Peter James Fullagar

Delaware Bay 2008

2008-05-21T12:07:00.018+10:00

Reed's Beach Houses - high tide
Our main house is behind the blue-grey house on the right;
the second house is out of view on the opposite side of the road.

Shorebirds

May 12^th to June 2^nd

Back again!

As I write this at the end of the first week there is a Carolina Wren singing heartily outside this window not 2 metres away. It is late afternoon. His loud and musical twidgaloo, twidgaloo, twidgaloo, twidgaloo, is ringing in my ears. This is a very common sequence from this bird and I remember it from last year so it may in fact be the same individual. Regular as clockwork he will give it at dawn from a scraggly bush just below the window beside my bed and he seems to be the first bird I hear just on first light. Often it takes 200 repeats of this four note sequence at the start of the day before he switches to another song and maybe a third if he does not move along to another song post beforehand. A Willet is calling in the distance. Fascinating!

Gathering Turnstone near the house at Reed's Beach and wind blown spume

My Carolina Wren

Mockingbird in song at Reed's Beach

I started off a week ago when I headed to Sydney to stay the night with Kate, Iain and Rohan in Erskineville before taking a United Airlines flight across to Boulder (actually to Denver) via San Francisco. I then stayed the night with David, Tracey and James before heading on to Philadelphia. My flight out of Denver was held back because of air traffic problems at Philadelphia caused by high winds following severe storms along the east coast over the past weekend. However, this did not matter to me as I was originally due to arrive some 3 hours ahead of my other Australian colleagues who were due in at about 7pm. Clive Minton, Susan Taylor and Prue Wright came in from Melbourne via Los Angeles. As it happened we arrived at different parts of the terminal and there are several baggage halls to make matters more complicated. Humphrey Sitters eventually found me and, along with Dick Veitch and Larry and Mandy Niles, we all headed to Reed’s Beach. It was raining! We are back in the same two cottages as before and we soon settled in for the first night.

Week one – 12^th - 19^th May

High winds and stormy weather during the week before our arrival has left some very visible signs. The view from the back of the cottage on the first morning was unusual. The marsh was flooded at high tide to an extent that I had not seen before. There was nowhere for secretive marsh birds to go and the rails were wandering along the roadside or were heading to any other high ground they could find.

Remarkably there are few Horseshoe Crabs to be seen this first week. The high tides, wind, rough water and cold conditions seem to have prevented spawning along most of the beaches we normally work on. It takes more than a week for me to see a live horseshoe crab!

By the time we arrived two catches had already been made at Reed’s Beach by Larry’s local team. On the 7^th they caught: Ruddy Turnstone 10 (2); Red Knot 5 and Sanderling 77(2) a total of 92. Then on the 10^th they made another catch: Ruddy Turnstone 72(7); Red Knot 93(12) and Sanderling 59(3) a total of 224. Figures in brackets are retraps.

We get off to a good start on Tuesday 13^th with a small catch just south of the Nordberg’s house, which is about half way along Reed’s Beach road on the Bay side. We process: Ruddy Turnstone 68(6) and Sanderling 20(1) for a total of 88. Then things begin to get frustrating. Difficult conditions including wind and rain and early and late tides add to the fact that we simply cannot find any Red Knot on the usual beaches in sufficient numbers. Our only concentration at first seems to be at Stone Harbor where up to 3000 seems to be gathering at high tides but an all day effort on 15^th at Stone Harbor ended in no catch being possible.

Panorama of Red Knot at Stone Harbor

Red Knot

Tightly packed Red Knot roosting at Stone Harbor

Red Knot in flight at Stone Harbor

Sanderling at Stone harbor

Red Knot flock at Stone Harbor

Luckily by the 16^th we had found Red Knot on our local beaches at Cook's and a catch was possible that day with the following numbers being processed: Ruddy Turnstone 25(4); Red Knot 150(13) and Sanderling 48(12) giving a total of 223. Condition of the Red Knot was remarkable with heavy birds in a reasonably normally distributed spread of weights averaging 140g. This looked good for the birds and confirmed what we had seen at Stone Harbor suggesting that many of the Red Knot looked fat and healthy judging from body profile.

