Last weekend a group from Principa College taking part in a program organized by the University of San Francisco Quito (USFQ) visited Santa Lucía. They only stayed for three days, so the program that we had organized was pretty tough.
We manged the give them a good introduction into what a Cloud Forest is and what's its typical components are .
After some practice on identifying hummingbirds at our feeders and night hike we used the second morning for a McKinnen survey on the bird species around the lodge and on the self-guided trail. After four hours or so the curve still didn't reach a plateau (if you know what I mean ;)
Later that afternoon the students received an introduction into the diversity and importance of epipythes in a cloud forest eco-system.
And just when we thought they were tired they asked for another night hike
As Saturday was the so-called global big day for birders we left the lodge early and birded all the way down to the place were the bus picked them up. We reached around 100 species in 3,5 hours. No bad, ay?
So, thank you for your visit guys. We hope to see you again soon!