After arriving at “Un poco del Chocó” I was very excited about getting to know the impressive biodiversity of this beautiful montane rainforest.

One day Nicole showed us how and where to place a camera trap in the correct way so that one could eventually see some diurnal and nocturnal mammals.

This time we placed two camera traps on the trails of the reserve. One was right next to a little wild trail, which...

It’s already been a month since we’ve had our last x-mas bird count for the season. And as it has become a tradition, the last count is the one in the reserve, which is part of the Los Bancos-Milpe count circle. As always, we had invited a few of our birding friends to help us and the night before the count some friends from Mindo, Quito and Guayaquil arrived. This year we had a group of sixteen participants...

Soon after the Bird Counts in Chical and Mindo we got invited to participate in another Bird Count, this time in Mashpi. It did not take long to agree that all of us were totally up for another count, so early in the morning of the 26th December we drove to Mashpi. On the road we met with three other participants and divided into two groups, one of which, including Wilo, took a route through the forest, whil...

On the count day in Mindo, we all left before sunrise and drove to the starting points of our routes. Jens, Mees and Roel went early to Bellavista (~2300 m), while Nicole, Wilo, Pablo, Maia and Silja took the route that went through the grounds of Sachatamia Lodge, which is at a lower elevation.

At Sachatamia Lodge we started...

After the recount in Chical we stayed for a night in Chilma Bajo and were able to go to a lek of the Red-ruffed Fruit Crow in the forest nearby. It can be difficult to see this species, and although we spent 2 hours searching in the afternoon, it wasn’t until early the next morning when we went back that we finally saw them. In Chilma Bajo we also saw a Bare-faced Ibis, which is a really unusual species to s...

Each year around Christmas, communities throughout Ecuador and other parts of the world take part in Christmas Bird Counts run by the Audubon Society. This way the bird species and populations in the area can be estimated and changes from year to year can be observed. Additionally, Bird Counts are a way to bring people together and raise awareness about the importance of conserving local bird species.

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The bird count in our reserve this year was rather a rainy one. Too bad, given that we even got supported by the local authorities this time. The current mayor likes to promote ecotourism in the area and therefore friends from the Milpe area had asked for support at the municipality of San Miguel de Los Bancos. Thus we were offered promotional materials for our count. A few days before the actual count we me...

The second X-mas Bird Count we participated in this year was the Mindo-Tandayapa Bird Count. As the compiler of the count data and member of the Mindo Naturalist Guides Asociation, I was also quite busy helping with the organization of the count this year. The CBC in Mindo is the biggest x-mas bird count event in Ecuador with 200-300 participants each year. So there is a lot to organize beforehand: count rou...

Here in Ecuador every year people give away small plastic bags of sweets to their friends and family for x-mas. And every year after x-mas we encounter candy wrappers all over the place, even along the roadside on the way to our neighbor to buy milk in the morning.

So this year we had the idea of baking cookies together with the kids in Las Tolas and show them how much fun it is to make your own cookies and h...

The first annual x-mas bird count 2015 was realized this time in Chiles-Chical. Together with a few friends from the Mindo Naturalist Guides Asociation and three students, Wilo and I participated in the Chiles-Chical x-mas bird count for the first time. This count circle is known for being binational which means that the count is realized both in Ecuador and Colombia.

After a long dr...