Jerusalem...ECUADOR (8 Dec)

Not the one in Israel, but the considerably less famous reserve with the same name in Ecuador's Andes. This is an underbirded, and perhaps under appreciated, site within the dry Inter-Andean Valley, north of Ecuador's capital Quito. Ecuador's geography is interesting, and significant, when considering its birdlife: a double chain of the Andes runs north-south through the country, forming the spine of Ecuador. These parallel chains are bisected by a valley, the so-called Inter-Andean Valley between them. The climates of the outward facing slopes of the Andes (west and east slope) are markedly wet, and naturally covered in dense rainforest eventually giving way to the mighty Amazon as you reach the eastern lowlands, (or the Choco lowlands in the lowlands of the northwest). The valley that bisects these wet slopes, however, is semi-arid in nature, and dominated by scrubby, cactus-infested, habitat of a very different nature to the west and east-facing slopes of the Andes, which therefore forms a significant barrier to bird movements between these slopes, and subsequently a number of bird species are confined to either these west or east-facing, forested slopes.

So our day to kick off our tour was to focus on the dry, cactus-inhabited valley hemmed in between the great Andean chains on either side. It did not take long before we started seeing some of the key species in the area, when a gas station provided an unlikely birding venue for picking up some of our targets, such as smart-dressed Blue-and-yellow Tanagers, considerably less smart Ash-breasted Sierra-Finches and Grassland Yellow Finches, and an immaculate adult male Purple-collared Woodstar preening in the first rays of sunlight. Then we went into Jerusalem itself, a popular park with "Quitenos" (i.e. people from Quito), looking to have a barbecue in the warm, dry climate of the area. Being a Saturday we hit it badly in terms of non-birding tourist numbers, although the birding here is so easy it did not affect our ability to find the area's most wanted birds, including Scrub Tanager (a local bird in Ecuador, only also occurring into Colombia), which gave itself up easily right at the park entrance. Equally popular among the group from South Africa's Wits Bird Club (which I was guiding), were the neon red male Vermilion Flycatchers that adorned the park at regular intervals, along with our first cracking woodpecker of the tour, and what an opener in that regard, with the striking Crimson-mantled Woodpecker proving a very popular bird indeed.

We closed the afternoon at one of Ecuador's volcanic lakes, Laguna San Pablo, sitting at the base of the intimidating, though dormant, Volcan Imbabura. The lake was dotted with ducks, such as Andean Teal, Yellow-billed Pintail, and (Andean) Ruddy Duck. The most prominent resident though were the many Andean Coots sprinkled along the edges. However, we were here to try and find a songbird and a waterbird that lurks in the reeds. We got bief views of the first-Subtropical Doradito-in challenging, windy, conditions for seeing passerines, and were rewarded for being hassled by a local pack of dogs when they successfully flushed the second: Ecuadorian Rail, which gave us a long flyby as a result. It is not often I welcome the presence of dogs, although I could have kissed that one right there and then! However, the real five-star sighting of the afternoon was a young COMMON TERN doing loops around the lake, which may represent the first highland record of this species in Ecuador.

Our next trip out was to be up into the high Andean paramos (moorlands above the treeline) in Antisana and Papallacta...

Banded Ground-Cuckoo...ECUADOR (2 Dec)

Back in September the world of Neotropical Birding was rocked with the news that a pair of Banded Ground-Cuckoos had been seen daily at a site in northwest Ecuador. This bird is famously shy, in keeping with all the other neomorphus ground-cuckoos, and genuinely rare, with scant records in most years. World birders trawled the web for updates, and some crazy folks (who I even have to admit may be friends of mine!), flew in from countries afar to come and check off this mega-lifebird, for fear another chance may not come along like this in their lifetime, and who can blame them for this fear. This situation had NEVER happened before, a twitchable Banded Ground-Cuckoo. World birders and local bird guides (like me) alike were atwitter with this news, and could not resist making the pilgrimage. I had done this in September, and had been itching to get back there, as since that time, the local Un Poco del Choco reserve manager, Nicole, had managed to habituate the juvenile bird at least to come in daily and pick insects out oh her hand! The latest news also indicated one of the accompanying adults had recently shed it's usual retiring nature, and was also coming in to feed at close quarters; I simply had to check it out again, with the lure of an adult too in the mix. I headed down there with Tandayapa Bird Lodge manager, and good friend, Pablo Cervantes, another keen for photographer like me, who could not resist another fix of the cuckoo...We arrived, a little late, to see a frantic Wilo waiting for us, who quickly led us down the trail to where we found his beaming wife, almost rubbing shoulders with the juvenile Banded Ground-Cuckoo. The light was poor in the shady forest, though the bird was close so I still managed some OK shots, even without the use of flash. Meanwhile Pablo was frustrated that the bird was simply too close for his 400mm lens! Who would have thought that one day we would complain that we cannot get picture perfect shots of a Banded Ground-Cuckoo, when in years past (which were actually quite recent), we would only be too happy to merely see one, let alone photo them.

It was great to see it again, and hope this amazing "birding event" continues long into the future, so that many others can enjoy this landmark moment as much as I have done.

