I went to Quito last weekend to try to watch Duke demolish UNC in basketball. Unfortunately the game wasn’t being aired, but I did get to go to the Quito botanical gardens to photograph orchids and see my 900^th bird species (worldwide, not just in Ecuador!).

This Long-tailed Trainbearer’s tail is so long I couldn’t fit it in frame.

We might is well make hummingbirds a focus of this post. It took less than 24 hours to attract customers to this feeder by the volunteer house.

At least four different species have dropped by to visit in the first week including this Green-crowned Brilliant

…and this White-whiskered Hermit.

I would like to set up a whole row of feeders someplace where people can sit and watch them closely and take photographs (like the setup I saw in Mindo). So far I haven’t been able to find any feeders in Quito and most online vendors won’t ship to Ecuador, so I’ll have to have somebody bring some down for me.

Random notes:

Things have been going well with the Canadian high school kids who showed up yesterday. They’re pretty quiet, but seem to be enjoying La Hesperia and the cloud forest so far.

I gave a talk the other day about alternative energy (with essentially no preparation) that seemed to go over well.

After tomorrow I’ll be the only American (Estadounidense) at the reserve.

I turn 25 this weekend.

This isn’t the biggest spider I’ve ever seen, but it may be the bluest.

I’ve decided that this is so far the tardiest and most unimaginative of my Ecuador posts. There’s so much going on here all the time and I’ve taken on so many projects that are competing for my time (particularly that spent in front of a computer).

I am off to Quito again for the weekend…this time to try to find a yellow fever vaccination so I can visit the rainforest. Hopefully I´ll have luck with that as well as with the satellite feeds so I can watch some of the ACC tournament.