Since retirement 10 years ago, my wife, Valerie, and I have travelled south for the winter, averaging about three months away. Most trips have been to Mexico which five times included the drive from Nova Scotia to the Yucatan and back, a marvellous journey both for avian and cultural wonders. These last few winters, we have been once to Panama, twice to Costa Rica, and now this last winter, to Ecuador. In Yucatan, our winter bird count topped out about 190 species, but many of the water birds were in spectacular numbers. In these last three countries, we have seen from 330 to 355 birds each year, Ecuador being the highest. However, we added only two dozen species in Ecuador for our last month. For sheer abundance of birdlife, our experience is that Costa Rica wins hands down.
Ecuador has about 1620 species, or 15% of the world’s total in a country the size of Colorado. We were excited by the prospects of so many new species, and to be fair, we were not disappointed. However, the image that one has of so many bird species crammed into a smallish country was limited somewhat by experience. Birds could be abundant in particular areas, but much of the geography of the country proved inhospitable to big bird counts.
Almost all of the birders we have met on our travels have been those serious listers who are in for a week or two of intense birding, part of a group and led by a guide. This is, of course, the best way to see the most birds, and is the best way to do it where time is paramount. For us, time has been a luxury, and we prefer to strike out on our own, in our rental car, reading what we can and scouting back roads wherever available. We are both 65 and do most things as a duo. There was never any chance we were going to hike the five hour mountain trails in the rainy paramo. Most of what we saw was not far from where our car was parked. We did take the services of one excellent guide this winter, in Mindo, and in Costa Rica we have used two guides. Always it is a pleasure to see talent at work, and these occasions have made for positive memories. However, I find that when I am with a guide, I often get lazy in looking, and often am late in seeing what the guide has seen first; as a rule, we prefer stumbling in the dark on our own, to following in a group. An exception this time would have been at the Jocotoco Foundation’s biological station on the Napo river outside of Misahuali where we saw exactly one specie in our morning hike – a spangled cotinga. We had intended to go with a resident birder but he was unavailable, only showing up after we had finished. In discussion with him later, it was clear that our shortfall of birds was not that uncommon. My reading had mentioned something north of 500 birds in this area. It was one of many occasions where I was made to remember the enigmatic remarks of a fellow at San Isidro Cabinas: “there are many birds, but there are not many of them.”
We arrived late into Guayquil and were picked up by a waiting cab courtesy of the excellently run Hostal Macaw. We were to stay there four different nights and it made for an invaluable storage area for our increasingly vast amounts of luggage, courtesy of Ecuadorian craftsmen. The proprietors, Fanny and Rodrigo, run a first-rate, immaculate hostal with great breakfasts and close proximity to the airport. As I was later to find out, Rodrigo is himself a bird guide at Cerro Blanco park on the outskirts of Guayaquil, a place where he generously arranged for us to gain entrance on our last day in Ecuador. It was there that we saw our first blue-crowned motmot, a frequent occurrence in Costa Rica and commonplace (turquoise-browed) in the Yucatan. Although Guayquil is a strain to drive in, and a bit of a mess to look at, Rodrigo has worked at maintaining a small park one street over from the hostal. He has a list of 38 species found in this tiny park in the midst of a traffic nightmare. He told me to look to the cell tower nearby for bat falcons near dusk, and there were two of them, the only two of the trip (seeing a species once only was a common experience).
We rented our car from Avis. Card companies only allow so many consecutive days when choosing CDW card insurance, so the rental ended up in three segments. We had the smallest car, a Spark. It had plenty of power. Indeed, we were upgraded to an Aveo for the last two weeks, and it had considerably less power. We were pleasantly surprised by the ease of driving in Ecuador. We had read much of the dangers and many on the travel sites recommended hiring drivers. Having driven in all the other countries mentioned above, Ecuador may have been the easiest of the lot. The roads were newly paved, built to take out many of the switch-backing so common and exhausting in Mexico, and guard rails were almost always intelligently and abundantly placed on the main arteries. I hardly saw a pothole, although we did see occasional LARGE “beware geological fault” signs announcing a sometimes significant swell on the highway either from landslide of earthquake. (We had only one earthquake, fortunately not on the highway, but while sitting on the porch of our hotel in Otavalo watching the large fountain spill its contents back and forth onto the ground).
