December days of helping my parents melted in January. We had Christmas with my brother's girlfriend (a great cook), and my sister's family. It was a very white Christmas.
A few days after New Year's I drove to her house in CT. She and long-time friend Jorge had invited me to join them on a bird trip to Ecuador. What an exciting adventure !! We flew into Quito, Ecuador at mid-day and I had my first look at the landscape. Houses are built on the steep hillsides and across the valleys. It reminded me of San Francisco, except Quito has a far bigger, grander scale.We picked up our rental car and moved on to our next goal, driving out of Quito. Such traffic !! Drivers move fluidly across the traffic lanes with much beeping and honking, using almost no turn signals. I looked out the side window from the back seat of the Toyota Fortuner, glad that I was not driving. Photo above is along Mindo road. credit Susan Hochgraf.
Our first night was spent in Mindo, an area of mountainous terrain 2 hours west of Quito. This area is an intersection of the biologically diverse Chocoan lowlands and the equally diverse tropical Andes. The different types of habitats and numbers of bird species is amazing. I took this photo of a Choco Toucan, my first good look at a wild Toucan. We visited Waterfall Rd, a hummingbird feeders location, and Bellavista Reserve all on the first day. It rained every afternoon for the first couple days we were in Ecuador. Then again it is a rainforest !
This is one of the spectacular hummingbirds we saw, Booted Racketail. I am used to the diversity of hummingbirds in southeast Arizona. Ecuador has more species of hummingbirds, in more sizes, and more variations. Many are not even called hummingbirds. Names like Inca, Sylph, and Coronet (among others) are used to name hummingbirds. My photo to the left does not have the best focus, but they move so fast.
Landscape at Mindo while watching hummingbirds.
Many hummingbirds sharing one feeder.
to be continued.
Exciting!
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