I don't know why I ever thought I would be able to maintain a blog during such a busy itinerary!  Even when internet access was available, which was not often, I had no time to write, edit and post an entry.  Most days we had breakfast at 5:00 or 5:30, birded all day and then had lists to go over before or after dinner.  With organization required for the next day, and the need for a good night's sleep with the alarm set for 4:00 AM, I put the writing on the back burner so I could keep up with the birding activities each day.  On day 3, because we had some afternoon rain, I was able to write an entry on Word but could not post it as there was no internet available.  I've copied it below, and will write a full trip report to be posted some time in the next few weeks.

It was an AMAZING trip, with 661 species seen by the group along with an additional 67 species heard, representing a whopping 44.4% of all the species in Eduador encountered in just 17 days of birding!  Some of the highlights included stunning views of a dark morph Crested Eagle as he preened on a branch at eye level from our canopy tower perch, Fiery Topaz dancing in the air with long intersecting tails flowing, Giant Hummingbird, rare Cocha Antshrike (male and female in open view) and even rarer Tanager-Finch, 60+ species of Tanagers, and . . .   but you can read all about it in a few weeks when I post the full trip report.  Please come back later to read all about it.

Now, for day 3, with an exciting climb down into a narrow gorge to see roosting Oilbirds:

Day 3 started off a little slow (by tropical standards, anyway).  The bus took us to a birding spot near Bellavista only to find that we had driven into rain.  Andres instructed our driver, Luis, to stay there for 10 minutes instead of going back to have our luggage loaded as planned to see if the shower would be temporary.  After several minutes, the rain picked up and we headed back to the lodge.  Along with a break in the rain, a pair of Masked Trogons greeted us as we entered the Bellavista gateway.  We watched as the male caught a huge moth and devoured it.  Minutes later, the female caught an equally impressive Katy-did and stayed on the ground trying to eat it.  After a few minutes of wrestling with the insect and finally getting it into swallow-able pieces, the male swooped down from his nearby perch and grabbed part of the female’s catch. 

As I was still trying to get some good shots of the trogons in the poor light, someone said Andres had located a White-throated Quail-Dove nearby.  The entire group gathered at the end of the trail and watched as the huge dark bird wandered on and off the path.  I thought poor lighting was the reason we couldn’t see detailed field marks on the bird, but we soon saw a second bird that had much brighter plumage, so I guess it wasn’t the lighting at all.

Since the rain had now stopped and we could not continue to our next site until all the luggage had been  loaded and our box lunches were ready, we headed on down the trail.  We got good looks at some birds that had eluded part of the group earlier, including Gray-breasted Wood-Wren, Rufous Spinetail, and Smoke-colored Pewee.

The most striking find of the morning was a pair of Powerful Woodpeckers on a tree about a hundred feet from the trail.  Because the trail went along the side of a steep slope, the woodpeckers were at eye level, giving us great looks as they fed in the moss-covered bark of the tree.  Smoky Brown Woodpecker was also seen by everyone in the group, and the previous “heard-only”  Yellow-bellied Chat-Tyrant made an appearance.

At 9:00 AM, we left for a 3-hour drive to a location where Andres knew of an oilbird roosting site.  Although we had seen an oilbird in flight last night, this was to be an experience unlike any that any member of our group had ever had.  The roosting site of oilbirds is usually a cave, usually very dark with limited viewing.  This roosting site is a deep narrow gorge where shafts of light break the darkness and allow for exceptionally clear views of the birds.  Not only was the site special, but getting there was an adventure.  The farmer who owns the land where the gorge is located says the birds have been on his family’s land for as long as he remembers.  They did not know what the eerie sounds coming from the gorge were for a long time, and named the area “Infiernilla” or “Little Hell” because of the frightening sounds emanating from the area.   Only a few years ago did he become aware of how much birders would love to see his oilbirds, so he has worked to make them accessible while still remaining protected.  We started off for a ride in a wooden tractor-pulled wagon through fields of corn, citrus, and other crops.  After about  1 kilometer, we disembarked, grabbed a bamboo walking stick and headed down a steep trail.  The trail was, I’m sure, at one time quite treacherous, but this farmer had cut steps out of the hillside to make the footing better and the trek easier.  At one point, his helper had a scope on some oilbirds so that anyone who felt they could not participate in the final part of the adventure would still get to see the birds.  In the final step, we were put in harnesses such as those used by rock climbers, and then we descended down a series of  home-made bamboo ladders  into the gorge.  As we went down the first ladder, spray from a waterfall  cooled us before we made our way through a stream to the top of the second ladder.  At the second ladder another assistant waited to handle the rope as we ventured further into the crevice where a third ladder would take us even deeper into the narrow gorge.  The third ladder was not needed, however, as nesting pairs of Oilbirds were visible at eye level just 25 feet on the opposite side of the gorge.  Fuzzy little white babies rested near their parents, and occasionally an adult bird would fly out of the deeper areas and swoop in front of us.  An 18-inch bird with a 30-inch wingspan, this was indeed an impressive sight!

After riding our “chariot” back to the farmer’s house, we visited his “mini museum” , an outbuilding that housed many artifacts found by his family over many years.  Stones used for grinding grain, tools for starting fires and other ancient remnants were housed with interesting shells, rocks, and nests found on the farm.

We left the farm and drove to Sachatamia, our lodge for the night.  Even though it was raining, the hummingbird feeders were swarming with some familiar hummers and some new ones as well such as Velvet-Purple Coronet, Empress Brilliant, Brown Violet-Ear, Green-crowned Brilliant, and White-necked Jacobin.

The fruit feeders were visited by Flame-faced Tanagers (WOW!), Blue-winged Mountain Tanagers, Golden-naped Tanagers, among others.  Not a bad place to spend some time on a rainy afternoon!