September 5, 2020

Since neither one of us was satisfied with our visit in search of the eared quetzal pair earlier in the week and we had read reports that they were once again more accessible, we set out on this day to try and see and photograph them again.

When we arrived we ran in to some friends about a half mile up the trail who had just seen the quetzals. They thought the birds had come down canyon. However as we waited and looked around we noticed that no people were coming back down the trail and there were many cars parked at the trailhead.

So we continued hiking and at about 1.3-1.5 miles or so we found a group that was watching the quetzals. We spent the next hour or so trying to get into position to get the best photographs while not disturbing the birds. The birds were mostly quiet but would call when they started moving around. They were eating some sort of grapes that grow wild in the canyon. The grapes are actually about the size of blueberries. Anyway, it was a great few moments we shared with these lovely birds and while the photographic conditions were not great--lots of bright light and shadows, tons of brush, etc. we felt we got about the best photos that we could.

We spent the rest of the day in the canyon and I got some mediocre photos of a couple of species I had not photographed before.

Posted on September 14, 2020 09:19 PM by