Day 4--Podocarpus NP, Cajanuma Entrance

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013
Day trip to Podocarpus NP. Disregarding the Galapagos, this is Ecuador's most prized national park, containing the highest plant and bird diversity of any protected area in the world. It was recently declared a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. We birded roads and trails in this temperate rainforest, climbing to 9500'
2nd night Hostal Aguilera, Loja

Iris and I were up at 4:30, dressed for rain, wearing our headlamps, and carrying our flashlights. Then, off to the Cajanuma entrance to Podocarpus NP in the pouring rain to see the Band-winged Nightjar before light. (Are we birders nuts, or what?) At the park entrance we all piled off the bus in the rain and slogged up the muddy, dirt road, scanning the just lightening sky--Rose Ann and Willy with their bright spotlights at the ready.

The BNJ came with a flash, lit very briefly in a tree, and then took off. We had but a fleeting glimpse, not nearly as good as the Internet photo I include here.

A couple with their milking equipment walked up the road in the dark also, ready for roadside milking at dawn.

Too dark to get a photo of the milking couple at the entrance; this is one of Margaret's photos from another morning

Shortly after entering the park we stopped at a spot where one could see the valley through the trees. It was so stunning that I took several  photos (below). The clouds and mist kept shifting and the sun would occasionally light a slope or mountain peak. It's a good thing that I was not using a film camera. I would have used several rolls of film.

After this, we drove farther into the park, getting off and on the bus to bird roadside intervals. There were many washouts. At one point we had to get off the bus to walk to the other side of a very bad washout. Edgar managed to skin the bus past it. It was on a curve and he had to pull in his mirror and hold his breath to get around it. He then left us to walk and immediately drove the bus to the Ranger Station at the top, turned around, and came back down to the downhill side of the washout so that any potential further washout wouldn't trap his bus . . . and us. We spent the rest of the morning afoot, birding the foggy wet road.

It was very foggy and misting rain or actually raining most of the time, but we had learned by this time that one did not get off the bus without one's umbrella and boots. Even the sunniest days could surprise with a sudden downpour.

My boots bottom right

Despite the weather and washouts, I was fascinated by the many waterfalls, exotic flowers, flowering bushes, mosses, lichens, and a couple of large beetles found along the road. 

Unopened tree fern leaves; photo by Sally Marone



Top left photo is of a begonia and the right one opposite it is of raindrops on new bamboo leaves; bottom interesting lichen

I loved the ferns that were everywhere. The top right is a fern whose leaves are pink when young, and the bottom fern was huge, the size of a small tree; in fact it was a fern that grew like a tree and waved its ferny palm-like leaves at about 15 feet



The top right photo is of the red-flowered bush that drew the hummingbirds; in fact, all of these red flowers . . . and Iris's and my red raincoats drew the hummingbirds

At one point we stopped at the edge of the road near a waterfall and identified hummingbirds in the shrubs on the downslope. They need to fuel up no matter what the weather and were feeding on tall shrubs with hanging red flowers. We identified Rainbow Starfrontlet, Glowing Puffleg, and Tyrian Metaltail among others. I love the pufflegs with their white, feather-covered legs. They look to me like they are wearing 70s style Jane Fonda, fur-topped boots. The hummingbirds came repeatedly to one bush that Willy named the "successful bush."

[L] Tyrian Metaltail, Dustin huntington; [M] Rainbow Starfrontlet, Glenn Bartley; [R] Glowing Puffleg 

Hotelier Ricardo, bringing our lunches to the ranger's station at the top, found us here. He kindly ferried us up to park HQ with the lunches. At park HQ, we took turns in the washhouse and then ate and birded from a shelter as it was raining pretty steadily. We actually saw quite a few birds from this protected vantage point: Black-mandibled Toucan, Crimson-mantled Woodpecker, and the Pearled Treerunner being the most distinctive.

Black-mandibled Toucan, Internet photo: Flickr

Crimson-mantled Woodpecker; Internet photo

Pearled Treerunner; Internet photo: Dustin Brinkhuizen

Lunch was tasty and filling: We had a big bowl of chicken salad-tortellini-veggies, plus cookies and cold drinks. After lunch, we birded up the trail behind the ranger's station, and Rose Ann managed to call into view two shy antpittas and a wee tapaculo: The Chestnut-crowned Antpitta and the Chestnut naped Antpitta, and the tiny, recently described Chusquea (Loja) Tapaculo.

Chestnut-crowned Antpitta; Internet photo: Jim Watt

Chestnut-naped Antpitta; Internet photo: Diego Calderon

Chusquea Tapaculo; Internet photo: Margaret Sloan

After lunch, Ricardo kindly ferried us back down to the waterfall/roadside hummingbird bushes. We checked for spectacled bears at locations where they'd previously been sighted, but with no luck. These bears are quite small and spend a good deal of their time in trees eating bromeliads and other flora. Willy had done his dissertation research on them.

Spectacled Bear; National Geographic image

We birded our way slowly back to the bus along the road. My feet were sore--I'd forgotten to put my insoles into my boots--and the downhill walking shoved my toes/socks to the toe of the boots. I happily boarded the bus. Once on the bus, I took the photo below of an interesting fruity seedpod I'd picked up. Willy told me its name, but alas, I've forgotten it.


I placed the seedpod  on a leaf to photograph it. It looks like a delicious spiky fruit.
I bet the monkeys and spectacled bears like it.

Returning to our room in Loja, Iris and I took pre-dinner showers and changed into dry clothes. Our wash had been returned and the clothes were wonderfully dry and had even been folded. Over the course of our tour, we saw many clotheslines filled with "drying" clothes. Willy told us that it sometimes takes 3 or 4 days for line-dried clothes to dry in ths wet, humid area.

A photo of me taken by Margaret when I wasn't aware of it

We completed our bird lists and ate dinner at 6 pm: Quinoa soup, broiled tilapia, potatoes, salad, and tiramisu for dessert. A wonderful ending to a tiring but exciting day.