I woke up early on our last full day in the DR, and tried to get the family going but only Melissa was game. The boys decided to sleep in. We got on the road at first light and took the 90 minute car ride up into the mountains south of Jarabacoa to take our first real hike. Even the well known Ebano Verde Scientific Reserve was a little underwhelming in terms of the infrastructure. We pulled into a lot at the end of the road and looked for a trail map which was not very helpful when we finally did find it. After some minutes of scrutinizing a confusing trail map, a guy which I guess was a park ranger came out and asked for 400 pesos for parking. We managed to get the overall gist of what he was saying on where to go to take the famous trail up to the Cabasito and off we went. The trail was super muddy and I didn't get very far before I started to see some good birds.
Hispaniolan Pewee
Green-tailed Warbler! I wasn't expecting this one, for some reason when I did my research I thought this bird was only in the southwest portion of the country. However, now I see it is expected.
Rufous-throated Solitaire! This looker was quite vocal as well which made it easier to find.
About 2k into the hike we started transitioning into the cloud forest and in parts the trail was a stream.... I knew from my research that this was the area that we could pick up the Hispaniolan Trogon. The good thing about hiking with Melissa is that she can hear birds and help me know when they are nearby. The bad thing is she doesn't like my pace and frequently goes ahead of me. This is bad because she was flushing the birds on the trail before I got to them and that is exactly what happened this time. Melissa was ahead about 20 yards and flushed a Hispaniolan Trogon before I could get there. She described it well and I knew that is what she saw. Oh well...
Hispaniolan Spindalis was my consolation and we had many of them.
Black-faced Grassquit - I was looking hard for Antillean Siskin but all I got was grassquits.
We ended up seeing many Solitaires.
One of the few openings on the upper slopes.
Making my way to the peak which was 5k up the mountain which was over 7 thousand feet in elevation.
What you can't tell from this photo was that I was soaked! The air was so humid and we were in the clouds. Also our feet were covered in mud. At the top, we met a local couple from Santa Domingo (the capital on the south coast) and they spoke good English which was nice. On the way down we hiked with them but after about 1k Melissa kept going with them and I lagged behind hoping to find some birds on my own. I found out that after noon, the birds are mostly quiet and hiding.
Horrible photo of a Greater Antillean Elaenia.
I had several Narrow-billed Tody sightings but always in poor light.
So although I did get a bunch of lifers, I left still wanting more. I will be back! I really enjoyed my time in the DR despite getting whacked by my surfboard and having way too many rainy days. I couldn't help but think that I would have tripled my lifers if the weather had been better. Certainly I would have obtained better pictures. Next time, I will make the primary purpose of the trip birding and focus on the hotspots.
We had an amazing sunset on the flight home. You can easily see the curvature of the earth in these.
Next posts I will kick off 2025 with a new photographic year attempt. Usually I go pretty hard in the early parts of the year to gauge what kind of year it will be. So far I am racking up some pretty good ducks with all scoters, a Harlequin and an Eider. I have been tempted to try for a Calliope up in the mountains and a couple Bullocks in some of the nearby counties, but so far I haven't been fully bit the chase bug yet.
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