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We spent less than a day here, unfortunately. We visited it on 11th October, arriving at the main park entrance at around 9 am. We had been told that we would be coming down for a pre-arranged restaurant lunch, instead of taking a boxed lunch and spending longer. So we had to leave the area at around 2.30 pm. Lesson: always find out exactly what your guide has planned at the start of the tour, and argue changes if necessary!
The gully where we stopped was extremely productive for passerines. There were a few of the birds with that superb name… Superciliaried Hemisphingus. It's quite a striking little bird, with bright yellow underparts, and a clear white superciliary. There were about 5 flitting about the coarse vegetation. Plain-coloured-Seedeaters were everywhere, maybe about 30 birds, mainly females. We had excellent views of White-throated Tyrannulet, White-banded Tyrannulet (very clear wing bars), Tufted Tit-tyrant (very clear crest), Bar-winged Cinclodes (we saw many of these on the plateau) and our best view ever of Tricoloured Brush-finch - well named! Other birds in the gully included Great Thrush, Cinereous Conebill, Black Flowerpiercer and, of course, Rufous-collared Sparrow! But the highlight was undoubtedly the Tawny Antpittas. We heard a distant calling bird further up the gully, so we followed the sound. Before long, we realised that there were several birds calling, and we soon had good, close views of one bird, in a low bush on the side of the gully. It was calling to another nearby bird, and we had reasonable views of that one, too. Norby was pleased to be able to make such a good recording of the birds calling, the best he has ever made of this species. We were to hear them frequently higher up on the plateau, and on the following day at the Pasachoa Reserve - but we never saw one subsequently.
There were a number of shore birds around. Nearest to us were four Baird's Sandpipers and a couple of Andean Lapwings (a very striking bird, with very lapwing-like characteristics). On the far shore, we counted up to four Lesser Yellowlegs. We decided to walk to the North end of the lake, to explore the fringes of the reedbed, and also, because Norby had spotted some flowering Chuquiragua bushes, which might attract Ecuadorian Hillstar, a bird we very much hoped to see. At the north end, we climbed over some small hillocks, adding Stout-billed Cinclodes to our list, but the Chuquiragua bushes were not fully out, and there were no humming birds around. We did, however, have good views of a White-tailed Deer, a young animal, making its way over the low ground to the west of the lake. Apparently, it's quite unusual to see them at such a high altitude. We saw no other new species at the lake, but retracing our steps along the eastern shore, a Bar-winged Cinclodes, flying along the edge of the water, allowed us to approach very close, before flying on another few feet. Ruth got some good photos of this bird. The views of Cotapaxi from the lake were striking, and the cloud had lifted well above the Refuge, giving fine views of the lower glacier slopes. The summit, however, remained in cloud. We decided to drive a little further along the plateau road, looking for Chuquiragua bushes, but without success; we had already been told that we would not be driving up to the Refuge car park (too rough for our 2WD vehicle). However, we had an excellent view of a juvenile Carunculated Caracara, feeding on the ground. The bird was tipping over quite large rocks, Turnstone-style, looking for insects underneath. Other raptors that we saw on our descent were a juvenile Variable Hawk, with a distinctive white rump and, from the Museum area, a juvenile Black-chested Buzzard-eagle, with all-black underparts. Alas, no sightings of Andean Condor; one had been seen in this area two days earlier. Strangely
enough, our last new trip-list bird for the day was also a raptor.
We reached the Pan-American Highway (a frightening road!) and were
driving to our late lunch when both Norby and I spotted a raptor.
At first I thought it was a large gull - so I knew it must be an
Osprey. Norby was quite excited, as he had never seen Osprey
in the Highlands, and he puzzled about its origin. However, I subsequently
learned that migrating Ospreys can turn up almost anywhere in Ecuador
- and we were later to encounter a breeding pair in the Amazon basin. |
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Andean
Highlands Diary
There
was very little bird activity in the trees around the entrance ($10
entrance fee for foreigners), so we headed straight up to one of
the many gullies that scour the approach up to the plateau. Cloud
was low on Cotapaxi first thing - below glacier level, but it lifted
later in the day.
After
spending about an hour or so in the gully, we drove on up to the
plateau lake, Lauguna de Limpiopungo at 3,834 metres (12,578 feet),
reaching it at about 11 am. The wind on this bleak plateau was quite
strong, and Ruth and I both felt breathless in the thin air. We
parked in the car park by the lake and settled down to find what
was on the water and on the sandy and reedy shore. A Plumbeous
Sierra-finch was exploring the wind-blown rubbish from a trash
can, and Bar-winged Cinclodes were flying around the low
hill to the east of the lake. We also had brief views of Brown-backed
Chat, a small rufous flycatcher with a bold white brow.
On
the lake itself there were about 20 - 30 Andean Gulls of
varying ages, and about 6 - 8 Andean Coots, noting all three
of their frontal shield colour variations (this fooled us briefly
until we checked the field guide). There were also small numbers
of Andean Teal, looking very drab. The views were not very
good, mainly because of the heat haze across the lake.
