The last day of The Biggest Twitch 2008
Apologies for the break down in the website, it was caused by the enormous number of people all logging on, so a huge thank you for all your wonderful support! We will be keeping The Biggest Twitch site alive and hopefully well so do keep logging on for more birding adventures and loads of photos from 2008.We knew it would happen but all of a sudden it was 31st December and the last day of our amazing year. No lie in of course as we were up at 4.30am to hopefully keep an appointment with a special bird. Stepping out into the thick fog and drizzle did not fill us with confidence, it was hard to see the far side of the road let alone birds!
We somehow found our way back through the fog to the Jocotoco Reserve at Buenaventura and slid our way down a steep muddy trail to an area of forest where Wattled-umbrellabirds lek. We stood and listened but the only sound was the falling rain and no bird came close enough to see in the fog. We waited and waited but no sight or sound of the Umbrellabirds. As we trudged back along the trail a movement caught our eyes and a brown bird flitted about in the undergrowth, at first it was difficult to get a clear view but eventually it perched long enough for a good look, Brownish Flycatcher, a new bird for the year, and as it turned out the last new species for 2008 bringing our total to an amazing 4341 species recorded in the year, smashing the previous world record of 3662 set by Jim Clements in 1989.
We headed back to Quito late afternoon to stay with our friends Iain and Cristina Campbell, and with Nick, enjoyed an evening of eating, drinking, watching fire works over the city and scanning in vain for Band-winged Nightjars which are often seen from the roof top terrace. Perhaps not too surprising that they kept their heads down with so much gunpowder exploding in the sky all around!
Happy New Year!
Bird species total for 2008 - 4,341.The Biggest Twitch website will remain online in 2009 to keep you up to date with our birding adventures and let you know how we settle back into normal life, if we do!! We will also share more of our adventures and lots of photos from The Biggest Twitch.