Colombia Day 9; Purace National Park

  Today was a day of great promise, in an incredible National Park full of pristine Paramo, complete with amazing wildlife and natural wonders. Sadly, the weather had other ideas, and a day of fog, wind and rain meant that we struggled to have fun doing anything. Still, we made the best of it and there were a few small victories along the way.

  The parks main attraction is a condor feeding station, where a few reintroduced birds come down for scraps of meat at quite close quarters. We could already see the weather would cause us problems for this activity, and so it transpired with not a sniff of a conder. However, a few Black Vultures were flying around at close quarters which was nice, and only my second ever Carunculated Caracaras which were very efficient at sneaking in to steal some of the meat. It helped take the edge off the disappointment.

  For the rest of the afternoon we explored some of the parks other attractions, including some thermal springs which were nice despite the rain, and then some viewpoints and waterfalls etc. This was nice to see, but again, we struggled with the conditions. In terms of birds there was very little on offer, although a flock of Black-backed Bush-Tanagers was certainly a nice species to connect with, having only seen them last time I visited Colombia in 2019.

  For the last hour of the day, we staked out a small water body which apparently had Tapir occasionally coming down to drink and eat aquatic vegeation. Sadly it did not happen for us, and again the heavy rain certainly did not help our cause here. There was a flyby from a White-capped Dipper, but otherwise there was nothing of note at all. Fortunately we have another morning in the national park, which is hopefully a little more successful than today was.

Species List:
Purace National Park: Band-winged Nightjar, Tyrian Metaltail, Viridian Metaltail, Shining Sunbeam, Black Vulture, Variable Hawk, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Carunculated Caracara, Pearled Treerunner, White-throated Tyrannulet, Sierran Elaenia, Brown-bellied Swallow, Mountain Wren, White-capped Dipper, Great Thrush, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Slaty Brushfinch, Golden-fronted Whitestart, Superciliaried Hemispingus, Lacrimose Mountain Tanager, Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanager, Blue-and-black Tanager, Masked Flowerpiercer, Black-backed Bush Tanager,