Birding Ecuador 2011 4k, Part 9: Tamarind & El Cajas (Feb 14)

We leave a rainy Guayaquil early in the morning, make a breakfast stop in Puerto Inca while hoping the downpour would stop. Breakfast eaten, heavy rain continued. We moved on, aiming for Reserva Ecologica Manglares-Churute. At one point the highway kinda goes through the reserve, and we spotted two Horned Screamers perched on top of a Secropia way off in the park. We stopped the car, parked on the shoulder for a minute, and took a few photos. Those birds was Target Bird No 1 at that place, and as it turned out, it was lucky we made that stop. When asking at the HQ we got the depressing answer that the reserve was a big mudhole, not even with a 4WD was it possible to drive there. We had to give up, took a lap around the HQ and ticked Pacific Hornero and Gartered Trogon on the bird list. As luck would have it, our guide knew of a back-up place; Tamarind, a short way along the highway. During that short drive we got another sighting, two Rufous-headed Chachalaca in a berry-bearing tree. Then we continued to Tamarind. That turned out to be a nice place, where we saw Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant, Tropical Royal Flycatcher, Sooty-headed Tyrannulet, Blue-black Grosbeak and Black-crowned Antshrike. The rain actually stopped while we were birding the place, which means we also saw some nice butterflies. At 12 we left, to get lunch somewhere along the way, before continuing to El Cajas NP. We arrived to El Cajas at 2 PM, where we started with looking for one of the Target Birds: Giant Conebill. That went well, so we left the area close to the road and went into the park a bit. Jumped a stream and walked uphill until we came upon Target Bird No 1: Violet-throated Metaltail. Of course it started to rain again, but we held true for a while, so we got a few photos. Other nice target birds seen here was Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant, Hooded Siskin, Plain-colored Seedeater, Plumbeous Sierra Finch, Chestnut-winged Cinclodes, Stout-billed Cinclodes and Shining Sunbeam. In the lake we spotted Andean Ruddy-Duck and Andean Teal and then we at last came upon Target Bird No 3: Streaked Dacnis. We got some nice photos, and turned to leave, quite content. But, it wasn't over! We spotted a foraging Blue-mantled Thornbill that we followed for a few minutes, THEN we left and drove downhill towards Cuenca. However, we didn't get far before we had to stop again. This time at the "NP guard's cabin", bcs a thrush-sized bird sat on the roof and it needed to be scrutinized. It turned to be a Black-billed Shrike Tyrant (Lifer!). As it turned out, the ground under the entrance lamp were littered with large moth wings, a fact that made me look around the wall with some focus. That led to the discovery of some well hidden live moths of impressive size: a Black Witch Moth and a Owl Moth! Happy days :-) Then we could leave, and didn't see anything else to stop our advancement to Cuenca to check in, have dinner and going through the bird list.