Processing in foul weather at Cook's

Two more catches at Reed’s Beach on the 17^th and 18^th gave us the following numbers processed: 17^th: Ruddy Turnstone 34(10); Red Knot 1 and Sanderling 26(2) for a total of 71. 18^th: Ruddy Turnstone 39(8); Red Knot 38(5) and Sanderling 103(8) for a total of 188.

Red Knot

Shorebird viewing platform at North Reed's Beach

Bird observations can be summaries as follows. Most of this week we have concentrated on trying to find catchable shorebirds and this has limited our exploration to the Reed’s Beach area and Stone Harbor. However, on the 18^th in the afternoon a small group of us visited Belleplain for some birding. We heard Prothonotary Warbler and Red-bellied Woodpecker and saw a Louisiana Water Thrush and a singing Wood Thrush but best of all was a male Yellow-throated Warbler gathering food with a female sitting tight on a nest nearby. Unusually, the nest was at about 4 metres above ground level along a branch and outside a cabin! We also had splendid views of Eastern Towhee and Hooded Warbler and saw a Black-and-white Warbler and a Common Yellowthroat. Eventually we headed up to Heislerville when it began to rain more heavily. At Heislerville on the main pond we saw, despite the fact that it was much fuller than at this time last year, good numbers of shorebirds. A spectacular gathering of at least 3000 Short-billed Dowitchers, lots of Dunlin and Semi-palmated Plovers, good numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers, several Black-bellied Plovers (c 10) and at least 2 Least Sandpipers. There was a roosting flock of at least 300 Black Skimmers and we spotted a number of other interesting birds including Osprey, Turkey Vultures and a Bald Eagle. The best bird, however, was a superb full summer plumaged Curlew-Sandpiper. It was (as we had half expected) in the same general area that we had seen one using the previous year! Probably the same individual we suspect.

Curlew-Sandpiper

On the 20^th we took the morning off to go to Higbee’s on Cape May Island and then on to the nearby Rea Farm. Specially interesting sightings included a Red-bellied Woodpecker, several Indigo Bunting and a male Blue Grosbeak for comparison. We saw several Northern Cardinal, a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a splendid Yellow-breasted Chat, some Field Sparrow, together with sightings of Orchard Oriole, American Redstart and American Goldfinch and a couple of male and a couple of female Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Northern Cardinal

Male Brown-headed Cowbird

Yellow-breasted Chat

Carolina Chickadee

Indigo Bunting

Tortoise

There have been a few small groups of Brent Geese about the place during this first week but I suspect we are soon to see the last of them. Mostly they have been seen at Stone Harbor or nearby on the Spartina marshes. Three Red-breasted Merganser late in the afternoon at Stone harbor on the 14^th were nice to see and an adult male Long-tailed Duck was also seen in the area a few times but not by me. Other waterfowl have not been noteworthy. I have only seen one Common Loon at Stone Harbor flying over along the ocean side. Groups of Double-crested Cormorants have been seen here and there – mostly at Stone Harbor or flying over at Reed’s Beach, often in flocks of 25-50. Small numbers of Great and Snowy Egrets have been seen here and there with an occasional sighting of a Black-crowned Night-heron and one or two Great Blue Herons. However, we have seen several small groups of Glossy Ibis. A Northern Harrier was seen a couple of times quartering the marshes at Stone Harbor but no other diurnal raptors have been particularly noteworthy. I have the impression that so far I am not seeing the numbers of Osprey that I would expect, particularly on the road across the marshes to Stone Harbor. This may be due to the windy overcast condition that prevailed for much of this first week. Clapper Rails have been seen along the roadsides a few times, but no doubt this was due to the high tides flooding them out of the marshes!

