Sunday 2/20/2022 – Daniel picked us up at 6:30. We headed up the road to PNN (Parque Nacional Natural) Los Nevados, which is a park high in the Andes. It was Sunday, and the road was quite busy with cars and buses heading up as well. We stopped at an overlook of Laguna Negra to have breakfast and scope the lagune for ducks. We only saw a few Andean Ducks, and by this time the rain was falling pretty good and it was 40 degrees and windy. Not ideal conditions. The little restaurant was packed with folks eating and trying to get warm, with more arriving by the minute. We finished eating and Daniel suggested we head directly to the top to try to avoid the crowds.
The target bird for us was the Buffy Helmetcrest, an endemic hummingbird who's range is restricted to the highest elevations of this national park. We arrived at the Visitor Center, and immediately saw a male Buffy Helmetcrest perched in a bush near the parking lot. We jumped out of the car for looks and pictures, in spite of the cold rain. After a minute or so the bird flew but reappeared on a nearby bush for more looks and pictures.
After the Helmetcrest flew away for a second time, we went into the Visitor Center to warm up and look around.
As we waited a couple of buses arrived and things started
to get really crowded. Daniel finished one of the many cups of coffee that he
would enjoy during our time together, and we loaded up and started back down
the mountain. We stopped several times on the way down to try for different
species of high-elevation paramo birds, but the weather was dreadful and the
birds were having none of it.
Daniel suggested that we head for our lunch spot, Hotel
Termales del Ruiz, as they had a covered bird viewing area.
We arrived to an absolutely packed parking area, as it turns out that this hotel with its hot springs is a very popular weekend get-away for folks from the city. We walked to the bird viewing area to find a chaotic mix of bird photographers, hotel guests in bathrobes, and a few others just observing. There was a group of 8 photographers from Spain who had tripods, extra cameras, backpacks, and random gear spread all over the place. There was barely anywhere for us to stand. They seemed totally unaware of the situation that they had created.
We carved out some space and got some good pictures of various birds, including a couple of knock-out Mountain Tanagers.
There were also some nice hummingbirds, with many perched in nearby bushes.
The entire thing was surreal as the hotel guests were there with tiny feeders held in their hands, trying to get the shot with a hummingbird in their hand. The other popular shot was to hold the tiny feeder in your mouth and have someone get pictures or a movie of hummingbirds feeding from your mouth. I saw many people immediately posting these images to Instagram and Snapchat. It seemed like the entire purpose of the visit was to get a cool selfie. The overall scene was a bit much, and we all agreed not our favorite way to see birds.
We did have an interesting stop just down from the Laguna Negra site. Daniel has been visiting with another guide who told him that Noble Snipe were being seen around a nearby school. We arrived at the site and got out of the SUV. Daniel was contemplating where to start looking when I noticed a Snipe feeding about 25 feet away. There was a muddy livestock feeding pen right next to the SUV, and the Snipe was probing in the mud.
This is (normally) a notoriously tough bird to find, and Daniel was beside himself to see it so close. We then spotted another in the grass outside of the pen, and then three more in the pen! A total of 6 Snipe within 75 feet was just unbelievable. Easy pictures of a normally secretive and difficult bird.
We got back to the Hotel at 6:00, went over the list, and then Daniel left for his house. Teri and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant at 6:45 and then went back to the room for the night.
Next time: Day 8
