One of the larger and junkier “hummers” this past week in Ecuador, the Velvet-purple Coronet was one of the bigger challenges to tell its story. Unlike typical hummers, they don’t really pick one feeder and make it theirs. They do like to chase each other, but it seems more like a game than anything else. And photographing them hoovering was impossible for me! Then come in and land, hold their wings over their heads for a few seconds, and then get to work drinking. Then they zoom off to do whatever it is they do. When they do perch, it tends to be in a locale deep in foliage, making a clean shot a real challenge. The adult males light up grander than a neon factory, so brilliant it takes your breath away. I never got one of them in the viewfinder perched, but on my last day, I had a youngster stop long enough to capture four frames. The color is breathtaking for sure, the flight memorizing and cuteness is off the chart. Who came up with this magical design, only God knows!

Our lodge is just a mile and a half from the equator, at 6000 feet up in the cloud rainforest, is a slice of heaven long on my list to bring my camera. We’ve been here for almost a week now and have seen and photographed seventy new species of birds. It’s the White-booted Racket-Tail that, in part, brought this region of the natural world to my attention. Did you catch that tail? Ain’t that cool! Here’s the wicked thing, from tip to tip, it’s only five inches! It’s dang small, one of the smallest here. Of the seventeen species of “hummers” I’ve photographed so far (there are 135 after all), the biggest is about the size of a banana. As I write this, we have a Brown Violetear flying in and out of our room, chasing nats to eat. My only fear is that I don’t have enough storage space for all my photos, I only brought 8TB. It’s been just grand, and I can easily say now, exquisite Ecuador!

What a great time! I was humbled to be able to talk with Scott about my deep passion. It was a marvelous hour, more trivia than you can imagine. Enjoy!

Our view from the room across the town of Quito, Ecuador, is quite grand! If you look closely in on the right, you will see the spires of La Basílica del Voto Nacional, a gorgeous church. From where we are staying, it does look like a little church on the hill, but it’s anything but. So after breakfast, off we went to explore it. After paying the exorbitant entrance fee of $2, in we went. Your first view, you see below, quite something. We were inside for just a few moments when a small man dressed in all gray came up and introduced himself to us. He said he was the priest and historian and wondered if we wanted a tour. It was delightful to say the least. After about 30 minutes, I think we’re going so slow to read, take photos, and take it all in, he figured we were going to take a while so he said goodbye and just, disappeared.

Our “guide” took us into the original chapel built in 1870. Then we went back through the “addition” built in 1930. It was awe-inspiring to say the least. Looking down the massive halls of the La Basílica del Voto Nacional, people at the other end were mere dots, it’s that huge! Then you look up … oh my! I came back from our tour with warblers neck and some amazing memories! When we walked out and headed to the chocolate factory, all I could think was, it was anything but the little church on the hill!