Although the roads were well constructed and extensive, taking you through stunning Andean scenery, the drivers do deserve a word to the wise. It is common to criticize other countries’ drivers, but often it is just a different set of circumstances that are at play. We use horns infrequently in Canada, but south of the Rio Grande, horns are commonplace, particularly at stop signs where a driver ten cars back will be announcing the changing light several seconds before it actually changes. I came to see that this was often just letting the lead driver know the light had changed, because the lights were often positioned so high that the lead driver could not see them. Also, horns are used in Ecuadorian towns where traffic and sidewalk are dangerously close. As a pedestrian I more than once came to appreciate this courtesy. Keep in mind that pedestrians do not have the right of way except at specially designated crossings. One of the more dangerous habits I started out with was waiting at corners for pedestrians to cross. I quickly saw I was doing no one a favour and was often inviting an accident as other drivers sped along by local rules. Finally, and most disturbing, is the ubiquitous habit of passing cars while allowing mere inches between the two. Many times I jumped in my seat as a side mirror nearly clipped me in passing at 100kms /hr on the highway. After a while I saw that this too was reasonable behaviour, in a sense. Drivers on the highway will pass you at ANY time, including going up a hill and around a blind corner. This we witnessed every day we drove. The “sense” comes in realizing that if another car comes, one needs to be hugging the centre line as much as possible. Of course, the insanity comes in choosing to pass in the first place. I drove at the speed limit most times (a first offence speeding ticket in Ecuador brings a fine AND three days in jail). When I saw the potential for trouble, I backed off. We didn’t see an accident, whereas, in Quintana Roo, Mexico, one winter we witnessed seven accidents.
Finally, a word on car rental agencies. I have used AVIS many times in the past and been favourably impressed. After much research, I found the pricing offered was, while expensive enough, the cheapest available. I also found the online / phone service very helpful and accommodating. The worst part was the kilometre limit on rentals which meant that we had to curb our usual wide-wandering ways. The second rental mysteriously offered a higher km limit, and the final rental offered unlimited mileage. In Misahuali there is no service station and no tire changer so I had to make an emergency trip to Tena to get a repair done. It turned out that the belts were showing on the original tire which now became my spare. On returning to Guyaquil, I offered my explanation and no charges were forthcoming. Maria de la Paz, the agent I dealt with, noted in an email before our trip that “we shall provide you with good service”. She was right.
Yes, I know – birds. I am getting there, but this trip report is meant more for the slow-paced traveller with time to spare and so I intend to include a fuller travel picture than some might appreciate. The birds started with saffron finch and pacific parrotlets my first morning in Guayaquil. We then set out for the coast. Not much appeared along the way but for a crested caracara. We took the cut-over new road so as to miss Salinas and headed up to the salt flats where we were hopeful of seeing Chilean flamingos. There were a few, paler than the American flamingos we had seen daily for two months in such spectacular numbers on the Yucatan lagunas just outside the Xcambo Ruinas entrance. On the beach were American oystercatchers on patrol, and gray hooded gulls socializing and a Harris Hawk in Ecuasal. We made our way to Olon, just past the surfer town of Montanita, where we rented a wonderful house for a week called Casa de Curia.
Casa de Curia had resident two birds we were to see over and over: the fascinated wren and the pacific hornero, birds with lots of character. The “horno”, or oven-like mud nest of the hornero, was outside our window. Then, two other Ecuadorian standards, the southern yellow grosbeak and southern beardless tyrannulet. I had brought with me two hummingbird feeders and set them up here and in Otavalo, but had no takers, even though I had instant success in Volcan, Panama, a few years earlier. It was suggested to me that the hummers may take a while to get familiar with the feeder. Certainly, where feeders had been up for a long time, as in Milpe and Mindo, the activity was ferocious, but it may have to do with species as well.
While in Olon, we saw birds in various side roads, but the two that occupied most of our time were the excellent Ayampe River road, on the way to Puerto Lopez, and a nearby sideroad that featured “the Ghandi School” sign at the highway entrance, about three kms before Montanita (heading south). South of Montanita are two roads we would have liked to spend more time on: 1. the road to Dos Mangos seemed a place ripe with birding possibilities, both on the road to Dos Mangos, and on the trails that follow out of the village. 2. Nuevo Sitio road nearby the Dos Mangos road showed numerous birds in late afternoon, but we were on other business in the village (tagua production); nevertheless, we did see a juvenile gray hawk, a white edged oriole and Baird’s flycatcher.
The Ayampe river road travels along the south side of the river, so if you have crossed the bridge coming from Salinas direction, then you have gone too far. It runs about 4 kms and is in excellent condition, or was so in January. It leads into another Jocotoco Foundation site, and the traffic was nearly nil.
