Ayampe - 5 to 7 Aug

Ayampe is an excellent village to go birding from, situated at the mouth of a river, the Rio Ayampe. The river mouth is beset by sand flies, but with perseverance and a lot of bug spray then the birding is good. One of the mysteries I'd been pondering was my inability to find the small charadrius plovers that ought to be here, I'd targeted the river mouth as a possible site to rectify this omission. Hey presto, as soon as I got to the mud I had both Collared Plover and Wilson's Plover vying for attention, with Semipalmated Plover for comparison.

Other birds on and around the river itself included Cocoi Heron, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Rusty-margined Flycatcher, Yellow-rumped Cacique, Green Kingfisher, Ringed Kingfisher, Masked Water-Tyrant.

Upriver the habitat became wetter with some nice patches of forest. I didn't really spend enough time here, but the best birds were; Grey-lined Hawk, Baron's Hermit, Guayaquil Woodpecker, Ecuadorian Piculet, Plain-brown Woodcreeper, Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner, Snowy-throated Kingbird, One-coloured Becard, Ecuadorian Thrush, Masked Yellowthroat, Grey-and-Gold Warbler, Guira Tanager, Saffron Siskin.

At two locations, on the beach and on a rocky stream in the forest, I encountered a sandpiper species that really has to be Baird's Sandpiper. The habitat was 'wrong' at both locations, but from a size basis alone the only options are Baird's and White-rumped, and they didn't have white rumps.

Collared Plover

Wilson's Plover

Possible Baird's Sandpiper

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Masked Water-Tyrant

Boat-billed Flycatcher

Cocoi Heron

Variable Seedeater

Guayaquil Woodpecker

Yellow-tailed Oriole

White-edged Oriole

Ecuadorian Piculet

Ecuadorian Ground-Dove