Ecuador's High Country

The high elevation Paramo grassland is like nothing I have ever seen.  Vast expanses of cold humid grasslands with sporadic shrubs growing at an altitude over 14,000 ft.  We drove up a mountain road to  Antisana Ecological Reserve located on the oriental slope in the Andes Mountain range.  The Andes mountains are spectacular even on a cloudy day.  Each range seems to go on forever.  We saw wonderful birds,  Carunculated Caracaras,  Southern Lapwing,  Silvery Grebes on Mica Lake, Chestnut-winged Cinclodes, and many more.  The most exciting was seeing the Andean Condor soaring over a valley.  After a hike, and more birds, we headed down the road and stopped at an observation platform.  The Andean Condor was across the valley sitting on a cliff ledge.  Two spectacular hummingbirds were flitting in the brush, Sparkling Violetear, and Black-tailed Trainbearer.

Above, a Carunculated Caracara waits in the grass. They were fun to watch.

To the right, the Antisana Volcano comes out of the clouds for a few minutes.

The other high elevation area we visited was the Papallacta Towers, the site of an array of tall antennas in the Pacque Nacional Cayambe - Coca. This ecological reserve has very high biodiversity and includes the Cayambe volcano at nearly 19, 000 ft.  This area is amazing. Tundra plants are not like anything I have ever seen.  Pointed leaf rosettes arranged in dense round mats so thick I could sit on one, and it did not compress under my weight.  We saw Sierra Finches, Stout

 billed Cinclodes, and a small rufous bird that may have been an Andean Tit Spinetail.
     We walked down a steep hillside looking for Seedsnipe.  At the elevation was near 14,000 ft. I had to stop several times to catch my breath walking back up the hill to the road.   I marveled at small flowers and these unusual high altitude adapted plants.
 Photo below.

The views were spectacular despite the oncoming rainstorm.

One of my few good bird photos, a Chestnut winged Cinclodes, a relative of the Ovenbird.

Ecuador Chapter 3

     The Choco region of Ecuador is part of the larger Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena high biodiversity area that starts in eastern Panama and extends south along the Pacific coasts of Columbia, Ecuador, and a small piece of northwestern Peru.  Tropical moist forests,  tropical dry forests, rocky shorelines, and several other ecoregions provide a diversity of habitats for an amazing number of birds.  Ecuador has lost most of its primary forests from deforestation, leaving very few areas of native forest.
      We visited Estacion Biologica Un Poco del Choco, a Nature Reserve and Biological Research Station located in a beautiful area of tropical rainforest. They are making an important contribution to the conservation of the Choco region, education programs are offered, and students are welcome to work on their own research projects. This forest is amazing !  Enormous leaves, brightly colored flowers in unusual places, huge trees with a community of plants, ferns, moss, bromeliads, and more living on the tree trunks. And birds like I have not ever seen before. We spent a few days here hiking the trails and enjoying this very diverse forest.
So many plants competing for space and sunlight on the forest floor.

A community of moss, ferns, and other plants growing on a tree trunk.



This is a Bromeliad flower. The pink blade sprouts from the Bromeliad's center and the purple flowers grow from the edges of the pink blade.

     As we were leaving this area we stopped at another "Hummingbird Haven"  called Alambi.  Many feeders were hung at the edge of a dense hedge, with each feeder numbered.  It was a feast for the eyes, so many jeweled hummingbirds zipping around and sipping from their favorite feeder.  Two long boards with several bananas on each attracted bright larger birds who came to enjoy a breakfast of fruit. 
 

   

A Booted Racketail hummingbird shares the feeder with a White-whiskered Hermit.  I saw 13 species of hummingbirds, and probably more that I did not know their names.  Larger birds included Tanagers with names like Lemon-rumped,  Golden (he is beautiful),  White-lined (he has a cinnamon colored female), and Blue-gray.  A Chestnut-capped Brushfinch was very good-looking.  Photo below is a Buff-throated Saltator enjoying a banana.

Above is a link to a short movie I took at Alambi.  

Ecuador next chapter

     After a spectacular introduction to this beautiful country on the first day, we visited more special locations. I wrote down 53 new birds on that first day.  We visited Refugio Paz de las Aves the next day. This special place is the hard work of a family keeping their land for conservation and for the birds.  We arrived before sunrise, walked over the recent landslide, and were treated to views of usually hard-to-find birds.  Birders with big cameras had some great photos.  We saw Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (a bright orange red Cotinga),  5 species of Antpittas, Tanagers, Hummingbirds, and more. I took this photo of a Chestnut crowned Antpitta that came when called for its morning treat of mealworms.   To read more about Refugio Paz, look at their website  www.refugiopazdelasaves.com
      Cave of the Oilbird was next.  I find it amazing that this bird has survived through the years and did not become extinct.  The early settlers would take its young and burn them in oil lamps, hence the name Oilbird.  Oilbirds are in the order Caprimulgiformes, ancestors to the Nightjars. They are nocturnal fruit eaters who navigate using echo-location, much as bats do.
      We ended the day driving along Mashpi Rd to  Amagusa  Preserve.  Tanagers in colors I have not ever seen before  (bright green, yellow, or vivid blue) , and hummingbirds called Whitetips, Thorntails, and Hermits.  During the day we saw Swallow-tailed Kites, Swallow Tanagers, and Blue-and-White Swallows.  Photo to the left shows Blue winged Mountain Tanagers enjoying bananas at a feeder.
      

