eleven participants included eight NE Tennesseans and SW Virginians: Fred and Joann Alsop (Johnson City), Warren Bielenberg (Maryville), John Getgood (Floyd,VA), Tom and Laverne Hunter (Lebonan,VA) and Dave and Diane Worley (Cedar Bluff, VA). We all arrived in Quito on July 12 and were on our way on the morning of the 13th. Quito is at 9300' in the Andes, and on our first excursion we headed west towards the coast and lower elevations. Sightings on our western decent included: Rufous-bellied and Short-tailed Nighthawk; Maroon-tailed Parakeet & Red-billed Parrot; White-collared Swift; 26 species of hummingbird including the unbelievable Sword-billed Hummingbird and Sparkling Violetear, Purple-bibbed Whitetip, Shining Sunbeam, Velvet-purple Coronet, Sapphire-vented Puffleg, Tyrian Metaltail and Violet-tailed Sylph; Golden-headed Quetzel; Board-billed Motmot; Toucan Barbet; Plate-billed Mountain-Toucan; Pacific Hornero; Montane Woodcreeper; Giant Antpitta; Golden-faced Tyrranulat; Smoke-colored Pewee; Masked Water-Tyrant; Golden Crowned Flycatcher ; Black-and White Becard; Andean Cock-of-the-Rock; Turquoise Jay; Great Thrush; White-capped Dipper; Spectacled Whitestart; Cinereous Conebill; 17 varieties of tanager; Rufous-colored Sparrow; and Peruvian Meadowlark. We than reversed our direction and went back past Quito to higher elevations and the eastern slope above the Amazon. In that portion of the trip we added: Yellow-billed Pintail; Andean Teal; Black-chested Buzzard Eagle; Carunculated Caracara, Andean Gull, White-capped parrot; San Isidro Owl (new species, no scientific designation yet); Bronzy Inca; Chestnut-breasted Coronet; Black-tailed Trainbearer; Long-tailed Sylph; Powerful Woodpecker; Pearled Treerunner; Unicolored Tapaculo; Torrent Tyrannulet; Cinnamon Flycatcher: Rufous-tailed Tyrrant; Inca Jay; Russet-crowned Warbler; Bluish Flowerpiercer; Golden-rumped Euphonia; Saffron-crowned tanager; Blue-necked Tanager; Plushcap;Yellow-browed Sparrow; Russet-backed Oropendola and Red-breasted Blackbird among many others. On the final day in Ecuador, several of us had late flights, so we arranged for our guide, Norby Lopez, to take us up above 14,000' in the Andes south of Quito on an additional excursion. It was a beautiful day, and we we saw some great birds including two of the endangered Black-faced Ibis and an amazing 14 Andean Condors. It was a great trip! The group got along well together, the food was excellent and the accomodations were comfortable and well located. Our guide, Norby, was outstanding as a person and bird-finder! The only short-coming of the trip was the unseasonable rains that we had. The bird-list total for the group was 271 but would have been much higher if the rain had not been so extreme. In spite of this, we were blessed with some rare sightings including one, as yet, unclassified species of owl! John Moyle Glen Alpine Road Kingsport ************** Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today. (http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020) =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________