DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Cachote; Sierra de Neiba NP

Day 6 / Feb 10 – Today we transferred from one region of the Dominican Republic to another, aiming to find the few remaining endemic species we needed.  Before embarking on the long drive, we took a pre-breakfast trek back up the eastern slope of the Sierra de Bahoruco to Cachote, navigating yet another rough, rocky road.  We arrived in this high elevation montane cloud forest at first light, and could hear our target Eastern Chat-Tanagers calling.  We tracked one down for reasonably good views of it perching on a branch in the lush, moist understory.  As expected, they stopped calling a half-hour after daybreak, and could not be found again.  This was our 30th of 32 Hispaniolan avian endemics.

Cachote, home of the Eastern Chat-Tanager

Descending the hill, we stopped when we heard Hispaniolan Giant Geckos. Despite their large size, we could not locate any of the half dozen calling around us.

After breakfast, we checked out of the Casa Bonita lodge and began journeying eastwards. We still needed one endemic from this part of the country – the Hispaniolan Loggerhead Kingbird.  It eluded us on our visit to the northern slope so we ventured in to the lovely Sierra de Neiba National Park, and found some suitable thorn scrub along a dry stream bed. Gabriel, picked a likely spot to stop and within minutes we located one perched beside the road. We also found Broad-billed Todies, Yellow-faced Grassquits and Hispaniolan Pewee along the way.

Following a wonderful buffet lunch at Cujuil in San Juan de la Maguana, we continued the long drive to the Eastern part of the country, slowed by crossing the congested capital of Santo Domingo.  We stopped briefly at a marsh west of Bani, adding Killdeer to our trip list, but mid-afternoon heat meant minimal bird activity.

Once through the capital city, the landscape changed from mesquite, cactus and green rolling hills to dominating fields of monotonous sugarcane.  Everywhere people were cutting down cane stalks, stacking it onto carts and train carriages, and working at factories bellowing dark smoke. Clearly, sugarcane is a driving force in the economy of the Dominican Republic.

By dark we reached the Paraiso Cano Hondo in the northeastern part of the country.  This lodge would serve as our base in the search for the critically-endangered, endemic Ridgway’s Hawk, confined only to the mountain ranges of Los Haities National Park.  Tomorrow, our search would begin.

all photos © adrian binns