Ecuadorean adventures: Western Andean Cloudforests

On our first day out birdwatching we travelled
west over a road south of Pichincha, getting nice
views of it then from the opposite side of the pass.
Note the blue sky and wispy clouds of early morning.



In the mists above our heads here, moments
earlier we had seen our first significant bird of
the day, a short eared owl (unrelated to the
European bird of that name) flew up from a roadside
post and drifted overhead before fading from view
into the cloud.



Driving on further down the "Chiriboga road" we
got out of the bus to walk, checking out the roadside
trees and shrubbery as we went for whatever was
around


and we did well in that department, although the
views and vegetation was just as enticing of viewing
...and less inclined to fly off whilst being observed
or photographed!









Now you see why its called "cloudforest"...






This barred fruiteater below obliged us with some
good views....and I took a photo through William's
telescope (a technique that I pioneered for the
group! Not without success. William was naturally
anxious that I did not scratch his scope lens, which
I took care not to do)


Here is a masked trogon.....



an attractive flower..



....a bromeliad in flower (shot taken thro' scope)



more flowers...





The tubular flowers above are designed to entice
birds rather insects..... the dazzling little hummingbirds.
I decided the best way of capturing them "on film"
was mostly going to be through video clips...and this
next picture was later extracted from just such a clip.
(It's a collared inca)



After our day on the Chiriboga Road
we returned to Quito, before setting off for
some Amazonian adventures. We revisited
western cloudforest in our second week, decending
down the Nono-Mindo road and staying at Bellavista lodge http://www.ecuadorexplorer.com/bellavista/eindex.htm
and the Sachatamia lodge
http://www.sachatamia.com/newsacha/about_us.htm,
to explore the forests nearby.

Visiting Mindo I was fascinated by treelike
bamboo plants. The biggest grass I've ever seen!



More commentary and more pics to follow. Meanwhile,
some more cloudforest.....