Notable Ayampe River birds: ecuadorian trogan, violaceous trogon, gray headed hawk, choco toucan, esmeraldas woodstar, scarlet backed woodpecker, golden olive woodpecker, streaked saltator, thick-billed euphonia, white-backed fire eye, crimson breasted seed finch, snowy throated kingbird, speckle-breasted wren, black-lored yellowthroat, amazila hummingbird, summer tanager, tropical parula, gray and gold warbler, plain brown woodcreeper, streaked xenops, pale billed aracari, great antshrike, green kingfisher, bronze winged parrot, black cheeked woodpecker and, heading toward Ayampe on the highway in the morning, a pacific pygmy owl.
On the road around Olon we saw a merlin, black-bellied whistling duck, masked water-tyrant, and on the shore, a yellow-crowned night heron.
On the “Ghandi” road were numerous birds includinglemon rumped tanagers, rufous-browed peppershrike, Peruvian meadowlark, green honeycreeper, common tody flycatcher, and vermilion flycatcher.
After a week at Casa de Curio, we drove towards Banos through Guyaquil, stopping for the night in the colourful city of Guaranda. We lodged at the empty but pleasant Hostal de Angeles with its charming and secure grounds. It took us quite a while to find it; as with everything in Ecuador, signage is limited. Finally, we took the road at the lights and crossed the bridge for the road to Riobamba. About 2 kms up the hill and on a flat stretch is this charming hostal. Here was our first great thrush, a bird we were to see far too many times. When we headed south the following month, we stayed here as well, and visited the non-touristed market, overflowing with indigenous colour. Regret: that we didn’t spend the night in Las Salinas, the cheese making district about an hour from Guaranda.
We chose the route via Guaranda since it offered higher elevation and less traffic than the Riobamba route. We were not disappointed as we quickly ascended that morning to the paramo and sensational views of Chiramboaza. At the highest point we found a herd of vicuna grazing at the roadside, and on our return trip an even larger herd crossed the road in front of us. Traffic was almost non-existent. This was true too for the road we took down to Ambato, called Las Flores. We had stopped to ask some cheese sellers at the crossroads which way was “mas bonito” and they quickly urged us to the Las Flores road. And spectacular it was. Along the way we saw our first stout-billed cinclodes.
Banos is a pretty town, much visited and well-serviced. We were glad of a choice of vegetarian restaurants. We stayed at Eco-Verde Hostal, funky looking from the outside, but quite delightful inside and beautifully situated on the river where we had a corner room with balcony giving astonishing 270 degree views. This is the top rated B&B in Banos but it took some effort to find. It is about 2 kms south of Banos and requires knowledge of which narrow lane to take left. We went on the advice of the owner and hired a taxi to lead us there, and even he made a couple of wrong turns due to road work.
We kept thinking that the “next place” would offer an explosion of birds, but always it took work. The booted racket tail and sparkling violet ear were plentiful around the hostal as were hooded siskins, and here we had the first sight of the blue gray tanager with the patch of white in its wing. We asked where to look for birds in the area and were directed toward Puyo where one small side road, immediately before entering one of the several tunnels, finally produced our first red-headed barbet - o frabjous day, calooh calay! Also, here, were black headed grosbeak, blackburnian warbler, slate-throated whitestart, black phoebes in the river, and russet backed oropendolas and a palm tanager a little farther down the highway at another turnoff. Back in Banos, we spent the afternoon up a road with a waterfall that is used for climbing tours. Here we found a flock of gregarious and highly photogenic Inca Jays. Another road the next day took us to a fancy hotel with breathtaking views of the valley below and yielded blue-winged mountain tanager.
Back to Ambato the following day, we headed north toward Quito and our destination that evening, Mindo. Except for the marshlands around Guayaquil, there was little to make us pause along the main roads. We were doing so well getting through Quito that I began to feel there was, after all, very little problem driving through these cities. Well, pride does goeth, and the fall was taking the wrong turn at a fork with huge signs demanding a nearly instantaneous choice. After mucking about the streets of Mitad del Mundo, we finally got on the highway, but, as we discovered 45 minutes later, headed the wrong way, half way to Otavalo. Eventually, the road to Mindo was found after what turned into a two hour detour, the traffic thinned, and our thoughts turned again to birding.