More to come from Ecuador very soon...

Dream Bird...ECUADOR (2 Dec)

In the middle of, well start, of another tour with a group from South Africa in the Andes of Ecuador, so posting time is scarce, though I wil be doing a full update on this beauty soon...

Bearly time for Frogging!...ECUADOR (25-26 Nov)

By the time the rain stopped at Maquipucuna, and the Rufous Motmot had long since gone to roost, the frogs reacted in style, with a solid and resounding chorus ringing through the night, of at least three species right around where we stayed. I only managed to find one, which I am having a little difficulty in identifying, but it posed with aplomb for photos.

 

Next morning dawned bright, and Rebecca and I headed out for some early morning birding before we hot the "bear trail" again. We started with a few skulkers with winning views of South America's version of Asia's Pygmy Wren-Babbler, the Southern Nightingale-Wren, followed shortly after by views of an immaculate Orange-billed Sparrow. Then our attentions were once again back on to all things furry, and it did not take long to find our first of the day. We bumped in to a volunteer virtually sprinting back down the trail having caught up with an early morning bear, and was still clearly dealing with the high from this. Moments later we were enjoying what was presumably the same, somewhat bold, bear, brazenly feeding in the open, then launching a brazen attack on us as we watched which comprised of bear piss and poop. I was so busy enjoying the bear I very nearly got caught in the substantial crossfire. I was simply absorbed in the moment. Then, suddenly, it shinned down the tree, within mere feet of a beaming Rebecca, and then scrambled rather clumsily up a bank and away. Finally, our last bear sighting was the longest one yet. While lacking the extreme closeness of the former, and certainly lacking the drama of the "bear shower", it was a unique sighting. It continued to feed at length while we watched on, as the bear foraged at some 15-20m up, sniffing for its favoured fruits, then, when clapping eyes on it, and realising it was placed precariously at the prominence of a slender branch which would clearly not carry it substantial weight, displayed its raw power by gnawing on the base of the branch until it began to show the strain from its bite and then grabbed the falling limb with its teeth, just as it appeared to be falling from its reach. Then it turned it around gingerly, ensuring the fruits were now placed clos to its mouth, and cleaned the branch of its bounty within a matter of minutes. afterwhich it was happy to let the branch come crashing to earth, once it was done with it.

All too soon we had to turn about face and return to Quito, taking a scarlet Andean Cock-of-the-rock along the return journey.

Next up was another visit to the "kingdom of the bears", and an irresistible chance to take in the Banded Ground-Cuckoo just one more time...

The Bear Necessities of Life...ECUADOR (24 Nov)

After finishing up with the Cape Bird Club in Ecuador, I was exhausted but happy; I had got the chance to go birding and frogging with a really decent and fun group of people. Exhausted as on one of our last night a few of us could not resist rummaging in the jungle to search for frogs (see post before). This led to one of the longest days in the field I have done: from 04:30am until just after 11pm! I was looking forward to a weekend off, although fate often gets in the way of this...and not always for the bad. It turns out Rebecca Hinkle, a very good birding friend from Ohio (she works at the splendid Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge  ) was going to have a few free days, post a Galapagos tour (with Tropical Birding), and was basically up for anything. Just before I finished the Cape Bird Club tour of the Ecuadorian Andes and Amazon a rather juicy e-mail landed, conspicuously in my inbox. I picked this up on Blackberry while traveling between sites, and had to read it several times, rub my eyes, and comprehend the message clearly. News was coming through that it was a bumper time for the rare and extremely difficult Spectacled Bear at Maquipucuna reserve in northwest Ecuador.  I had longed to se one of these Andean bears for quite some time. They had been spotted before by volunteers on the Tandayapa Bird Lodge property (where I have spent quite some time over the last 7 years), and another guide had taunted us with quality video of one just up the valley from the lodge. However, as ever, these involved fleeting sightings which were never to be repeated.

So after a night's stop-over in Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Rebecca and I were on our way in darkness to a reserve in Ecuador which for some reason or another I had not yet made it too. Heading to a new site with the tantalising prospect of bears was exciting to say the least. Although I hardly dared to believe it was possible. Turning up at the site, where the visit had been arranged through another Rebecca, we were greeted by another Sam, this time a volunteer at the reserve, who nonchalantly declared we WOULD see the bears, as they were being seen daily and were "easy". Could I yet dare to believe? In between these contemplations Rebecca spotted a regal Broad-billed Motmot sitting out in the open, though I fluffed my lines, and completely missed an open shot (Rebecca did not however).

 

So Rebecca and I headed out with one of the local guides, Carlos, who came armed with head full of facts about the bears and clearly had some intimate knowledge of them from his 20+ years of service at the reserve. Time flew by, and before we knew it we were following Carlos's gesture up to a large, unkempt bunch of sticks, which had been woven into a "bed" by a large furry beast, which peered out from within it...my first, splendid, Spectacled Bear! It looked at us with curiosity, though never really seemed perturbed by our presence, my hyper-ventilating, and our unhushed excitement. Amazingly, we ventured on and within no time at all were picking up the clumsy sounds of another bear, ripping into one of the fruiting trees that had caused them to venture down from higher elevations. All too soon we were eyeball to eyeball with another bear. Although this time no large beds of sticks could hide this one, which was often fully in the open, in a very open canopy, allowing for spectacular looks. After a little while of feeding, then fretting about its next move, the bear simply decided to slip down the trunk beside us, and clumsily ramble off into the forest, when it was gone once more.

