hour or so with very few birds moving and recorded only Dusky-headed Parakeet, Spangled Cotinga and Eastern Sirystes an uncommon flycatcher of eastern Ecuador. After a while Oscar showed up on the tower but everyone was getting very wet and miserable and there was nothing to see, so we headed back to the lodge for lunch.

After some discussion with Oscar, we agreed to meet in mid-afternoon for a trip in the canoe as we could at least keep fairly dry by huddling in our waterproofs. As it turned out, the weather picked up by the time we left and we had a very pleasant late afternoon paddle down the black water creek and back. In the oxbow lake and at the entrance to the creek we quickly picked up Yellow-billed Tern, Short-crested Flycatcher, Limpkin, Green Kingfisher and an amazing Boat-billed Heron. A Slate-coloured Hawk was the only one we were to see for the whole trip and then, in short order, we had brief views of Sungrebe, one of our major targets and a difficult bird as it is so shy, and then an Agami Heron, a stunning bird which Louise and I had briefly glimpsed once in Costa Rica, so it was great to get excellent views here. As we got further into the rainforest, we saw more terrestrial birds including Buff-throated Woodcreeper, Yellow- crowned Elaenia, Cinnamon-throated Woodcreeper, Black-banded Woodcreeper, Blue-tailed Emerald, Plumbeous Antbird and Dot- backed Antbird. We found that both Oscar and Bolivar had the sharpest of vision and they were able to locate birds in the most difficult of circumstances. On the way back to the lodge, we added to our list of night birds when we saw both Common Potoo and Pauraque. Because of the uncertain weather, my camera didn’t make it out of the lodge today and hence I took no pictures of some of the lovely birds that we saw this afternoon and evening.

It turned out to be another memorable day with some spectacular birds despite the heavy rain that fell for much of the day and our list improved when we saw Black Caimans and Fishing Bats in the evening twilight. Another excellent dinner and the list had reached 380 species. Wednesday 5 November, 2008

We were off on a long and arduous walk along a trail which starts from just downstream of the oxbow lake on the far side of the creek, but first Oscar wanted us to leave by 5.30am to have the chance to hear and possibly see the enigmatic Zigzag Heron, a bird that used to be thought to be very rare but is now thought to be inconspicuous. It is a small heron which never leaves thick cover and can usually only be located by its hollow grunting call. When we reached the location along the creek where the bird was known to inhabit, Oscar played the taped call and the bird responded. However, it was several minutes of peering into the undergrowth and moving the canoe back and forth before Bolivar’s sharp eyes picked up the bird and we were all able to get good views of the very elusive Zigzag Heron. On the way into the trail-head on a very narrow stream, we had a tricky job to manoeuvre the canoe under a fallen tree and we added Rufous-breasted Hermit, Scale-breasted Woodpecker and White-shouldered Antbird before alighting from the canoe and setting off on along the trail.

Although the track was muddy and steep in places, and quite difficult to negotiate in areas where the water threatened to overtop our wellington boots, there were plenty of birds around on what was a rather hot, sunny morning. We firstly saw Black- headed Parrot, Dwarf Tyrant- Mannikin, White- crowned Mannikin and some magnificent Blue-and- Yellow Macaws. After several low level dwellers including Mouse- coloured Antshrike, Black-faced Antbird, Warbling Antbird and Silvered Antbird, we saw our second woodpecker of the day, the strange- looking Yellow- tufted Woodpecke r.

Despite the increasing heat, the birds remained very active as we struggled along the trail and we added some colourful birds to our tally including another large woodpecker, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, White-fronted Nunbird, Great Jacamar, Purple-throated Fruitcrow (my 400th sighting for the trip!) and the diminutive woodpecker, Lafresnaye’s Piculet.

We returned to the canoe to head back to the lodge for lunch but, when we reached the fallen tree that we had negotiated earlier, the water level in the creek had risen to the point where the canoe could not pass beneath the tree trunk. We thought that we had serious problems but Bolivar and Edwin set about the 30cm trunk with their machetes and, in only ten minutes or so, the tree had been cut through and we were on our way!

