Day 4 Saturday 1.7.23
We both slept well and woke at the same time just after 5am. It was light, but cloudy and we birded from the verandah as we had breakfast.
There were heaps of Large-tailed Grackles – probably the dominant bird of the area - and within view of our position we had Yellow-crowned Euphonia
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| Yellow-crowned Euphonia |
Red-lored Parrot
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| Red-lored Parrot |
White-winged Doves
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| White-winged Dove |
A somewhat distant but very recognizable Montezuma Oropendola – a bird I had really wanted, cool – Orange-fronted Parakeet in numbers, Great Kiskadees, Red-billed Pigeon flybys, Blue-gray Tanager, Blue and White Swallows, distant soaring Black Vultures and, admittedly several other species we just couldn’t ID with confidence.
Around 6.15 we decided to go for a walk in the general area and started picking up new birds as went. The sun came out during our walk but the wind persisted which was a real pain. Trying to ID Hummingbirds when its windy is not an easy matter!
Clay-coloured Thrush with food for young, mobbing a cat.
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| Clay-coloured Thrush |
Cabanis’s Wren was a nice endemic - seen well, but no photographs yet – several calling along the track back to the main road.
We turned left and walked down the road looking for another track. The road was narrow with no ‘verge’ and the traffic, although slow moving was a constant challenge. A few hundred meters further and we found a wide unsealed track going to an Extreme Experience place – we never saw the end of that road and there were a regular stream of cars, a bus, motorbikes and small trucks but they were moving slowly and it was quite safe and generally peaceful. Heavy semi-deciduous forest along the track provided plenty of opportunity and we were kept engaged for the next 4 hours.
Yellow-throated Euphonia
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| Yellow-throated Euphonia |
A trio of Northern Emerald Toucanets were brilliant, but challenging to see and at one point I turned around and a magnificent Swallow-tailed Kite soared overhead – absolute MAGIC!
We used the Merlin app to ID a Rufous-and-white Wren and had brief glimpses as it responded to ‘encouragement’. Chestnut-capped Warblers here and there…
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| Chestnut-capped Warbler |
Brown Jay on a couple of occasions
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| Brown Jay |
Lesser Greenlets and a pair of Red-legged Honeycreepers were seen, but impossible to photograph.
We diverted down the only side track we found and could hear a Three-wattled Bellbird ‘boinging’ away in the distance. It refused to respond, but at least we knew it was there – it’s another very-much-wanted bird that obviously hasn’t migrated to the lowlands yet.
Down the track we spotted movement in a nearby tree and eventually a couple of Keel-billed Toucans performed brilliantly.
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| Keel-billed Toucan |
Video....
https://youtu.be/YnNfJra1Yec
Back on the main track and a Variegated Squirrel Sciurus variegatoides over our heads
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| Variegated Squirrel Sciurus variegatoides |
And a pair of Yellow-faced Grassquits nest building
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| Yellow-faced Grassquit |
While checking them out I saw what I believe was an Green Spiny Lizard Sceloporus malachiticus on a fence stump.
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| Green Spiny Lizard Sceloporus malachiticus |
There were also a number of butterflies. I didn't spend too much time with them, but did take a couple of photos for later identification.
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| Mexican Silverspot Dione moneta |
Further on along the main track we could hear a Woodpecker, but just could not see it, but we did find Bright-rumped Attila, a rather average looking bird with a strong strident song and an interesting rump! It was, in fact, listed on Merlin as ‘Rare’ in this area, but there was no doubt about it.
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| Bright-rumped Attila |
House Wren and Slate-throated Redstart followed, then a few Vaux’s Swift overhead and finally on our way back home – Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher.
When we got back there were three Swallow-tailed Kites in the valley below, one soaring beautifully over the trees – just a freaking brilliant bird!
We were pretty knackered after our walk, the tracks had been steep and rough in places and I, at least, was feeling the strain. We picked up a baguette at the local bakery and had lunch while we ‘recovered’. The clouds were starting to build and we had a 15 minute thunderstorm of huge noise and flashes, but it still hadn’t rained.
Mr H spotted a hummingbird feeder off the next-door verandah – there didn’t seem to be any ‘food’ in it, but it and the nearby flowers attracted a few hummingbirds and we spent some time trying to ID them. They really are challenging – and it’s great when they do perch up!
We had Rufous-tailed Hummingbird and Canivet’s Emerald for sure and Mr H had a Violet Sabrewing that I wasn’t in time to see. We also picked up a Common Tody-flycatcher while we watched for the hummers.
In the end we identified 4 species in the immediate vicinity adding Steely-vented Hummingbird, apparently a relatively recent split from Blue-vented, and I caught up with the Violet Sabrewing. Amazingly even in the pouring rain the hummers were very active both around the feeders and the local vegetation, but the light was too poor to stop them in flight.
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| Female Canivet's Emerald |
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| Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird |
Around 13.30 we headed into ‘town’ to pick up some groceries and look at clothes for Mr H as there was no word on his bag arriving. I got a pair of cheap sunglasses as for some inexplicable reason I had brought none with me – or lost them somewhere along the way.
As we finished shopping it started to rain and by the time we got home, was absolutely bucketing down in the usual tropical manner. It did keep the temperature down, although so far that hadn’t been an issue, and gave us an excuse to relax and sort photos, write notes and generally have some downtime.
Not a bad start given our physical condition, jet lag and the weather conditions.
Birds: 39 Lifers: 26 Mammals: 1 Lifers: 1 Reptiles: 1 Lifers: 1
Day 5 Sunday 2.7.23
Neither of us slept particularly well, probably due to jet lag and were up again just after 5.00.
We sat on the veranda again birding while we ate breakfast.
The usual birds (!) were around and we added Smoky Brown Woodpecker and Lesson’s Motmot to our life lists.
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| Lesson's Motmot |
We also had a very close Tropical Kingbird.
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| Tropical Kingbird |
The previous day, Alberto, our host, had suggested we take a guided walk in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We had had every intention of going there anyway and thought, maybe, it wouldn’t be a bad introduction to Costa Rica’s National Parks. Neither of us are keen on guides for birding, but, rightly or wrongly we did it anyway.
So at 7.20 as agreed ‘Kevin’, a local guy, showed up in a 4WD and enthusiastically ushered us off towards the National Park, about 15/20 minutes drive. He was very professional and as it turned out a very good bird guide – which we had not anticipated. I am not a fan of guides because I find they identify stuff so much and so fast that it all becomes a blur and nothing is seen particularly well. It also limits time for photography which I like to do. However, Resplendent Quetzal had been mentioned and ‘almost promised’ and this was a big drawcard. The national bird of Guatemala it is THE bird everyone wants to see so….
Along the way Kevin pulled into the side of the road and told us we would be spending a few minutes here waiting for the rest of the tour group and there were good birds to see!
There were! In 10 minutes we had a distant Three-wattled Bellbird twice – unfortunately a female only, but a tick is a tick, sort of! We also had Keel-billed Toucan, Palm Tanager, Coppery-headed Emerald, Stripe-tailed Hummingbird and White-eared Ground-Sparrow. As expected – no time for photos and we moved on to the entrance of the park.
We had to wait here again for about another 15 minutes when the rest of the tour turned up with another driver. There were 4 ‘older’ customers, 3 female and 1 male, 2 young kids who held hands all the way around and another couple around our age. None were birders – and this is commonly the other problem with these guided tours – a lack of interest in our interest and a complete lack of understanding or knowledge of birding. I don’t mean to disparage people – its just that’s the way it is, but this group bore up well and showed genuine interest in everything so it wasn’t so bad. Kevin also put a lot of effort into the birds for us while not ignoring the others – as I mentioned, he was very professional.
In the waiting area – a large cobbled open air area – we had Olive-striped Flycatcher and a very brief but close view of Silver-throated Tanager which looked stunning but disappeared way too quickly.
We set off into the forest – typical wet tropical, muddy, thick rainforest, strangler vines, exotic looking plants etc and we had the following during the next 3 hour walk.
Mountain Thrush, Emerald Green Toucanet, Black-faced Solitaire, Grey-breasted Wood Wren, Collared Trogon (which we had had yesterday, changing our identification decision from Gartered), Lineated Foliage Gleaner, Mistletoe Tyrannulet, Collared Redstart, Prong-billed Barbet, Costa Rican Warbler, Slaty-backed Nightingale-thrush, Olivaceous and Spotted Woodcreeper, Spotted Barbtail and, of course, the promised Resplendent Quetzal!
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| Black-faced Solitaire |
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| Resplendent Quetzal |
We also had a Cat-eyed Snake Leptodeira septentrionalis curled up in a hole in the bank and a Central American Agouti Dasyprocta punctate.
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| Central American Agouti Dasyprocta punctata |
When we exited the park there was a group of Panamian White-faced Capuchins Cebus imitator commonly known as White-faced Monkeys - jumping around in the trees overlooking the waiting area. I tried for photos and took a number, but nothing worth keeping.
Kevin then took us into a hummingbird garden beside a coffee shop and we had the usual craziness of dozens of hummingbirds flying around the feeders in very close proximity. I’s prefer not to take photos on feeders but there is little choice if one wants photos of hummers – its just too hard to even see them in the wild generally.
We had:
Violet Sabrewing
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| Violet Sabrewing |
Green Hermit
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| Green Hermit - its bill was so long it couldn't land on the feeder |
Green-crowned Brilliant
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| Green-crowned Brilliant (male) |
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| Green-crowned Brilliant (female - my favourite) |
Lesser Violetear
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| Lesser Violetear |
Purple-throated Mountain-Gem
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| Purple-throated Mountain-Gem (male) |
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| Purple-throated Mountain-Gem (female) |
Kevin, Mr H and I had coffee then we headed home, paying $110US for the tour – approx $2 per tick each and the animals and snake thrown in for nothing!
On the way home we stopped off at a lookout point to check again for Bellbirds - apparently they sit up in the crowns of trees to call and the lookout was a regular spot. We parked on the opposite side of the road from the lookout and as we waited to cross the narrow road through the relatively slow moving traffic, a Bassethound trotted towards us - to be run over right in front of our eyes by a minibus! Lots of howling as the van immediately stopped and the dog shot out the rear end and went haring off down the road, presumably homeward bound. All a bit shocking at the time, but I think the dog was OK. I had never seen a Bassethound run so fast!