In Mindo, we stayed at the heralded Yellow House which I found heavenly. It is a former hacienda now operated by two sisters and their mother who have a kind of nun-like reverence for the property. We were given the upstairs room in the cabin with the wrap-around deck, just below the house. At any time of the day we found a wide variety of birds to look at. We were there for four nights, at least ten nights too few by my reckoning. At the recommendation of the sisters, we contracted a guide named Julia Patino to take us to Milpe and also to a cock-of-the-rock lek. She was a delight to be with and knew her birds and the birding hotspots. At 5 am, black as broken leg, we parked in a muddy lane and headed for the lek. This required a half-hour walk from the highway across a river and then up a hill, so as to get to the lek by daybreak. We were there with at least fifteen others, but we were all able to get a good look at about eight cocks displaying in the early light. This site was different than the more famous site of Angel la Paz, but it sounded like a less arduous walk to get to the lek. Photography was possible but limited by the low light. Then we were off to Milpe before the afternoon rains arrived. Julia found us many birds we would either not have found ourselves or that we would probably not have identified, like the white-thighed swallow and the toucan barbet (which we only glimpsed). Highlights of the morning included rufous motmot, blue rumped manakin, wedge billed woodcreeper, gray headed kite, powerful woodpecker, Canada warbler, guira tanager, tricolored brush finch, silver throated tanager, olivaceous piculet, ochre breasted tanager, collared trogon, smoky brown woodpecker, smoke colored peewee, slate colored grosbeak, greenish elainea, yellow winged manakin, cloud winged manakin, orange bellied euphonia, ruddy pigeon, scaly-throated foliage gleaner, golden-crowned flycatcher, green crowned brilliant, velvet purple coronet, green crowned wood-nymph, Andean emerald, white shouldered tanager, and blue throated tanager. Sitting with us through some rain showers, Julia responded to my query by saying she had in excess of 1300 species on her Ecuador list, so it is easy to see what value she would be to newcomers like us Canadians who had to go to Mindo to see our first Canada warbler.
Back at the Yellow House, the entrance to which is just off the main square in Mindo but entirely secluded in beautiful grounds, we walked some of the many trails on the property, with mixed results. Nearby was a large laughing falcon and the petite but endearing ornate flycatcher, as well as the scaly crowned flycatcher. The farther we got from the house, the fewer were the birds, but their bird lists are lengthy, so clearly more time would have yielded better results. Tanagers abounded on the property and along adjacent river roads: bay headed, golden, white lined, white winged, golden naped, fawn breasted, lachrymose, dusky bush tanager, scarlet bellied mountain tanager, and swallow tanager. Also, along the marsh entrance road was our first striated heron. The hummingbird feeders hung in front of our breakfast deck and the activity was constant, including white whiskered hermit, booted racket tail, white necked Jacobin, and green thorntail.
Another road near Mindo goes across a steep little bridge for about 6 kms, passing the entrance to Angel de Paz’s farm. We were only here the one time but found it rewarding both for aesthetic and avian purposes. Here we spotted: barred fruiteater, red faced spinetail, white winged becard, swallow tailed kite, and three striped warbler.
With about 90 new species in hand, we left Mindo with some regret that we were not staying at least another week. However, we had reservations for a month in Otavalo.
We rented a two bedroom house on the property of Las Palmeras Inn, one of two remarkable properties owned by the equally remarkable Nik Milhouse. While Otavalo is in the midst of stunning scenery, it is largely deforested and my expectations for additional birds were not high. However, have car will travel, and we made our way for day trips in all directions. A pleasant surprise was the number of birds found on the Las Palmeras grounds, including the eye-popping sword billed hummingbird (the longest billed hummer) and the black trainbearer (the longest tailed hummer) that frequented the gardens by our patio, joining the omnipresent and hyperactive sparkling violet ear. An American kestrel was so relaxed on the property that it was possible to get amazing close-ups.
Some of the daytrips included a marvellous venture to Oyacachi. The road is on the left, about 7 kms heading south of Cayambe on the old road to Quito. The road is paved for the first half-hour and then turns to well-maintained gravel. Here we saw our first antpitta at an elevation of about 3500 meters! This tawny antpitta hopped across the road several times as we drove along. Also, a carunculated caracara, masked flowerpiercer, variable hawk, and probable Andean teal along the way. At the entrance to Cayambe-Coca Reserve, there is a road that descends to the 2500 meter level in the cloud forest below the town of Oyacache. There was much to look at and I would certainly return here, possibly trying to arrange a night over in the town (which has hot springs). On the way into town were a pair of red-crested cotingas, and below the town things were active with black crested warbler, lachrymose tanager and spectacled whitestart. A great day.
