A Few Hours in Bogota to Catch Up

In order to get a little sleep tonight, these updates have been rushed, please allow for mistakes and omitions. In the bird lists * = a Lifer while (E) = Endemic, I hope by the next time I get Internet access I will have toted up final numbers for Colombia as well as ammending the definative list. We have done very well and the time has flown I am in fine fettle and hope you are all the same. Off to Caracas tomorrow, so watch out for the next instalment.

These Posts are in chronological order rather than the usual formate, to make for easy reading.

Monday 30th November 2009

Tour People

Carlos Downing is our 'on the ground guide' and what I would call Logistics Officer. A Welshman living in Newport, Carl is very much a family man with 2 children (one 3 and the other18months) and married to a Colombian lady. He started 'birding' in this country in 1991, since when he has amassed a formidable Colombian List of 1122, the last 2 coming this trip, and did his first guided tour in 1995. His prowess, as a fluent Spanish speaker, manifested itself at dinner last evening when he sorted the absence of beer situation in about 5 minutes. Carl's World List stands at 2,305.

Today was taken up in the main transiting from Manizales to Jardin, and a chance to view Colombian life on the hoof, as it were. While time was taken out for some birding and a couple of drinks and lunch stops, it was interesting to watch daily life as we past throught tiny villages and countryside. It was a little worrying to not that all motor-cyclists and their pillion passangers wer duty bound to wear waistecoat sporting the vehicles registration, to help prevent motorised assasins. The danger was also highlighted by the number of police road blocks, many of which we passed straight through but others with their 'jobsworth' caps on, checking every document.

Our journey of about 180 kilometers taking 5 hours could have been made easy by using a through road, but the threat from 'bandits' was high and the road itself not really suitable. So, we travelled 90 'clicks' north west then dog-legged 90 'clicks' to the south west. En route we crossed the Cauca River (and a huge breeding colony of Cattle Egrets) effectively putting us on the eastern slopes of the western Andes. Before arrival at our destination we made a short stop to try for Red-bellied Grackle, but the rain beat us to the punch. A little damp after the short but sharp showerwe admired the accompanying rainbow then headed for town.

By 17-00 we had reached the quaint small town of Jardin, full of houses with carved wooden shutters and doors and tiny shops selling all maner of goods. Our small hotel was designed and built in similar fashion, with all woodworkpainted deepest red. The on-suit rooms were small, to say the least, and shower and toilet just marginally bigger than a telephone box. The welcome was the same as we had met elsewhere, and when it was time for dinner we headed off to a small, nearby restaurant. As we crossed into the central square, a festival of sort was underway with huge crowds of people eating at the al fresco cafes, lots of childre and lots of fireworks, we had most certainly arrived at the right time. All of this was dominated by a fine church, very remanicent of Gaudi's cathedral in Barcelona.

As for the birds, well considering the amount of time we spent in the field today we did quite well, recording 88 species, with 12 being new for the trip, of which 7 were 'lifers' for me. A milestone was achieved as we found Cinereous Becard as this was my 200th 'lifer' for the trip.

List Update

BAT FALCON
WESTERN SLATY-ANTSHRIKE*
CINEREOUS BECARD*
BROWN-CRESTED FLYCATCHER
STREAKED FLYCATCHER
TROPICAL GNATCATCHER*
RED-EYED VIREO
GOLDEN-CROWNED WARBLER
BLUE DACNIS*
OLEAGENOUS HEMISPINGUS*
PLUSHCAP*
BUFF-THROATED SALTATOR*


Green Violetear

Crimson-mantled Woodpecker

Ditto
Twitchers ahoy

Booted Racket-tail (female)

Common (Grey) Potoo

Golden-Olive Woodpecker

This is the 'wildest' bird we've seen!

Gold-ringed Tanager

Mantis Sp
Butterfly Sp
Pinnated Bittern

Ditto


Tuesday 1st December 2009
Trip People

John Green is a retired Ship Broker from Surrey, where he enjoys playing tennis and his fast car. John has been a world birder for many years, but also has an amassing knowledge of wild plants which he keeps us up to date with as we search for our quarry. He will be embarking on 2 more trips in the new year, firstly to Borneo in February and Sri Lanka at the end of March, his World List is slightly in excess of 3,500.

