Mindo

As we eat our complimentary breakfast at the Dragonfly Inn there were swarms of hummingbirds fighting for space at the feeders. We saw thirteen species before finishing our meal!

Rufous-tailed hummingbird
Black Vulture
Blue-gray Tanager
Bananaquit
Purple-throated Woodstar
Green Thorntail
Green-crowned Brilliant

Green-crowned Brilliant

Andean Emerald
Great Saphirewing
Lemon-rumped Tanager
Blue and White Swallows
Tropical Kingbird
Black Phoebe

Black Phoebe

A walk through the outskirts of town had a lot more new birds. Right in someones yard we saw a Masked Water Tyrant. Scrub Blackbirds and House Wrens were quite common.Searching in the mud along the road was a Pacific Horneo.

Pacific Horneo

 My favorite bird of that morning was a Fawn-breasted Tanager. Just at the side of the road I saw this bird catch and eat a caterpillar which looked unappealing by my standards. It seamed to enjoy the thing which by the colouration looked poisonous.  I was lucky enough to watch it sit and gobble down the full meal.

Fawn-breasted Tanager

Lunch at the Dragonfly Inn was rewarded with another bright coloured bird the Green-crowned Woodnymph. This tiny hummingbird wasn't as common as the other species frequenting the feeders but he did rest for a while after taking a drink which was a nice opportunity for photos.

Green-crowned Wood nymph

Another treat was a medium sized lizard with a green body, pinkish stripes and an orange head. This Fraser's Anole was sitting at the top of a tree basking in the afternoon sunlight. Barely moving at all it was shocking that I even spotted this lizard at all but he was in the background of a hummingbird photo I took which led to his discovery in the trees.

Fraser's Anole

Fraser's Anole

The afternoon was cloudy and misty. We walked to the Rio Mindo. It was a quiet walk but certain places seamed to be quite busy with bird activity. There were more Fawn-breasted Tanagers, Swainsons Thrush, Blue-gray Tanagers, Lemon-rumped Tanagers and one Squirrel Cuckoo.

Nearby the river there were Pastures Rain Frogs and a small red and black frog (c.f. Anomaglossus confusus). A 2ft long snake with brown spots was dead on the road. A Labiated Frog was also found along the road down to the river.

Labiated Frog

The frog tour advertized for Mindo is about 10 minutes from the Dragonfly Inn at Mindo Lago. Although the location has a lot of potential being set up so well for frogs and one of the few places I saw with standing water nearby the town. We got to see 6 species of amphibians. However certain things about the tour were disappointing. We were quickly told not to take pictures making it very hard to identify anything other than Pastures Rain Frogs and Marine Toads.

Quito and La Carolina

Day 2 of Ecuador 2013

An overnight at Jardin de Quito was very nice for our first impression of Ecuador. This orning we woke up to a nice breakfast and birds calling over the sounds of the city. Great thrush, Eared Doves and Rufous-collared Sparrows were all seen on our block in the few trees.

Orchid

La Carolina Park is in the middle of Quito and it is a small paradise where you can escape the city completely. The majority of the park is public and free. It is cut grass with scattered trees and art. However, for a small feeyou can visit the gardens. This is where is becomes paradise. With small ponds and fountains, greenhouses and a fair number of trails which take you through multiple Ecuadoran habitat types.

We quickly were immersed in calling birds which drowned out the sounds of the city and lush green vegetation. Our first sightings on the trail were Blue-Gray Tanagers and Glossy Black Thrush.

Glossy Black Thrush

Even more surprising  was the discovery of a pair of Brazilian Cardinals (not native to Ecuador). These must have been captives which escaped.
 

Brazilian Cardinal

We were finding many orchids growing along the trails and even more in the fabulous orchid greenhouses. They had a lot of rare and unusual species in the garden both native and exotics. 

Orchid

Orchid

 There were many species that I had never seen before.

Orchid

 We saw many hummingbirds including the spectacular Black-tailed Trainbearer and Green Violetear.

