3 Mar 18 - Colombia: Oilbirds

In the middle of the afternoon, we all met up again. The plan was to walk to some nearby Oilbird caves. Oilbirds are a monotypic Nightbird family. They roost & nest colonially in caves. They are the only nocturnal flying fruit-eating Bird & also are capable of echo locating in the dark. Although they have a wide range covering Trinidad, Panama, Colombia & Venezuela, Guyana, North Brazil,  Ecuador, Peru & Bolivia, there seemed to be a limited number of sites where they can easily be seen. I had only seen them once before in Eastern Venezuela & I was keen to see some more. We drove for a few minutes from the hotel, before pulling over. It was then a half hour walk across open, hot fields where we saw a few familiar species, before we reached a stream within a wood. It was good to get out of the sun. We had been told before in the itinerary, that we would be walking up the stream. In the end, I decided it would be too hot to wear the wellies I had brought & went in my travel sandals. They were perfect in the cool stream, which would have been too deep for the light boots I was normally wearing.

Spectacled Parrotlet: Finally, some reasonable views

 Bare-faced Ibis

After about ten minutes of walking along the stream, we arrived at the Oilbird cave. Not surprisingly, they were dark where the Oilbirds were roosting. Janos had brought a torch which had a broad coverage, but wasn't particularly bright to avoid disturbing the Oilbirds. The photos aren't fantastic, but considering they were taken with a 100 - 400mm lens, on maximum extension, with an ISO setting of 16,000 & 1/25 second, they have come out well enough. All I had was a rock to hold the camera against.

Oilbird

Oilbird

The only problem was after the Oilbird, Janos wanted to head up a very rocky stream bed to look for a Southern Bentbill he had seen on previous trips. Southern Bentbill is yet another Tyrant Flycatcher & while it was a Tick, I decided that it was too slippery to risk breaking an ankle in the sandals & quickly turned back. I decided, it wouldn't be the end of the world, if I miss a few Tyrant Flycatchers in my lifetime. However, when they returned having seen the only Grey-cheeked Nunlets of the trip, then I wished I had pushed on.

Slim-fingered Rain Frog: The second of the day

Slim-fingered Rain Frog: The last view many invertebrates have ever seen

Jesus Lizard: This Lizard is found in streams & rivers. When disturbed, they are able to run across the water's surface, which is why they are commonly known as Jesus Lizards. Their alternative name is Common Basilisk

Damselfly sp.

We were back at the hotel close to dusk. There was enough time to skip the starter at dinner & enjoy a cooling swim in the swimming pool. Every now & then large, Paraque-sized Bats hawked over the pool chasing Moths. A great end to the day.

21 Feb 18 - Colombia: Colour At The Canon Combeima River

The following morning saw a slightly longer lie-in, but we were still leaving the hotel around an hour before dawn for the nearby Canon Combeima River. We parked near to a bridge over the fast-flowing river & had a quick snack for breakfast as it was getting light.

The view over the fields from the main track

Looking towards the river

Bare-faced Ibis: This individual was showing off how it could sit on this narrow cable

One of the locals

Our main target species at this site was Tolima Blossomcrown, one of the endemic Hummingbirds. Initially, there was no Hummingbird activity. After a while the Hummingbirds started to appear, but after an hour of Hummingbird activity, there had been no sign of any Tolima Blossomcrowns.

Bronzy Inca: At least this Hummer came into the red flowers used on previous trips by Tolima Blossomcrowns

Some of us spread out along the road to check other patches of flowers, but to be honest there were other temptations.

Highland Motmot: This is a species I've missed on my three trips to Ecuador, so I was pleased to have finally seen it, especially as, Motmots are one of my favourite Neotropical families

Highland Motmot: They are also known as Andean Motmot & occur from on the Eastern & Central Andes of Colombia to Eastern Ecuador & Peru

Highland Motmot

Highland Motmot: It's fairly obvious why I think Motmots are gorgeous

Green Jay: Green Jays occur from the Southern Texan borders to Guatemala & Honduras. There is a second population range from Colombia to Venezuela, through to Ecuador, Peru & Bolivia which is sometimes split as Inca Jay (albeit the Clements checklist hasn't split it yet). This is a fairly common, but great looking species

I wasn't straying too far from the group in case a Tolima Blossomcrown appeared, but every time I returned, the news was still negative. I was returning from another wander towards the river, when I picked up a Hummingbird feeding on small blue flowers in the middle of the field: Tolima Blossomcrown. Unfortunately, by the time I had returned to the group to tell Janos, it had disappeared. But at least, we had figured out why it wasn't coming to the large patches of red flowers it had been feeding on in previous years. Over the next hour, we saw it return to the blue flowers in the field on several occasions. The problem was these flowers were scattered throughout two fields and the Tolima Blossomcrown, was only spending short periods of time with a group of flowers, before flying 20 metres to check out another group, before rapidly disappearing for long periods. With this behaviour, it is not surprising that none of us managed to get any photos. Having had better views than most, I wandered back to have a look along the river, while some of the group were still trying to get views of the Tolima Blossomcrown.