Another longer trip took us to El Angel reserve near the Columbian border. The drive was, as usual, very scenic, and the highlights were the giant hummingbird and the great sapphire wing as well as torrent tyrannulet.
Closer to Otavalo were Laguna Cotacachi, and the Lagunas Mojanda road. We visited the middle section of Mojanda road several times and found sections of it quite birdy with scarlet bellied mountain tanager and scarlet backed woodpecker, and higher up at the pretty lakes were various plumbeous sierra finch, both cinclodes, and cinerous conebill (also around our house).
About 8 kms from Otavalo was Laguna San Pablo, a laguna in a stunning setting and with a variety of birds: Andean coot, Andean ruddy duck, Andean gull, common gallinule, pied billed grebes, and (after coaxing from my playbook) an Ecuadorian rail. There is a road that leads to a kind of soccer field on the lake’s edge (at least there are goal posts, but also sheep everywhere) where the marshy edges had significant numbers of yellow-billed pintails, and at least a dozen southern (or Andean) lapwings. I talked to the guide for a Norwegian tour that was staying at Las Palmeras. He had the enthusiasm of a kid when describing the Wilson’s snipe his group spotted at Laguna San Pablo, the first ever seen in Ecuador. When I met him in what seemed like a birdless downtown craft market in Otavalo, he mentioned that he could hear a northern mockingbird in the area. It is hard not feel, with birding, that one is always at the beginning. Read the biography of Phoebe Snetsinger, the first person to see 8000 birds, or consider the Mozart of the birding world, Ted Parker, whose ear could reportedly distinguish 40000 sounds, and whose plane crashed into an Ecuadorian mountainside. Sorry, but these lives make climbing Everest seem like a walk in the park.
My biggest regret is not reserving at least two days at Peter Joost’s El Refugio Cloud Forest Reserve about three hours north of Otavalo. There are two ways to get there; we did both, going and coming, and it brought the words “never again” from my wife who had, until then, done quite well suppressing a significant fear of heights. We drove to the nearby town of Selva Algre taking the road at the roundabout in Otavalo (clearly signed). This road goes along for about 25 kms on very good paved road, but thereafter it turns to gravel, deteriorating to very slippery and steep descents with many trucks (expect seasonal variation). We decided that going up hill on our return would be too risky so we came back through Intag Reserve by the road that exits at Laguna Cotacachi. There were sections here where roadbuilding made for some dizzying sights and my wife was much relieved to see pavement again. Still, it should be noted that busses run that road a couple of times a day. By all accounts, El Refugio is a remarkable place with its own cock of the rock lek. Joost is himself a talented birder. The two highlights of this marathon day trip were the plate-billed mountain toucan and torrent duck.
Finally, I should note the touristy sounding “Condor Park.” Well, it was for tourists, and we both found it riveting. Aplomado falcons and black chested buzzard eagles, among others, are set free to fly out over the valley in a superb amphitheatre setting. Nearly every Ecuadorian raptor was represented and looked very healthy, in clean cages cared for by knowledgeable staff. Not to be missed.
Looking back at that month of February, the Otavalo area was, aside from being scenically beautiful and culturally interesting, a worthy birding area. Since I created a list for Las Palmeras Inn, I’ll include the complete list of birds that we saw in our Otavalan region with a code for the areas in which they were seen.
American kestrel P
Andean Coot SP
Andean Gull SP
Andean Ruddy Duck SP
Andean Teal O
Smooth-billed Ani SA
Ash breasted sierra finch M
Band tailed pigeon CB
Band tailed sierra finch ML
Band tailed seedeater P
Bar winged cinclodes ML
Black and white seedeater CB
Black-backed grosbeak
Black crested warbler O
Black flowerpiercer MR
Black Phoebe SA
Black tailed trainbearer P
Black winged saltator SA
Black Vulture
Blue and black tanager MR
Black and white seedeater P
Blue and white swallow P
Blue and yellow tanager P
Blue winged mountain tanager ?