After lunch and the usual siesta period, it was determined that we would return to the canopy tower for the two hours or so before darkness, as we had not really had a chance to properly watch birds there in the rain yesterday.

When we climbed to the top of the tower, the afternoon light was perfect and we started seeing plenty of new birds including Plum- throated Cotinga, Masked Tanager, Pygmy Antwren, the fantastic-looking Paradise Tanager, Purplish Jacamar,

White-browed Purpletuft and a magnificent King Vulture.

We reluctantly left the canopy tower as the light faded and, on the way back to the canoe, we had very brief glimpses of a Marbled Wood- Quail which came in to Oscar’s tape but then quickly retreated when it realised that it had been duped.

Thursday 6 November, 2008

Our last full day in the Amazon Basin and we were scheduled for a visit to the parrot clay licks which are located by the Napo River which meant another journey down the black water creek, something to which we could look forward. We organised with Oscar to set off early so that we would be the first travellers on the creek. As we assembled at the wharf, we could hear the eerie sound of distant Howler Monkeys, a noise that could be mistaken for wind blowing through the trees. Having been on the creek a few times now, we did not expect large numbers of new bird species but a huge Spix’s Guan was a good sighting as were Scarlet-crowned Barbet and a long sought after American Pygmy Kingfisher. After getting much better views of a Sungrebe than those on our first day here, we heard Capucines , saw a Squirrel Monkey and then Bolivar’s sharp eyes picked up a strange- looking Great Potoo sleeping on a branch over the creek after its night of moth hunting.

An overhead Three- toed Sloth added to our mammal list and then we saw Yellow- crowned Amazon fly over and an Oriole Blackbir d foraging on a sandbar of the main

river, before arriving at the first clay lick. After days of having the forests to ourselves, we were somewhat underwhelmed by sharing the viewing area at the clay lick with large numbers of ‘eco tourists’ from other lodges in the area and things were not improved by the fact that no parrots showed up at the lick. However, we explored the forest between the clay lick and the wharf at the river (a distance of only 500 metres or so) and were rewarded with some good birds including Scale-backed Antbird, Spot-backed Antbird, Cinareous Antshrike, Sooty Antbird, Spot-winged Antbird, Great-billed Hermit and an impressive pair of Crested Owl. We then moved on to a second clay lick where we hoped the parrots may be congregating and indeed they were. We added Scarlet- shouldered Parrotlet and Orange-cheeked Parrot to a number of other species which were present but which had been seen previously. The clay lick was in a rather dark setting and it was hard to get good photographs but the parrot wings in motion with slow shutter speeds produced a nice effect.

We walked back to the clay lick wharf seeing Green Mannikin and Fork-tailed Woodnymph on the way and then, as we drove in the large canoe on the main river around to The Warehouse for our lunch, we saw Orange-backed Troupial and Ladder-tailed Nightjar.

The canoe trip back along the creek to our lodge added only one new bird species in the form of Green- and- Rufous Kingfisher but we also experience d the mammal highlight of the entire trip, a group of Giant Otters which were seen only too briefly ahead of the canoe. Also we found that the butterflies of the Amazon Basin, as well as the parrots, seem to enjoy clay licks!

Oscar offered a late afternoon walk to the base of the canopy tower and back which the ladies declined but which Roger Skan and I accepted, a decision that turned out to be a good one. The light was already getting quite dim by the time we alighted from the canoe for our walk but we had only progressed a short distance down the track when we came across a Great Tinamou which showed well and was our only tinamou sighting of the trip. Shortly afterwards, Oscar showed us a lovely Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl which had just emerged from its roosting hollow at eye level not two metres in front of us. Of course, we hadn’t taken our cameras as the light was going to be poor but it would have been great to have an image of this great little bird. By the time we reached the base of the canopy tower, it was too dark to continue birding but we had added Dusky-throated Antshrike, Brown Nunlet and the rare Spix’s (or if you go with the latest split proposal, Elegant) Woodcreeper to bring my new trip birds for the day to a total of 27 and, for the trip, to 445.

