El Jardin de Colibri Lodge and Antisana Volcano area
It was time to leave Tandayapa and head back towards Quito where we would be spending the night at El Jardin de Calibre Lodge. Along the way we stopped at the equator because it was the equator (yes, no birds but touristy). The following morning after leaving the lodge, we took a trip up to the spectacular Antisana Volcano area to see some highland birds and fantastic landscape on our way to the Guango Lodge. The Antisana is a stratovolcano (built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava, tephra, pumice and volcanic ash). Unfortunately the weather didn't co-operate so we didn't actually see the fourth highest volcano in Ecuador.
On the way to the equator we stopped at Senders Reserve. Glen and Jess had never stopped here before so they weren't sure what we would find. I didn't see too many birds (and none that were close enough to photograph) but there were some lovely orchids. Don, one of our group members , from B.C. had grown orchards for years so he was able to tell us all about them. We hiked around and followed some trails and came to a very nice waterfall. Unfortunately, I didn't have my tripod or a wide angle lens so I just took a snapshot to remember the area by.
Ok, an iPhone works well here. |
Meet Thea from Brisbane Australia. Thea was a wiz with her I-phone and showed me a few tricks as I rarely use mine for photography. She and her husband Ross are very accomplished bird photographers. |
David, originally from South Africa now lives in the United States. David was able to take amazing photographs without ever using a tripod. Not an easy feat with using a telephoto lens.
We arrived at the equator (just outside of Quito), before lunch and I took the pre-requisite snapshot. It was a beautiful, sunny warm day and after taking a few photographs we wandered around the site. There were a lot of tourist shops and restaurants. This is where I discovered that in Ecuador, the bathrooms do not come equipped with toilet paper- not to worry as there are machines(sometimes) that sell it in the bathroom areas.
Glenn took a photo of me with my iPhone. I was overdressed (no kidding) as it was about 80 degrees outside. Little did I know that the next few days would be cold and wet with very little sunshine.
We stopped off for a delicious lunch in Quito where there was free internet. Having been without for a few days the plan was to catch up on the news and send out emails. I had no problem receiving email but I could not send them out for some reason. After the break we headed to our lodge for the night which was close to Quito. The lodge itself was really nice and had lots of grounds for wandering around and searching for birds. We had a couple of hours to photograph before it got dark around six. At this lodge we photographed the birds in the trees (not feeders) so they were quite far away from me which meant heavily cropped photos after the fact. This is where those big, heavy duty lenses come in handy (and better vision).
The sparkling violetear is appropriately named (also see above picture). These hummingbirds have a distinctive purple-blue chest-spot and chin. These birds are solitary and aggressive and declare their territory by singing for most of the day. After mating, like most hummingbirds the male is believed to leave all nesting responsibilities to the female. However, there have been reports where the male Violetear were seen caring for their young.
I only got a couple of shots of this bird. So although not a great shot I wanted to include a photograph of the Vermillion Flycatcher as he is such a spectacular bird. The female has grayish brown upper parts and her underparts are white near the throat, becoming pale salmon or orange under the tail.
These violetears are not afraid of humans and will come to artificial nectar feeders. Because of their being so territorial, they spend a lot of time chasing away other hummingbirds at the feeders rather than just eating.
This Black-tailed train bearer can be the same or even greater overall length as the largest hummingbird (giant hummingbird) but most of its length is made up by their very long tail steamers. Males are 18-25 cm(7.1-9.8 in) and females are 13-15 (5.1-5.9 in).
The Eared Dove is a tropical dove breeding throughout South America from Colombia to southern Argentina and Chile and on the offshore islands from the Grenadines southwards. It appears to be partially migratory, its movements driven by food supplies. It is about 24cm (9.4 in) long and weighs about 112 g(4.0 oz). These birds are very comfortable with human habitation, being seen on wires and telephone poles near towns.
This photo was taken after leaving our lodge and heading to the Antisana region.
With binoculars we could see the Andean Condors roosting in a far away cliff. Some of the group got photos of them flying. Given how far they were away I decided to explore the area for a few minutes rather than trying to photograph the birds.
I wondered down the road and found an opening so I could capture a photo showing some farmland with the lake and mountains in the background. Ok- so I kind of walked on someone's property to take the shot. I could hear voices and given that I didn't speak any Spanish I thought it was best to get back to the road.
I saw this man just as I got back on the road- I had seen him before on the road while we were on the bus and I thought he would make a great subject. So when I saw him, I pointed to my camera and asked him I could take his photo which he had no problem with.
I took one shot of him with his horse before heading back to see how the rest of the group was doing.
People were just finishing taking shots of the Condors so I walked a little further past the bus to check out the area.
Soon we were on our way and you can see the clouds rolling in.
I think this shot was taken out of the window of the bus as we saw the rainbow.
Some really nice scenery on the way.
Now it was time to take some bird photos as we saw some in the fields. The plan was to stay in the bus to shoot as we didn't want to scare away the birds. So we shot through the windows taking turns. This Carunculated caracara is a species bird of prey in the Falconidae family. This bird is found only in the high Andean paramo (high treeless plateau) of Ecuador and southern Columbia. These birds travel in family groups roaming the Paramo searching for almost anything edible, including worms, maggots, rodents, birds, lizards and even vegetable matter.
Another bird we came across in the same region. The Black-winged ground dove reproduce just one or two offspring to replace themselves. It is totally abnormal for wild doves to breed large numbers of offspring.
There was an old abandoned building in the area. Coming up- more photography from the same area.