Ecuador 14: Wildsumaco

We had a full day at Wildsumaco, so got out early to make the most of it. We hadn’t gone too far before it started to rain, and that set the tone for the rest of the day. The camera was safely tucked underneath the rain jacket, and the binoculars steamed up, making the huge mixed flock we found by the roadside difficult to work. There were some great birds in there, though – Paradise Tanager, Red-headed Barbet and Blue-rumped Manikin were all absolute stunners.

The forest trails gave us more goodies, such as Montane Foliage-gleaner, Lined Antshrike and Blackish Antbird, whilst the hummingbird feeders provided yet more new hummers, such as Green and Gray-chinned Hermit and Violet-throated and Black-throated Brilliant.

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After two weeks of living in each other’s pockets, the pressure finally told and I have to confess to childishly falling out with our esteemed leader, Mr. Schofield. We kissed and made up later on, but it did result in the group splitting up for a while. Which meant Rob and I had to identify our own birds! But we did OK, adding Thrush-like Wren, Lesser Seed-Finch and Yellow-tufted Woodpecker on our way back to the lodge for lunch.

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We took the customary siesta, which lasted much of the afternoon as the rain came down in buckets. When we could, we’d look out from the veranda and add a new bird here and there, but the weather made it somewhat tricky. By the end of the day the lodge had recorded a whopping 4.5 inches of rain! Despite this, we still added another 25 species to the list…

335. Green Hermit 336. Gray-chinned Hermit 337. Violet-headed Hummingbird 338. Violet-throated Brilliant 339. Black-throated Brilliant 340. Red-headed Barbet 341. Black-mandibled Toucan 342. Yellow-tufted Woodpecker 343. Dark-breasted Spinetail

344. Montane Foliage-gleaner 345. Lined Antshrike 346. Blackish Antbird 347. Common Tody-Flycatcher 348. White-winged Becard 349. Olivaceous Greenlet 350. Thrush-like Wren 351. Blackpoll Warbler

352. Paradise Tanager 353. Spotted Tanager 354. Rose-breasted Grosbeak 355. Lesser Seed-Finch 356. Gray-breasted Sabrewing 357. Amethyst Woodstar 358. Blue-rumped Manikin 359. American Redstart

The clouds lifted just before dusk and gave us a view – and a very nice view too.

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I brought the camera to dinner as the lodge’s lights were attracting some impressive moths and bugs to the window.

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