Other noteworthy comments about shorebirds would be that Piping Plovers lost a many nest in the gales and high seas a week ago but several sites made it through and relaying is now under way. American Oystercatcher followed the same pattern. This is mainly at Stone Harbor where we most often seen these species. I have not seen many Killdeer Plovers so far this trip and Willet have been remarkably undemonstrative up to now but again conditions have not been very favourable for them. The Laughing Gulls have lost their first attempt at laying and despite being raucous and conspicuous everywhere they have rarely been concentrated on the beaches. I saw only one Least Tern feeding in the Bidwell river mouth on the 20^thand few Forster’s Terns were established at the regular sites although they were beginning to do so by the end of the week. Common Tern arrived in some numbers by 15^th when about 20-30 were roosting on Champagne Island at Stone Harbor. Other gulls and terns were not noteworthy although I have seen both Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull in some numbers, mostly sub-adults on the beaches. Ring-billed Gull and Royal Tern have been scarce. I have seen Gull-billed Tern once.

A Yellow-billed Cuckoo was seen at Higbee’s on 20^th along with a Ruby-throated Hummingbird and a Belted Kingfisher. A few Chimney Swift were also seen on 20^th.

Several Great Crested Flycatchers were seen either at Belleplains or Higbee’s along with Eastern Wood-Peewee, Eastern Kingbirds and Acadian Flycatcher and of particular interest was the finding of up to three or more Willow Flycatchers at Higbee’s on 20^th. Also calling loudly at Higbee’s was Carolina Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse.

Fish Crow again seem to be the only crow to be found on Cape May itself. Purple Martin were active at some ‘martin houses’ near our base camp at Reed’s Beach but apart from the fact that Northern Mockingbirds have been in full song during warmer and less windy periods, including a very persistent songster near our base that has occasionally sung for long spells during the nights, there has been little else to comment upon from amongst the jays, wrens, warblers, blackbirds and sparrows seen up to now. Boat-billed Grackles certainly have been noisy in display on calmer days at Reed’s Beach and much the same can be said for Red-winged Blackbird. I have seen few House Finches or House Sparrows. Common Grackles have been few in number but when seen have been along the roadside at various places. Song sparrow have not been obvious to me but I have had a few pointed out to me on the marshes.

Participants this year include (apart from those already mentioned): Claudio Moraga and Jose Cabello (from Chile – they work in Tierra del Fuego. Claudio studies Guanaco); Laura McKinnon and Cedrik Juillet (from Quebec – they work on Bylot Island where Laura is studying Baird’s and White-rumped Sandpiper breeding success); Mark Peck and Jerry from Toronto (Mark is from the Royal Ontario Museum); Angela and Barrie Watts (also from Toronto); Graham Harrington, Sue Rice and Rosemary Gibson. Allan Baker and Patricia Gonzales are based with Ron Porter at Stone Harbor and Steve Gates mostly works on his own and concentrates on flag re-sightings. There are others in the team that concentrate on swabbing and collecting blood samples for avian diseases. This avian disease team is also radio tracking Turnstones and Sanderling during the time the birds are in the bay area this May. David Mizrahi from the Cape May Audubon Research Centre is continuing his studies of Semi-palmated and Least Sandpipers with daily catches when possible.

Boat-tailed Grackle

Willet

Ruddy Turnstone squabbling over food resources

Sanderling

Laughing Gulls

Ecuador day 1

2008-04-12T14:00:00.008+10:00

ECUADOR

Naturetrek special tour

12^th to 26^th February 2008

Tour report

Leader: Alejandro Solano. Participants: Peter Fullagar, Barbara and Eric Pilcher.

Introduction This tour was arranged at short notice by Naturetrek Ltd following the cancellation of their tours to Bolivia owing to political unrest in that country.
Naturetrek put together an itinerary with their ground agents (Neblina Forest) which was a compromise between their ‘Cock of the Rock’ and 'Choco' tours with additional sites of importance ornithologically.
The paragraphs below follow the daily program together with short notes on items of interest. Daily records of birds seen and heard can be found in detail in the accompanying spread sheet. Some photographs are included with the text but a website link to a more extensive photo-gallery is provided.

Ecuador

Topographical map showing roughly the three areas visited

Two oblique views in Google Earth showing GPS clusters from this trip.
The upper one is viewed from the NW and the lower one from the S

12 February - Tuesday. Our flight from Heathrow was delayed almost 2 hours because of fog which in turn meant a frantic rush through ‘transit’ in Miami to catch our flight to Quito.
Needless to say our luggage didn’t make it and it only caught up with us 36 hours later.
We were met and transferred to our hotel in Quito grateful for the chance to go straight to bed in this, the second highest capital in the world, at 2850 metres (9600 feet).

Grasslands (anthropogenic?) along our approach road to Yanacocha reserve

on the northern slopes of volcan Pichincha

Heading up the track to the Yanacocha reserve

Alejandro Solano - our guide

13 February - Wednesday. An early continental breakfast and departure at 6am set the pattern for most of the trip. Our leader Alejandro and driver Milton soon had us driving out of Quito and climbing the lower slopes of Pichincha, the volcano which dominates the city. We visited the Yanacocha reserve in temperate moss-clad forest seeing our first Great Sapphirewings and Sword-billed Hummingbirds at feeders - unlike them we noticed the altitude, having recorded a height of 3570 metres (11700 feet).

Our walk today in the Yanacocha Reserve on the west slopes of Pichincha.
The map is orientated with N to the right. The viewing altitude is 3km.
We walked from point 14 to point 15.

Unfortunately this was the only area explored by us in Ecuador that was covered at the time, in Google Earth, by high resolution satellite mapping. For this reason it was impossible to repeat such detailed topographic mapping of our daily activities elsewhere. The only other GPS location at such resolution was a fix on our hotel in Quito!

Our trail in Yanacocha reserve traversing some steep ridges

Sheltering from the rain at the end of the trail - Yanacocha reserve

Trumpet flowers the like of which the hummingbirds feed from (image by EJP)

We ate our packed lunch in the vehicle. Having left Quito in clear conditions with only early mist swirling among the lower slopes, heavy rain began after mid-day. Besides the early starts this was to become a more troublesome feature of the trip, repeated almost every afternoon (that is when it didn’t rain most of the day anyway!).

Start of the trail in Yanacocha reserve

In the afternoon we took the old Nono - Mindo road over the western ridge of the Andes joining the new highway towards Nanegalito in improving weather, making for the turn-off to the Maquipucuna Lodge where we were to stay for 3 nights. We made several birding stops along the way calling in for coffee and Bolones at the Café Armadillo. Bolones, we discovered (constructed rather like a large Scotch Egg) is a staple and filling snack, consisting of a core and outer covering based on corn mash with varied vegetables and some chilli.

Coffee while waiting for our bolones Armadillos Cafe

Today we saw 67 species. Some we are to encounter regularly over the next fortnight: Black Vulture, Tropical Kingbird, Southern House Wren, Blue-and-white Swallow, Southern Rough-winged Swallow, Rufous-collared Sparrow and Lemon-rumped Tanager. Fifteen others we do not see again. These included, Bar-bellied Woodpecker, Sapphire-vented and Golden-breasted Pufflegs, Burrowing Owl, Rufous-naped Brush-Finch, Stripe-headed Brush-Finch, Superciliaried Hemispingus, Golden-crowned Tanager, Grassland Yellow-Finch and White-sided Flower-piercer. Also, we recorded five species which we only heard today and did not again encounter – Tawny-breasted Tinamou, Barred Fruiteater, White-browed Spinetail, Undulated Antpitta and Ocellated Tacapulo. Especially abundant on this first day was the Great Thrush but we see few of these splendid large ‘Blackbirds’ over the next week or so until we again encounter them during the last three days of the trip.