Friday 7 November, 2008

We checked out of NWC after breakfast and commenced our journey back to Quito and the Hotel Sebastian. It was a measure of the fact that we had seen a lot of species over the past four days that we saw very few new birds today. On the two hour journey down the black water creek, we added Buff-breasted Wren and Ivory-billed Aracari to our tally and then, on the three hour trip up the Napo River to Coca, we also saw Bat Falcon and Sanderling bringing the day’s final count to only four new species.

Saturday 8 November, 2008

The return to the altitude of Quito did not treat me well and I had a very disturbed night and an increasingly painful time breathing which was not helped by the fact that we were heading for the highest altitude location of the trip today (4,300m) where we would be looking for Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe. Our destination was the region around Papallacta to the south east of Quito on the upper eastern slope of the Andes. In fact, the Papallacta Pass, where we would look for the seedsnipe, is the highest major road in Ecuador.

Even though I had two cups of coca tea at breakfast (supposedly, a sure-fire cure for altitude problems) I was not really into the birding at our first stop about an hour out of Quito. We had Buff-breasted Mountain-Tanager, Shining Sunbeam, Stripe-headedBrush-Finch and stunning views of a White-rumped Hawk which we had seen only fleetingly on the way to Mindo. The morning was unusually crystal clear, although cold, and we had stunning views of the volcano Antisana.

As we went on to our next stop and the altitude increased, so did the pain and I retired to the vehicle thereby missing a few species that were seen by the others. However, Carol came up with the idea that I should take a couple of her soluble paracetamol , which I did, and the pain disappeared very quickly never to return – thanks a million Cazza!

Back in the fray, I added Black- billed Shrike - Tyrant and the lovely little Andea n Tit- Spinet ail to the list at our next stop.

A Black- chested Mountai n- Tanager was also a splendid sight.

We passed our accommodation for tonight, the Termas Papallacta, a very popular spa resort for people from Quito as it is built on natural hot springs, and continued up into the high country of Papallacta Pass where we parked at the radio towers and started to search for our target bird, the seedsnipe. As we clambered up a steep path barely able to draw breath, some of us gave up and stopped, but Roger Skan and Alex kept going and finally found two Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe which they very kindly pointed out to the rest of us and we all had excellent scope views of these strange but lovely mountain birds. We also added Andean Coati to our mammal list while we were in the high country, so it was a very successful morning.

We now headed back to tonight’s lodgings to check in and have some lunch. The Termas Papallacta was probably the best appointed place that we stayed during the trip and, being the weekend, was full of visitors from Quito who were there to enjoy the thermal baths and various ‘treatments’ that were available. We had a very pleasant lunch, a bit of a rest and then in the late afternoon, we took a drive up the track beyond the hotel to see what we could find. It was not a particularly productive trip but pleasant none the less and we added Pale-naped Brush-Finch, Black-backed Bush-Tanager, Agile Tit- Tyrant, the beautifully named Viridian Metaltail, a hummingbird closely related to the pufflegs, and a Highland Trogon (which has recently been split from Masked Trogon).

After another excellent meal, some of our group sampled the thermal pools and, with the elevation being 3,400m, sleeping was a bit of a struggle for others of us! However, my trip list now stood at 460 and it seemed that 500 should be well within reach with San Isidro still to come.

Sunday 9 November, 2008

After a sumptuous buffet breakfast, we set off over the Papallacta Pass towards tonight’s destination, San Isidro Lodge, and on the way we would spend all morning around the San Guango Lodge on the Papallacto River.