It was as well that we had all set our alarms for 05-00 ahead of a 05-30 start, as we may have been in bed still - yeah alright. I was just coming round anyway at 10 minutes to the hour, when a fusillade of firecrackers went off followed by the continuous ringing of church bells. Luckily coffee was available at this hour, and looking into the street to check the weather the whole of the town was in parade, following and ephigy of the Madonna and singing at the topsof their voices. A novel way to start the day, as our jeeps arrived to take us to an altitude of about 3,000 metres.
Here at Alto Ventanas we would spend the day looking for local specialitise, many of them rare in their own right.
A cusory look for the afore mentioned Grackles met with almost intant success as 8 flew into the trees where we were stood, a great start. Without going into too much detail, the day turned out to be spectacular in that every time we found a target bird, we looked for and found another. Ably assisted by local guide Jose we turned up a good number of new birds, and many we had encountered before. Of these the unaguable star of the day was Dusky Starfrontlet, which until recent years was only known by a single specimen, and even that was thought to be a hybrid. Re-discovered in the 90's it was only known from the high ridge above Jardin at about 4,000 meters, the site only accessable by donkey and a very long walk. Unfortunately, Jose was not with us, so was unable to witness this 'rare' bird on his patch,but it was generally agreed that this must be one of the scarces birds anyone of us had seen in the world. Then came Ocellated Tapaculo, renouned as a develish 'skulker', at least one could be heard from the thick vegetation covering the steep bank below us. Everyone stationed themselves with a view of a small clearing where the bird was most likely to be seen, and fairly quickly Steve alone saw it hoping to the left. With that the throng moven in the same direction, while I, for whatever reason, kept my place. About a minute passed when what was likely a second perched on a horizontal branch for a full 10 seconds. I called the group without success and on my second call thy did return, but already it had gone. Apart from being the most attractive of the family, with its rufous plumage and mass of spotting, it is also the species that adorns the front cover of the latest edition of the Birds of Northern South America fieldguide.

Having claimed the list below, we set off in search of the elusive sculker Munchique Wood-Wren, not long split from Grey-breasted Wren which co-incided with the only shower of the day, but it was heavy and prolonged forcing us to seek shelter in the home of a local Trout farmer and his family. This man had already found Gold-headed Quetzal for us, now he, his wife and their little boy Andreas Phillippe were now serving us coffee. There is just something magical aboutsuch people and place that must have prevailed in pre war England, but is long gone now! Tomorrow we have a 'lie-in' until 06-30, but I get the strange feeling our slumbers could be shattered once again.

List Update

HOOK-BILLED KITE
PLUMBEOU KITE
PLAIN-BREASTED HAWK*
YELLOW-EARED PARROT* (NE and seriously threatened)
MOUNTAIN VELVETBREAST*
DUSKY STARFRONTLET* (E)
GOLDEN-HEADED QUETZAL*
WHITE-BROWED SPINETAIL*
OKO,CHESTNUT-NAPED ANTPITTA*
OCELLATED TAPACULO*
RED-CRESTED COTINGA*
WHITE-TAILED TYRANNULET*
WHITE-BANDED TYRANNULET*
SMOKE-COLOURED PEWEE*
RUFOUS-BACKED CHAT-TYRANT*
SLATY-BACKED CHAT-TYRANT*
YELLOW-BELLIED CHAT-TYRANT*
STREAKY-THROATED BUSH-TYRANT*
MUNCHIQUE WOOD-WREN* (E)
BLUE DACNIS
LACRIMOSE MOUNTAIN-TANAGER*
HOODED MOUNTAIN-TANAGER
WHITE-CAPPED TANAGER*
RUSSET-BACKED OROPENDOLA*
NORTHERN MOUNTAIN CACIQUE
RED-BELLIED GRACKLE*

Ditto endemic only exists in 2 small pockets of Colombia

Only known from a single skin until the late 90's

Dusty Starfrontlet (bird of the trip)

Golden-headed Quetzal

Grass Green Tanager

Hooded Mountain Tanager

Lacrimose Tanager

Northern Mountain Cacique

Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant

Squirrel Cuckoo

Tanager Finch

Tourmaline Sunangel

White-capped Tanager


Wednesday 2nd December 2009

Today's personality is Dutchman Bart Brieffies a resident of Amsterdam, who works as a Developement Technician for a German cement manufacturer. He is a self confessed 'twitcher', especially in the Netherlands' and has been a long time world birder. He maintains that he is not a 'lister'.