Finally, as Rebecca and I headed back to the lodge for lunch, with the birding being rather dull by comparison we stumbled into a third bear, frozen and staring at us from another canopy, this one with clear spectacles, unlike the other two. Indeed. the facial patterns of these bears are absorbing and uniquely individual, allowing identification of individuals relatively easily. Carlos was very familier with the very bears we saw, as he had come across over 19 different bears in his many years on site. The first one was clearly different from the other two, with clear buff-colored eyebrows ("Mr. Brows"-my own personal name for it), the second one I nicknamed "Mr. Blond" (as homage to Reservoir Dogs if nothing else, as that sounded cool in the film), and for the blond hourglass marking on the face, and third I called "Specs" as it was the only one with spectacles of all three spectacled bears seen on this day.

It was a remarkable day; I had barley believed we would see them at all, let alone three superb views of different individuals, PLUS photos of all. I never imagined this. We had planned to go another bear hunt in the afternoon though heavy rains put paid to this, so we stuck to the lodge, where we were even joined by a Rufous Motmot, who also chose to shelter under the same eaves. Good company all round! 

More bears and birds to come, very soon...

Lost in Frogging...ECUADOR (18 - 20 Nov)

On a couple of nights some enthusiastic people from the Cape Bird Club group (Andrew, Heather and Otto in particular, though not exclusively), could not resist a super long day - some of were in the field a titanic 20 HOURS on one day, by not only birding during all possible hours of daylight, but also venturing out after dark for creepy crawlies, and night creatures. Most notably, the frogs were a huge success, and fuelled a growing fire for this in me, which I fear, like birding, is now irreversible. I am hooked. Here are some of the things we found, frog-wise in two super-enjoyable nights creeping around the fringes of the Amazon jungle....

Common Polkadot Treefrog

Rocket Treefrog

Unknown Frog (trying to leap into my room no less)

Gladiator Treefrog

 Sharp-nosed Toad

More traditional feathery and furry notes to come soon, as I ventured, post-Amazon, into the Andes for a very special mammal indeed...

Into the Amazon....ECUADOR (18 Nov)

Jose Illanes and I continued our extremely enjoyable tour with the group from the Cape Bird Club of South Africa. Having spent some time in the Andes, we shifted down into the eastern lowlands, and into the vast Amazon Basin. After a few days in the high Andes the considerable jump in temperature and humidity were palpable. Our first full day in the steamy Amazon jungle saw us undertake one of the classic activities in the region: a visit to the Yasuni National Park clay licks, where parrots gather daily to feast on the clay and the rich minerals it brings to their diets. For our Amazon stay we were based at the incredible, and now world-famous, Sacha Lodge, which meant we would be just a boat ride away from a couple of accesible parrot licks. The first of this we sidled up to in our motorised canoe, and watched as FOUR species of parrots dropped into to an insignificant-looking bank of clay along the mighty Napo River itself, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon River. Mealy Amazons and Blue-headed Parrots were the most numerous and conspicuous, while the odd Yellow-crowned Amazon was found in their midst too, along with some Dusky-headed Parakeets. As we drifted alongside them the activity was frantic, and the noise only just bearable, as parrots are surely one of the noisiest groups of birds, and at their noisiest around mineral-rich banks of clay. 

Once we had soaked up this scene we went to witness another, although this time, the lick was on the ground, in a shallow cave, and was accessible by way of a short walk through the jungle. This short walk was worth mentioning, as we hit some activity where a number of antbirds seemed to be present, most notably the striking Black-spotted Bare-eye, found within the 'scope by Heather when trying to see another, much dowdier species of antbird in the very same 'scope view! I had spent long hours in both Ecuador and Peru chasing this ant-beauty, but only now got the crisp looks I had craved so long for; fantastic. 

On reaching the large, purpose-built, blind/hide we joined the ranks of people who'd come to watch the main event: parrots dropping down below eye-level, and at close range, offering photo opportunities aplenty, and rare views of these often difficult to see canopy birds. Chief among them were the hordes of Cobalt-winged Parakeets, one of the most numerous parrots in this part of the Amazon, though they were joined by two other, more striking, and scarcer species, the Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlet, which is incredibly difficult to see away from this "stage", and the extremely handsome Orange-cheeked Parrot, one of which even came and landed in front of the blind as if to dare us to take photos, which of course we did! The action was magnetic, although once an unidentified raptor swooped in at high speed, every single, screaming and squawking, parrot took to the air immediately and scrambled for an exit in their panic, which meant the vast majority of these hundreds, if not thousands, of birds came screaming through the air and screaming through the blind we were sat in, causing more than a few of us to flinch in the process. Just minutes later the forest fell silent, as every single parrot had abandoned the lick, and the usual raucous chorus that accompanies their presence had left with them.

More frogs, birds, and animals to come from the Amazon...