The Deskbound Birder: Playa de Oro (NW Ecuador)

Tuesday 30 April 2019

Playa de Oro (NW Ecuador) – 30th April (Day 6)

We were up at 05:30 to pouring rain, in fact the rain had been falling since at least 03:00 and it was so heavy that it had awoken me. We had a leisurely breakfast and by around 06:30 decided to head off to the head of the Penon del Santo trail 20 minutes up river by boat. The rain was still pouring and as we entered the forest the trails were flooded and the trees were dripping making birding challenging to say the least. The plan was to walk the trail back to the lodge, this was an all day walk. The first couple of hours or so we birded in the rain and saw relatively little, a Semiplumbeous Hawk called moderately closely but would not come to tape, not surprising given the weather, and then some excitement when a female Long-wattled Umbrella bird showed overhead and gave good views. Walking up the steep and slippery slope which dominated the first kilometre or so of the trail we saw Band-tailed Barbthroat, Crowned Woodnymph and heard Berlepsch's Tinamou but little else. As we reached the trail junction with the waterfall trail the rain eased and the weather slowly turned more pleasant. We walked the first kilometre or so of the muddy waterfall trail but saw nothing – literally nothing.

Back at the junction we continued walking towards the view point, it was now around midday and the sun was just about out and activity had picked up a little, in quick succession we had Black-throated Trogon, a pair of Splendid Woodpecker, a pair of Rufous Piha and two Choco Manakin but a calling Lita Woodpecker eluded us. Things were looking up.

Black-throated Trogon - Penon del Santo trail, Playa de Oro, Ecuador

Birding the waterlogged Penon del Santo trail, Playa de Oro, Ecuador

Splendid Woodpecker - Penon del Santo trail, Playa de Oro, Ecuador

Choco Manakin - Penon del Santo trail, Playa de Oro, Ecuador

At the view point we had a lunch of soup, beef and rice and passion fruit juice – very civilised. Birding from here was excellent and we saw some good birds, first up were three Baudo Guan which showed well in a Cecropia below us. Then a feeding flock passed through and in quick succession we recorded Rufous-winged Tanager, Grey-and-gold Tanager and Scarlet-browed Tanager all of which were new for me. Best of all though was a Scarlet-and-white Tanager, so red that its colour cannot be described – literally the bird glowed in the green of the forest canopy. A pair of Great-green Macaw flew in the distance and we also picked up three Colombian Howler Monkey. The calling of another Lita Woodpecker which again eluded us signified the start of the rain once more and we decided to head back towards the boat, a walk of around one hour. The walk was almost birdless in the heavy rain with very little of significance, a small flock of calling Mealy Parrot, a pair of Uniform Antshrike, Dot-winged Antwren but little else. We arrived at the boat at 17:30 for the short hop back across the river to the lodge. A flock of Swift were foraging on emerging termite over the clearing and we recorded Band-rumped Swiftlet, Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift and some swift’s with a small white chest crescent which appeared to be White-chested Swift which as far as we are aware had not been recorded here. Finally, we enjoyed the sight and sound of 18 Pacific Cacique heading across the clearing to their roost.

As darkness fell the rain eased slightly and so we tried our luck in the forest for Choco Poorwill but it was not long before the heavens opened once more and we beat a retreat for showers, cold beer and a shrimp spaghetti dish at the lodge.