Sapphire-vented Pufflegs and Buff-winged Starfrontlets
at hummer feeders - Yanacocha Reserve

Sword-billed Hummingbird

Buff-winged Starfrontlet

Great Sapphirewing

Sapphire-vented Puffleg

Golden-breasted Puffleg

Violet-tailed Sylph

Masked Flower-piercer

Glossy Flower-piercer

Look at that bill! The Flower-piercers extraordinary bill morphology.
The hook holds the flower while the lower mandible pierces into the bloom

Burrowing-owl (image by EJP)

Ecuador day 2

2008-04-12T13:00:00.002+10:00

Rio Santa Rosa. Three torrent species here today:
Torrent Duck, Torrent Tyrannulet, White-capped Dipper

One of the White-capped Dippers (image by EJP)

14 February - Thursday. Having arrived around 6pm last evening to comfortable rooms and a good dinner we took an early walk around the Lodge before breakfast. Running past the buildings is a fast-flowing river (the Rio Santa Rosa) – a sound not easy to sleep with if you’re not used to it! But on the credit side we found 3 ‘torrent’ species within a few minutes, namely White-capped Dipper, Torrent Tyrranulet and a female Torrent Duck. After breakfast we walked the Arrieros trail with intermittent showers until mid-morning turning to steady, heavy rain until late afternoon. We were glad to get back for lunch; not that the rain deterred the 7 species of hummingbirds visiting the feeders and the Rufous and Broad-billed Motmots nearby.

The Ballast road leading to Maquipucuna Lodge

Birding along the Arrieros trail to the east of Maquipucuna Lodge
and here above the Rio Santa Rosa

Nest with three nestlings of the Golden-crowned Flycatcher
under the bridge at entrance to Maquipucuna Lodge

Look at the mandibles on this beast!

Huge grasshopper -approx. 10cm long!

We managed a walk before dusk and were rewarded with close views of a Golden-headed Quetzal plus 3 Pacific Horneros during the day. Even at this lower altitude of 1330 metres (4360 feet) the rain kept us chilly at 18°C.

White-necked Jacobin

Green-crowned Brilliant

Green-crowned Brilliant

Buff-tailed Coronet

White-whiskered Hermit

Green-crowned Woodnymph

Rufous Motmot (image by EJP)

Our total species list for today was 93. We encountered Barred Parakeet in good numbers and would do so again over the next few days. We also see good numbers of White-necked Jacobin, Southern Rough-winged Swallow, Lemon-rumped and Swallow Tanagers. Other birds which we see today and regularly over the next few days include: White-collared Swift,Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Swallow-tailed Kite, Turkey Vulture, Rusty-margined Flycatcher, Ecuadorian Thrush, Bay Wren (most days only heard!). Bananaquit, Blue-grey Tanager, Palm Tanager and Buff-throated Saltator. Several species are not seen again. These include: Crested Guan, Smoky-brown Woodpecker, Buff-fronted Parrotlet, Band-rumped Swift (10+ seen), Yellow Tyrannulet, Streaked Flycatcher, Red-eyed Vireo, Spotted Nightingale-Thrush (only heard) and Yellow-rumped Cacique.

Ecuador day 3

2008-04-12T11:00:00.023+10:00

Early morning birding along the road leading into Maquipucuna Lodge

15 February – Friday. This was a repeat of yesterday - early morning walk before breakfast and the whole morning along the Main (or Forest) trail. At first it was dry with periods of hot sunshine and temperatures up to 27°C At lunch the heavy rain began again but we were able to walk part of the Wetlands trail later in the afternoon. The Maquipucuna Reserve covers some 4500ha and is characterised by steeply sloping cloud-forested hillsides covering three-quarters of the area, waterfalls and fast-flowing rivers and streams.
A feature of the day was the parties of noisy parrots flying over the canopy - Bronze-winged and Red-billed Parrots and many Barred Parakeets.

Ferns

Lantana!

Interesting dumplings!

