Due to our itinerary being both very successful, and having to cut out one site due to a potential security risk, we basically had this date free. Initially, early in the trip, we wanted to ascend to the Cerro dos Arcos, a mountain peak home to a hummingbird only discovered as recently as 2017, and already Endangered; the Blue-throated Hillstar. However, our attempts to reserve a place at the hostel atop the mountain had been unsuccessful due to the aforementioned hostel being closed due to the state of the road up the mountain. As such we had skipped this site, usually a traditional stop on a south Ecuador itinerary, assuming the road would be impassable. However, a little research after the fact, found that groups of birders had visited, and since we were still staying in Saraguro, a town with access to the mountain, we decided to give it a go.
It did not start well, as Google maps decided to try take us
on some elaborate and simply unmanageable dirt roads, before we realised there
was a perfectly good tarmacked road just around the corner. As such we managed
to make it to the top of the mountain for 07:30, just two and a half hours
after we set off. However, we still had to stop three kilometres short of the
reserve, as the road was simply not manageable. But, after a short walk, we
then realised that there was another alternative and better road that we could
manage, and this took us right to the entrance of the reserve.
We were extremely blessed with the weather. Many reports
mentioned strong winds and poor visibility in their visits up the mountain,
such are the problems at 3600m above sea level, but we had bright, clear
conditions, with a cover of cloud that gave way to clear blue skies by
mid-morning. This worked well for us in terms of finding birds. No sooner had
we entered the reserve itself did we find Black-tailed Trainbearer, Shining
Sunbeam and Viridian Metaltail hummingbirds all visiting the flowering bushes
we were monitoring in the hopes of the Hillstar.
And it did not take long for a male Hillstar to arrive. Lia
spotted it first, but it then flew to where I was watching from, before it then
shot off down the hillside. The next visit was not much better, with the bird
landing distantly on the far side of the area containing the flowers. It was beginning
to appear that the bird might remain constantly distant and wary, but on its
third visit to the bushes it landed right in front of us and began feeding
without any concern. It did this two additional times over the next hour allowing
us truly phenomenal views of this stunning bird.
The supporting cast on the mountain was not bad either. Along
the fence-line of the reserve was a flycatching Paramo Ground Tyrant, an
unexpected bonus. A marshy area yielded Chestnut-winged Cinclodes and as Lia
was walking through an area of grass she flushed two Jameson’s Snipe, which are
known to be on the mountain but can be extremely difficult to locate. And then
on our descent we found a pair of Paramo Pipit that were carrying food. Our morning
could not have gone any better, and we were thoroughly impressed with the day.
And so it is perhaps not surprising that our good luck ended
there! On our way back down to Saraguro, and the highway to our next
destination, we encountered a recent landslide, perhaps just an hour before we
arrived, that had filled the road with debris. While we were weighing our options
however, from a safe distance as material was still falling, the passengers
from a local bus on the blindside of the mountain, had moved most of the
material, and so in less than an hour we were on our way.
Since we had descended the mountain by mid-afternoon, despite the setback, we planned to try again for the Red-faced Parrots we had missed the previous day. Sadly though, once we arrived at the forest, it was clear that the fog was far too thick to allow us any birding. Plus the rain had just started. And so we decided to make do, and spent the afternoon completing the two-and-a-half-hour drive north to the city of Cuenca, where we would stop the night before birding the Cajas National Park tomorrow.
Cerro de Arcos: Blue-throated Hillstar, Black-tailed Trainbearer, Viridian Metaltail, Shining Sunbeam, Jameson's Snipe, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Mountain Caracara, Aplomado Falcon, Chestnut-winged Cinclodes, Many-striped Canastero, Mouse-colored Thistletail, Tufted Tit-Tyrant, Paramo Ground Tyrant, Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant, Brown-bellied Swallow, Grass Wren, Great Thrush, Paramo Pipit, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Glossy Flowerpiercer, Plumbeous Sierra Finch,
No comments:
Post a Comment