We said goodbye to Jardin early this moring as we made our way towards Doradal in the lowland, lying at about 200 meters, but well away from the coast. There was a good deal of travaling today, but we managed a few stops, at known roadside sights, for the likes of Apical & Piratical Flycatcher. As predicted the day totals were not as good as we have been getting, but considering the distance everyone was happy to end up with a total of 64 of which 10 were new birds for me. Of them I was bowled over by an Orange-crowned Warbler in our hotel grounds and Pale-breasted Thrush, which Dave Penney will empathys with (another excellent Turdus Thrush my mate). We had a wander around the property before dark, and after we had eaten we heard the calls of Common Pauraque (a Nightjar type of bird) and managed to get that in the spotlight.

Todays List Update

PEARL KITE*
ORANGE-CHINNED PARAKEET*
COMMON PAURAQUE
BLUE-CHESTED HUMMINGBIRD*
LONG-TAILED TYRANT*
BOAT-BILLED FLYCATCHER
PIRATIC FLYCATCHER*
PALE-BREASTED THRUSH*
BAY-BREASTED WARBLERSWALLOW TANAGER
PLAIN-COLOURED TANAGER*
GREYISH SALTATOR*
ORANGE-CROWNED ORIOLE*

Streaked Flycatcher

Sociable Flycatcher

Impossible Mountain (name such as they say it cannot be photographed?)

Grey-breasted Martin

Grey-breasted Martin

Common Tody Flycatcher

Apical Flycatcher

Amazon Kingfisher


Thursday 3rd December 2009

Today's Personalities are John and Audery Threadgold from Norfolk. He is a retired aero engineer, while she had a record shop in the 60's and 70's after which she became a full time mother.Since retirement, like the rest of us, they have travelled the world often in the pusuit of birds. They say their individual lists almost match, but between then have a World List of 5,400+.

Breakfast arrived at the usual Colombian nonchalont pace, so instead of starting off at 06-00 it was nearer 07-00. Our first port of call was Gruta el Conor an area of pasture land being used to graze cattle (we had to mind the bull), which eventually took us to a babbling brook. Here, we followed the watercourse, birding on the way and encountering a nesting colony of Chestnut-headed Oropendola's. These noisy yet colourful birds, more like corvides that the Orioles to which they are closely related, were each tending a pendulous, grass nest high in a lone tree, but because of the light conditions were difficult to photograph. Further along we found no fewer than 3 Endemics, including Yellow-tufted Dacnis, Antioquia Bristle-Tyrant and a pair of 'self found' White-mantled Barbet. One particular tree was so full of birds we dubbed it 'The Tree of Life', where our Leader Carl notched up 2 'lifers'. At the end of the trail we came to what was to be one of the highlights of my trip, a wide-mouthed cave the roost for up to 300 Oilbirds. Regular readers may remember an ealier post suggesting I might get my own photos of these strange creatures, hereabout thought to hold magic powers, but it was not to be, again due to poor light. In fact the whole experience was 'underwhelming' to say the least, but never say NO to a 'lifer'.

By noon we were back at the bus and making our way to a local restaurant, were as with all the other eateries we have visited, only the meat type changes. That boils down to rolled flay Chicken, Beef or Pork endlessly served with rice, chips, a tortia and rice. As we completed our meal a group of about 30 school children aged about 12 to 14 years old arrived and I could tell by the expressions on some of my companions faces that they though the peace was about to be shattered. To the contrary, the fun was about to begin. We greeted some of them with a customary Bueno Tardis and got a brilliant respose as some got out musical instruments and we allowed them to use our telescopes, cameras and binnoculars. At one point I gave them a quick rendition of 'The Night Has A Thousand Eyes', which seemed to go down very well, and we parted company promising to send the photos by e-mail. It has been a while since I have met such a wonderful bunch of people especiallyt being so young. I think Colombia will be safe in their hands!

By early pm the weather was getting opressive with the temperature at about 85F and extremely humid, so it was decided to take a siesta, with the birding continuing at about 15-00. Entering the Rio Carlo Nature Reserve our first new bird was the incredibly beautiful Dacnis mentioned above, followed by another half dozen additions to our trip list.

