Ecuador day 14

Our hotel -Termas - a thermal spa

26 February – Tuesday. Our last day in Ecuador dawned fine and at 6.30am we had a short walk around the grounds and were fortunate to see a Spectacled Bear feeding high on one of the surrounding mountain sides. After a good breakfast we drove up the road behind the lodge to visit the Cayambe-Coca Reserve entrance looking for high altitude birds and we weren’t disappointed. Heavy mist, turning into light rain followed us down as we walked for the rest of the morning back to the lodge for lunch. Black-backed Bush-Tanager, Pearled Treerunner, Pale-naped Brush-Finch, Glossy-black Thrush, Red-crested Cotinga and Tufted and Agile Tit-Tyrants were all seen well.

Early morning walk

Thermal resort (images by EJP)

Heading down from the top of the road

Views down the valley

Alpine ground flora

(Image by EJP)

Further images from the walk down the mountain trail

Pellets of the local Sylvilagus rabbit

Caged rocks! Typical reinforcements used in the Andes from Chile to Ecuador

After lunch we set off back to Quito and close to the Papallacta Pass we had a Bar-winged Cinclodes by the roadside and, finally, a distant view of an Andean Condor. Waiting for our early evening flight home we worked out that the 500 species either seen or heard (or both) meant we had recorded one bird every 20 minutes of daylight. (The euphoria of that amazing statistic caused us to work out the bizarre fact that was about one every millifortnight! - what else to do to pass the time in an Airport?).

Shopping in an outer suburb of Quito

Our guide and driver depart from the Hotel Embassy, Quito

Front of the Hotel Embassy

Street opposite our hotel entrance

Coffee lounge at front of Hotel Embassy

Final day. Today we recorded only 43 species but some notable species were amongst them! Only four species were in the category of ‘heard only’ but two of them remained unseen for the trip. These were Rufous Antpitta and Plain-tailed Wren. We added nine new birds: Viridian Metaltail, Andean Condor (at last), Agile Tit-Tyrant, Tufted Tit-Tyrant, Bar-winged Cinclodes, White-chinned Thistletail, Pale-naped Brush-Finch, Masked Mountain-Tanager and Paramo Seedeater. Numerous species today included White-collared Swift (as ever), Band-tailed Pigeon, Black Vulture, Great Thrush, Brown-bellied Swallow, Blue-and-white Swallow (also, as ever), Rufous-collared Sparrow, Spectacled Whitestart and Black-backed Bush-Tanager. A good day to finish up the trip and one that brought us up to exactly 500 species recorded.

Some final images from the Termas spa - our hotel