We failed on anymore Bellbirds but did see a Buff-throated Saltator.
Back home I took some photos to remember our Air BnB by….
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| Our entrance track - all the electricity meters are at the end of the driveway or roadside - makes reading meters a bit easier and safer. Especially for you, Ms R! |
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| I don't think Mr H knew he was in this shot - the gate slides back on an entered code. Our unit is top left. |
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| View from the veranda as the clouds roll in. |
And we had no sooner got in the door than it started to rain and it continued on and off for the rest of the afternoon, evening.
Mr H spotted a White-throated Magpie Jay in the garden – stunning bird!
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| White-throated Magpie-Jay |
A little while later and a number of Grey-headed Chachalacas showed up in the crowns of the tallest trees – they gradually came closer and I got some shots through the rain.
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| Grey-headed Chachalaca |
Video of same:
https://youtu.be/48_yhuc6Pyc
A Motezuma Oropendela also sat up in a tree just within camera range.
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| Montezuma Oropendola |
Video:
https://youtu.be/vkB5yBSyK1Y
We also had brief view of a Hoffman’s Woodpecker and Mr H got to tick Rufous-collared Sparrow – all in all a pretty good day, all thing considered. We both achieved 29 lifers (birds) – not my biggest day, but very satisfying none the less. We reckoned we had now seen 75% of the ‘Most Likely’ birds on the Merlin app for the area plus a couple of ‘Uncommon’ and ‘Rare’ – not bad for two days birding. To preserve our integrity and self respect we didn’t ‘tick’ 3 species that Kevin ‘called’ but which we felt we didn’t see properly and completing the daily log we could clearly remember all the birds we did add to our lists. Again not something we would normally do, but as a one off in a difficult environment – now I was just making excuses…. I spent most of the wet afternoon sorting through almost 900 photos reducing them to 215 - and running in and out as Mr H spotted birds from the veranda.
During the afternoon we also drove into Santa Elena – the nearest village – and I dropped Mr H off so he could do some more grocery shopping. I picked him up 30 minutes later without any issues – it saved me trying to find parking which was difficult in the tight streets and busy township.
Birds: 73 Lifers: 55 Mammals: 3 Lifers: 3 Reptiles: 2 Lifers: 2
Day 6 Monday 3.7.23
Again sleep wasn’t the best and we were up again at 5 to a dull, cloudy morning. The birds were pretty quiet around the veranda but we did have a brief visit from a Chestnut-bellied Saltator to start off another day of ticks.
We left just after 6 and drove up towards the Cloud Forest Reserve stopping at the same spot we had visited with Kevin the previous day. We saw the Stripe-tailed and Blue-vented Hummingbirds again, Yellow-faced Grassquit and Purple-throated Mountain-Gem and picked up a Streak-headed Woodcreeper on a nearby tree.
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| (Slightly blurry) Streak-headed Woodcreeper |
Then we headed off to San Jose and the Juan Santamaría airport. Mr H still hadn’t heard anything from British Airways, American Airlines or Air Mexico regarding his bag. We were hoping that it had arrived over the weekend. Normally we would have insisted they deliver it to us, but being unable to communicate with anyone negated that option.
We stopped for a quick coffee before San Jose and picked up Bronzed Cowbird outside in the carpark. The traffic hadn’t been too bad – and parked up at the airport around 10.15.
Going through the security we had to explain why we were there because we didn’t have any bags with us they thought we were suspicious, but we talked our way through and approached the American Airlines customer assistance desk. Amanda listened to the complicated story and here it is in detail…
Mr H bussed it to Dublin from Belfast and checked into a BA flight to London. That was delayed for a mechanical default for 2.5 hours resulting in him missing his flight with American Airlines to Miami.
When he was there BA re-booked him onto a flight to Denver, but never confirmed the booking officially.
They then changed it to Mexico City and off he flew.
In Mexico City he flew with Air Mexico to Costa Rica.
So everyone was denying responsibility for tracking his bag.
However, Amanda spent 20 minutes making phone calls and sure enough his bag was there in the airport.
One of the problems was one cannot enter the Arrivals area at all. One can only enter the Departures area so you couldn’t approach a ‘Baggage Claims ‘desk’. However, there was another entrance where you could make a call on a provided phone and they would send someone to meet you. We did that, but couldn’t get any answer. Eventually we got assistance and some dude took Mr H inside past the security and he emerged 10 minutes later with his bag.
(I know long boring story – but it’s what I do)
We hopped in the car and made tracks for the 3 hour drive back to ‘home’.
We filled up with fuel – 26,793 colones = $74 Aus, @ 759 colones per litre or $1.20 Aus.
Further down the road we stopped at a bridge over a largish shallow river and found a good range of birds – and some new ticks to boot.
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
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| Black-bellied Whistling Duck |
American White Ibis
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| American White Ibis |
Rufous-naped Wren
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| Rusty-naped Wren |
Blue-black Grassquit
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| Blue-black Grassquit |
Ringed Kingfisher
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| Ringed Kingfisher |
Neotropic Cormorant, Great Egret, Mangrove Swallow, Black Phoebe and Grey-breasted Martin.
We decided to stop for something to eat and pulled into a local joint on the side of the main road. For 10,000 colones ($27 Aus) we both had a plate full of food served from a buffet which included rice and beans, chicken for me, beef for himself, fried plantain, very yellow mashed potato and a small serve of salsa with a few corn chips. We each had a large glass of Mango juice and a coffee afterwards. Quite filling and very tasty.
Further on we pulled in to a roadside stall and bought a kilo of Lychees and 2 big avocadoes for 4,000 colones ($11 Aus).
We headed on and turned off for the 30 odd km drive up into the mountains. We stopped again beside a river and immediately had a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron fishing knee-deep in the water.
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| Bare-throated Tiger-Heron |
Along the bank we picked up another Ringed Kingfisher, White-collared Seedeater, Blue Grosbeak and Orange-chinned Parakeet.
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| Orange-chinned Parakeet |
We also had a Brown Basilisk Basiliscus cafe on the riverbank.
Try catching one of THESE Linc!
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| Brown Basilisk Basiliscus cafe |
Moving on yet again we stopped further up the same river and added Stripe-headed Sparrow to our life lists.
Back home around 15.30 we relaxed – both pretty tired – and watched the sun go down on our first evening without rain or storm - and Mr H changed his underwear for the first time in 5 days.
It feels like we've been here for a month - and its only three days, with another 41 days to go....
Birds: 91 Lifers: 67 Mammals: 3 Lifers: 3 Reptiles: 3 Lifers: 3
Day 7 Tuesday 4.7.23
We slept better and didn’t wake until 6am. Got up, had breakfast and then went for a walk in the immediate area. We didn’t find any new birds, but did re-see some of our previous conquests and I got photos of a couple of those.
There were at least 7 Swallow-tailed Kites perched up or gliding around the distant ridge and I had a female Red-legged Honeycreeperfrom the veranda before we left. We also had a view of our first confirmed White-tipped Dove.
We had Rufous-collared Sparrows, Orange-fronted Parakeets, another distant Smoky-brown Woodpecker, a pair of aggressive White-throated Magpie-Jays which had young in a nearby tree, Yellow-faced Grassquit, Blue & White Swallows, Bronze Cowbird and White-eared Ground-Sparrow.
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| Bronze Cowbird |
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| White-eared Ground-Sparrow |
We cleaned up, packed up and left the unit at 8.30.
We were heading for La Cruz – a village or area on the coast in the north west of the country right on the Nicaraguan border. We could have driven down the road to the highway – but that would have been the longer route and the safest…. Instead MapsMe (and Mr H) took us over the hills cross-country to hit the highway further north.
The road was narrow, very twisting and for the vast part – unsealed. In places it was almost low range 4WD. The Rav4 handled it well and I was very pleased to have it. It took 2 hours before we reached the highway, but we had had no traffic, in fact almost no other idiots, cars and it was all part of the adventure. Along the way we stopped off at viewpoints and rivers and picked up some birds along the way – which is what its all about.
Another Bare-throated Tiger-Heron in a creek and…
Crested Caracara
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| Crested Caracara |
Common Ground-Dove
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| Common Ground-Dove |
Laughing Falcon, flushed off the road to land nearby – really cool!
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| Laughing Falcon |
Green Heron
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| Green Heron |
Stripe-headed Sparrow – from the car.
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| Stripe-headed Sparrow |
The highway north was really good, a paved 2 lanes most of the way past Liberia and then a good one lane road to our turnoff. I was pretty tired when we got there and the high humidity and heat after the mountains was debilitating.
We had to wait a little while for our AirBnB host as we were very early and picked up Magnificent Frigatebird, Brown Pelican and a Black Tern along an inlet from the main ocean and a Black-headed Trogon and a Squirrel Cuckoo near our next stay. Mr H saw a Stripe-backed Oriole that I missed, but picked up again later in the afternoon.
Our AirBnB host, Louisa, was very apologetic as she showed us our room. Literally that, a room with two beds, a sink and an en-suite shower. We explained we wanted to cook and needed a refrigerator so, in the end, she offered to let us use a bigger unit to cook and store our food, but we would sleep in our original unit as it had working air-con. Good solution, we were happy.
It was all very basic, no running hot water, limited kitchen tools - although she did lend us a rice cooker – plastic plates and minimal cutlery. I mean we could cope easily, but it was basic, there wasn’t even a mirror in the bathroom which made shaving potentially dangerous. I did manage, however, without shaving off my lips.
We drove around the local area picking up some bread, milk and eggs. In the first shop we went to they had no eggs and wouldn’t have any until Saturday – this was Tuesday. The second shop had heaps, but was about 5 kms away. The area was a holiday area with some nice beaches – apparently. We couldn’t get near the beach without paying for parking at the one access point we found – we didn’t stop, after all we weren’t here for the beach.
At one point we flushed a Common Black Hawk from a field beside the road, we also saw a second bird closer to ‘home’ but both flew off without perched views.
Eventually we found ourselves at the end of an unsealed track with mangroves down to the back of the beach. We didn’t actually go on the beach as we would have either had to wade or drive across a channel and we weren’t doing that so just walked the track instead for a couple of hundred meters.
We found a group of Mantled Howler Monkeys Alouatta palliata in the mangroves. Large and black, Louisa had referred to them as Congos and their loud hooting could be heard for miles.