Talking of which, the Update is as follows:-

LESSER YELLOW-HEADED VULTURE
KING VULTURE
GREY HAWK*
GREATER ANI
OILBIRD*
LONG-BILLED HERMIT*
STRIPE-THROATED HERMIT*
PURPLE-CROWNED FAIRY*
WESTERN WHITE-TAILED TROGON*
NORTHERN VIOLACIOUS TROGON*
RUFOUS-TAILED JACANA*
WHITE-MANTLED BARBET* (E)
COLLARED ARACARI
CITREON-THROATED TOUCAN*
GREY-CHEEDED NUNLET*
RED-RUMPED WOODPECKER*
COCOA WOODCREEPER
WHITE-FLANKED WOOD-WREN*
DOT-WINGED WOOD-WREN*
CHESTNUT-BACKED ANTBIRD*
CINNAMON BECARD*
ONE-COLOURED BECARD*
OCHRE-BELLIED FLYCATCHER*
ANTIOQUIA BRISTLE-TYRANT* (E)
YELLOW-BREASTED FLYCATCHER*
SOCIAL FLYCATCHER
BLACK-CHESTED JAY
BAND-BACKED WREN*
BAY WREN*
BUFF-RUMPED WARBLER
PURPLE HONEYCREEPER*
YELLOW-TUFTED DACNIS* (E)
FULVOUS-VENTED EUPHONIA*
GOLDEN-HOODED TANAGER*
WHITE-SHOULDERED TANAGER*
DUSKY-FACED TANAGER*
YELLOW-BACKED TANAGER*
BLUE-BLACK GROSBEAK
SLATY GROSBEAK*LESSER SEEDEATER*
CHESTNUT-HEADED OROPENDOLA*
YELLOW-RUMPED CACIQUE

Pale-bellied Thrush

Fluffy Opossum

Chestnut-headed Oropendola's nest

Butterfly Sp

Buff-rumped Warbler

Black Phoebe


Friday 4th December 2009

Today's Personality

Daragh Croxon will be familiar to some of you as one of my birding mates locally in Weymouth. His 'sacred turf is Lodmoor which he monitors almost daily. In his time he has been a BBC journalist, a local government officer and laterly a taxi driver, before retiring. I have seen another, much deeper, side to Daragh while we have been on this trip together and while perhaps not qualified to judge, I can say he is a much better 'birder' than I gave him credit for at home. I have always enjoyed his company and prowess in the field, but there is a lot more to him than I first imagined. Good 'birding' mate! Daragh has amassed a World List of 4,500 species.

And so to today. One that can be described in a single word, 'disaster'! An early call to be underway at 04-00 was adequately covered by the lodge catering staff, with coffee on arrival and a decent breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausages. It was, according to our advice, just 90 minutes to the birding site, which would get us there at day break. Ideal Unfortunately not so, as a series of wrong turns (and I believe an under estimate of distance) we arrived at 08-30. There were some birds on offer but to recoup time we had to leave early, but we never were going to catch up. At the next site we started extremely well with Sooty Ant-Tanager and later Tody Motmot, both according to the guides considered 'difficult'. Another 2 hours in the bus and just one fruitless stop we arrived at Bogota airport, where everything went according to plan and we were airborne by 19-30. Destination Santa Marta, the new bus and driver were waiting, and we were soon on our way to a hotel on the Caribbean coast. What we hadn't bargained for was the road being closed, and neither had the drive or the company rep. We back and filled for at least an hour before finally coming to rest a good way from the front door, haveing to cart our gear to the room. Anyway the day ended well with a good sleep and the thought of the prospects tomorrow.

Today's Additions

SAVANNA HAWK*
RUDDY QUAIL-DOVE*
TODY MOTMOT*
STRIPE-BREASTED SPINETAIL*
WHITE-HEADED MANAKIN*
BLACK-CROWNED TITYRA*
GREY-CHEAKED THRUSH
AMERICAN REDSTART
MOURNING WARBLER
RUFOUS-CAPPED WARBLER*
RED-LEGGED HONEYCREPER
SOOTY ANT-TANAGER* (E)
GUIRA TANAGER*
ORANGE-BILLED SPARROW*


Boat-billed Flycatcher

Savannah Hawk

Cricket Sp

Tody Motmot

Blue & Grey Tanager

Blue-Black Grassquit

Tropical Kingbird

Friday 5th December 2009

Today's personality is David Todd who for much of his working life has been involved in bird preservation projects around the world, including The Seychelles and Maritious. I have found his company extremely entertaing and his birding prowess second to none. Anyone who can identified birds in a foreign land and give their scientific name is OK by me. David's World List stands at about 4,00.

The Santa Marta Mountains were not part of the forming of the Andes, but a seperate evolution which had the effect of drawing some species to develop into endemics. Some of these were to be our targets for today, but leaving the hotel at 06-30 we immediately added Magnificent Frigatebird, Scaled Dove, Bicoloured Wren and Great-tailed Grackle to the 'trip list'. Our mode of transport had to change for this leg of the journey to the ProAves Reserve at El Dorado, so we boarded the 3 Chelsea Taxis to climb the steep and extremely rugged road. At the Lodge we were met by Trevor Ellery from Winchester who was taking a few days out to do voluntary work between guiding bird trips. This wa an out of the way place but everything was well organised, but any luxury items, such as beer etc, had to be carried in personally.