Typical forest in the Mindo area with Cecropia trees and other canopy species.  When birds come by in a flock they can be difficult to see high in the canopy hidden by large leaves.

More Cecropia trees and Bromeliads.

Bromeliad growing high on a trunk is flowering with a red flower.








Finding the Umbrellabird was another adventure.  We stayed overnight in a cabin belonging to the guide Luis.  In the pre-dawn darkness we drove up a steep dirt road, forded 2 rivers and stopped at the top of a rise.  The 3rd river was forded on foot.  We walked up another steep muddy road still under construction to become a road.  Luis guided us to the top of another hill and we waited.  Dense fog came and went, and enveloped us again.  Finally the Long-wattled Umbrellabird flew in to the tree and perched. The photographer had his photos and we walked down the mountain all happy birders.

 During the dense fog we heard other birds. 


Swainson's Thrushes, Blackburnian Warblers, Olive-sided Flycatchers, and other familiar neotropical migrants spend the winter in Ecuador.  A nice winter vacation for them.

Ecuador in January

      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.

Cross-country trip

By November it was determined I could be helpful to my family in NH, and I was willing to go.  I spent my 2 evenings in the Olympia hostel reading Google maps and plotting a course across the country.  WA to the NE corner of Oregon to Idaho to Utah to WY to CO to NM to TX to Louisiana to AR to SE corner of MO to KY to Ohio to PA to the SE corner of NY  to CT thru MA to NH.  It would take 2 weeks. 
      Washington is highly volcanic.  Mt Rainier and the Cascades were formed from ancient volcanoes.  I took this photo along Hwy 12 as Tieton River is flowing east to meet the Yakima River. Basalt columns are easy to see on this mountainside.
     I continued east across Washington, clipped a corner on Oregon, and drove Hwy 84 thru Idaho.  Utah's Great Salt Lake was a wonderful bonanza of birds in August.  It was nearly empty on the day in November I stopped to look.  I took Hwy 80 across windy Wyoming, and Hwy 25 thru Colorado and into New Mexico. 
    Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico is the wintering location for many 100's of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese.  It is a spectacular sight to see the flocks flying and resting. 


Dawn flight out.

contemplating take-off

Snow Geese look up from preening or sleeping.

Much of this lake's surface is covered with Snow Geese.  The numbers of Snow Geese here is astonishing.






I continued east across New Mexico into Texas, driving past Capitan, NM site where the "Smokey the Bear"  story began in 1950.
Texas is a big state and it took me a few overnights to cross over.  I decided to take a southern route to avoid winter storms in the northern tier states. 
     Arkansas has the dubious distinction of being the last of the  Lower 48 states for me to visit.  I stayed overnight in Little Rock, and went birding the next morning at Two Rivers State Park.  This photo was taken in the park.
     Continuing north and east, I drove a corner of Missouri and halfway across Kentucky before turning north again into Ohio.  By now the weather maps were showing an ominous snowstorm moving from Minnesota going east.  As much as I wanted to go check out the birds on Lake Erie, I decided it would be safer to stay south.  I picked up Hwy 84 in Pennsylvania and drove to northern Connecticut.

Washington forests

My time at Mt Rainier National Park completed at the end of October.  My sister came to visit and we toured the Olympic Peninsula for a week.  Not long enough.  We found some very good birds, she took photos.  Rain continued off and on during the week creating some challenging photography conditions.  We found that the plastic shower cap from a motel room worked very well to cover the high-tech camera she was using.  All too soon the week was over and I needed to take her back to the airport.
      These 2 pictures show typical of Washington rainforest,  moss and ferns grow everywhere.  Vine Maple, in the photo to the right,  turns red in the Fall.
      Before leaving the rainforest region, I hiked at McLane Creek Park, south of Olympia.  Wildlife viewing signs were posted at the trailhead.  The  "wildlife"  was

fish !!   Spawning Salmon.  I really admire
these Salmon for swimming the long distance from the ocean to their natal streams to spawn and die.  I watched them wiggle up and over log jams, and between rocks.  In gravel like this a shallow scrape is made and the female deposits her eggs.

a pond surrounded with dense forest leaving only a small bit of space for reflections.

old tree stump covered with moss, Salal bushes, and other plants.

trail thru the forest of Cedars, Big-leaf Maples, and Hemlock.

Fall at Rainier

     While hiking I have seen Vine Maple trees, and expected the Fall colors to be in Maples.  No  !!   Fall colors are in Huckleberry bushes !    Vine Maples are beautifully red and orange,  but they lack in abundance.  There are not many Maples on the hillsides. 
     Huckleberry bushes cover the meadows and hillsides with a dense green mat during the summer.  They become bright red in the Fall, everywhere.

Its been raining and cloudy for more than a week.  Before this storm moved in, I photographed Lenticular clouds over the big mountain.  They occur when stable, moist air flows over a mountain, creating a series of oscillating waves.  On a different day I saw the layers of  waves form a stacked cloud.

This photo to the right reminded me of the mountains in NH.

 A Gray Jay sat briefly on a branch before flying away.  Gray Jays can be quite tame in campgrounds.