This is the fourth of five blogs giving my perspective of a birding trip to Bolivia. Our guide Richard Amable, Marc Brew, Duncan Brooks, Mike Catsis, Brian Foster, Paul Noakes, Malcolm Oxlade had just had a disappointing couple of days around Cochabamba and we/Pepe had some long drives ahead of us ....
24
November 2017. We were up at 04:45 and departed at 05:00,
still no working coffee machine at the hotel to delay those needing it. It was
a long drive west to Oruro although we had time for a few stops on the way,
supposedly to target a few species missed although appearing to me at least
somewhat random. Whether precise sites or random stops we didn’t see a lot,
Bolivian Blackbirds that we’d already seen and a brief moment of hope when a
female Andean Hillstar was seen at a stop in suitable habitat for Wedge-tailed
Hillstar. We continued gaining altitude and started seeing commoner high
altitude species, most of which were new or the trip. At Oruro we drove around
the city’s ‘by-pass’ to a mainly dried-up lake on its outskirts. It was a
pretty grim and muddy area with lots of rubbish lying around - about as far as
it was possible to be from my faded memories of Andean lakes. Mike was reacting
very badly to the altitude and really struggling despite us not being much over
3700m. Most obvious were lots of Chilean Flamingos amongst which we soon found
a number of Andean (including one with a ring) and a few James’s. There were
also a number of mostly distant Baird’s Sandpipers and a flock of very distant
Andean Avocets. Further from town there appeared to be a lot of birds around a
reed-fringed lagoons behind a rocky hill. The road went in that direction and
we drove as close as we could, to the opposite side of the hill. We walked one
way around to approach the biggest lagoon, Mike not being up to joining us. A
couple of locals told us we couldn’t go that way as they were blowing something
up although it was hard to imagine what. We walked around the other side being
careful not to go too far although we never heard any explosions. There were a
lot of flamingos and although in a much nicer setting they were no more
approachable although the Andean Avocets gave somewhat better views. That is
until 3 large wild looking dogs ran through the lagoon flushing everything and
bring one flamingo down, fortunately something I didn’t witness. We kept a
warry eye on them but fortunately they gave us a wide birth and headed back
towards town – the rocks we’d collected might have had something to do with it.
We finished birding at 18:00, walked back to the bus and drove into Oruro. It
was only 10km but took almost 2hours as the city was completely gridlocked and
we were unfortunately right in the heart of it. Another unappreciat 3* hotel that we
arrived at well after dark and would be leaving well before dawn.
25
November 2017. We were up at 02:45 and left at 03:15 driving almost continually to
21:30 with 3-4 half hour stops along the way. Epic from Pepe as only the first
part was on tarmac. After that it was dusty dirt, hairpins and steep drops as
we climbed high into the mountains over successive ridges and into valleys. Our
first stop was supposed to be “a bushy
canyon where we'll look for the endemic Black-hooded Sunbeam … as well as the
endemic Iquico Canstero which is common”. Clearly Richard didn’t know where this
was and it became clear we had overshot it by some margin and were too low for
the sunbeam. We insisted on returning, driving back up the hill for 15 minutes
and stopped in a scrubby area just below Pongo. It wasn’t the site, which I
suspected was above the village, but the habitat looked better. We wandered off
in different directions checking flowers and after 10-15 minutes I heard a
shout. Mike had found a male Black-hooded Sunbeam and fortunately it stayed,
giving good if somewhat distant views for a few minutes before shooting off.
The lack of ‘common’ Canasteros, which we never saw, was disappointing but we
didn’t have time to try to find the site higher up. Next on the
agenda was the relatively recently discovered Bolivian Spinetail below
Inquisivi and fortunately Paul had done his homework and knew exactly where to
look. Once there Richard soon taped in three but that was basically it birdwise
for the day. It was then a very long drive that seemed as if we would never
arrive at Chulumani. We eventually did, well after dark. The next morning we
were headed to the Apa Apa reserve. It was apparently only 15 minutes drive and
Richard wanted to have breakfast at 06:00. We persuaded him to bring it forward
half an hour earlier and leave at 06:00 although even then we’d arrive 45
minutes after dawn.
26
November 2017. We got away by 06:00 but the drive to Apa Apa took 65 minutes and we arrived
just after 07:00. We’d hoped to find Scimitar-winged Piha and Chestnut-crested
Cotinga but failed, seeing little despite birding the road until noon in
decent weather. Blue-banded Toucanet, Yungas Manakin, White-eared Solitaire, Black-eared Hemispingus
and Yungas Warbler were the most notable birds. We left for Coroico, another
long drive on dirt roads. It looked as if we might arrive at 18:00 and see the
hotel in daylight but in the town we were misdirected and had dropped down into
the valley bellow before realising it. This unnecessary detour took an hour and
we finally made the hotel at 19:15. Not our best day.
