A very common question as of late has been "where in the world is Chris?" Well, 24 hours from now, I will be in a hotel in downtown Quito, Ecuador. What will I be doing? I have a position as a birding volunteer at Tandayapa Bird Lodge in the Upper Tandayapa Valley about an hour's drive north of Quito. For the next two months, I will be living and working at Tandayapa Bird Lodge. My job is to assist the staff with whatever they require, help guests with finding and identifying the local bird life, and pretty much just go birding all day every day and find as many of the local endemics as I can!
How many species is that? The lodge checklist is approx 300 species long. 250 of which are fairly regular around the lodge. 200 of which I will likely see. Considering it's spring, there won't be any boreal migrants around and almost all 200 species will be lifers. The only exceptions being the ones that I saw in Costa Rica at the beginning of the month.
Did I expect to be flying to the tropics twice in the same month? nope! Even two weeks ago I couldn't have told you I was leaving in just a few hours. Just another surprise trip for me. Just like the Costa Rica trip.
Anywho, I will update this as often as possible with photos and tales of my adventures in the tropics, so stay tuned!!
Til next time, as always:
Happy Birding!!!
