The alpine lakes - cirque lakes, really, from the last glacial period - host a nice variety of species. At 11,000 feet in Alaska, any water would be stone-like ice or bare rock. Baceteria don't even live there. In Southern Ecaudor, it's open water, reasonably warm and there are ducks that never leave. The vegetation, flowers and birds are all strange and wonderful. After 8:30 AM, the light is harsh and difficult. But the birding was marvellous.

Each stop was higher. Lunch, at the top of the pass, just before the road starts to drop down into the west side of the Andes and the long drive back to Guayaquil, was a bit of a trial. Basically, you had to chew with your mouth open to get anough air...

As is usually the case in Ecuadorean Andes, the species were distinctly different on the west slopes than in the central valley. But because of the distances involved, we were only able to make a couple of stops on the long drive to Guayaquil after leaving El Cajas. Still, a day that has all three Metaltail Hummingbirds and both Kingfishers is pretty amazing.

The traffic going into Guayaquil was unbelievably bad. Four lanes of expressway funneled into a single lane to cross the river. We never saw fenders scrape, but any bugs on those fenders would have been smashed.

We start the long trip back to Fairbanks tomorrow morning. An excellent trip, with 451 species of birds in just 14 days.

Click on a photo to see a larger version

Red-rumped Bush-Tyrant	Shining Sunbeam	Andean Tit-Spinetail
Blue-Mantled Thornbill	Bay-breasted Warbler	Great Thrush
Tawny Antpitta	Stout-billed Cinclodes	Bar-winged Cinclodes
Andean Gull	Very Nearly Wild Llama	Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanager