6/29/04 (Tuesday)

8:00 AM. I slept some last night. Our meal last evening was great but I had trouble going to sleep and staying asleep. So at 3 AM I read my book. This morning I had a great breakfast with some people from HCJB headquarters in Colorado Springs and the directors of the guesthouse. We had good conversation as well as good food. I told about all the different ways I learned to eat banana and how we had banana of some variety with each meal. One man at the table said, “And may it move on through.” We had a good laugh. Who knows, it may be a long plane ride home once the bananas break through! Jane will be picking me up in a little while to walk over to her office to check email and then we are heading to the hummingbird sanctuary. I hope to get some good pictures.

9:30 PM. What a day! Jane took me to the home of Tony Nunnery and Barbara Bolz who live about an hour and a half outside of Quito. They have a home up in the mountains and are totally surrounded by forest. They have long been birdwatchers and built where they are because of the abundance of birds. When they moved here they noted some hummingbirds so up went some feeders. They have so many hummers now, the most in the world. You sit on their porch and watch all the activity. There are hummers everywhere! Jane, Barb and I counted 13 different species today, a slow day according to jane. It was fascinating to see all the hummers. We watched them feed up close and with binoculars. They would buzz around your head and didn’t seem alarmed by you being there. I got lots of pictures. I wish I had my telephoto lens so I could have gotten some close up shots. These are the species we identified: Sparkling violet ear, Green violet ear, Buff-tailed coronet, Green-tailed trainbearer, Booted racquet-tail, Collared inca, Brown inca, Purple-collared woodstar, Speckled hummingbird, Fawn-breasted brilliant, Empress brilliant, Andean emerald, Tawny-breasted Hermit. We also saw a Rufous-tailed hummingbird in San Lorenzo and a Black-tailed trainbearer in Quite giving 15 different species in all. I wish Phyl could have been her to see all these hummers!

Jane and Barb

Booted racquet tail on a feeder

Booted racquet tail

Another species

Nunnery's back yard

Collared inca hovering

Resting on a branch

When we left the Nunnery’s home and walked to the car we found the right rear tire flat. Soe we set out to change the tire only to find Jane didn’t have a crank for her jack. So by using pliers we finally got the jack cranked up enought to change the tire. We are so glad we were where we were to change the tire. The road to the Nunnery’s is very narrow, gravel and stone, with sheer drop-offs. The place where we had parked was wider and we had room.

Once back to Quito we went to a restaurant to eat and then I came back to the guesthouse and Jane went to her house. Tomorrow we are going to hang out in Quito. I talk to the Famly Practice residents in the evening about abnormal uterine bleeding and HRT.