There's only one way to describe today - wet!
At 4:50am I woke to the sound of rain pitter-pattering on the rooftop of the lodge, and with a hope and prayer I had hoped it wouldn't last. As I made my way outside to grab breakfast in the mess hall, I could also see that thick fog enshrouded the forest canopy. Thee were not ideal conditions for birding, but the team pressed on.
At 6:00am we boarded the bus and headed west again, this time to Caymbe-Coca National Park where we decided to drive as far along along the road as we could and gradually walk down hill. The birding was extremely slow, with target species being extremely elusive. When we did see something, keeping rain of the binoculars was a challenge. Our first bird of the day was a Rufous Antpita, a species that had frustratingly dodged our view just yesterday. Next we saw Viridian Metaltail (lifer), followed by White-throated Tyrannulet, Spectacled Redstart, and Pale-naped Brush-Finch (lifer). Continuing down the road, with fog coming and going in globulous balls of visual impediment, I managed to see just one more lifer on this road, Buff-breasted Mountain-Tanager. Other birds seen included Stripe-headed Brush-Finch, Golden-crowned Tanager, Rufous Wren, Black-crested Warbler and Blue-backed Conebill.
After about three hours of gradually becoming a human sponge, we decided to head back to Guango Lodge in hopes that the weather might be better elsewhere in the valley. At the lodge we had a quick bite of lunch, packed our gear, and slowly made our our way toward San Isidro Lodge. At the Guango feeders we had the usual suspects, including a good look at Sword-billed Hummingbird and a couple of Collared Inca's. As we drew nearer to Baeza the rain gradually subsided, and eventually ended as we headed south. Between Baeza and San Isidro we spotted four Red-billed Parrot's (lifer) perched atop some palms.
At San Isidro we birded the grounds of the lodge and then took a walk down the gravel road that had lead to the lodge. Finally the birding had improved, and we quickly 47 species. The omnipresent Green Jay's were all around the lodge, and amongst the diverse vegetation we also spotted Fawn-breasted Tanager, Sierran Elaenia, eight Blackburnian Warbler's, Brown-capped Vireo, and Streak-necked Flycatcher. Other good observations included Bronzy Inca, Golden-collared Honeycreeper, Blue-winged Mountain-Tanager, Saffron-crowned Tanager, Russet-crowned Warbler, Russet-backed Oropendola (lifer), Black-capped Tanager, Black-eared Hemispingus, and Black-billed Peppershrike (lifer). As the light gradually disappeared, birding continued to be very good, and in the final hour of daylight we added species such as Azara's Spinetail, White-throated Quail-Dove, Emerald Toucanet, Andean Solitaire (lifer), Rufous Spinetail (lifer), White-chested Swift, Golden-rumped Euphonia, and White-chinned Swift (lifer).
We ended the day at 6:15pm, happy in the fact that the rain had subsided, we saw numerous great birds, and had a wonderful dinner at San Isidro. After compiling the days notes, it was once again time for bed at the late hour of 8:30pm. Today we broke 200 species for the trip!
Total species today: 72
Total cumulative species for the trip: 207
Total lifers today: 9
Total cumulative lifers for the trip: 52
