Day #4
We left Sachatamia in the dark, for an hour’s drive downhill to the west. The destination was the Rio Silanche, at an elevation of around 1100′ (Sachatamia Lodge is situated at an elevation of 5577′, and Mindo at 4100′ elevation). We arrived shortly after dawn, and the first bird I was able to photograph was the yellow-tailed oriole, which was only about 50 yards away.
We discontinued our walk when we ran into an oil palm plantation. Moses had followed us in the bus, which was very convenient. We then returned to the main highway, and headed back east. After a while, we took a left, to visit Milpe.
From Milpe, we drove to the town of San Miguel de los Bancos (benches), to visit another fabulous spot, the Mirador Rio Blanco (“Mirador” means view point). But first we made a stop at the soccer field on the edge of town, and I got a nice “capture” (as bird photographers say) of the Pacific Hornero.
The Mirador Rio Blanco has a big deck overlooking the valley of the Rio Blanco, with lots of feeders spread around, and lots of birds.
We had lunch there, and could photograph birds on the banana feeders through the spotless large windows that lined one side of the room, while enjoying the food and drink. Lee and I had decided that we really liked to watch birds while enjoying a cup of coffee.
We had to tear ourselves away from the Mirador Rio Blanco, because we had more bird watching to do. We drove back to Sachatamia, and then past it, for about a quarter-mile further, to the San Tadeo Birding Garden. There, we could, again, sip a cup of coffee while watching yet a new bunch of birds, and I clicked away furiously while the light faded.
The water feature at the otherwise tiny garden was especially attractive to the birds, including the Masked Water-Tyrant seen above. And then the Barbets showed up!
along with the Violet-tailed Sylph.
What a day! What a collection of absolutely beautiful birds! Our count for the day was 50 new species, with a total of 69 species seen, and 26 photos of new species are included in this post.
Impressive!
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Thanks! More good stuff to come! Toucanets, Antpittas ….
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Wow, wow, wow! All great pics! Love the bee and the Brilliant!
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Thanks!
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