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| Mantled Howler Monkey |
Video
https://youtu.be/IrS4z5jTTt4
We did find a stunning Turquoise-browed Motmot and, later, a second one that presented better for photos. Check out that tail!
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| Turquoise-browed Motmot |
Back ‘home’ we relaxed and watched the trees in the compound. An Yellow-olive Flycatcher presented an identification challenge while it appeared to feed young in a hanging nest. A couple of Yellow-green Vireos passed through. A cacophony of noise outside in the road attracted our attention and we found it to be a group of Yellow-naped Parrots going off. While looking for/at them Mr H spotted a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl sitting quietly in a tree. Whether it was this that was setting the Parrots off or not we weren’t sure.
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| Yellow-olive Flycatcher |
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| Ferruginous Pygmy Owl |
As the afternoon drew to a close we sat and sweated and watched the thunderstorm overhead, but we got no rain. We had dinner, wrote notes and crashed in our coldroom.
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| Juno Longwing Dione juno |
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Black Crescent Anthanassa ptolyca
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Birds: 109 Lifers: 77 Mammals: 4 Lifers: 4 Reptiles: 3 Lifers: 3
Day 8 Wednesday 5.7.23
The air con gave us a good night’s sleep but we were up just after 5 as usual.
After breakfast, during which a group of Howler Monkeys visited the compound and hung out in the trees overhead, we headed off to Santa Rosa National Park, about 20 kms away. Along the way on the quiet road a juvenile Yellow-headed Caracara flew up from the road and landed again behind us.
Further up a flock of American White Ibis and 2 (Western?) Cattle Egrets were in a roadside field.
We drove the entrance road (10 kms) slowly checking the verges and roadside bush, at one point leaving the car and walking in to an open field where we had a nice perched up Gray Hawk.
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| Gray Hawk |
We saw several White-tailed Deer through the day – this one was the first one in the field.
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| White-tailed Deer |
Arriving, eventually, at 7.50 (10 minutes before opening) at the park gate kiosk, we chatted to the dude on the gate who was very helpful – and took our $34 entry fee. He then directed us back to a turn off prior to the actual entrance where we parked up beside the camping ground and wandered around for a couple of hours trying to find the correct track. It wasn’t very clear despite his assistance and hand drawn map. We did waste a lot of time in this endeavour and didn’t see much for our trouble.
We did have a couple of Black-headed Trogons that Mr H determined were NOT Gartered (he’s got a thing going about Gartered Trogon which, I can see, is going to last the next 40 days – there’s always some bird that causes endless thought, discussion and frustration - GT is it this trip).
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| Black-headed trogon |
We also had loads of Yellow-green Vireos, Common Ground Doves, Clay-coloured Thrushes, a couple of Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers, a Streak-headed Woodcreeper,
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Streak-headed Woodcreeper
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a Hoffmann’s Woodpecker and White-lored Gnatcatcher. A pair of Streak-backed Orioles showed well, but the photos were only so so.
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| Streak-backed Oriole |
Further up the road a Roadside Hawk showed well for Mr H’s lifer tick.
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| Roadside Hawk |
We got back to the campground and sat for a bit, during which sit, Mr H spotted a Crested Guan just sitting in a tree nearby. Guans seem to do this, strange for such a big bird.
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| Crested Guan |
Then we found the track we were supposed to be walking – a 4.5 km circuit through mostly deciduous type habitat, pretty dense with loads of thorny plants just waiting to snare the ignorant birder. There were also biting flies. Jesus, I had one that bit me 3 or 4 times before I squashed the living bejasus outta it.
So we st off on the track around 10.30. It was hot, humid and windy. In fact if it hadn’t been windy we would have died, no other word for it, it did keep us a bit cooler than we might have been, but overall it was a close run thing. I had had enough by 11.30, bluntly, but Mr H was keen to carry on so carry-on we did. By the time we got back out of that track at 14.00, I was just staggering along. It wasn’t the distance – 4.5 kms is nothing – but with the heat, my general condition….. it was nearly the end of me.
Anyway we did have some good birds through the morning - and some frustrations – and likely a number of birds we just didn’t get onto. Mr H has brilliant ears and eyes – my eyes were playing up and, as we all know, my hearing leaves something to be desired. Some views were really good, some were pretty shit and some were just awful.
To start with as we approached the beginning of the track a Thicket Tinamou trotted ahead of us down the main car track. I took some photos, but its just its back so….Finally a Tinamou! Yahha I can hear you all say!! Or WTF’s a Tinamou – bear with me.
Banded Wren – poor views
Long-billed Gnatwren – good views – cool looking bird.
Grey-headed Tanager
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| Grey-headed Tanager |
Ruddy Woodcreeper
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| Ruddy Woodcreeper |
Cinnamon Hummingbird – always difficult to get good views in the wild.
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| Cinnamon Hummingbird |
It was at this stage that we had the most frustrating views. Long-tailed Mannikins were calling (identified via Merlin app) and we went off-track to try to see them. We did see them flying in the canopy from tree to tree, but got very little on them, apart from hearing and knowing we were seeing them. I hummed and hawed about adding them to my list, but did in the end, in the hopes/expectations of seeing more.
Blue Ground Dove – very good views, but I didn’t think to get my camera out!
Mr H got his Boat-billed Flycatcher tick and we also had 2 Nutting’s Flycatchers at the same open field type spot.
Towards the end of the trek we heard an Ivory-billed Woodcreeper calling and brought it in with a bit of encouragement – I also badly needed a sit down for a while so it was a great excuse.
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| Ivory-billed Woodcreeper |
The last bird of that trek was a second Hoffmann's Woodpecker which did hang around long enough...
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| Hoffmann's Woodpecker |
At one point we also came across an ant swarm of sorts. The ants were pretty small but performed in the classic manner, carrying cut leaves back to their nest - pretty cool!
Video
https://youtu.be/Lfjh09vYQBU
Also along the way we had two large birds walk off the track ahead of us. At the time we guessed they were Guans, but on reflection and investigation Mr H suggested they were Great Curassows and so we accepted the reality.
Back at the campground I had a little collapse, stuck my head under the tap, drank a load of water (I had run out an hour or so before) and lay down on a picnic table for a few minutes. When I started to feel like I would survive a bit longer, we drove ‘home’.
We did have several iguana type lizards, they were pretty cool. I mean GREEN Lizards? Come on!
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| Central American Green Iguana Iguana verde |
As there were very limited cooking facilities where we were staying – despite Louisa doing her best – we decided to eat out and went to a local restaurant where I had grilled chicken breast, fried plantains and a salad. Mr H had a seafood salad of some sort – total cost about $35 Aus (including two beers). As we ate three Northern Racoons Procyon lotor climbed a tree beside the restaurant.
We went spotlighting and along the road we had a White-nosed Coati Naua narica aka Coatimundi and what looked suspiciously like a Cane Toad.
We parked up and walked in a track towards the beach. High in a tree we had what I think was a Kinkajou Potos flavus correction - a Central American Woolly Opossum Caluromys derbianus!
Back at the car we played some stuff and ended up bringing in at least 2 Pacific Screech Owls for really decent views.
By now it was getting on and we headed home for a beer and a crash after completing the daily log.
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| Malachite Siproeta stelenes |
Birds: 129 Lifers: 92 Mammals: 7 Lifers: 6 Reptiles: 3 Lifers: 3
Day 9 Thursday 6.7.23
Today was a day of travel, but we birded around the immediate area for an hour or so before leaving.
In the compound while we finished breakfast a Gray-necked (or Cowled) Wood Rail walked across to the river. When we moved forward to look for it, we found a Ringed Kingfisher perched up nicely so….
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Ringed Kingfisher
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As we looked at that a smaller, Amazon Kingfisher zoomed past.
We walked up the road and poked around a bit of bush along the mangrove creek. Nothing else new, but we had a pair of Turquoise-browed Motmots, A Green Heron, flushed another Common Black Hawk, a trio of Orange-fronted Parakeets perched up and a pair of Groove-billed Anis appeared to be building a nest in a palm tree.
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| Groove-billed Ani |
I also managed to get the camera on a Yellow-naped Parrot. They were a big chunky bird, but amazingly difficult to get onto when feeding.
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| Yellow-naped Parrot |
Another bird nesting – Rufous-naped Wren – one of my favourites.
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| Rufous-naped Wren @ nest |
It was very hot and humid, even though it was only 7.30 and we were glad of the air-conditioning in the car when we headed off at 8.
A few Ks up the road I said I was sorry we’d missed the Thick-knee the previous day and just about then spotted a pair standing in a field beside the road – Double-striped Thick-Knee, the only member of its family in Costa Rica and we won’t have a chance again so…
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| Double-striped Thick-Knee |
The drive to the new location was approx 180 kms and MapsMe predicted 4 hours or so.
It took us 7 hours, including a stop for fuel and a coffee in the only Mackers we’ve seen so far. (Fuel – 720 colones/l = $2.00 Aus, Total: 27,000 colones = $75.00 Aus). The first half was good – double lane highway, quite new and quite fast, sitting on 100-110 k/h.
Then it became a two lane road with no centre divide and the traffic was horrendous in places.
At one spot a truck had fallen off the edge of the road and was lying on its side in a deep ditch. They were pulling it out and the tailback went on for kms. At another spot the local Mains Road dudes were painting a speed limit on the road and so had the oncoming side completely closed off! That delayed everyone both ways by about 20 minutes.
They should get a job with Main Roads In Queensland – they’d fit right in.
No one pays any attention to the speed limits on the open road anyway……..
At one point we stopped for more road works and I got out for a smoke as we sat motionless for nearly 30 minutes…
Anyway we got to the airport at San Jose about 14.00. Mr H had suggested we stop off there so we could speak to someone from Copa Airlines about cancelling our tickets to Cuba. I had been unable to establish contact via email and the only other option was to call their call centre – and phone communication was proving near on impossible apart from messenger or WhatsApp.
We parked up and went in – talked our way past security again – and stood at the vacant Copa Airlines desk for about 20 minutes. It was obvious no one was coming out so we went for a coffee and then tried again – no luck. An information desk kindly called Copa and I spoke to a ‘Daniel’. He cancelled the flights and told me I could use the credit within the next year. Unfortunately he could not refund any money even though I am unlikely to use Copa Airlines anytime soon.
We were hoping this was the last time we would see the inside of an airport for the next 5 weeks.