Female Black-tailed Trainbearer

Male Black-tailed Trainbearer

It was a place where I could spend a day but the 4pm bus to Mindo would not wait and I was excited to see more of the country.  The 2.5h bus ride form Quito to Mindo was quite spectacular. We went lower in elevation but saw so much variety in plant life on the way and the views would have been lovely to take pictures of had we been able to stop. Many purple and orange Epidendrum orchids were blooming along the roadside.

The town of Mindo is small and rustic. We arrived at the Dragonfly Inn just before dark. It was lucky it was within walking distance of the bus station. Walking nearby the hotel by the small river I heard frogs calling. It was fairly easy to locate one of the many Pastures Rain Frogs which were calling from the freshly cut grass.  The largest was about two inches long with a blotchy brown back, white underbelly and a black mask.

Pastures Rain Frog (Pristimantis achatinus)

Quito

Day 1 of Ecuador 2013

Today I flew from Toronto to Quito via Miami. Upon arriving in Quito at 8pm I was met by one of the owners of Jardin de Quito. They helped me find a cell phone booth in the airport that had both Claro and Movistar as options. I went with Movistar which for $23 US you can get 30 days of unlimited calling at a large amount of internet (500). Also noteworthy is that on previous vacations finding a sim card the right size was an issue but in Ecuador they have both micro and marco sim cards available. No need to worry about cutting cards or buying a new phone here. The card cost $8.

Arriving to the Jardin de Quito we were greeted by a very welcoming family. The hotel is very secure and by my first impressions I like this place a lot. It has everything I need and is very simple. The water is warm (if you remember that C in Latin America means hot water- Caliente)  and the beds are comfy.

Ecuador

I am off on another journey this time further south than I have ever been before. I am going o Ecuador for three weeks. The plan is to fly into Quito to stay there for a night. After that we will be heading straight to Mindo where we hope to spend a few days looking for anything  and everything. A few days is hardly enough for a place so many people have recommended but I will do what I can with it.

I am still indecisive about if I should stay at a field station or a eco-lodge when visiting the amazon. The Napo River is not something I am willing to miss on this trip so I guess I will do whatever is the best option to get me in there for as long as possible to the best areas possible.

After that I hope to head down to Cuenca to visit one of most beautiful and historic cities in Ecuador and to visit the national park nearby.

I will be heading back to Quito at the end of February. I hope to find a decent day tour of Cotopaxi National Park. This park includes the worlds tallest volcano. I am not too interesting in scaling the entire volcano but I have heard it has some amazing birds to see in the park and even the lower areas will be interesting. The disappointing thing is that for foreigners it is only accessible with a tour guide.

Mudpuppy Night

The temperature was -14 degrees Celsius. It was a clear and calm night. We drove away from the city to an area where you could clearly see the stars. We were heading to Oxford Mills to meet up with Fred Schueler. Our hopes were to find amphibians. Some might say it was hopeless and silly to try this is the middle of winter but for one certain species it is actually the best time to find them.

We met the fairly large group of people on the bridge bellow the dam in Oxford Mills and started our count right away. Underneath the swirls of foam we found our first Mudpuppy (Necturus). It swam away from the glare of our lights with such ease and everyone was excited to find more. Another spotted from the lower end of the bridge furthered this excitement and we walked down to the water. Those who had rubber boots or waders carefully got into the water from the ice and started to search. we found a few active mud-puppies and one that was hiding under the ice shelf. It was a little nerve wracking to wade into water with ice floating around knowing that if I slipped on the flat rocks or if the water ever reached the top edges of my boots I would be in for a chilling experience.

Mudpuppy (Necturus)

The Mudpuppies were quite active and seamed very at home in the cold water where they had little to fear in terms of predators. These amphibians never loose their gills and are aquatic their entire lives. They look like the aquatic form of juvenile salamanders.