Signage along the Main trail

Birding from a raised platform in the forest off the Main Trail

The forest viewing platform

unidentified plant

Butterfly with semi-transparent wings -approx 10cm wingspan
(lower image by EJP)

Observation point along the Main Trail - not far from the lodge
(upper image by EJP)

Close to the lodge on the return self guided loop

We saw an impressive 102 species today including our only encounters with Olivaceous Piculet, Collared Trogon, Green-fronted Lancebill, Common Nighthawk (at dusk flying over the Lodge), White-faced Bristle-Tyrant, Black-and-white Becard and Plain-brown Woodcreeper, Also heard but not seen at any other time on the trip was Wattled Guan, White-backed Fire-eye and Spotted Barbtail. Notably large number of Barred Parakeet were seen today and White-collared Swift, White-necked Jacobin, Lemon-rumped, Blue-grey and Swallow Tanagers were again numerous.

Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner

White-necked Jacobin - preening

This is why it is called the White-necked Jcobin

A Jaobin must shelter from the rain somewhere!

Not sure of this species

Buff-tailed Coronet
Wing-stretch on alighting is typical of this species and the genus Boissonneaua

Ecuador day 4

2008-04-12T10:00:00.045+10:00

Maquipucuna Lodge

16 February - Saturday. We left Maquipucuna Lodge after an early breakfast to drive to Tandayapa, stopping during the morning to watch garden feeders for an hour at Alambe. Again it was dry at first with occasional sun breaking through the clouds. We drove on to eat our packed lunch at Pacha Quinde where an excellent array of sugar-feeders was present. By this time the rain was heavy again and we began to see the results - trees undermined, hillsides washed down on to roads, local bridges at risk. We were unaware of the serious flooding in the lowlands around Guayaquil to the south since we had seen no TV or newspapers.

Alamba

Birding along the road - Tandayapa

Vegetation along the Tandayapa road - the lower one is Selaginella sp.

Crowns of Cecropia (sp.?) in the rainforest canopy

On the equator!

We found the juvenile Common Potoo reported here perched at the top of a tall dead stump and in all today we recorded 20 species of hummingbirds. After our lunch-break the rain was relentless and we had a very wet drive to the Tandayapa Pass on the lower Nono/Mindo road and on to Los Bancos for our next 2 nights at the El Mirador del Rio Blanco.

Juvenile Common Potoo perched on a stump (EJP)

More spectacular roadside vegetation

A spectacular Butterfly - upper and underwings shown(images by EJP)

Today we saw 97 species with our only views of Spot-fronted Swift (2), Gorgeted Sunangel (2) Purple-bibbed Whitetip (4), a White-throated Quail-Dove, two Short-tailed Hawk, a Sierran Elaenia and a Tanager Finch. Four species were heard today but were not seen or heard on any other occasion. They were Green-and-black Fruiteater, Spillmann’s Tapaculo, Beautiful Jay and Black-striped Sparrow. We saw a Bran-coloured Flycatcher brooding three nestlings. Again Barred Parakeet was very numerous along with Chestnut-collared Swift, Andean Emerald, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Buff-tailed Coronet, Booted Racket-tail and Blue-and-white Swallow.

Green-crowned Woodnymph

Booted Racket-tail

Booted Racket-tail - female

Andean Emerald

Fawn-breasted Brilliant

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Assorted hummers at a feeder -Andean Emeralds, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird,
Purple-throated Woodstar & Fawn-breasted Brilliant

Green-crowned Brilliant - female

Green Violetear

Purple-throated Woodstar

Buff-tailed Coronet

Collared Inca in the rain

Violet-tailed Sylph in the rain

This seems to be a Puffleg we didn't record this day?

Buff-tailed Coronet with pesky bee!

Fawn-breasted Brilliant

A Puffleg again? Is it really a Buff-tailed Coronet?