We headed on, drove through the centre of San Jose and stopped at a K Mart grocery store (!) to buy some food, before arriving at our new Air BnB in Poas, near the volcano.
The host had advertised the place as ‘with a kitchen’. The ‘kitchen’ comprised a dripolator coffee machine, a microwave and a fridge, multiple forks and t-spoons, saucers and cups, one desert spoon, no knives and no other kitchen utensils., stove or burners.
There were separate bedrooms with double beds that took up 90% of the floor in each. He left another room for us to put our bags in – which was helpful as we’d have been sleeping with our rucksacks otherwise.
About an hour after we arrived he turned up to see us, went away and came back with another desert spoon, a kitchen knife and an electric frying pan.
One of the interesting (?) things in Costa Rica we had found so far is there was no running hot water in the bathroom sinks. The showers had hot water, of course, well most did, La Cruz didn’t, but the bathroom sinks only had one tap – and this ‘kitchen’ too only had one tap – cold. Weird. It does make shaving a bit difficult. I used a bowl of hot water from the kettle – or where we were presently, the microwave. No wonder most of the men wear beards….
I might note here too – you can’t put toilet paper down the toilets.
Once you’ve used it it goes in a bin beside the toilet.
Yep, yep, yep, not my favourite activity either!
But even in the airport with its self flushing toilets… Apparently, similar to Asia, the plumbing system can’t handle it, but, unlike Thailand, they don’t provide a hose or water…..
We sat outside as the afternoon dwindled with heavy cloud/mist moving in and rain pattering on the tin roof. It was cool, getting cold – a complete contrast to our start at La Cruz in the morning. We had a few birds while we sat Most significant – a distant but recognisable Crimson-fronted Parakeet and a Tropical Mockingbird perched up nearby.
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| Tropical Mockingbird |
We also had close Blue Gray Tanagers and a pair of Southern Lapwings flew by in the mist – a lifer for Mr H.
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Blue Grey Tanager
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As the light faded into what was a dreary, damp, cool evening we moved inside and Mr H concocted a very passable dinner from rice, beans, capsicum and sausages.
Birds: 135 Lifers: 96 Mammals: 7 Lifers: 6 Reptiles: 3 Lifers: 3
Day 10 Friday 7.7.23
It rained through much of the night, but the day dawned dry and relatively clear. It was cool – almost cold, at 6 when we finished breakfast and headed up to the Poas Volcano Reserve.
The gate was closed- didn’t open until 8, but that was OK as we birded the road outside and had a bit of a tick-fest for the hour and a half.
The light was shit and most of the birds were dull coloured or even just black so the photo results weren’t great and quite challenging.
We had Black and Yellow Silky-Flycatcher which looked like a thrush, Yellow-thighed Brushfinch showing off its yellow thighs nicely, but impossible to get on camera, Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush and Ruddy-capped Nightingale Thrush, Fiery-throated Hummingbird, Sooty-capped Chlorospingus, Sooty Thrush and Slaty Flowerpiercer along with Clay-coloured Thrushes, Rufous-collared Sparrows and Lesser Violetears and saw these birds again and again during the morning’s walk, getting better – or worse – photos as we went.
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| Black & Yellow Silky-Flycatcher (female) |
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| Black & Yellow Silky-Flycatcher (male) |
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| Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush |
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| Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush |
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| Fiery-throated Hummingbird |
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| Mountain Elaenia |
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| Slaty Flowerpiercer |
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| Sooty Thrush |
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| Sooty-capped Chlorospingus |
We had already booked on-line – or at least Mr H had – paying approx $15US each to enter the park so that was straight forward – you have to book on-line, no choice. Then we had to pay 2,750 colones ($8 Aus) to park, which seemed a bit of a rip off, but anyway…
We parked up and walked in. It was about a 20 minute straight walk to the viewpoint over the caldera, we took about 40 minutes birding along the way.
The caldera was a bit ho-hum, looking more like a semi-flooded deserted quarry except the bluish lake in the bottom was steaming.
It was very busy with dozens of noisy tourists taking selfies and over-talking each other. I found it difficult to maintain my patience, to be honest.
We walked up a continuous gradient to another viewpoint overlooking a lake and ran into more noisy visitors who virtually pushed us aside to get their photos. That track continued for a couple of hours through dense rainforest and we saw birds along the way adding Scintillant Hummingbird to our list, but dipping on Volcano Hummingbird.
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| Scintillant Hummingbird |
At the end of the track we arrived back at the visitor’s centre and had a welcome coffee and cake. In the shop I found Reid & Zamora’s Pocket Guide to the Mammals of Costa Rica and shelled out $36 US for a copy. On reviewing our mammals of two nights ago, I realised that what I had thought might be a Kinkajou, was in fact a Central American Woolly Opossum Caluromys derbianus - it had been a poor mistake to make as they are completely different, but now, at least, we knew better.
After our sit down we walked back out along the road towards the caldera again, mainly looking for Peg-billed Finch, but failing, just seeing more of what we had already seen.
We saw a small squirrel a couple of times around the visitor's centre and the car park. It was a grey colour and the only one that fitted that description was Alfaro's Pygmy Squirrel Microsciurus alfari.
By now it was after midday, we’d been on the go for over 6 hours and were both pretty knackered so basically gave it away and headed ‘home’. Along the way I begged another stop for a cup of coffee and we pulled into a restaurant with a view for 2 relatively expensive lattes. From the window we did have, however, a flock of 7 Long-tailed Silky-Flycatchers that made it worthwhile. They were some distance away, but easily recognisable.
(We filled up with fuel again - 720/l, 18,089 colones = $50 Aus)
Back ‘home’ we relaxed and Mr H put some work into planning our stops for the next couple of weeks – and our additional two weeks. We had been finding that two nights in one place didn’t really give us enough of a break between driving days – I, especially, was feeling the strain a bit. The distances themselves weren’t difficult, and from my Ubering I was used to spending 6 or 8 hours driving - it was the traffic and the road conditions that made it very tiring.
The main roads were OK, but seemed to be mainly just two lanes with a lot of trucks and few passing opportunities and the steep hills made some journeys very slow, less than 40kms/h at times for 15 or 20 minutes stuck behind a slow truck or small van.
The side roads were twisty and tight and potholed to hell and back – and I mean bad potholes, I had to walk the car through them a lot of the time at zero speed. Very tiring. Maybe I’m just getting too old for this shit!
Hopefully the roads south of San Jose will at least be less busy.
After a rice, sausage, capsicum and fried plantain (really nice, like a sweet banana) we went for a drive up to the gate of the Park again and tried for nightbirds. We got no responses, BUT on the way up found a Nine-banded Armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus on the side of the road! It was bigger than I had expected and was snuffling around in the grass. I said too Mr H 'Do you think we could catch it?" Arnie the Armadillo must have heard me cause he took off at the speed of light and shot up the road and into a hole in the hedge and disappeared. I didn't;t know Armadillos could run so fast....
Birds: 146 Lifers: 107 Mammals: 9 Lifers: 8 Reptiles: 4 Lifers: 3
Day 11 Saturday 8.7.23
We were up by 6 and packed and left by 7. We drove up to the volcano park entrance and birded the road until 8. It was very quiet, much quieter than the previous day and we didn’t spend a lot of time there.
We didn’t have a big drive , only about 65 kms, or about an hour and a half as predicted by MapsMe. But, as usual in Costa Rica style, roadworks put paid to THAT expectation and it was after 11 before we reached our new destination – La Selva Biological Research Centre.
Along the way we did stop off at a bridge over a river where white-water rafting was heavily advertised and a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and Amazon Kingfisher lived and we also had Scarlet-rumped or Passerini’s Tanager and a pair of Variable Seedeaters.
We stopped for a coffee in a village – it was just café con leche, but as everywhere in CR, it was served smokin’ hot, I mean take the skin off your face hot, hotter than Hades, Volcanically hot, my kind of coffee!
We arrived at the Research station and checked in at reception. We were given a room with 5 beds in it, because we were early and our planned room wasn’t ready. That was fine with us, the new one was closer to the car (parked near the security barrier) and the dining area and visitor center buildings. We dumped our stuff and wandered around for a bit.
All our meals were included in the tariff and at $95 US per night each, that’s OK!
We had more Scarlet-rumped Tanagers, White-tipped Dove, a very poor view of White-collared Mannikin, Mealy Parrots, Yellow-throated Toucan, Green Honeycreeper, White-lined Flycatcher, Social & Boat-billed Flycatchers, Palm Tanager, Golden-hooded Tanager, Black-cheeked Woodpecker and Mr H had a Shining Honeycreeper that I missed …. Crazy times!
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| Scarlet-rumped Tanager |
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| Palm Tanager |
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| Golden-hooded Tanager |
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| Green Honeyeater (female, the male is actually blue) |
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| White-ringed Flycatcher |
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| Yellow-throated Toucan |
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| Central American Green Iguana Iguana verde |
During our two forays we had lunch – a two-course meal served from a banquet style set up with as much juice, coffee and tea as one could drink. Rice, beans, fish cakes, veg mix and, separately, a salad.
It was stinking hot – 27, feels like 31, and 85% humidity. It was very uncomfortable and we were both sweat-wet as Shags. We took a break and lay on our beds for an hour or more with the fans going, no air-con. When we ventured out again at 16.00 we had Collared Aracari, Green Ibis and Red-lored Parrot.
It started to rain and we took shelter in the open-sided dining area and had coffee before trudging back to our room for another little lie down before dinner.
Three course dinner and as we finished Mr H heard a bird call, we walked outside and found a Common Pauraque then at 19.00 Tavo showed up to take us for a night walk.
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| Common Pauraque |
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| Costa Rican Forest Rabbit Sylvilagus gabbi |
It cost us $59 US each, but was worth it. We only had three birds – Middle American Screech Owl, Great Tinamou (the latter roosting high in a tree) and another Pauraque, but we also had a heap of insects, frogs, 4 snakes, a Costa Rican Forest Rabbit Sylvilagus gabbi and a Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth Bradypus variegatus.
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| Boulenger's Long-snouted Tree Frog Rana arborea |
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| Fleischmann's Glass Frog Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni |
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| Olive Long-snouted Tree Frog Scinax elaechroa |
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| Red-striped Thirst Snake Dipsas articulata |
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| Mottled Snail-eater Sibon longifrenis |
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| Common Rain Frog Craugastor fitzingeri |
But the star of the show must be the Red-eyed Tree Frog Agalychnis callidryas - almost the national symbol for Costa Rica. Took my breath away.
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| Red-eyed Leaf Frog Agalychnis callidryas |
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| Owl Moth Automeris belti |
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| Little-eyed Moth Automeris tridens |
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| Eastern Dobsonfly Corydalus cornutus |
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| Satiny Parrot Snake Leptophis depressirostris |
It was a very interesting, informative two hours and we were pretty tired at the end and ready to crash.
Birds: 161 Lifers: 121 Mammals: 10 Lifers: 9 Reptiles: 4 Lifers: 3
Day 12 Sunday 9.7.23
We slept in a bit – the heat really taking its toll – and didn’t get out till 6am.
I got out first and went down the road to the entrance for a smoke. As I did 4 Great Green Macaws flew overhead. The security guard at the gate was wandering around with a pair of bins and took me down a track to show me a perched up Semiplumbeous Hawk! I headed back to get Mr H and met him coming out. We both saw the hawk again, then as we walked back in the security guard beckoned us and pointed out a Snowy Cotinga. Apparently this is a difficult and much sort after bird – pure white, starling sized, high in a tree. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me…of course!
Not a bad way to start the day, 3 good lifers before breakfast!
After we had eaten we went for a short walk along the track we had been on last night with Tavo. We spent some time trying to lure a Dusky Antbird out of the bush, but only saw it sparingly in the thick cover and we found a Rufous-tailed Jacamar near the bridge
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| Rufous-tailed Jacamar |
At 8am we were scheduled to go on a 3 hour walk. I had been a bit concerned that this would take 3 hours out of our only full day here, but it was part of the ‘deal’ and we felt obliged.
As it turned out it was really, really good! The girl leading the walk was very knowledgeable and interesting and we saw so much we probably wouldn’t have seen – and it lasted almost 4 hours. There was an American family from Seattle and another birder from Holland, based in New Jersey. We were shown stuff, but we also found stuff so it was a win win situation – and we had plenty of time to look at and photograph stuff.
Bird-wise we had – Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Rufous Motmot and at the same time, very handily because the two birds are very similar – Broad-billed Motmot. Plain Xenops, Chestnut-coloured Woodpecker, Red-throated Ant-Thrush, Black-throated and Gartered Trogon, Olive-backed Euphonia and Black-crowned Tityra.
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| Cocoa Woodcreeper |
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| Rufous Motmot |
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| Broad-billed Motmot |
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| Chestnut-coloured Woodpecker |
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| Black-throated Trogon |
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| Gartered Trogon |
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| Black-crowned Tityra |
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| Collared Aracari |
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| Red-lored Parrot |
The mammals, though, possibly outdid the birds – Hoffmann’s Two-toed Sloth, Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth (same one as the previous night), Central American Spider Monkeys and Mantled Howler, Honduran White Bats – half a dozen cozied up under a folded palm leaf and White-throated Round-eared Bat in a termite nest!
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| Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth Choloepus hoffmanni |
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| Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth Bradypus variegatus |
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| Central American Spider Monkey Ateles geoffroyi |
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| Honduran White Bat Ectophylla alba |
Just a couple of reptiles: Plumed Basilisk, Green iguana and (later Id'd as) a Costa Rican Four-lined Skink Marisora alliacea
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Green Basilisk Basiliscus verde
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| Costa Rican Four-lined Skink Marisora alliacea |
And almost star of the day – Strawberry Poison Dart Frog! Much smaller than I imagined, but quite openly hanging out along the sides of the track.
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| Strawberry Poison Dart Frog Oophaga pumilio |
The heat was enormous. I have never been so sweaty wet in my life. It was super exhausting and we retired for the afternoon under our fans to doze and read and sort photos until it cooled somewhat – but not much – later in the day.
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| Plain Longtail Urbanus simplicius |
We wandered a bit before dinner with just one lifer! Black-crowned Antshrike. A family party of 4 Crested Guans showed really well – once again, no camera….
After dinner we headed out for a spotlighting effort. We had responses from Mottled Owl, Crested Owl and Middle American Screech Owl, but all refused to show in the dense rainforest and there was no way to chase them down.
We wandered down the road outside the reserve briefly and had at least 2 Common Pauraques on the ground and flitting around.
Soaking wet again, we gave it away and retired to do the log and write this up.
I was still trying to identify the snakes we saw the previous night. The internet had been down most of the afternoon so that job was ongoing. I hoped there would be enough time, wifi and energy to complete the task in the next day or two.
Birds: 183 Lifers: 141 Mammals: 15 Lifers: 14 Reptiles: 4 Lifers: 3
Day 13 Monday 10.7.23
We were up and out by 5.15. A grey, overcast, poor light kind of morning.
We stood and watched a busy bush for about 20 minutes there Scarlet-rumped, Blue-gray and Palm Tanagers, Olive-backed Euphonia, White-throated Manikin, Green and (I got my tick) Shining Flycatchers, Rufous-throated Hummingbird, Clay-coloured Thrushes and two Short-billed Pigeons flew in. Overhead Red-lored Parrots, Montezuma Oropendola, Keel-billed Toucans and Green Ibis.
We chose to walk down the drive to the front security gate and beyond as it was so grey and overcast the light would have been shit in the forest.
Mr H spotted a distant bird perched up high and it turned into a Chestnut-headed Oropendola.
Walking out the entrance we turned down a grassy track and saw Pale-billed Woodpecker, Scaled Pigeon and 2 Russet-naped Wood Rails. (split from Grey-cowled)
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| Russet-naped Wood Rail |
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Scaled Pigeon
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Back for breakfast without further excitement and a Long-billed Starthroat perched up as we ate and a BIG Katydid showed up.
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| Giant Leaf Katydid Steirdon careovirgulatum |
After breakfast it had brightened up a bit so we went for a wander along the track before the bridge through secondary forest. We had Orange-billed Sparrow and a perched up male Great Curassow before it started to rain. We had brought no protection so headed back towards the dining area again.
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| Orange-billed Sparrow |
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| Great Curassow (male) |
Once there the rain appeared to have ended so we crossed the bridge and went into the orchard sort of area on the far side. Before the rain started again we had Buff-rumped Warbler hopping around a picnic table.
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| Buff-rumped Warbler |
Once again drinking coffee and watching the passing trade from the shelter of the dining area we had a Black-cowled Oriole looking very bedraggled and wet.
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Black-cowled Oriole
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Our last lifer at La Selva was Grey-capped Flycatcher – a very Social Flycatcher lookalike that we had probably overlooked.
The place just kept on giving! There was so much going on it deserves a field guide all to itself!
10 Lifers before 8.30? And that’s after two days and all within cooee of the main buildings.
It was time to move on, we packed up, ensuring everything was in plastic bags in our backpacks as we anticipated a potential wet boat trip coming up. We sorted the food, threw some away and packed what we thought we might need in our bags, leaving non-perishables in the car.
We left at 8.00 and headed off on the 78km drive to Tortuguero.
This entailed getting to a dock area, getting on a boat and travelling out to a peninsula as part of the Tortugero National Park.
The drive was predicted to be just over two hours.
We chose to follow MapsMe although Mr H had considered using what appeared to be ‘bigger’ roads.
The resulting 3 hour plus drive was 90% on unsealed rough roads through banana and pineapple plantations. We had to stop at one stage for bananas to cross the road for processing...... Costa Rica is one of the biggest exporters of bananas in the world.
Never more than 50km/hr, mostly at 30, often at 20 due to the stony, uneven surface. We did get occasional stretches of bitumen and I have never appreciated the smoothness before – I do now. One thing – there was no traffic, but at one point Maps Me took us down a dead end that ended on the banks of a turgid, fast flowing 100 meter wide river…..
We stopped a couple of times for birds on the wires over the road and had Red-winged Blackbirds, Northern Rough-winged Swallows and at least one Pale-vented Pigeon.
The last 15 minutes were all bitumen and we got to the dock area without drama. A muddy expanse of shoreline on the side of a 50 meter wide, brown, fast flowing river, with about 20 boats and about a 100 people milling around mostly tourists.
Immediately accosted by a ‘Captain’ who took our booking (8,000 colones each, return = $20 Aus), Then the parking guy had his bite – 2,400 colones ($6 Aus) to leave the car in a secure car park – well, an open field - for 4 days, then another guy met us and introduced himself as the representative for where we were staying on the peninsula.
We got a coffee and sat down as we had an hour and a half before the boat left.
A woman approached us and introduced herself as a representative of the company Mr H had booked through.
It was all very organised and helpful as we really had no idea what was going on, but it was also confusing – so ‘he’s the guy with the boat?’ and he’s the parking dude? and this guy? and this woman? have something to do with our accommodation?’
Sounds simple, and I guess it was, but we just seemed to be caught up in a whirlpool of efficiency!
Well before the 13.00 departure time the captain was waving at us to grab our bags and get on board.
We did and settled into the single seat each side, flat-bottomed, canopy-topped boat with the driver up the front and an outboard motor at the back. The guy driving was some OTHER dude, not the captain…
It was pretty cramped but off we went for the one hour boat ride down river, dodging sunken logs and overhanging branches having the odd American Crocodile Crocodylus acutus pointed out to us, going in fits and starts as, I presume, the driver negotiated our way over shallow sandbars or sunken logs.
It was all very ‘South American/PNG’ style and we also saw a Northern Jacana from the boat on a sandbank.
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American Crocodile Crocodylus acutus
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Video of boat trip:
https://youtu.be/e3v7QjIHYkI
Finally the river opened up and we sped down an open waterway with the peninsula on our left, houses starting to show here and there. Eventually we arrived at a concrete dock, alongside many other docks and boats and tourists and disembarked.
Yet another dude showed up and passed us on to yet another woman who walked us through the narrow labyrinth of laneways to our Air BnB accommodation.
The peninsula was very narrow, no more than 200 meters wide between sea and ‘lagoon.’ There were no roads, no cars, just narrow walkways crammed full of touristy type shops, cafes, restaurants, small hotels, tourists, locals, bikes, dogs, more tourists, more junk shops….. not really where we wanted to be. It was stifling sweaty hot with just the occasional cooler breeze off the Caribbean.
At one end, the south end, we could enter the national park – but it closed at 14.00. Otherwise there wasn’t anywhere to go – and doing anything else was going to cost money.
The accommodation was a room with a double bed and two single beds. Even though we told the manager on site we were ‘just friends’ and didn’t sleep together they provided two pillows and one sheet for the double bed – no towels and only a single fan – directed onto the double bed. It was a ground floor room and we had nowhere to even sit properly. There was a small kitchen where we could store our food in a refrigerator but could only prepare breakfast there.
Hmmmmmmm not impressed.
We went for a walk and had some lunch – taco and fries for me – and a couple of beers, then walked the ‘main street’ in both directions, just for something to do. On the positive side we did have Great Green Macaws on a couple of occasions overhead, but little else.
I finally suggested we cut our visit here short – Mr H had booked 4 nights – to 2 nights and try to arrange extra time at the next location.
We did that and then made arrangements for a kayak guided tour of the national park ($35 US each) first thing the next morning and, on my advice, a night turtle walk ($25 US each) for the next night, we planned to leave the place the following morning.
We hung out at ‘home’ for a while then went for something to eat – deep fried green banana with 4 ‘dips’ for me and a couple of beers. I bought a couple of t-shirts to wear locally an a fold out reptile identification booklet.
Birds: 198 Lifers: 152 Mammals: 15 Lifers: 14 Reptiles: 4 Lifers: 3
Day 14 Tuesday 11.7.23
We got up at 5, just before dawn, intending to have some breakfast before our kayak trip. The kitchen was locked, much to our dismay, so we walked down to the meeting place and hung around, breakfast-less and coffee-challenged until everyone showed up.
It was semi-chaos. No one really told us what was happening. Mr H had registered us and paid for our entry fee into the national park – a pre-requisite for kayaking. Unbeknownst to us there were two parts to the park – north and south of the town – and he had registered us for the wrong place. As wifi was an issue he had to re-register us for the other end via the dude’s phone. All a bit stressful. The kayaks were ‘sit-upon’ type kayaks – very stable, but very exposed. Mr H and I shared a double, him in front, me steering.
We finally set off at about 6.20 along with a couple in a double kayak and a family of 4 sharing 3 kayaks. We paddled up to the national park dock and our tour leader went in to advise the national park people. There were numerous tours setting off, although not so many in kayaks. Mainly canoes with 7-10 people on board, some paddling, others with electric motors. We were waiting ages for the dude to sort us out and were the last group to head across the lagoon. This was probably not favourable, as anything that was wary would have pissed off by the time we got there. However, we paddled around along the edge of the jungle then into some narrow channels. Overhung with branches and lianas, negotiating submerged logs and roots.
Then it started to rain.
It BUCKETED down – a typical tropical downpour that lasted on and off for about half an hour. Obviously, exposed in the kayaks we had no protection. There was so much rain that it started to affect my contact lens and push it out of my eye, which was really awkward and left me vision-impaired for the rest of the trip. I had brought my dry bag so our passports and stuff were safe and dry and I had my camera on board so managed to get some photos.
We saw 8 Northern Jacanas, 3 Little Blue Herons (immatures), 2 Green Herons, 4 Bare-throated Tiger-Herons (3 adults calling and 1 immature), 2 Bat Falcons, a female Great Curassow and 2 Black-collared Hawks. The guide pointed out several Green Iguanas and 2 Spectacled Caiman Caiman crocodilus that allowed very close approach.
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Black-collared Hawk
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| Great Curassow (female) |
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| Northern Jacana |
The tour lasted till 9.00 and we headed off to change before finding breakfast and, most importantly, coffee. Walking back to ‘home’ we had a couple of Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, Variable Seedeaters and House Wren.
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Black-cheeked Woodpecker
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Video:
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| Variable Seedeater |
We hung out to recover as the humidity was really killing.
At 12.30 we headed out and had a coffee, then went to the national park at 13,00.
The park opened at 8, closed at 12.00, opened again at 13.00 and closed for the day at 14.00. However if you were in the park before 14.00, you could stay, in theory, as long as you liked, in fact? No idea.
We walked the track, along with other civilian non-birding tourists and struggled to find much.
We did have Central American Agouti Dasyprocta punctata a couple of times crossing the track in front and a Northern Barred Woodcreepershowed quite well, other than that a couple of Black-capped Ant-shrikes, calling but not seen, Lesser Greenlets and, on a few occasions, Great Green Macaws flew over the canopy in small numbers.
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| Northern Barred Woodcreeper |
From the beach, where we went for the breeze to relieve the sweat, we had a Brown Booby and a single, distant Magnificent Frigatebird.
As we neared the end of the return walk we came across a Black Wood Turtle Rhinoclemmys funereal beside the track.
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| Black Wood Turtle Rhinoclemmys funerea |
It rained as left the park at 15.30 and we stopped for another coffee before heading home once the rain had eased.
At 17.30 we went to check the time for our turtle walk – 21.20 – then had dinner overlooking the main waterway.
Back home for a sweaty evening in our room, then back to the tour company’s offices at 21.00. We hung around until 21.45 then set off as a group with a Spanish-only speaking leader and a translator and 3 Israeli tourists. We picked up another 3 turtle watchers along the way, but there numerous groups heading out towards the beach.
We were advised to bring a torch, ‘for the track’ but not for use on the beach, to wear dark clothing and no cameras, phones or even those Apple-style watches were allowed.
We walked for about 20 minutes just behind the beach, then out onto the beach where we sat, and sat, and sat…. and watched the occasional firefly and shooting star (make a wish, I did) while we waited for the signal that a turtle was laying.
Eventually at around 23.15 we got the signal and followed another group who were already the second group to view the large female Green Turtle egg-laying in the hole she had dug high on the beach.
Once we had spent a few minutes watching her, all 8 of us, we moved away and circled around to join the back of the queue. We visited her three times before she finished laying and covered the eggs up. I reckoned at least 30 people watched this particular turtle, who, thankfully, appeared to remain completely oblivious – or she was just too knackered to care.
All in all it was a relatively professional, carefully managed event – just the number of people involved was a little off-putting to me. Witnessing the actual activity and knowing these animals have been doing the same thing for thousands of years was an inspiring experience.
We walked back and got to bed around 12.30am.
Birds: 204 Lifers: 155 Mammals: 15 Lifers: 14 Reptiles: 5 Lifers: 4
Day 15 Wednesday 12.7.23
Time to shake the dirty volcanic sand of Tortugero off our feet.
We slept till 6.30, got up by 7, packed and walked to the dock area in spitting rain. We had already organised two seats on the boat at 8.40 and intended to have breakfast before boarding. The café we had planned to eat at, although advertising opening at 7.30, wasn’t gonna open till 8, so we found another place and managed to get coffee and pancakes (for me) and fruit for Mr H.
We boarded the boat around 8.30 after the usual confusion and, as Mr H put it, feeling we were at the mercy of the locals who seemed to meet and recognise everyone else, but us. Maybe I’m just being paranoid… or, definitely not young, female or attractive - well, definitely not any of those, just a pair of old f…s who don’t speak Spanish and generally are getting around by the skin of their teeth!
Anyway the boat ride went without drama. We saw at least 3 Spectacled Caimans, but no Crocodiles, several Green Herons, a couple of Ringed Kingfishers and a Spotted Sandpiper on a sand bar.
The car was exactly how we’d left it - we dumped our stuff and had a cup of coffee in the café then headed off in the blessed air-conditioning. Oh GOD it was soooooooo nice.
We only stopped once in the first three hours (all bitumen, but slowed by roadworks and trucks which took some ‘creative’ driving to get past) and that was for a Roadside Hawk perched up, We didn’t know it was a Roadside Hawk when we stopped, of course…
After the first three hours, with about another 45 kms to go, we pulled into the second Mackers we had seen on the trip and had a cup of coffee – it was really just to give me a break and Mr H to get his heart started again. Some of my ‘creative’ driving sometimes leaves him a little worried, but, give him his due, he never says a word of complaint!
Heading on we reached our destination – Cahuita, a few kms short of the Panama/Costa Rica border.
Our Air BnB was a two bedroomed cabin, upstairs and downstairs, in private grounds, built and owned by a Swiss couple who lived separately on the property. It was SUCH an improvement on the last place. A kitchen, 2 double beds, one up, one down, a kitchen table to sit around, a table outside on the ‘patio’ to sit around and hammocks to hang in– just right for 4 days/5 nights of more adventure and, especially, relaxation. We needed a break of sorts and this was perfect.
The rest of the afternoon was just that.
I hung in a hammock while Mr H had a snooze, then we both hand washed our clothes which were badly in need of it, hung them out to dry under the ‘patio’ roof and watched the local Central American Agoutis wander down the grassy track to stop and stare at us before slinking back into the undergrowth!
The local beach was only 5 minutes walk through the property and down a track and we wandered down for a look just before dark – surfing seems to be the activity, although the waves were small – and we turned and walked back as darkness fell!
My first non-lifer day of the trip. We saw a Bananaquit in the garden which was a lifer for Mr H, but for me, nothing today. All good, just left more for the rest of the trip!
Birds: 205 Lifers: 154 Mammals: 15 Lifers: 14 Reptiles: 5 Lifers: 4
Day 16 Thursday 13.7.23
It started to rain around 20.00 the previous night and rained almost continually until 10.00, sometimes heavy with a HUGE storm at 2.30 which woke us both up with smashing thunder overhead almost in synchronisation with the lightning.
We got up late as there was no hurry in getting out, and hung around watching our damp clothes not dry much.
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| A real 'cabin in the woods' thing! |
While we breakfasted two small frogs hopped in – Green & Black Poison Dart Frogs Dendrobates auratus – really cute and….really quick. This, apparently is the most variable of the poison dart frogs in colour and although these appeared blue and black, we later found a couple, slightly larger which were more green and black.
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| Green and Black Poison Dart Frog Dendrobates auratus |
Eventually the rain stopped the garden was alive with a selection of Tanagers flycatching – Scarlet-rumped, Blue Gray, Palm and Golden-hooded, along with a Long-billed Gnatwren, Greater Kiskadees and a Varied Seedeater or two.
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| Long-billed Gnatwren |
We headed down the track to the beach and along the sea front and found a few Blue-headed Parrots - the light was really bad, dull and glare at the same time. We found a Black-cheeked Woodpecker nest hole with the male apparently feeding the female inside. Had another Bananaquit and several Central American Agoutis. They were really cute and almost felt like puppies – although they looked like giant Guinea Pigs.
