For our final few days in Colombia, we would visit the Chingaza National Park to the east of Bogota, where we hoped to enjoy some stunning scenery and some good birding, as well as hopefully finding the rare Spectacled Bear, the only species of bear in South America. To help us achieve this, we had contacted a local guide in Guasca, Fredy Alexander Alfonso Acosta, who has an Antpitta feeding station in the Paramo. However, some further research into his social media also revealed he knows the park bears well, so we decided to hire him for a days bear searching as well.
We met Fredy in the town of Guasca early morning, and after
a breakfast we headed up into the Paramo to begin our search for the bears. He
was very optimistic and his enthusiasm was infectious. Sadly the bears did not
go as we had hoped. Despite finding fresh feeding and feaces, we were unable to
track down the specific bear that he had hoped. We were just about to give up
when Fredy spotted a very distant bear a few kilometres away, far too distant
for us to approach, but we had our first Bear.
With the pressure off somewhat, we headed round to another
area where the bears apparently frequent, but in this area we failed to find
any bears at all. However, it was more productive with birds, and we enjoyed
fantastic views of Bronze-tailed Thornbill and White-chinned Thistletail, as
well as brief views of Black-tailed Trainbearer. Rusty-browed Conebill also put
in an appearance with a small group showing well, and a very showy juvenile
Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle was certainly a highlight. We eventually spotted
the same bear as the morning, but it continued to be just as, if not more,
distant.
Still, we continued to struggle for bears, and so headed
back to a high point below an electricity pylon where we might be able to scan
some more to pick up a close bear. From here, we had a wonderful vista of the
scenery, but we continued to fail with the bears. Fortunately there was
something else I wanted to see here, in the form of Pale-bellied Tapaculo,
which showed well but was far too quick for photos. Here we also found a couple
of FROGS in the vegetation.
Just as we were about to call time on our day, Fredy picked
up a bear closer to us, having just walked out of the vegetation. We quickly
headed down the road to where we would be able to see it closer, and then
enjoyed fantastic views of the animal as it wandered across the Paramo. It was
never incredibly close, but we could enjoy the markings on the neck and face,
and even got to watch it feed for a short while. After all our effort, it was a
brilliant end to the morning.
As the bear wandered into the thicker Paramo, Fredy headed
off to try one last time to find the bear he wanted to show us, and while he
was gone we tracked down another Pale-bellied Tapaculo, this one showed just as
well and even allowed me to get a few photos, capping off a truly fantastic
day.
On the drive back, Fredy had us stop off in a couple of
locations, the most important of these was for Silvery-throated Spinetail,
which is a local upland species that I had missed on my last visit to Bogota
highlands. We had three birds show very nicely, and in the same area we also
had a nice performance from the local race of the Golden-faced Whitestart.
After such a brilliant day, we got back to our hotel mid-afternoon and
immediately crashed out.
Chingaza National Park: Andean Teal, Andean Guan, Black-tailed Trainbearer, Bronze-tailed Thornbill, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Pale-bellied Tapaculo, White-chinned Thistletail, Silvery-throated Spinetail, Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant, Brown-bellied Swallow, Grass Wren, Great Thrush, Andean Siskin, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, Golden-fronted Whitestart, Golden-crowned Tanager, Rufous-browed Conebill, Glossy Flowerpiercer, Plain-colored Seedeater,
No comments:
Post a Comment