Purple-bibbed Whitetip in flight on the right

Thick-billed Euphonia female

Two Thick-billed Euphonia

Blue-grey Tanager

Golden Tanager and Orange-bellied Euphonia

Buff-throated Saltator

Glossy-black Thrush

Bran-coloured Flycatcher brooding three nestlings

Ecuador day 5

2008-04-12T09:00:00.032+10:00

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock

The valley of Angel Paz's - Refugio Paz de Las Aves

Giant Antpitta - this is Maria. (image by EJP)

17 February - Sunday. A very early start today, leaving the lodge at 4.45am to drive to the Refugio Paz de Las Aves (also known as Angel Paz’s). Before dawn with our head-torches on, we negotiated the muddy trail down to the Cock of the Rock lek viewed from behind a low screen. In the approaching dawn we were rewarded with good views of 3 males calling and displaying. When the birds departed we walked down a forest trail and the guide (and owner of the land) who had accustomed various birds to the presence of humans by a careful program of feeding, was able to call a Yellow-breasted Antpitta into close view.

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock - male
Composite from images taken at San Diego Animal Park in 2008

Giant Antpitta comes in to feeding tray with worms

Babara and Eric on the path following our viewing of the Giant Antpitta

Back at another observation site the calling produced a pair of Giant Antpittas which one by one collected their supply of worms – and provided superb opportunities for close watching but photography was difficult in the dim light and the need not to use flash. As if on cue 5 Dark-backed Woodquail joined in the feeding a little further back up the trail (a group known as the Spice girls!) and nearby 5 Sickle-winged Guans flew quietly away at our approach.

Angel Paz's place

Ablutions block; Eric for the use of

The Mitsubishi on the left is known as 'Maria' and was paid for from the accumulated
small entrance fees charged to see the Giant Antpitta of the same name!

Barbara waiting for breakfast!

Bolones. The one at the top has a bite out of it!

By mid-morning we were ready for the al fresco breakfast which was provided, including the best Bolones yet and an amazing array of local fruits. We walked on higher ground and up a ridge following the road where Tree Tomatoes were being grown and we were lucky to see a stunning Orange-breasted Fruiteater.

Remnant and regrowth rainforest on the slopes and old pastures
or paddocks now intended for return to tropical rainforests

Rural activities along the road near Angel Paz's

Fruiting berries

Tree Tomato (upper image by EJP)

Digiscoped image of Orange-breasted Fruiteater (Canon Ixus 800IS + Leica scope)

Bromeliads everywhere!

Further along the morning walk

Returning to the El Mirador for a late lunch we watched the bird feeders, and the river 150 metres below, from the rear patio of the lodge. In spite of the rain at 4.30pm we walked part of the Milpe road area, where we planned to enter the reserve the next morning.

Our motel - El Mirador Rio Blanco (EJP)

View of the river from the motel patio - El Mirador Rio Blanco (EJP)

Black Vulture

Green Thorntail

Green Thorntail

Green-crowned Brilliant - female

Pale-mandibilled Aracari (Ecuadorian Endemic)

Choco Toucan

Plumbeous Pigeon

Black-cheeked Woodpecker - male

Lemon-rumped Tanager

Part of vesper flight of White-collared Swifts drifting past the patio at El Mirador at about 4:30pm

White-whiskered Hermit

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Green Thorntail

Green-crowned Woodnymph

Today at the hummer feeders

With a total of 107 species logged and the bonus of visiting a site with lekking Cock-of-the-Rock followed by superb views of Giant Antpitta this was undoubtedly another very good day. Birds seen only today included Sickle-winged Guan, Dark-backed Wood-Quail, Pale-mandibled Aracari, Green Thorntail, Rufescent Screech-Owl, Rufous-bellied Nighthawk, Orange-breasted Fruiteater, Scaled Fruiteater, Olivaceous Piha, Giant Antpitta, Yellow-breasted Antpitta, White-winged Brush-Finch and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Not encountered at any other time but heard today were Barred Forest-Falcon, Flavescent Flycatcher and Narino Tacapulo. Specially numerous today was Barred Parakeet (again!), Bronze-winged Parrot, White-collared Swift, Green-crowned Woodnymph, Andean Emerald, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Blue-and-white Swallow, Lemon-rumped Tanager, Blue-grey Tanager and Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager.