Monday, April 4, 2022

Colombia 2022 - Day 10 Journal

Wednesday 2/23/2022 – We had a much better night in the smaller, warmer room. We had breakfast at 6:30, and then waited for a small group to arrive. Once they were there (around 7:00) we headed down to the Bicolored Antpitta feeding area where we’d been unsuccessful the previous morning. This time the bird showed up after about 10 minutes and we got great looks and pictures. The bird only stayed for about a minute, and we all headed back to the lodge. 

Bicolored Antpitta

Looking back down the road to the lodge. 

We headed back up to the Ridge Road with Daniel to try for some of the species that we’d missed previously. We finally got a look at Green Jays and a couple of different Chat-Tyrants. The Green Jays were interesting, as they look very different than the Green Jays in South Texas. Ours lack the blue "poof" on top of the bill, and the white crest. I wouldn't be surprised if the experts eventually decide that they are two different species. 


Green Jay

The other group was behind us, and when we turned back Daniel conferred with the other guide. He learned that the group had seen Black-billed Mountain-Toucans in a specific area, so we headed back that direction. We heard them calling, and then got pretty decent looks at one, and then another.

Black-billed Mountain Toucan

We packed and loaded up at 11:00, and birded our way down the hill, picking up a Collared Trogan and Slate-throated Redstart. We did see the female Lyre-tailed Nightjar sitting on her nest again. 

Mark had to get out of the car 
to herd her out of the way! 

At 12:15 we stopped in Manizales at a mall so that Daniel could try to get some difficulties with his bank straightened out. The mall was incredibly compact and busy, with the drive into the parking garage passing directly in front of the entrance to stores and shops. Very different than American malls. We were back in traffic by 12:30, and then stopped at one of Daniels favorite restaurants (Keizaki) for lunch. The food was very good, but it was a lot to eat. Daniel really liked to stop for meals and coffee breaks and we felt like we were constantly eating. 

At 1:30 we headed out to our next location, arriving at Tinamu Lodge at 2:30.  This was a significantly lower elevation than we’d been at and was obviously much warmer. There were lots of hummingbird feeders as well as banana feeders, and we saw quite a nice variety of birds before we ever got checked in. Black-throated Mango males were cooperatively showing us their purple tails.  


Black-throated Mango male

Andean Motmot

Summer Tanager male

The Acorn Woodpecker room.

Very pretty, large room.

Nice, large bathroom.

It was quite warm so we waited until 4:00 to take an introductory walk around the grounds.

Refreshing orange drinks. 

Tinamu Lodge has a resident guide (Francisco) who accompanied us. He showed us a couple of Common Potoos on their roosts, and a Golden-collared Manakin lek which is where males gather to display to females. We saw a couple of males, but they were not displaying. The guide mentioned that many of the local birds were currently on nests, so activity was somewhat quiet.

Birding the road with Francisco and Daniel. 

Common Potoo with its eyes open!

Golden-collared Manakin

Our room had a nice big fan.  We couldn’t figure out how to get hot water for the shower, so after a cold shower we got a comfortable night's sleep.

Next time: Day 11 Journal

 

2 comments:

  1. Settling banking problem in less than 15 minutes...that is amazing. Hope you got the hot water going!

    ReplyDelete
  2. He had gotten a new phone and his bank didn't recognize and he had messed up his password. Pretty simple.
    We did get the hot water figured out. Just needed to let it run a long time.

    ReplyDelete