Ecuador 12: San Isidro

We had a full day in the San Isidro area, so the morning was spent birding the Guacamayos Ridge Trail. Another chunk of primo cloud forest, and once again it was hard work. But we scored with a few great birds – Black-billed Mountain-Toucan, Greater Scythebill and Slaty-backed Chat-Tyrant were all special ones and not at all guaranteed.

After lunch we birded the San Isidro grounds and continued to add new birds – Ash-colored Tapaculo, Bronzy Inca and Variegated Bristle-Tyrant to name but three.

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We crashed around mid-afternoon and Micky and Richard decided to take it easy in the cabin. Rob and I had other ideas and headed down to the river at the nearby town of Cosanga. We had one species in mind, and after some off-road driving, a muddy hike, a little bit of river wading and a complete soaking as the heavens opened, we found one – a Torrent Duck. It was raining so hard that photography was just about impossible, and to my surprise the duck was incredibly wary and didn’t allow us to get closer than 50 yards. There were more new birds by the river as well, such as White-capped Dipper and Band-winged Nightjar, so the thunder and lightning proved well worth weathering.

We returned at dusk to find a pair of very friendly Masked Trogons in the car park. I decided to try the camera’s little flash, which worked to some degree.

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It had been a productive day, with 23 new birds.

291. Neotropic Cormorant 292. Torrent Duck 293. Andean Guan 294. Spotted Sandpiper 295. Band-winged Nightjar 296. Chestnut-collared Swift 297. Bronzy Inca 298. Black-billed Mountain-Toucan

299. Olive-backed Woodcreeper 300. Ash-colored Tapaculo 301. White-crested Elaenia 302. Variegated Bristle-Tyrant 303. Handsome Flycatcher 304. Slaty-backed Chat-Tyrant 305. Black-billed Thrush 306. White-capped Dipper

307. Saffron-crowned Tanager 308. Black-capped Tanager 309. Common Bush-Tanager 310. Yellow-whiskered Bush-Tanager 311. Oleaginous Hemispingus 312. Black-eared Hemispingus 313. Greater Scythebill

It developed into a somewhat interesting evening. We met a couple of American birders, Jeff Gordon and Forrest Rowland. Both well-known names on the American birding circuit, and both great guys!

We had a bottle of “vino tinto” over dinner, and then another, and then the beer ran out so we opened another bottle of vino, and started a game of pool. We opened another bottle, started another game of pool, and Jeff got his guitar out and started strumming. Mr. Schofield started to recount tales of past birding trips, so we opened another bottle, and Rob and Forrest apparently fell in love around the pool table and then started arguing like a married couple. We started another game of pool, and Jeff fell asleep on the couch and snored loudly. Then, of course, we opened another bottle… etc, etc, and so on.

It was entirely spontaneous but turned into a memorable night – well, apart from the bits we forgot because we were all so drunk!

Great to meet you, chaps! Hope we didn’t lead you too far astray…