From Macara to Buenaventura
We left Macara in the dark to get to our first birding destination at first light, with a near empty tank of petrol, running on fumes! We birded the dry forest at El Empalme. Our target bird here was White-headed Brush-Finch which we quickly found, though bird of the moment had to be the fantastic male Elegant Crescentchest which showed off at eyelevel in the dry scrub.From here we coasted down to a petrol station. At first glance it looked closed but we were in luck, enquiries revealed not only was it open but it had fuel too. Phew!! From here it was a long drive along extremely rough roads to Piñas, punctuated by an excellent cafe stop for strong coffee to keep the driver awake. The afternoon was spent birding the forest tracks and trails at another Jocotoco reserve of Buenaventura. Here we added three new birds: Gray-backed Hawk, Barred Hawk and Uniform Antshrike as well as a whole host of birds we haven´t seen in nearly twelve months since we last birded in Ecuador, including this stunning Bay Wren.Bird species total: 4331Posted 29th December, Zaruma, Ecuador We will be keeping the website updated in 2009 so do log on to find out more about our adventures at home and how we settle back into reality, if we ever do!