Blue winged teal SP
Brown bellied martin A
Carunculated Caracara O
Cattle egret SP
Chirgarunco thrush
Cinareous Conebill P
Crimson manteled woodpecker M
Common Gallinule
Crimson bellied tanager M
Eared dove P
Ecuadorian rail SP
Giant hummingbird A
Great Black Hawk (ML)
Great Sapphirewing A
Great Thrush P
Greater Yellowlegs SP
Hooded siskin P
Lachrymose tanager O
Lemon rumped tanager SV
Lesser Yellowlegs SP
Masked flowerpiercer O
Mountain wren O
Paramo pipit ML
Pearled treerunner Ap
Pied billed grebe SP
Plate billed toucan I
Plumbeous sierra finch ML
Red crowned cotinga O & I
Rufous collared sparrow
Rufous naped brush finch SA
Rock Dove
Scarlet backed woodpecker M
Slate throated whitestart
Short eared owl CB
Sierrian elainea I
Sora CB
Southern beardless tyrannulet P
Southern lapwing SP
Southern yellow grosbeak P
Sparkling violetear P
Speckled hummingbird P
Spectacled whitestart M
Spotted sandpiper SP
Strong billed cinclodes ML
Superciliated hemicingus SV
Sword billed hummingbird P
Tawny Antpitta O
Torrent Duck SA
Tirian metaltail P
Tropical Kingbird SA
Tufted tit-tyrant P
Turkey Vulture SA
Variable Hawk A
Vermilion flycatcher
Western Emerald SV
White bellied woodstar P
White crested elainea SA
White winged brush finch SA
Yellow-bellied elainea
Yellow billed pintail SP
Yellow-faced grassquit SA
Code :
P - Palmeras Inn including the road that goes past it.
O - Oyacache accessed about 7 kms south of Cayambe and including the paramo and the 10 km road of cloud forest below Oyacache
SV – the road to Selve Alegre, particularly around Selve Algre and the road from there to Apuela (70kms with tricky driving depending on weather)
I – the other road to Intag via Cuicocha Lake esp the section nearest Apuelo
CB – Cerro Blanco: a marked road to the left about 11kms from Otavalo on the Selva Alegra Road. Good at lower sections and incl a tiny marsh area perhaps 300 meters before the turn-off.
M - Mojanda Lake road
ML – Mojanda Lake area
SP – Lago San Pablo
A – Refugio El Angel – the road going around the park
(Birds seen by Brian and Valerie Bauld for the month of February 2013. All travelling was on day trips from Las Palmeras Inn, the longest being the trip to Selva Verde / Apuela / and back through Cotacachi. )
After Otavalo, we headed south for Misahuali and the Rio Napo, hoping that this poor man’s version of the Amazon would fatten our bird lists. On the way we stayed two nights in Baeza at Hostal Kopal where the owner has built fine cabins and where he also serves fine food, including excellent pizza and a tasty plato vegetariano. There are hummers on the property and a trail leads down into a wooded area where we were told it was common to find cock of the rock throughout the day. Unfortunately, heavy rains had made a mudslide of one section of the trail and only one of us was dumb enough to try to cross it. This trails leads on to a larger network in town where it is possible to engage a guide who is employed by the town. Koos, the owner/chef of Kopal recommended him highly. Koos is himself a great source of birding information for the greater Baeza area. He also owns a copy of ‘where to find birds in Ecuador” - a scarce book of invaluable information, even if 10 years old. There is no breakfast at Kopal but we were happy to find the brand new Quinde Hayco on the other side of the road. Here I spent a happy hour looking at a nice variety of birds close up from the deck/blind built into the charming gardens just beneath the breakfast window.
Due to heavy rains, there were slides on the highway south the day before we arrived and a kayaker said, with a troubling enthusiasm, that the river was 22 feet above normal. However, they were clearing it as we headed south for a day trip to the road with San Isidro Cabanas situated on it. Again, this was a budget move as the Cabanas were several times the cost of Kopal, but it was another regret that we did not allot more time for birding on this road (about a 20 minute drive from Baeza). There was never a dull moment with birds and butterflies in abundance. Although it rained both days, we were lucky to be on the road for five hours with clear weather. New birds for the Baeza area including the San Isidro road and Hostal Kopal: tawny billed hermit, collared inca, white tailed hillstar, long tailed sylph, emerald toucanet, golden olive woodpecker, black billed thrush, chestnut bellied seedeater, subtropical cacique, yellow browed sparrow, violet fronted brilliant, grayish saltator, double tooth kite, black capped tanager, beryl spangled tanager, olivaceous siskin, torrent tyrranulet, cinnamon flycatcher and bluish flowerpiercer. Besides the regret of not booking more time here, is the regret that came, after I asked two birders on the San Isidro road what they were looking at. As I was being given the answer “golden headed quetzal”, I thoughtlessly slammed my door while exiting the car. Bye bye birdie.