After seeing an early White- throated Tyrannulet , we arrived at San Guango and, ignoring the lure of the hummingbird feeders for now, we commenced walking along the oil pipeline trail adjacent to the river. Although we had seen Spectacled

Whitestar previously on the trip, this one made a lovely sight in the early morning sun. Along the trail, we saw a good variety of new species including Turquoise Jay, Slaty Brush-Finch, Pearled Treerunner, Grey- hooded Bush-Tanager, White-bellied Woodstar, Purple-backed Thornbill and Blue-and-black Tanager. We arrive d at a little side track which led us down to a small rickety bridge over the river and, at first, all the bird life that we could see there were White- cappe d Dipper s but, sudde nly, Roger Skan picked up a Torre nt Duck on a rock. This was a bird that we really had hoped to see and it was very fortun ate since it was the only sightin g of the trip.

After this excitement, we continued our walk and continued to see more new birds including Cinnamon Flycatcher, Northern Mountain- Cacique, Bar-bellied Woodpecker, Black-eared and Black-capped Hemispingus, Rufous-breasted Flycatcher, Common Bush- Tanager and Smoky Bush-Tyrant.

When we arrived back at the lodge we set about the task of identifying the many hummingbirds that were coming to the feeders and, being in a different habitat on the eastern slope of the Andes, quite a few would be new to us. During the course of the next hour or so we identified five new hummingbird species which were Tourmaline Sunangel, the incredible Sword-billed Hummingbird, Chestnut-breasted Coronet, Buff-winged Starfrontlet and the rare Mountain Avocetbill which even seemed to raise the pulse of Alejandro.

We also enjoyed seeing several species that we had seen previously on the trip and, with the light level not unreasonable, we were able to get some nice photographs. The following shots, in order, are of Masked Flowerpiercer, Sword-billed Hummingbird, White-bellied Woodstar, Tourmaline Sunangel and Collared Inca.

After yet another excellent lunch in the lodge, we checked out the feeders again and then headed off on the road to San Isidro. We passed through mixed vegetation and made some stops to look for new birds and we added Black-and-White Seedeater, Saffron- crowned Tanager and Chestnut-bellied Seedeater to our tally.

Our last major stop was at the Rio Quijos where w e walked along an interesting track to a bridge over the river. We saw the stunning Black- chested Fruiteater, Inca Jay, Plain-breasted Hawk and Violet- fronted Brilliant. As we stood on the bridge with dusk approaching, we saw several species of birds but none were new to us, but overflying parties of White-chested Swift and Chestnut-collared Swift were additions to the list.

We were not finished yet because, as we drove to San Isidro Lodge in the gathering darkness, Alejandro took us to a high grassed embankment near the side of the road which he knew to be a roost site for the Lyre-tailed Nightjar. We could hear the birds calling as they left their roost and Alex picked up a couple of flying females in his flashlight beam. And then we were absolutely knocked out by the sight of a male bird in the beam with tail streamers of almost 70cms in length – just an incredible sight.

Our rooms at the lodge were very comfortable and the cuisine provided for dinner that evening (and for the rest of our stay) was as good as we had had on the entire trip.

It was a wonderful day of birding and difficult to believe that, after two weeks and seeing over 450 species, we could still add 35 new species in a single day. The total is now 496 and it’s nice to know that figure is now higher than on any birding trip that we have made anywhere in the world.

Monday 10 November, 2008

Today was to be our only full day in the San Isidro area and we headed off early in quite overcast and cold conditions to a higher elevation to walk a fairly steep and forested path in the Antisana Reserve. As was often the case during our trip, the birding seemed fairly slow but we kept adding new birds to our list with great regularity. As we walked the track, we saw a whole mixture of families, and some spectacular birds along with some fairly dull ones. Notable were Golden-crowned Tanager, Sulphur-bellied Tyrannulet, Lacrimose Mountain- Tanager (my 500th trip bird!), Green-and-Black Fruiteater, Oleaginous Hemispingus, yet another wonderful large woodpecker, the Powerful Woodpecker, Hooded Mountain-Tanager and Rufous- headed Pygmy-Tyrant.

