Tandayapa Bird Lodge

I had heard of a few interesting records from the lodge in the last days, like Oilbird, Plushcap and others, so I decided to find one of those. I took a very early bus, but it didn't help too much since no car came to pick me up. In the end a car came and took me about 2km up, and I arrived in Tandayapa 8:45AM. The best hour had already passed but nonetheless I tried my best. Before I even got onto the lodge property a mixed flock came across the way and my favourite was the Red-headed Barbet, which isn't uncommon but very beautiful.
On the lodge property I met Iain Campbell from Tropical Birding, who told me a bit about his sightings, but then I went the trails alone. I tried at the "lower deck" only finding a few Brown-capped Vireos and then went back to the trails, where the first birds were 4 Beautiful Jays. After a while I walked on but found almost nothing. A very few understorey flocks with very common birds were the most interesting until I flushed two White-throated Quail-Doves. They soon disappeared in the forest and I walked on. A female Andean Cock-of-the-rock perched in exactly the same spot, as I had seen one in April. The bird flew away in exactly the moment I was pointing my camera at it, so that I didn't get any picture.
The trails were all rather quiet and soon I tried to find something along the roadsides which didn't bring much apart from a Sickle-winged Guan and a Squirrel Cuckoo. I didn't find the spot where the Oilbirds had been seen and also failed upon other interesting species. When I got back to the Lodge a few voluntaries were there and one of them took me to a known lek of Wedge-billed Hummingbird. We heard one, but didn't see it, another fail. I was told they had seen a Wattled Guan and both Quetzals, so I tried another time to find something. At the "Hide" another two Quail-Doves tried to escape me and then after walking a lot I finally found something interesting. I had found the Cock-of-the-rock female another time without getting pictures when a big, black bird flew away and hid in the trees. Eventhough the views I had at it, where very bad, it was sufficient to know I had found the Wattled Guan, eventhough it had already wandered a lot. Then a Crimson-rumped Toucanet perched above my head. Eventhough I've seen it a lot of times, it still is one of my favourite birds. I tried another time for birds along the roadsides but failed another time. I tried another time for the Wedge-billed Hummer and failed. When I went back to the lodge I came into amixed flock, and got very close to a Strong-billed Woodcreeper, the only rather interesting bird in that flock, which then visited the hummer-deck and posed nicely for Iain and other photographers. A White-necked Jacobin visited the feeders aswell.
Jacob, the volunteer took me to the Wedge-billed Hummingbird-lek another time, but the hummer had vanished and so we tried on the Andean Solitaire, because they had found a nest along the Antpitta Trail. The Cock-of-the-rock watched us from a high perch another time. An interesting flock passed our way, but the birds knew how to hide so that not many birds could be ID'd. One of the few was the beautiful Crimson-mantled Woodcreeper another common bird. The way to the nest was rather dangerous as the trail had already broken in various places. When we arrived at the nest the mother was gone, while the nestlings lay there quietly without moving. We wanted to come back later and followed the trail but it ended soon and when we came back the mother still wasn't there. Another two Toucanets flew away and were a lifer for Jacob the volunteer who was with me...
For me this day only held 5 lifers, from which 3 are very common and I probably just overlooked them before, as they aren't very interesting. I failed upon a male Cock-of-the-rock, which had been seen at the Lower Deck ony very few minutes before I arrived and the Wattled Guan was the only VERY good bird... Eventhough the looks I got were VERY bad... Okay and the Beautiful Jay wasn't bad either...