8/31/2023 Thursday
We had breakfast at 5:30 and headed off to Laguna de Tabacal for a second morning. We once again started in the parking/camping area. At this point we were hoping to see a few species that we'd missed the previous day. We saw a couple of very small birds, the Common Tody-Flycatcher and the Scrub Greenlet.
A Bar-crested Antshrike called from the bushes, and we finally got a look at him.
We were hoping to find Velvet-fronted Euphonia and Rosy Thrush-tanager but had no luck. Before we crossed the road to the "lagoon side" we took a coffee/juice break and had a Chestnut-capped Warbler hoping around practically at our feet.
We crossed the road and headed onto the woods trails where things were pretty quiet, but we did get good looks at a female Velvet-fronted Euphonia. The bird was directly overhead in the treetops. Tough to look at and even tougher to photograph!
At the lagoon we saw Least Grebes, a Solitary Sandpiper, and Green Kingfisher. Interestingly, all three of these birds can be found in South Texas if you are in the right spot!
White-throated Crakes called several times and we tried different locations to see it, but no luck. This is becoming a nemesis bird for me. Teri saw it way back in 2008 in Panama, but I missed it. We've heard it dozens of times since, but I've never actually seen one. I joked with Daniel that I wasn't sure they actually exist, but he assured me that they do...
There was a large colorful "La Vega" sign next to the lagoon and Daniel took our picture next to it. La Vega is the name of the nearby town. You can barely see us on the left side.
We headed back at 11:00, stopping at a fancy roadside restaurant for (what else??) grilled chicken breast, this time with melted cheese. Grilled chicken breast (Pechuga a la Plancha) is quite a staple in Colombia. Sometimes offered with melted cheese (Pechuga Gratinada) or mushroom sauce (Pechuga con salsa de champiñones). It was always tasty.
After lunch we headed back to Cabañas Aire Libre, arriving about 12:45. We finished packing, said farewell to Daniel, and caught our taxi back to Bogota. In order to reduce traffic congestion Colombia enforces "Plate Restrictions" in major cities. This means that one day a week vehicles with plates ending in a certain number are not allowed to enter the city. This is strictly enforced and the fines are steep. Plate restrictions forbid Daniel from driving in Bogota today, so he made arrangements for a taxi to take us back to our Bogota hotel. This worked well for him as his home was in the opposite direction anyway.
It was an easy 1.5 hour drive to the hotel, and I was able to check in totally in Spanish. We got a nice room on the top (tenth) floor and showered and relaxed. It was nice to have some downtime before tomorrow’s long travel day.
The return home was uneventful. We flew Bogota to Atlanta, and then Atlanta to San Antonio, arriving about 10:00 p.m.
Final Thoughts – Our first trip to Columbia was to the Western and Central Andes along with the Cauca Valley between them. That was definitely the best that Colombia has to offer in terms of developed birding lodges. Birds were numerous and easy to come by.
This trip was more focused on the specialties of the Eastern
Andes, where there are few dedicated ecolodges. So we used
hotels in Bogota and other much smaller towns as bases to explore specific
locations. This led to a considerable amount of driving, sometimes over poor and/or dusty roads.
Some days seemed like more driving then birding, but there really was no other
way to cover the areas. We did enjoy seeing amazing scenery as we travelled though the area, especially in the high elevation Paramo.
Daniel did a great job once again, and was a pleasure to travel and bird with. We enjoyed the
trip, saw a lot of good birds (224 species total), and got 36 lifers (birds we'd never seen before), many of which were rare
endemics. We experienced a lot of Colombian culture with the different hotels and
lodging, small town and roadside restaurants, and our Colonial Tunja tour. In this regard we certainly "saw" more of the country and culture than we had on our previous trip.
Most of the trip was at high elevations (6000 – 10000 feet)
and so we had cool, pleasant weather. Not a drop of rain fell on us while we
were out birding which was great.
We're not sure if we’ll return to Colombia anytime soon as the
logical third trip for us would be the Santa Marta Mountains near the Caribean coast which involves a
lot of logistics and some tough transportation, as well as being in a warm,
humid region. We’ll see!
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