We hit good weather in Misahuali. The drive was through two more national reserves rich in birdlife, but more demanding than we were prepared for, and we passed on to the beautifully situated Banana Lodge fronting directly on the river. At $13 per person in a new large clean room with private bath, we were well situated for the next five days. Banana Lodge is very well run by a Russian/Ecuadorian couple with an interesting sense of humour. There certainly were many new birds in this quite different habitat, but perhaps not quite the outpouring I had been expecting. In retrospect, it would sound greedy to say we were not well treated by the bird population after seeing many wonderful new species. The property held many birds that could be seen from one’s chair, the most colourful perhaps the flocks of masked crimson tanager that flew through periodically. We drove each day in search of the exotic and the plain, sometimes long distances to places that had no name. In one of these villages we went down a side road and had great views of a limpkin. A short time later, we found the end of the road opening into the wide Napo river. I was standing at the edge looking up river for birds, when a boy moved behind me. He startled me somewhat but I recognized him as one of the many uniformed school kids who had been in the back of a pickup, heading home. As I was to see, home for this boy meant a longer journey. After about a minute, he quickly and wordlessly left my side and darted into the sketchiest of paths through the woods. I looked upstream again and saw now what he had seen – his mom and dad poling downstream to pick up their son in a dugout canoe at a landing spot a few hundred yards from where I was. My mind spun in many directions.
The great part of birding new areas is that you can be excited at the discovery of commonplace birds. The white magpie tanager was seen often and never failed to impress with its size and colour. Our only jacamar, the white eared jacamar was on the wires near Banana Lodge and new mouthfuls like black capped donacobius took a while to learn to say. We saw the lettered aracari several times and old friends like the kiskadee and the masked tityra. One of the best spots for birds turned out to be the two dirt streets that ran across from Banana Lodge to the main road where I had wonderful views of both male and female gilded barbet, streaked saltator, great antshrike and orange backed troupial. Valerie and I were of mixed opinion about the town of Misahuali, she finding it rather down on its heels/depressing, while I found it refreshingly laid-back, reminding me of an early Tulum, Mexico, before the resorts took over. Eating was a problem for us vegetarians but we did find two places to serve us a functional plato vegetariano, one establishment even keeping a boxer dog to fend off the super aggressive monkeys who would leap up on our dining table. People, as throughout Ecuador, were friendly, and even the boat operators on the Napo offered no hustle or hassle.
Other new birds seen in the Misahuali area: white banded swallow, crested oropendola, , amazon kingfisher, white capped tanager, black caracara, speckled chacalaca, lesser seed finch, yellow rumped cacique, opal crowned tanager, gray cheeked parakeet, yellow tufted woodpecker, tourquoise tanager, smooth billed ani, spot breasted woodpecker, smoky brown woodpecker, purple gallinule, ruddy ground dove, spangled cotinga, scarlet crowned barbet, gray capped flycatcher, yellow warbler, long tailed tyrant, white eyed parakeet, black throated mango, and little woodpecker.
We now headed quickly back to Guayaquil through Banos and Guaranda to return the car and prepare for two weeks in Galapagos. It is worth noting that we flew to Galapagos for just 10000 points on American Airlines; however, there is no way of avoiding the $100 per person park entry fee. Don’t forget too, as I did, the $10 exit fee or you will be seen as I was, franticly pushing in front of a long line to pay, in terror of missing my flight. Returning the car to Guayaquil was an adventure. It was a mere five minutes from the hostal but I managed to make 45 minutes of it by missing the one and only underpass u-turn I needed to make. The air was blue as I headed out over two rivers and a long boulevard before I could get turned around. I had debated getting maps for my Garmin. As it turns out, this would be only one of two areas where I would need it. The other was where I headed the wrong/long way out of Cuenca and after two hours driving was forced to turn around by a road being out, making the Cuenca –Guayaquil trip an 8 hour marathon.
We left all but a suitcase each at Hostal Macaw and quickly found ourselves in Gulliver’s imagination where sea lions seemed to rule the world, the island of San Cristobal. Sea lions were there by the hundreds, sharing the benches and blocking the walkways. Casa Laura was a pleasant and economical place to stay, but finding a restaurant was not so easy. Three days were at least one too many, although the sea lions, water birds and incredibly tame mangrove warblers were entertaining to the end. The walk behind the interpretive centre is wonderful leading to the most picturesque bay where blue-footed boobies soar, dive and land on guana-washed cliffs.
