Monday, October 15, 2007

Heading west...


First, though, a trip to the 'high' pass at Abra Barro Negro, though we barely made 3,000m before we had to leave - a road closing at extremely short notice meant a switch of itinerary. Here is an orchid.

The same day we went to the exceptional and wonderful pre-Inca Chachapoyas citadel of Kuelap, about 1,400 years old and perched high in the cloud forest, filled with bromeliad-dripping trees, flowing with locks of lichen-tresses. Go see it before they tidy it up. More on this site later, meantime, here is llama guarding the main entrance.

Then the descent and crossing of the Andes. Here are some birds, staring with Brown-crested Flycatcher (digiscope)

Purple-collared Woodstar

Shiny Cowbird (digiscope)

On the other side of the Andes it is dry and sandy. We went in search of pyramids at Tucumbe (more on this later) and visited the reserve at Bosque de Pomac. Here is an old big tree, which has yet to be illegally pillaged for charcoal by the locals...


Long-tailed Mockingbird (digiscope)




Vermilion Flycatcher (digiscope)


One of the Pyjama Gang, Fasciated Wren (digiscope)



Pacific Horneros are cool birds that waddle around like ground-doves (digiscope)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nice series of photos, but the "Shiny Cowbird" is a Scrub Blackbird.