Couldn’t really ignore a few pics of some of the high altitude plants up above the Papallacta Pass.
Ain’t got a clue what any of ’em are (a hint of gentian in one, saxifrage and club moss in another, who knows…), but for the botantists out there, this is what flowers around 4,000m:
Night night.
Amazing what a few hours unconsciousness (a bit like sleep, but with much more Pilsener beforehand) can do to clear the mind.
We were back on the uphill drag of the E28 just after 6am, towards the Papallacta Pass again on the morning of 13/11/16.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, we had a dashboard fully stocked with bananas and for once, we actually knew where we were going.
The gigantic Andean landscape was jaw-dropping as Trops edged the Toyota off the main drag onto the track up towards the radio masts on the Cayambe Coca.
Within a few hundred yards we were encountering birds as blinding as the Andean dawn light – Paramo Pipit, Andean Tit Spinetail, Streak Backed Canastero, Bar Winged Cincloides and Brown Bellied Chat Tyrant.
Paramo Ground Tyrant (taken later in the trip)
Didn’t get too many pictures at this point though – when the air is thin and you’re excited, just the effort of shouting “Andean Tit Spinetail” to your birding buddies leaves you gasping for breath and giggling at the daftness of the bird’s name in equal measures.
Quite a few of the critters were above us in a kind of wee quarry slope, so it was all a bit tricky.
You can’t miss the place though, it’s only a hundred yards or so down from the ranger station, where we were warmly welcomed (no porky pies about research needed today).
Once we’d signed in and “Crazy Joe” the ranger had realised we weren’t giving him our gilets (where else is a chap to put his Pilsener bottles?) we were on our way up up up.
The plan was to drive straight up to the radio masts and bird our way down, but with landscape this dramatic, we had to stop for a bit of touristy stuff.
Look! There’s the mighty peak of Antisana behind Trops and I…
Imagine sledging down that sucker – 15,000ft plus.
And the birds didn’t help either – we were on a mission, but you can’t ignore Puna/Variable Hawk now can you?
Puna/Variable Hawk
And that weird rabbity thing with the little ears – what’s that called (don’t say rabbit)??
We still managed to get right up to the radio masts at 4,203 metres before anyone else that morning (apart from the rangers) and began the slow trek across and up the weird high altitude landscape past astonishing alpine flowers coated in frost/moisture (separate entry coming up for them flower fans) surrounded by sheer cliffs and peaks that went on forever.
We were way past Kendal Mint Cake up here.
Re the whole high altitude thing – we had to move slowly and regulate breathing, but it wasn’t that hard.
The air was superchilled and thin as a thin can be sure – it felt like drinking liquid nitrogen after eating five packets of extra strong mints (DON’T try this one at home kids), but it wasn’t so bad.
Especially when after two circuits of the very top of the radio mast peak I could see Mike and Trops waving from up above me – target acquired, and more than worth another ascent.
I could see what they were looking at from 100m below and quickly got closer across the hummocks of lunar plant life to enjoy our first audience with Rufous Bellied Seedsnipe.
What a bird!
Even better given that they had led us on a merry dance for an hour or so before happily grazing the micro vegetation a few feet from us.
Rufous Bellied Seedsnipe
It was strange watching something you’d read about for years under the radio masts – it wasn’t how I expected it to be, but then the gorgeous blue skies were quite unusual too (according to Arie, he had only seen the peaks of Antisana and Cotopaxi visible at the same time up here once in 26 years, yet there they were beyond us on the horizon, huge snow covered giants).
Not quite a wader, but not quite a grouse either, the seedsnipe were suitably spacey for a place were oxygen was in such short supply….
How could they be so hard to find?
Check out the camouflage on these babies…
And I couldn’t resist trying to get a shot them in their natural habitat – trouble is the place is so BIG!
The seedsnipes are the two blobs on the ridge by the way.
Delighted with the seedsnipes we headed downhill, past Stout Billed Cincliodes, White Tailed Deer and Many Striped Canastero (a cracker).
Stout Billed Cincloides
White Tailed Deer
As we dropped down past towards the ranger station and paused to admire yet more Puna Hawks I saw two mahoosive shapes gliding across the sky between the peaks in front of us.
God’s holy trousers – a pair of Andean Condors!!!!
Very very happy, even as these huge beasts drifted out behind the hills and away – they moved so fast without beating a wing and on one bird the white ruff of an adult was visible.
Incredible, elated I tried a few Ecuadorian swear words and danced a crappy jig – what a bird!!!
We scanned the skies over towards Antisana and picked up another two Condors, and even though they didn’t come too close, their huge size meant I could zap ’em with the P900.
The resultant image will never win any prizes, but at least I know what it is…
Andean Condor
By this stage of the day it wasn’t even 11am, so we birded our way down the old Papallacta Road – a gravel track that lead all the way down the slopes, past hordes of cincloides, Red Crested Cotingas and Great Thrushes.
We found Pale Naped Brushfinch and a marvellously tricky White Chinned Thistletail, Blackish Tapaculo and Tyrian Metaltail as we drifted down checking every patch of polylepis forest that we could find, and there’s not that much of it any more.
White Chinned Thistletail
Polylepis remnants on the Papallacta Old Road
The weather was closing in as the afternoon approached and we failed to locate Giant Conebird, which stung, but it wasn’t as if there was nothing else to goggle at.
A pair of Black Chested Buzzard Eagles danced on the air above one of the crags, while Hooded Siskins, Band Tailed Sierra Finch and more Shining Sunbeams fed beside the track.
Black Chested Buzzard Eagle
Shining Sunbeam
It felt like a different world while the super-new E28 snaked along the valley bottom far below us.
The birds kept coming – Tufted Tit Tyrant and Green Trainbearer, Mountain and Grass Wren and Black Flowerpiercer.
Yup, the Andean tops did not disappoint, and they more than justified the sharp intake of breath.
Birding Ecuador 2016 