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| Blue-headed Parrot |
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| Central american Agouti Dasyprocta punctata |
Video:
https://youtu.be/O8KnONnHqqc
Along the road we found a large black grasshopper that I ID’d as Reticulate Lubber Grasshopper Taeniopoda reticulate.
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| Reticulate Lubber Grasshopper Taeniopoda reticulata |
Back home we sat and recovered from the walk in the extreme humidity – maybe not as bad as Tortuguero had been, but still very draining.
Then we went shopping in Cahuita. As we approached the car the Tanagers etc still active, another dark bird hopped up – Yellow-billed Cacique.
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| Yellow-billed Cacique |
We shopped then checked out the entrance to the national park – apparently one could walk in from the village without paying, but parking seemed a real issue, we decided to walk from home the next day, rather than try to find parking, most of which seemed to require payment.
We dropped the shopping home and drove down the main road to enter the national park by a second entrance where we paid a small amount to park and enter.
We walked a boardwalk from the car park to the beach – approx 2.5kms each way. The forest was very wet, flooded mostly in fact. We did not know if this was normal or due to the overnight rain, but the frogs were going off. We couldn’t actual see any, but the variety of calls suggested 6-10 species calling.
Birds were very few and far between. We did manage to get views of Bay Wren – a rather handsome little bird, and saw a couple of Plain Xenops and that was about it until we reached the beach where the forest opened up. We had 4 Scarlet-rumped Caciques there and a single Magnificent Frigatebird. We also had a Red-tailed Squirrel and a Slender Anole Anolis limifrons
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| Red-tailed Squirrel Syntheosciurus granatensis |
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| Slender Anole Anolis limifrons |
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| Gilbert's Flasher Astraptes alector |
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| Urania Swallowtail Moth Urania fulgens |
We walked back and enjoyed the air-con on the short drive home.
In the bin where we had been advised to deposit our food scraps a Yellow-spotted Night Lizard Lepidophyma flavimaculatum took advantage of the insects attracted to the rotting food.
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| Yellow-spotted Night Lizard Lepidophyma flavimaculatum |
Spent the rest of the day basically chilling out and relaxing, reading and Mr H operated on the sole of my foot to remove a glass splinter that had been annoying me.
I spent a bit of time, well, actually, a lot of time, finalising the identification of the frogs and snakes we had seen in La Selva. I do not stand 100% behind all my results, and am happy for feedback if I have been in error – you do what you can do.
Those photos are now uploaded on the day they were seen – Day 11 Saturday 8.7.23.
Birds: 212 Lifers: 161 Mammals: 16 Lifers: 15 Reptiles: 24 Lifers: 21
Day 17 Friday 14.7.23
We got up around 5.30, had breakfast during which we were again joined by a Black & Green Poison Dart Frog hopping across the floor and a Black-throated Wren family in the nearby hedge. Always good to start the day with a lifer!
It was a dull, grey, damp morning with rain and storms threatening. Mr H said ‘even in Ireland it wouldn’t be this dull’ The birds seem to respond and were generally very quiet around the garden, but we dragged our sorry asses into our still damp, sticky clothes and headed out in the car. We thought, given the day, we would drive the road and check the bridge crossings for, dare I say it?, Sungrebe. We did, but it was quite miserable rain spotting, grey, colourless, making photos very difficult. We did see a Gartered Trogon, an Amazon Kingfisher and some Mangrove Swallows, but as you can see form the photo quality it almost wasn’t worth it.
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| Amazon Kingfisher |
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| Mangrove Swallow |
We got home again, just in time as the rain started in earnest and prepared to sit it out. I did finally get my blog updated, including the photos from the night walk of the previous Saturday at La Selva.
A couple of things about Costa Rica that might be of some interest.
Amenities: There has been no running hot water in the bathroom sinks – only cold. The showers have generally had an option for both, on one tap, but, certainly in the lowlands, we haven’t needed hot water to shower. I normally shave every second day – and have learned to shave in cold water. No big deal maybe - just a side note. In our current kitchen there is no running hot water in the sink – this has been common to most places too. As I mentioned earlier – you are not supposed to put any paper down the toilet. Not something I am keen on, but you do what you have to do. Where we are now, you can, probably because the place was built by the Swiss owner. The water is drinkable everywhere, which is great, saves buying heaps of plastic bottles of water.
Food: We have bought most food at well stocked small family run super markets. Fresh meat has not been obvious – maybe a butcher would be the option, but we haven’t come across a lot of butchers. Fresh fruit and vegetables have not been as prolific as I would have thought – although these maybe left to the roadside vendors. We did purchase 2 mangoes, half a watermelon and a pineapple from the roadside the previous day – total about $13 Aus. Coffee is always served piping hot – although its not possible to get barista-style coffee everywhere, most often its café con leche or dripolator coffee with milk. Its pretty good either way. Rice appears to be the main staple followed closely by pasta – judging by the supermarket shelves – and most menus have a rice and bean mix on the majority of dishes. All good and healthy, but doesn’t do much for Mr H’s bowels and the resultant explosions. We have been drinking the local Costa Rican made beer – Imperial – and its nice. A light beer, similar to Pilsen which is often the only other choice.
Driving: Right hand side of course. Not too fast, haven’t seen a speed limit more than 90 yet. Mostly 60-80. Most roads are two lane with loads of roadworks and resultant delays. Some surfaces are shit, but the main roads are pretty smooth. Lots of motorbikes and pushbikes with no hard shoulder in most cases and care has to be taken to go round them. A good number of trucks on the road that slow things down at times, but generally all drivers so far have shown patience and courtesy – especially when it comes to vehicles half blocking the road and the one-way bridges. Most bridges so far have been one lane. Some have had a give-way sign on one side, some haven’t, but everyone manages without anger or aggression. In congested areas the worn out or lack of road markings can be misleading – ie trying to stay in a particular lane or even on the right side of a complicated junction can be challenging. Traffic lights are few and far between – I think I turned left on a red light the other day, but no one stopped me. Police vehicles are regular and obvious, but seem to have little interest in people breaking the speed limit. On some of the bigger roads in an 80 km zone with a central barrier there are pedestrian crossings at random intervals. We haven’t seen anyone using them, but its difficult to know what would happen if someone did and the traffic was travelling at 90+. Buses seem a regular form of public transport that is heavily used by the locals. So far I have felt very comfortable while driving and, dare I say it, pleased with the fact that I adapted very quickly to the right hand side thing.
People: So far the people have been friendly and helpful. Not many speak a lot of English, but we get by OK. It does embarrass me that I just can’t get my head around anything apart from common welcomes and ordering coffee. The people on the Caribbean side of the country, where we are presently, have a different accent – kind of Jamaican-style, and in look and attitude. I’m not sure I like it as much as the Pacific side or the mountains. It may be because this shore is much more touristy – young backpackers, european families – that there is a different attitude, but they just seem less friendly in a general sense. Maybe I’m not being fair, it is after all just an impression.
Weather: as described its been wet. It is the rainy season after all, my choice, my decision, my responsibility. Almost every day we have had spectacular thunderstorms – there’s thunder rumbling in the distance (it’s 9.45am) at the moment and its still raining. In the mountains it was much cooler and we’re looking forward to getting back up there in the coming days. The humidity on this coast has been fearsome. We wonder if we’ll ever get dry again!
Animals: Apart from what I’ve described in previous posts it’s worth mentioning, I think, that we hear Howler Monkeys almost every day, most of the day, especially at 5am when their deep throated growling can be heard for miles – its pretty cool really! The birds, too, are quite confiding. Its relatively easy to see them close up, although some species are naturally so secretive that getting onto them in the jungle can be bloody difficult at times.
Equipment: Everything is standing up well, despite the humidity – except my camera. It’s making groaning noises when I extend the lens and regularly demands to be ‘turned off and turned on again’. I should have bowed to my greater instincts and bought a new one before I came. I just hope it holds out for the rest of the trip. Thankfully we got my iPod to work in the car so we have - well, in our opinion - good music while we drive!
Once the rain stopped we headed for the National Park – the entrance in Cahuita itself. Before we left the garden we had a Variegated Squirrel and a White-whiskered Puffbird. Finally, a Puffbird!
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| White-whiskered Puffbird |
Just along the road two Common Black Hawks perched up drying out – once again a black subject against the cloudy sky was almost hopeless.
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| Common Black Hawk |
It was about a 20 minute walk along sea frontage streets and we picked up a few of the usual birds along the way – Bananaquit, Common Tody-flycatcher, Black-cheeked Woodpeckers etc.
At the gate to the park a shallow clear creek flowed into the ocean and we picked up a Green Kingfisher perched up and fishing despite the flocks of tourists crowding into the park.
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| Green Kingfisher |
This access required only a donation – which Mr H duly made on our behalf. Some people were being stopped because ‘single-use plastics’ were banned from the park and they were carrying stuff in plastic bags – it was a bag search at the gate.
We walked in for an hour before turning back. The track ran along the edge of the forest, behind the beach. Most people – and there were dozens – were only interested in getting to the beach. At one stage trying to track one of the very few birds we saw, we had to wait for about 20 people to pass us – by then, of course, the bird was long gone.
We did hear and saw a couple of Black-crowned Antshrikes – really difficult to get onto.
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| Black-crowned Antshrike |
We also heard and saw briefly a Chestnut-backed Antbird – a real skulker. We heard a White-throated Crake, identified by a passing bird guide, but couldn’t bring it out of the marshy swamp it was calling from – just too busy.
A Northern Racoon wandered along the track ignoring people stepping around it, a small party of Mantled Howler Monkeys attracted the beach goers attention – and their camera phones, of course - and a Hoffmann’s Two-toed Sloth hung out quietly behind a shelter shed.
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| Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth Choloepus hoffmanni (Note the two claws on the front leg!) |
Racoon video
https://youtu.be/nLzQZ52D1qo
We picked up a couple of bread sticks and had coffee and pastries in a French café just outside the park, then trudged home, through the humidity, past the bikini and board shorted tourists to home, where once again, we relaxed the afternoon away and had a Stripe-throated Hermit for brief company at the flowers beside the patio.
An Atlantic Lichen Anole Anolis pentaprion put in an appearance near the garbage cans.