After a couple of hours, we returned to the vehicle and spent the remainder of the day driving slowly along the road and stopping frequently when birds were heard. It was quite miserable weather as light rain was falling steadily, but Alejandro was pleased by this as he reckoned that the rain would keep the birds active throughout the day. Among our new sightings in the next couple of hours were Dusky Piha, Rufous-crested Tanager, Orange-eared Tanager, the remarkable Vermillion Tanager and Golden-eyed Flowerpiercer. We enjoyed the sight of a young lad coming home from school with his sister in the rain.

We added a few more birds to our sightings including Yellow-vented Woodpecker, Olivaceous Piha and three impressive overflying Chestnut-fronted Macaw, and then it was time to head back to the lodge. We had a look around the hummingbird feeders but the only additional species there were Glossy-Black Thrush and a gorgeous Highland Motmot. While the ladies were preparing for dinner, Alex joined Roger and I to look for Rufous-bellied Nighthawk which hunt around the lodge. In the event, we not only had good views of the nighthawks but also of an immense Wattled Guan which came crashing into the trees near to us and a lovely Chestnut-crowned Antpitta which we picked up in our flashlights. Another 26 new species for the trip today and the total is now 522.

Tuesday 11 November, 2008

We checked out of San Isidro Lodge after yet another good breakfast and were heading back to Quito, but not before doing some more birding along the tracks adjacent to the property. It was a cool, cloudy morning and we saw many birds that we had previously seen during our trip, but we did continue to see new ones including Black-billed Peppershrike, Bluish Flowerpiercer, Pale-edged Flycatcher, Olive- backed Woodcreeper and Rufous-crowned Tody-Flycatcher. In the fairly dense forest edges, we also saw a Red-tailed Squirrel and what Alex called either a Pygmy Squirrel or a Cloud Forest Dwarf Squirrel. I have tried to find some reference to this latter species on the ‘net’ but without success.

As we continued the journey, the country opened out somewhat and we were pleased to find a group of Southern Lapwing in a grazed paddock. A walk along a stream a little further along added Streaked Tuftedcheek, Long-tailed Antbird and Marble-faced Bristle-Tyrant to our list and then it was into the bus for the drive back to Quito and the Hotel Sebastian with my trip list now at 531.

Wednesday 12 November, 2008

There was a touch of sadness as we ate our usual early breakfast prior to the 6.00am pick up by Alejandro and Alfonso as this was to be our last birding day of the trip. Actually, it was really a birding morning since we would be driving to Yanacocha Reserve in the high country north west of Quito and birding until lunchtime for an early return to the hotel. The drive up to Yanacocha was fairly trying on everybody’s spines and coccyx’s as the road was pretty rough and in need of some repair. However, we arrived at the reserve in good order and started our ascent up the old Inca trail in very cold temperatures as the sun had not yet reached that side of the hill. Alejandro had warned us that we would not see many new species today and neither were we likely to see the Yanacocha speciality, the endangered Black- breasted Puffleg and he was correct on both counts. Another Yanacocha speciality, Great Sapphirewin g, was our first new bird of the day and a Buff- winged Starfrontlet, whilst not new, posed nicely for the camera. As we climbed ever higher up the path, the sun finally reached us and began to give a little warmth and we saw Blue- backed Conebill, Rufous Antpitta, Ash- coloured Tapaculo and a lovely Golden- breasted Puffleg (shown below), our final new hummingbird for the trip. Our final new bird for the trip was one of the most impressive, a magnificent Barred Fruiteater and then it was an easy walk down to the bus for the drive back to Quito with 6 new birds for the day and a final total of 537 for the trip. The final picture is of Roger and Louise McGovern, Carol and Roger Skan and our superb guide and friend Alejandro Solano at the end of a marvellous birding adventure.

Anybody requiring further information regarding this report is welcome to contact me at [email protected]

Roger McGovern