Colombia 2022 - Day 2 Journal

Tuesday 2/15/2022 – We met Daniel on the patio at 6:00 to check out the birds first thing. Once it got light enough we headed down a slick muddy trail to a bird blind overlooking a trail. Our hostess, Betty, spread some bird seed and cracked corn on the trail to attract a very rare species of bird, the Chestnut Wood Quail. We sat in the blind for a little more than an hour, and things were pretty slow at first. Only an Agouti came to enjoy the seed, but after some time a few other birds joined in, but no Wood-Quail. 

Agouti

White-naped Brushfinch

We were hearing the Wood-Quail calling in the distance, and then closer, and finally a pair appeared on the trail. We got good looks at them, took some pictures, and then headed back to the lodge for breakfast.

Chestnut Wood-Quail

Breakfast was simple, scrambled eggs, a thick flatbread tortilla, and some fresh white cheese. After breakfast we spent an hour or so out on the porches, enjoying the various birds.  I had brought my full camera setup including tripod and flash and was able to use it throughout the morning to get some great pictures.

The only other couple that had been at the lodge left early this morning, so we had the place to ourselves.

White-necked Jacobin - male

Green Honeycreeper - male

Sickle-winged Guan

At around 9:00 Daniel led us down the access road to the lodge to find some different birds. This is a gravel road with virtually no traffic, so it made for a great wide “trail”. As seems typical once you get away from feeders, the birding was hit-and-miss. We had significant periods where we saw/heard nothing, and other periods that were fairly active. It just depends on where the feeding flocks are and how quickly they are moving. We did find a great spot overlooking an estate with large gardens and spent an hour there enjoying a variety of birds. Daniel used recordings to call in some of the species, while many others just happened along.

Road birding

Golden-headed Quetzal - male

Red-faced Spinetail

Montane Woodcreeper

In addition to birds, we saw this colorful wasp.

After almost four hours on the road, we returned to the lodge for lunch.

Kitchen

Lunch 

Daniel asked if we wanted to do some forest birding later in the afternoon, but we were both tired from two semi-sleepless nights and the morning walk and decided to hang around the lodge for the afternoon.  We took more pictures, found some more new birds, and relaxed a bit.  

Masked Flowerpiercer

White-sided Flowerpiercer

We got great looks at a couple of Andean Motmots. They nest in burrows that they excavate in dirt banks, and we'd seen a couple of these holes alongside the road. This Motmot appears to have been doing some recent digging. 

Andean Motmot

One advantage of a custom trip is that it can be adjusted to whatever we want. We did take a walk with Daniel around the lodge gardens late in the afternoon and enjoyed it.

Since we were leaving La Minga early the next morning, we got mostly packed up and organized so we wouldn’t have much to do in the morning.

 Next time: Day 3