Hi All, We are in Southern Ecuador for a few months, escaping the wet PNW winter. We are lodged in the town of Vilcabamba, in case you’d like to look that up on a map. We got in Thursday, Nov 4. So once in a while I’ll be sending out a blog as I did formerly, and I hope these all come through OK. Here is probably the first of many.
CERRO MANDANGO
From the valley anywhere in Vilcabamba you can see the mountain that overlooks the town, named CERRO MANDANGO. The butte-like edifice is shaped like a man’s face which is laying down and looking up, the nose being the most obvious feature. On the bluff nearby is a cross and a small tree with 2 benches. This is probably the most popular hike in the area, and if you are in shape you can get to the top in an hour or less.
CERRO MANDANGO AT DUSK
CERRO MANDANGO DURING THE DAY FROM TOWN
I decided that I’d strike out that way on Wednesday morning, November 8, and see how far I got. It turned out that I overslept and woke up after Rosie, at about 6:30. Rosie was fully dressed and she thought she’d go with me, at least see how far she would get. So we ended up packing a breakfast, and struck out. Just outside the gate to our residence, there was a Peruvian Pygmy Owl, a nice way to start the day. I should have taken that as a good omen, but such did not dawn on me. On the map it appeared easy to find the start of the trail, and so it turned out that way. There is an arch at the entrance.
There was a well worn, smooth, wide trail with a slight incline to make the start easier. We met a man our age at the entrance who was from Bellingham, Washington. We were just fine with him setting a faster pace and he soon disappeared ahead of us.
Fairly soon the easy part of the trail turned into loose rock with a steeper incline. Being out of shape, I asked Rosie if she brought any of those pills prescribed for her for her fairly recent bout of SVT (tachycardia, for lack of a better description). She did not. I told her she ought to turn around, which she did. I kept going on ahead, not sure if my energy level and strength were equal to my ambition. Sometimes the trail would level out, other times there was plenty of loose rock, so the going was slow. I ended up stopping for birds anyway, which was a nice excuse to catch my breath.
A Peregrine Falcon - a nice surprise, and a reminder from Oregon
About 10 minutes after leaving Rosie I heard a trill that sounded familiar. I had gone looking for a Chapman’s Antshrike yesterday without success, but I did play his song during that jaunt and so the trill sounded familiar. So I opened up the appropriate app and played his song. Bingo! A perfect match. I kept playing it and little by little, as they kept responding, kept coming closer. Finally, after about 7-8 minutes, the pair showed up about 30 feet away, mostly out in the open. For the Vilcabamba area this was my # 1 target species, so this was indeed well worth the effort. Since my camera gear weighs about 6 lbs, I chose not to bring it along, and so missed a great opportunity.
Female Chapman’s Antshrike - Courtesy of the EBird Photo Library.
I can’t say that seeing these birds made my walk any easier, but at least I was motivated to keep going. The trail kept being steep at times with plenty of loose rock, so one had to keep his footing. Somewhere along the next 100 meters or so, another bird began his song. I ended up recording it and playing it back, but he still did not want to show himself. Eventually I reached an area about the size of a basketball court with taller, green trees and grass, along with a campsite - park like. This was an interesting relief as compared to all the scrub I was seeing. I decided it was a good place to rest and see if any birds preferred being here rather than the scrub. In short order I spied a Bay-crowned Brushfinch, my 2nd lifer of the day.
I returned with my camera a few days later, and while sitting in this small forest, heard a hummingbird above me, and it turned out a female was tending to her nest.
Here she is with a piece of lichen
Now she is fastening the lichen onto the side of the nest.
Here she sits contentedly on her eggs.
I had been seeing some swifts lower down, and when I exited the small forest area, they happened to be much closer. There were 3 species of them - Chestnut-collared, White-collared and Gray-rumped. The White-collared is a huge swift, in flight appearing somewhat like a Nighthawk. The Chestnut-collared is mid-size and not hard to ID. The Gray-rumped is in the smallest category, like the Chimney Swifts in the states. Again I heard the species I had earlier recorded, but he still did not want to show, but I did catch a short glimpse of him flitting between the scrub bushes. I felt fairly sure he was some sort of a wren.
After the small forest, the last leg of the trail was the steepest, so the going was really slow. But I seemed to have the fortitude to keep going, and so trudged to the top. It was a relief to finally get there. Rosie was now back at our chalet, and I texted her to look for me. She could actually see me with binoculars. I had her try to take a pic of me, but it just did not work out. While I was talking on the phone instructing her on how to use the camera, another one of those mystical, skulking birds began to sound off, and rather close. So when I was done talking to her, I began playing the recording I had made, and he came even closer. I’m sure he was around 10 feet away, but I could not get a visual on him. Finally, in about 10 minutes I viewed him for a few seconds and was able to make the ID - Elegant Crescentchest.
Elegant Cresentchest - Courtesy of the eBird photo library.
I had seen and photographed one of these birds on the coast when I was in Ecuador 2 years ago. He was a skulker then, and he was a skulker now.
Vilcabamba from up top
Here’s me at the top where the cross is
Mandango proper in back of me. The trail up that is said to be steep and dangerous because of the loose rock. Not for me.
I decided to eat breakfast under the two trees up top where there was a bench to sit on. 2 bananas and 2 P&J sandwiches. I also was able to view the swifts from above, an angle of them not often seen from. The view of town was great, but the cloud cover was melting away and the sun was coming out, so it was time to start back down. I’d have to be more careful going down due to all the loose rock. Twice I slipped momentarily. It was not bad, just enough to make me more cautious than I already was. Once I reached the small forest the most difficult part would be over.
Once at the forest I decided to rest again. It was then that I spied a pair of small flycatchers. My first real ID challenge. I quickly narrowed it down to some sort of tyrannulet, made mental notes of all the field marks I could, and then continued down the trail. By now my knees were feeling it, so I still had to be very careful. When I reached the archway, I texted Rosie that I was down, and she decided she’d meet me along the road, which happened about half way back from there. When I got to the house, my knees were really feeling it, so they finally got the break they deserved when I reached the couch.
The first thing I did next was figure out which flycatchers I saw. After comparing my field notes with the pictures and description, I believe it was a Maranon Tyrannulet, a recent split from the Mouse-colored Tyrannulet complex. So the trip netted me 3 lifers, pretty slow going actually. But I can’t complain as the immediate area of Vilcabamba is not really known for birding. I’ll have to take some nearby day trips to boost my bird list.
My iPhone has a pedometer app, and it seems a little bit of a let down that the whole trip was only 3.7 miles. (Yesterday I walked 6.1 miles). But when I noted that it recorded my walking “up” 56 flights of stairs, it was a little more comforting. No wonder my knees are still feeling it.
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