After we were successful in surveying the area we headed over to the Brigadoon for desert and to warm up. The group coming up from Toronto arrived later due to weather and traffic so when they arrived we headed back out for a second search. On this second search we found even more. The Toronto crew which unexpectedly included an old friend waded out into the depths farther than my short rubber boots could reach where they found 8 Mudpuppies in one area along with a few scattered about.


It felt like the temperature was dropping and the night was getting late so we said goodbye to those who were still on the second search and headed home. It was very worth enduring the cold to find these amazing creatures.

More on this at Fred's website:
http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm

A Great Day! No pun intended.

Okay well the pun was intended.. Today we went looking for Great Gray Owls which have been hanging around the Ottawa area for the last few weeks. We had already tried for the one near Constance Bay in the West end and this time hoped that the East side would bring us better luck.

A little perspective on the weather> It is -24 and feels like -36 degrees C. It's a deceivingly bright and sunny day which looks warm and gorgeous.  We are a little crazy and desperate to see this bird and driving about 40 minutes away to try and see it.

We get there and we know the general area but can't see any off the road. So we find a parking lot on the NCC property which they had been seen on and start walking back to the big curve on Rockcliff Parkway.  We walk through the woods and across the bridge at Green Creek. On the other side of the bridge is two men with large backpacks and tripods. Well we found one of the handiest things to find when looking for something > Someone who has already seen it!  They were going back to see the owls for the second time that day and were happy to lead us there with them.

Green creek has forest on either side and the forest borders on a large field. It was here where forest met field that I saw my first Great Gray Owl. A large birch tree across the field was pointed out to me as one of the places they had seen owls perching before. I take a look and say "It's there again" all the way across the field I spot my owl while one of the guys walking the edge closest to us finds two more! We walk to the closer ones that are more out in the open and start taking pictures. The one further away must have been a little curious because it actually flew in closer to us!

Great Gray Owl

 This is the largest owl in the world and despite the fact that each movement I made sent spikes of pain through whatever limb was attempting to move I was captivated. Their head swiveling from side to side. Looking for prey and watching us without a care in the world. I know an owls eyes take up most of the space in their head but I almost wonder what they could possibly think of us. Are they looking down at us from the tree and thinking "Well why would I care about you down there? You can't get me up here."  or "what is that odd creature? Don't see many of those back home."

Great Gray Owl

The facial disks of these owls is actually used to help focus sound. Owls don't have ears evenly placed on either side of their heads like we do, but rather pointed in different directions so that they can pinpoint exactly where a noise is coming from. That is how these nocturnal birds can find small mammals underneath 2 feet of snow when no human eye or ear could locate them. An owl could find a mouse while blindfolded (This has actually been tested). There were a lot of people visiting these owls in the last few days and we were careful to walk on the paths created by others and to keep quite. These birds aren't bothered by our presence as much as others are but it is still important to consider the impacts we can have on them.

Great Gray Owl

The fact we saw three Great Gray Owls at once makes up completely for the time that we struck out in the west end. It made up for the freezing cold and the long drive out here. We had met some very nice people and had found some cool creatures. I imagine I will be back to see them again (on a warmer day) before the season is over.

Search for Barrows Goldeneye

Reports have being going around Ottawa of a lot of unusual birds and today Chris and I were feeling a little stir crazy and decided to check out one of them. A barrows goldeneye had been seen at the Hurdmans bridge. This is a small walking bridge South that crosses the Rideau River South of the 417. We found parking on Donald Street with access to Rivierain Park. This park goes along the river and trails extend towards the bridge.

It was a bitter cold day and we started walking through the park. There was very little open water and we saw a lot of goldeneye and mallards congregating in the patches that were. The park had chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches and even pileated woodpeckers.

Pileated Woodpecker

At the bridge we found so many goldeneye it was hard to count and make sure you've looked at each one to try and see if it had those slight differences. Unfortunately we didn't see anything that we could confidently say was a Barrows Goldeneye but it was a good walk and a nice park with some worthwhile birding.

Common Goldeneye and Common Merganser