The trouble was that there was a finite number of birds with no hope of intruders, 600 miles as we were off the coast of Ecuador. We also made the miscalculation of “one week good – two weeks better” when booking our trip and really did feel island-bound by the end of it. The last 11 days we spent on Santa Cruz Island in Puerto Ayora, a pretty town in a beautiful bay, but with most of the sea lions gone. We lived in an expansive and luxurious gated house rented on the web under Galapagos Gardens, owned by the Vancouver-based artist, Tatjana Angermeyer. It was close to the entrance to Tortuga Bay Trail which teemed with Darwin finches and led to the ocean. Another twenty minute walk along this impressive beach brought you to a beautiful protected bay, as pretty as any in Mexico.
Lava herons hugged the sea wall in San Cristobal, nazca booby, Galapagos shearwater, and wedge-rumped storm petrel were seen on the trip between the two islands, brown noddies and blue footed boobies were commonplace, whimbrel and sanderling and semi-palmated plover were on the beaches. In Puerto Ayora, the fishing wharf downtown provided wild and reckless bird behaviour as great blue herons, lava gulls, brown pelicans and two species of frigate birds swooped about and clamoured on the wharf for fish morsels, utterly heedless of me with my camera standing two feet away. Indeed, the great virtue for the bird photographer on the Galapagos was bird proximity.
The trouble for the birder was the small number of species. In the two weeks we were there, we saw 22 new species. Any flycatcher was easy to identify since it was always the Galapagos flycatcher, as too with warblers, which were always yellow warblers. We took one taxi trip to see the tortoises on a farm where there were excellent views of the white cheeked pintail and a superb view of a paint billed crake. Without the Galapagos birds in Ridgely, I felt uncertain about identifying finches, but when I resorted to the sounds on xeno-canto.com, and put them on my playbook, I felt secure in naming four of them. The one bird I missed seeing was theGalapagos dove, but just as the bus pulled into the airport on Baltra, Valerie spotted one and I gave chase, photographing it with a final sense of accomplishment as it sat in the dusty ditch a worker was digging. Because we took no boat trips other than the ferry between the two islands, we saw no red footed booby, nor waved albatross, nor flightless cormorant. As one New Brunswicker said to me, at some point you have to ask yourself, “how much per bird am I willing to pay”.
After Galapagos, we felt we needed to see Cuenca, and I was keen to see what new species lurked around Loja. As it turned out, there were no new species seen in the Loja –Vilcabamba region , despite several hours walking in the cold rain at Podacarpus park and a 6 hour hike above Vilcabamba. Indeed, we saw only 22 species in five days. Fortunately, the scenery, the weather, the hiking and the excellent food at Izchayluma Lodge made for a pleasant stay. It was hard not to think, however, that a return to Mindo would have been a better idea. But then we would not have seen Cuenca, a city to compete with Mexico’s many colonial wonders. And we would not have seen the fascinating town of Saraguro in the midst of Easter celebrations – colourful but remarkably sedate compared to the mania of Mexico’s Semana Santa. Nor would we have driven through Cajas national park where we saw on a wire not much below 4000 meters, just past a group of lamas, a red rumped bush tyrant.
So, of the 355 species seen in our 11 weeks in Ecuador, about 330 of them were seen in the first 7.5 weeks.
There is a tremendous amount of useful information on Ecuador found on the web, but the one site I kept returning to was the remarkable www.birdingecuador.blogspot.com by Derek Kverno – such a treasure trove of valuable trip reports. Toward the end of our trip, I found the very useful Where To Find Birds in Ecuador at www.birdsinecuador.com . I wish I had found it earlier, as it is replete with detailed maps and mileage markers.
Any reservations that may sound through this account are of such mild report that they should not lessen the impression of our overall satisfaction with Ecuador. It is a land of beautiful scenery, gentle people, and outstanding birdlife.
To the prospective traveler to Ecuador who plans to arrive without birding in mind (as was the case with 99% of those we met who were not on birding tours): consider the 355 bursts of pleasure each of these birds brought with its pure colours, unique movements and habits; consider the multiple times these birds were seen with the pleasure of recognition; consider too the exploration of new locales in searching out these winged beauties; consider the excitement of the bloodless “hunt” and the mental exercise birding provides; consider that of the nearly 7000 photos I took in Ecuador, two-thirds of them were of birds; consider these things and then go buy some $300 binoculars and a $40 copy of Ridgley’s Birds of Ecuador, and keep a list. There will be no turning back.