Travel Travails

This trip to Southern Ecuador grew out of our need to expend a credit with tour provider Tropical Birding, created when a 2020 trip to Oaxaca was cancelled. TB was not particularly generous and I probably would not have used them were it not for the credit. And given the ongoing COVID uncertainty, I would have waited longer were it not for the credit deadline. 

As travel restrictions and requirements became more stringent, planning got more complicated.  It’s now necessary to get PT-PCR tested no more than 72 hours before departure and, of course, test results can take up to 72 hours. Hope for the best or pay $150 for a rapid test. Realizing it’s even possible to test positive, I increased the travel insurance to cover some of the tour costs, as well as medical emergency coverage.  But I coughed up the $150 and got a negative result (that's the good one).

The next hurdle is air travel, snarled by COVID and weather but "On Time" as of this writing.  American Airlines did its best to ensure that our travel schedule was as inconvenient as possible, thoughtfully changing flight details 2 or 3 times to get us to places between 11 PM and 2 AM, and allowing us to leave places at 4:30 AM.   But at least I’ll be meeting up with friends from Arizona, who are also connecting through Miami. 

My priorities are hummingbirds, of which 90 or more species are possible, including a few that only occur in the area we are traveling.  And one that was only discovered a few years ago.  I’ll continue to ponder the evolutionary influences that resulted in some 350 hummingbird species of almost unimaginable variety in plumage and habits.  My infatuation with hummingbirds came late, a late-life regret right up there with having sold my 1957 Ducati motorcycle in 1967.

Overall, the trip could find over 750 species of birds, a remarkable 7.5% of all the birds in the world.

Sparkling Violetear - One of the many possible hummingbirds to see in southern Ecuador.  I photographed this one in Colombia a few years ago.

Blog posts will depend somewhat on WiFi access and time availability, but I hope you'll vicariously enjoy following my trip.

Ayampe Adventure

We decided to get in to Ecuador a couple days before the tour and try to get a few Pacific coast specialties before joining up.  Also a little insurance against air delays. Which amazingly did not happen, although American Airlines did its best to try. And arrival was refreshingly efficient, zoomed through health screening, passport, and customs in about the amount of time it takes in Miami to be directed to the right desk. 

Off in a too small car (see below) to Ayampe on the Pacific coast, where surf is king and birds are friendly.

Curtis Smith, another Arizona friend, drove and engineered the luggage 

Hoped for ONE OF THE RAREST BIRDS IN THE WORLD - the Esmeralda’s Woodstar hummingbird, but doinked on that one. Compensation was a few roadside bonus birds including Pearl Kite and Chilean Flamingo species, spotted by sharp-eyed Jay Hand, a one-time Connecticut birder now in Arizona.  An afternoon and morning yielded around 70 species, many of which were new to one or another of us or offered stunning views previously unseen.  

Like this female Hook-billed Kite.

And this Masked Water-Tyrant.

A walk along a famous surfer beach didn’t yield much in the way of birds, but a first communion with the Pacific Ocean south of the Equator was one opportunity to ponder the wonder of nature at her macro level.

I was disabused of my speculation that these rocks were the Galapagos Islands.

A nice pizza dinner over looking the Ayampe estuary.

Back in Guayaquil in time to avoid the overtime penalty on the rental and get ready for 5:30 departure tomorrow. 

Off to Buenaventura and Umbrellabird Lodge

After our trip to Ayampe we joined the main tour, which had atrophied to only 2 more birders, plus the guide from Tropical Birding and a driver.  Several hours of driving south brought us to Umbrellabird Lodge, where we are to look for two famous endemics - the Long-wattled Umbrellabird and the El Oro Parakeet.  Found both, the first after a mud climb and the second after a mile climb until the trucks finally arrived.  But worth it and bonus was great hummingbird photo ops.

Long-wattled Umbrellabird at its courting lek.

Wow, what a place.  This lodge is located in the Buenaventura Reserve of the Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco, an Ecuadorian non-governmental organization (NGO), to protect areas of critical importance for the conservation of threatened species in Ecuador.  Hummingbirds everywhere.  Mosquitoes also; it took me an hour while writing this to finally feed all of them that snuck into the Lodge. 

Violet-tailed Sylph

Warning: bird porn, may not be suitable for all audiences.

Copulating El Oro Parakeets, a species found only in the El Oro District of Ecuador

Off tomorrow for the Peru border and hopefully some more unique hummers.

All photos © C.S. Wood