Soon after arrival we got on with the 'birding', with the list below showing our success rate. In addition, after dinner we went out on an Owl spotting expedition, and although we didn't see any the endemic Santa Marta Screech Owl was 'called' into close quarters. It's another early start tomorrow so I'll close down now by saying the good news is that I have heard from David Ascanio, my guide in Venezuala, and all is well for that part of the trip (more on that at a later date).

MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD
ZONE-TAILED HAWK*
BLACK-FRONTED WOOD-QUAIL*
SCALED DOVE*
RED-BILLED PARROT
SOOTY-CAPPED HERMIT*
WHITE-TAILED STARFRONTLET* (E)
SANTA MARTA WOODSTAR* (E)
STREAK-CAPPED SPINETAIL* (E)
RUSTY-BREASTED ANTPITTA*
SANTA MARTA TAPACULO* (E)
GOLDEN-BREASTED FRUITEATER*
DUSKY-CAPPED FLYCATCHER
BICOLOURED WREN*
RUFOUS-BREASTED WREN*
RUFOUS-and-WHITE WREN*
ORANGE-BILLED NIGHTINGALE-THRUSH
BLACK-HOODED THRUSH*
LONG-BILLED GNATWREN*
TENNESSEE WARBLER
WHITE-LORED WARBLER* (E)
RUSTY FLOWERPIERCER*
BLUE-NAPED CHLOROPHONIA*
SANTA MARTA BRUSH-FINCH* (E)
GOLDEN-WINGED SPARROW*
CRESTED OROPENDOLA
GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE
RED-BREASTED BLACKBIRD

El Dorado Lodge (top & bottom)


White-tailed Starfrontlet (endemic)

Blue-naped Chlorophonia

Moth Sp

White-lined Tanager (immature)

Cinnamon Flycatcher (Santa Marta race)

Black-fronted Wood-Quail

Alvera and Family


Sunday 6th December 2009

Today's Trippers are John and Jan Jones, who up until recently were Science teachers. Both have now retire, and having been late starters on the Birding Scene are now very keen to catch up. Their combined World List stands at 2,900, hoping to make the 3 Grand by the end of this tour.

Today's destination in search of some of the Santa Marta 'endemics' was only 4Km from the El Dorado Lodge, but due to steep and incredibly bumpy road the journey took 75 minutes. At 2575 meters we reached the San Lorenzo Ridgealong which we would 'bird'. It wasn't long before we hit into our first endemic Golden-crowned Whitestart, followed by Santa Marta Mountain Tanager. On the 'dipping front we missed both the SM Warbler and SM Antpitta but this was more than compensated for by the beauty of our surroundings. On arrival the weather was cool, to say the least, and a stiff breeze was blowing in off the Caribbean. This in turn was whipping the dust into the air at quite a rate making life a little difficult. As the morning wore on the sun warmed up proceedings and as we decended the keeness of the wind was also diminished. There were of course the Santa Marta Mountains themselves, with glistening snow and ice covered peaks, obscured occosionally by whispy white clouds. These too were a sight to behold, rising and falling, filling the valleys with the wind whipping them in all directions causing a beautiful ariel display. We got back around 17-30 and dinner was at 19-15 after the evening 'log call', after which a few ventured out 'Owling' and were rewarded with sightings of Mottled Owl, and also heard SM Screech again.

Additions to the Trip List

BLACK and CHESTNUT EAGLE* (my 300th 'lIFER' of the trip)
LINED-QUAIL DOVE*
SANTA MARTA PARAKEET* (E)
SCALY-NAPED PARROT*
WHITE-TIPPED QUETZAL*
SANTA MARTA TOUCANET* (E)
RUSTY-HEADED SPINETAIL* (E)
BROWN-RUMPED TAPACULO* (E)
SANTA MARTA BUSH TYRANT* (E)
YELLOW-CROWNED REDSTART* (E)
SANTA MARTA MOUNTAIN-TANAGER* (E)
PARAMO SEEDEATER*

Black & Chestnut Eagle

Santa Marta Mountain Tanager (endemic)

Yellow-crowned Redstart (endemic)

Munchique Wood-Wren (endemic)

The 'endemic' Santa Marta Parakeet

Frog Sp


Monday 7th December 2009

Trip People

Today I can introduce Roger Dodd, a Yorkshireman from Sheffield where he is an ardent supporter of 'The Wednesday'. Roger is a former Administrator with the County Education Authority but retired at 57 to dedicate his life to what he is doing now. His World List stands at about 4,000.

It was more of the same today, as we left El Dorado Lodge to climb (via transport I must add) to the San Lorenzo Ridge. Here we hoped to pick up the Santa Matra endemics we missed yesterday, but in the event we missed bothSM Ant Pitta and SM Warbler but on the credit side we picked up SM Foliage Gleaner, Yellow-legged Thrush (yet another Dave) and a much unexpected Leaftosser. Talking a few days ago to my new found mate, the extremely witty, John Green about the latter, he said he had seen one in Brasil. I asked him to give me a brief description to which he replied, "a whole lot of leafs and no Tosser". In addition to this at the place they call 'The Shop' (I think they must have called in the BP advisors to neme this one, as the oil giant did to give name to their garage forecourt outlets, to the tune of a couple of million quid) I caught up with another endemic, the beautiful Blossomcrown. In my urge to photograph the SM sub-species of Cinnamon Flycatcher I completely missed this little 'Hummer'.

Additions to the Trip List

SHORT-TAILED HAWK*
BLOSSOMCROWN* (E)
BLUE-CROWNED MOTMOT*
KEEL-BILLED TOUCAN
SPOTTED BARBTAIL*
SLATY ANTWREN*
sANTA mARTA FOLIAGE-GLEANER* (E)
STREAK-NECKED FLYCATCHER*
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER*
MASKED TITYRA
YELLOW-LEGGED THRUSH*
LEAFTOSSER*

Los Moras NP

Blue-headed Parrot

Montane Foliage-Gleaner


Tuesday 8th December 2009

Today we set out from Taranga to explore the desert region and salt pans of Isla de Salamanca. The weather was hot, to say the least, but a good few birds fell to our mornings birding. Early afternoon the 85F plus became oppressive so we sort sanctuary on the Caribbean beach and dined on garlic prawns - it's Hell but someone's got to do it!

Trip Additions

GREAT BLUE HERON
TRICOLOURED HERON
WHITE IBIS
WOOD STORK
ROSEATE SPOONBILL
HARRIS HAWK
GREAT BLACK HAWK
GREY PLOVER
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER
COLLARED FOREST FALCON*
WILLET
HUDSONIAN WHIMBREL
LAUGHING GULL
ROYAL TERN
SANDWICK TERN
BARE-EYED PIGEON*
BUFFY HUMMINGBIRD*
BROWN-THROATED PARAKEET*
GREEN-RUMPED PARROTLET
LESSER NIGHTHAWK
RED-BILLED EMERALD*
WHITE-TAILED NIGHTJAR*
WHITE-WHISKERED PUFFBIRD*
CHESTNUT PICULET* (E)
STRAIGHT-BILLED WOODCREEPER*
WHITE-WHISKERED SPINETAIL*
BLACK-CRESTED ANTSHRIKE*
NORTHERN SCRUB FLYCATCHER*
SLENDER-BILLED INEZIA*
PALE-EYED PYGMY-TYRANT*
PEARLY-VENTED TODY-TYRANT*
ORINOCO SALTATOR*
TOCUYO SPARROW*
PILIATED FINCH*

Buffy Hummingbird

Collared Forest Falcon

Hudsonian Whimbrel

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Russet-throated Puffbird

Snowy Egret

Brown Pelican

Turkey Vulture

Great-tailed Grackle (female)

Melo Cactus

Trinidad Euphonia

Tropical Mockingbird

Wednesday 9th December 2009

There won't be time for a lot of narrative as I leave for Caracas, Venezuala in a few hours and there are so many days to catch up with. This is the final day of the trip and on the way to the airport at Barraquilla we birded the sea shore and brackish margins along the way. At 15-40 we flew back to Bogota where we are staying in the same hotel (The American Dream) as last time giving me opportunity to do this and get a bit of dhobying done.

Additions to the List

REDDISH EGRET*
COMMON BLACK HAWK
CHESTNUT-WINGED CHACHALACA*
WILSON'S (Thick-billed) PLOVER*
WESTERN SANDPIPER
SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER
CASPIAN TERN
FORSTER'S TERN (potential 'first' for South America)

Trevor Ellery from El Dorado Lodge

Grey-throated Leaftosser

Blossomcrest

Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant

Lesser Nighthawk

Northern Crested Caracara

Wilson's (Long-billed) Plover

Ditto (group shot)