Day 3: Refugio Paz de las Aves (Mindo cloud forest) - Wednesday January 24th 2018
Breakfast at 5am and a pre-dawn start with bags packed. Iris took us a few km back towards Quito to Refugio Paz de las Aves (~2000m altitude). This place is operated by two brothers Angel and Rodrigo Paz. They have a small lodge and take regular day visitors. It was originally opened up to visitors as a Cock-of-the-rock lek, but Angel found that he was able to call in a variety of other birds (by imitating their calls), notably antpittas. He then started feeding them worms at locations within their territories, so that they became more predictable in their appearance. Initially he was able to show visitors one species, over time this has increased to 5 species of antpitta and a wood-quail. All of these are skulking forest floor species that are really difficult to find.
We arrived at the Cock-of-the-rock hide in the dark and the birds started performing promptly, calling and dancing around us in the dawn light.
We arrived at the Cock-of-the-rock hide in the dark and the birds started performing promptly, calling and dancing around us in the dawn light.
After enjoying this show for 30-40 minutes we set off on various trails through the lower sections of cloud forest in search of the antpittas and saw a good number of other birds along the way. We were joined by 5 Frenchmen who were staying at the lodge here - it was occasionally amusing and occasionally worrying to see them slipping down the steep muddy slopes in their trainers. We were very fortunate and pleased to find all 5 species of antpitta and the wood-quail - we had heard that a group that had come here earlier in the week had failed to see any of them. The forest floor is quite dark, so, although we saw all these birds very well, the photos are a bit grainy (ISO 4000)
Midway through the morning we were taken to the lodge for second breakfast (Angel must have been a Hobbit fan) and coffee, before setting off again onto the higher elevation trails and more birds.
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After a thoroughly wonderful morning of birding (from ~5.30am to 2pm), Iris had arranged for Angel's son to take us to see a Common Potoo (right) on its daytime roost. These nocturnal birds are quite vocal in the dark, but their cryptic plumage and tendency to adopt postures that resemble stumpy branches make them quite difficult to locate by day.
Overall I saw 13 species new to me at Refugio Paz - the highest day total of new species on the trip. Just in case you're interested they were: Black-backed Wood-quail, Common Potoo, Rufous-bellied Nighthawk, Toucan-barbet, Plate-billed Mountain-toucan, Powerful Woodpecker, Giant Antpitta, Moustached Antpitta, Yellow-breasted Antpitta, Chestnut-crowned Antpitta, Narino Tapaculo, Scaled Fruiteater, Black-chinned Mountain-tanager. Leaving here we set off for a short drive on the E28/E25 to the Alambi "reserve", which was essentially a garden with many hummingbird feeders and some benches at which we could sit and have our (late) box lunch. I took the opportunity to obtain some more hummer images. (Even with shutter speeds of 1/320 sec the wings could not be stilled). |
We were then driven back the way we had come on our day of arrival, to the luxurious Dann Carlton Hotel in Quito, passing the Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world) equator monument complex en route.
Had a nice meal and prepared for the first day of the tour proper....... |