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| back at Corioco |
28
November 2017. We had a quick breakfast at 03:00 and departed at 03:20 heading for
the Death Road. We had decided the previous evening that as Hooded Mountain
Toucan was easily the most important bird we’d not seen it would be our
priority and we’d aim to be at a site for them on the Death Road for dawn. It
meant driving through some good habitat in the dark but we felt it worth that sacrifice. Amazingly we arrived at dawn, stopping at the edge of a very steep but
narrow valley. We tried playback and heard some very distant calls from the
other side of the valley that may have been one but they were too far away and
distorted to tell. I heard a very close Rufous-faced Antpitta but the terain was too steep to see it. I was very pleased top have had good views at Siberia the previus week. We walked the road there and then on the opposite side of
the valley for an hour seeing very little. The cloud then rolled in reducing
visibility to a matter of metres and making birding impossible. After a while
it cleared but was almost immediately replaced by heavy rain. Another massive
disappointment in superb looking cloud forest but at least on this occasion we
had tried our best. We drove to the start of the Death Road but saw virtually
no birds and after a brief look around a more open area with little success
joined the main road and continued northwards stopping at a roadside café for
lunch. It was still drizzling but I opted to wander around finding a
Black-throated Flowerpiercer in nearby scrub. We tried a turning to Unduavi where
I had read that a Rockjumper tour had seen the mountain toucan on a track
nearby but directions were vague and Richard hadn’t found anything about it on
ebird. We parked at the top of the road, Pepe concerned he’d not get back up
despite it being wide and cobbled at this point. We walked down for about half
a km in poor weather and not really finding decent habitat (it looked better
further down) although did see a Black-hooded Sunbeam before giving up. When
back home and with internet access I did look on ebird and the record of it and
some other nice birds were listed there, it appeared the track was another km
or so down the road. Very annoying. We continued and made a couple of stops on
the way up to La Cumbre. The first was for Scribble-tailed Canastero, a smart
bird which we found without too much trouble but other than a couple of
Vischachas the second stop produced little and not the hoped for Short-tailed
Finch despite Paul checking a scree slope more diligently than appeared
sensible from a distance! We crossed the pass and dropped down into La Paz where
we stopped on what seemed to be the La Paz ring road and Richard/Pepe found a
taxi for Marc who wasn’t coming to Apolo with us. He had a hotel booked that
night, although on arrival they denied all knowledge of it, and flew home the
next morning. For the rest of us had the outskirts of La Paz to negotiate and
then an hours run to our hotel at Lake Titicaca. It was 15:10 and I was
confident we would arrive at the lake in daylight, perhaps our only change to
see it as such, and hopefully see Short-winged Grebe. As it was it took over
two hours to negotiate our way through rather than round La Paz. Twice we hired
a taxi to follow to guide us through back streets despite Richard and Duncan
having perfectly decent maps on their phones. In his defence Pepe had been
driving for over 12 hours at this point! The first taxi appeared to take us
into town rather than skirting it and the second, to avoid a bottleneck near
the airport took us on a very bizarre route around three sides of it and into
what looked like an empty dirt lorry-park adjoining the road we wanted but
separated from it by a big ditch. It provided nice photo-opportunities of
Andean Gull but didn’t seem to have been the best route. The taxi took off after directing Pepe back out of the lorry park to a muddy track that allowed us to join the road. We then sped
NE arriving at the lake at 18:00, just in time to scope 3 Short-winged Grebes
before the light went. We were reunited with Barry who had flown back from Peru to oversee the final part of our trip. Pity he hadn't been with us the whole time as we would have doubtless been a bit more successful.
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| Death Road |
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| a journey didn't end well for someone |
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| cloud appearing, timed 08:54 |
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| it's coming, 08:58 |
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| Malcolm on the Death Road at 09:03, no mountain toucans from this viewpoint (or anywhere, very bad dip) |
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| an hour later low cloud had given way to heavy rain |
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| we couldn't work out why it was best to keep left on the Death Road in a right-hand drive country and when the drop for those going down, presumably the direction most cyclists went, was on the left |
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| Black Siskin in the rain during our lunch stop |
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| Black-throated Flowerpiercer |
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| showing its black throat |
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| Great Thrush |
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| Puna Tapaculo |
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| approaching La Cumbre |
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| watching Scribble-tailed Canastero, or not ... |
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| Scribble-tailed Canastero |
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| La Cumbre |
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| Andean Goose |
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| Vischacha |
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| Plumbeous Sierra-Finch |
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| La Paz |
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| climbing out of La Paz |
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| Andean Gull near El Alto airport |
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| Lake Titicaca and still just enough light ... |
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