The river looked good

Another shot of the river

There were a pair of White-capped Dippers on the river. Initially, they were tricky to get close to them, but eventually one became a bit more cooperative.

White-capped Dipper: They occur from Colombia to Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru & Bolivia

White-capped Dipper: Like all Dipper species, they were great to watch

White-capped Dipper: The second Family Photo Tick of the day

Torrent Tyrannulet: Not everything was brightly coloured

The next stop was further up the river valley where we spent a couple of hours walking back along the track through great forest back towards the river bridge.

Looking back down the valley

We had another two key target species here: Tolima Dove & Yellow-headed Brush-finch. The former species proved uncooperative & most of us who saw it, only had brief views. The latter species showed better, albeit never particularly close.

Yellow-headed Brush-finch: Another Colombian endemic seen

Booted Racket-tail: female

Montane Foliage-gleaner

Rufous-crowned Tody-tyrant: Tody-tyrants are one of my favourite groups of Tyrant-flycatchers. They all have great character & once located, will remain stationary for some time, whilst looking around their next meal

Rufous-crowned Tody-tyrant: They occur from Colombia & Venezuela to Ecuador & Northern Peru

It was finally time to get back in the minibus as we were driving for most of the rest of the day. But we had a short & hot stop at a nearby farm en route, Finca El Palmar. This was a dry & arid site where we were hoping to connect with Velvet-fronted Euphonia. We didn't see it. While it is an endemic, it doesn't look a massively different to most of the other blue & yellow-coloured Euphonias.

This local showed that there were cheaper ways to get around the country

Scrub Greenlet: This was the final Tick of the day for me & my third Family Photo Tick for the day

Lizard sp.

The rest of the day & the early evening was spent driving to the Otun-Quinbaya reserve. It was raining when we arrived in the dark.

19 Feb 18 - Colombia: Bogota Park Birding

After a couple of dull hours of driving across Bogota from Cerro Guadalupe, we arrived at our afternoon Birding spot: Parque La Florida. This area has a decent-sized lake with good marshy edges. There was a good selection of species breeding on reedy islands in the lake to keep us interested. None were Ticks, but several were species I hadn't seen for around fifteen years, as my last visits to South America had been back in 2002 (when I visited Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru & a brief visit to Chile) and 2004 (Eastern Brazil).

Eared Dove: This common South American Dove greeted our arrival

We reached the lake's shoreline after a few minutes of walking.

American Coot: This is the columbiana subspecies of American Coot which occurs in Colombia & Northern Ecuador

American Coot: Unlike, its Northern relative it has this distinctive coloured bill & red-coloured shield

American Coot: This is what the Northern americana subspecies which occurs from Canada & America down to Costa Rica & the Caribbean (Andree Clark bird Refuge, California 20 Nov 14)

Spot-flanked Gallinule: There were also a couple of shy Spot-flanked Gallinules around the reed edge, but they quickly disappeared as soon as they realised they had been seen

Bare-faced Ibis: This widespread South American species occurs from Colombia as far South as Bolivia & NE Argentina

Southern Lapwing: This is another common South America species

Southern Lapwing: They were fairly common at Parque La Florida

There were several large islands of reeds close to the shore on our side of the lake, protected by watery ditches, with a few Yellow-hooded Blackbirds holding territory.

Yellow-hooded Blackbird: This isn't a Thrush, but an Icterid: one of the New World Oriole family

We ended up at the left-hand end of the lake, where we could watch over a large area of marsh with a small channel running through it. There was a good selection of species including Blue-winged Teals, American Coots, Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs and Solitary Sandpipers.

The channel at the left-hand end of the lake

Blue-winged Teal: Female (left) and two males with an American Coot

Solitary Sandpiper

As we waited, we had the occasional views of a couple of Bogota Rails: our main target species for the afternoon. They looked similar to my local Water Rails, but they have a very different call. They have a limited range in the Eastern Andes of Central Colombia.

Bogota Rail: One occasionally appeared out of the reeds along the channel near these Blue-winged Teals and American Coot, but quickly disappeared back into the reeds again

Bogota Rail: They also act like Water Rails (which are not found in the New World)

We got caught in a massive traffic jam as we returned to the hotel in Bogota. Just as it looked like we might arrive at a reasonable time, the minibus broke down on bridged section of three lane dual carriageway. There was nowhere for us to stand safely & it was far from a safe place to have broken down. The driver asked us to get off the minibus as he tried to change the tyre next to lane of traffic. As it was even more dangerous for him, I ended up walking back about 50 metres along the road and started directing traffic out of our lane, as cars were trying to race up our lane as other cars were moving into the central lane. A combination of mad gringo, with a few international-recognised hand signs for those behaving or misbehaving. We were all relieved to hear the minibus driver had managed to change the tyre & we could get going again.

Brian: Taking the advantage of the hotel menu that evening to give us an ad-hoc Mark Knopfler impression