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| Atlantic Lichen Anole Anolis pentaprion |
Later while watching a pair of Cinnamon-bellied Saltators and various other species in the garden a stunning Yellow-headed Gecko Gonatodes albogularis arrived.
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| Yellow-headed Gecko Gonatodes albogularis |
Birds: 217 Lifers: 166 Mammals: 16 Lifers: 15 Reptiles: 26 Lifers: 24
Day 18 Saturday 15.7.23
We woke to a dry day! No rain overnight, no storms, a brighter, eventually sunny day. It helped with our washing – and of course, with the birding.
Two Agoutis climbed along the top of the hedge while we had breakfast - they really are characters and have a lot of charm - for an overgrown guinea pig.
We decided to change tactics as it were and drove north up the main road a few ks before turning off on an unsealed road that wound up into the hinterland. There were scattered houses along the road and at the end of one, a small community. We had a few cars and a few more motorbikes but it wasn’t too intrusive.
We parked up a couple ks in and walked for about an hour slowly up the road birding as we went, then back to the car and moved on a few more ks before repeating the exercise. Along most of the road we had dense ‘jungle’ – not pure rainforest, more very tall canopy with vine undergrowth. Birding was hard from the point of view of looking up at the canopy a lot of the time, but we did get some species at eye level or just above. It proved to be quite a productive morning…
Band-backed Wren just out of the car, Rufous-winged Woodpecker, White-crowned Parrot, Squirrel Cuckoo, Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, Buff-fronted Foliage Gleaner and Streak-headed Woodcreeper all in one set of trees, all at the same time.
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| White-crowned Parrot |
Olive-backed Euphonia, Yellow-throated Toucan and Buff-throated Saltator were also seen.
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| Yellow-throated Toucan |
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| Buff-throated Saltator |
Our second foray produced:
Slaty-tailed Trogon, Crowned Wood Nymph which I missed and Purple-crowned Fairy which we both saw, a pair of Dot-winged Antwrens and much to my delight Purple-throated Fruitcrow.
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| Dot-winged Antwren (male) |
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| Purple-throated Fruitcrow (female) |
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| Purple-throated Fruitcrow (male - difficult against the sky) |
By now it was getting hot even though it was only 10.00 and so our last walk out ended the morning – we had a Morelet's Seedeater last seen one at Monteverde, Short-billed Pigeon, a plague of Groove-billed Anis a pair of Thick-billed Seed Finch and several Ruddy Ground Doves.
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| Morelet's Seedeater |
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Short-billed Pigeon
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| Groove-billed Anis |
We saw several Montezuma Oropendelas - they are very common and can be heard calling through the day. Generally they don't come very close, but at one point 6 of them moved through trees low down - and one grabbed a giant grasshopper.
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| Montezuma Oropendola |
We also had a skin-type lizard which turned out to be a Costa Rican Four-lined Skink Marisora alliacea
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| Costa Rican Four-lined Skink Marisora alliacea |
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| Banded Peacock Anartia fatima |
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Crimson Patch Chlosyne janais
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We relaxed at home in the heat of the day – a siesta really – and headed out again at 15.00. We tried a couple of other roads without making any headway or seeing anything notable. At one stage we passed through a small village where a Saturday afternoon soccer match was going on and avoiding motorbikes, pedestrians, dogs and other cars was a challenge as everyone’s eyes were on the game, right beside the road.
We were home by 5, Mr H cooked dinner and we were out again at 18.30 to try some owling. We went to the road we had been on first thing in the morning and tried there, but it was soooo busy. Car after car, motorbike after motorbike on the unsealed road as we tried to play for night birds was just impossible. No idea where they were all going, but it felt like half of Costa Rica had come to the party.
Mr H navigated me to a side road where we did have peace and quiet and did get response but no sighting of Central American Pygmy Owl. No animals or frogs – all in all it was a bit disappointing after some of the excitement of other night walks.
Birds: 228 Lifers: 176 Mammals: 16 Lifers: 15 Reptiles: 27 Lifers: 24
Day 19 Sunday 16.7.23
We woke to a gloomy, dull, damp day. No rain, but thunder rumbling in the distance and generally a poor outlook. The light was really poor and the general atmosphere still and quiet.
After breakfast we headed out anyway, intending to try a side road south of Cahuita, birding similar to the previous day. The road we chose led up to a couple of lodges, but there was very little showing along the way and the rain started so we chose to head south towards the Panama border – just for something to do and explore.
We drove more than half way having turned off the inland road, but the rain increased and it seemed pointless to continue so we turned back. When we reached the junction for the coast road we turned south again and headed for Manzanillo, the end of the coast road.
It appears there is minimal traffic through to Panama on this coast, although the main road was good and the road markings exceptional – as if Costa Rica wanted to make an initial impression on travellers heading north! We also noted the beach sand turned to the usual gold colour, rather than the black volcanic sand of Cahuita – in fact we saw the point at which it changed – really weird!
Along the coast Mr H, navigating, suggested turning off a side road that led down to the beach and eventually along to a small river mouth. We parked up and, as the rain had more or less stopped, walked to the river.
In one swampy area we had at least 4 White-throated Crakes calling, but they refused to show themselves in the thick grass. We did have Black-striped Sparrow, an adult and an immature Common Black Hawk perched up, 3 distant Great Green Macaws, several Groove-billed Anis and Thick-billed Seed Finch along with other commoner species.
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| Black-striped Sparrow |
At the river mouth we had a Spotted Sandpiper and, for Mr H a lifer – Wilson’s Plover.
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| Wilson's Plover |
Back to the car and, as we drove back out to the road, a White-lipped Mud Turtle Kinosternon leucostomum was rescued from in front of the car. He locked up but then showed some agro when he was picked up and his shell tapped!
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| White-lipped Mud Turtle Kinosternon leucostomum |
We continued to Manzanillo. This part of the coast was very touristy – lots of cafes restaurants and particularly resorts catering for, we assumed, local as well as international visitors. We stopped for coffee, then headed back north.
Stopping at a large supermarket place we stocked up on food as we believe the next stop is relatively remote and not close to any supplies – it was also possible there would be no internet for the three days we planned to stop there.
We tried our earlier morning side road – still very quiet and after half an hour, gave it away and headed home.
We had lunch then sat around, as we do, during which, in casual birding from the patio, we managed to scrape together another 3 lifers – Barred Antshrike, White-lined Tanager and Tropical or White-browed Gnatcatcher – all in pairs and responding well!
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| White-lined Tanager (female) |
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| White-lined Tanager (male) |
Unfortunately the camera continued to play up. If I extended the lens to the max, it seemed OK, but then I had to try to find the bird in the extended zoom – normally I’d zoom in while watching the bird. If it failed it was difficult to get the zoom to reduce. I anticipated the whole thing collapsing at any minute, but continued to make the best I could of it, while it still worked.
The birds went quiet and so did we for a couple of hours.
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| Oldmanus restus |
At 16.00 we dragged our flabby asses back out and up the road we had been on the previous morning.
We simply parked up and played for the species in the area we hadn’t got to grips with. There weren’t a whole lot we’d missed, but we didn’t have any luck anyway.
We did see a couple of Masked Tityra, a Squirrel Cuckoo, Black-cheeked Woodpecker, a Keel-billed Toucan and a Stripe-throated Hermit which I got a couple of blurry photos of as it fed from a Bird of Paradise flower (I think?).
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| Stripe-throated Hermit |
And, basically, that was it for Cahuita and the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
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| Travel to date |
Birds: 233 Lifers: 180 Mammals: 16 Lifers: 15 Reptiles: 28 Lifers: 25
Day 20 Monday 17.7.23
We were up at 5.45, had breakfast, finished packing and tidying up and were on the road by 6.45. It was predicted to be a 6 hour 260km drive to our next destination – in the mountains.
The first hour was challenging, along the main road that was still being developed, the lanes changing from side to side with minimal warning, cars, trucks, bikes, pedestrians all over the place with the occasional stretch of two lane highway which enabled passing of the slower vehicles. It required all my concentration to follow the road itself.
We turned off at Siquirres and headed up the mountain road, twisty and, at times, narrow, but a good surface and we made good time. After 2 hours we stopped for coffee, then headed on. It slowed down when we hit very, very slow trucks.
The next two hours were never above 60, mostly around 30-40 k/hr, almost coming to a stop at times, up, up, up and then down, down, down, the road twisting and turning, into the central valley.
We reached Cartago and stopped off briefly for Mr H to visit a chemist for some cough medicine and a cream for the bites he had got on his lower legs.
Then on again – and it was very slow. No passing and as we got higher, the rain came, torrential at times, cloud cover very heavy over the surrounding heights. We could see the bottom of the clouds hanging over the valley and then we drove up into them – a weird experience.
Finally after about the predicted 6 hours, we reached our turnoff. We still had a couple of hours before we could officially check-in so we continued another 25 kms to San Isidro and filled up with fuel – 27,400 colones = $73 Aus. At that lower level it wasn’t raining, but dry and bright!
We turned around and drove back up the mountain again to our turnoff. The bird highlight of the day was a single Yellow-headed Caracara standing in the middle of the road.
It was a very rough, narrow, dirt track with a drop on the right and a bank on the left and rocks and gravel and ….. it was all a bit nerve wracking – to arrive, in the now, pouring rain at our ‘home’ for the next three nights.
It was termed a cabin in the woods – and it was, literally.
The manager met us, lent us umbrellas and told us heaps of stuff in Spanish that we didn’t understand.
Then the surprise came.
He led us down a narrow, zigzag track for about 150 meters through the dripping trees, slipping on the mud and leaves, to our cabin. Man, Mr H you really do take me places!
The cabin was very rustic, but spacey, with an upstairs loft kind of arrangement. There were gaps between some of the planks on the walls, no insulation, a tin roof that with the pouring rain made conversation difficult. No fridge, no internet, only one fork and 4 desert spoons between us, but there was a rice maker, a frying pan, a single small saucepan and a dripolator coffee machine – what more do birders want?
The three of us sat and smiled at each other for a half an hour or so waiting, hoping, the rain would ease. It did after a while, but just to a heavy downpour so we, all three of us, struggled back up the track to the car, told your man we were OK - (he was offering to help us with our stuff, but we didn’t want to put him through all that) - and sat in the car to recover from the climb and wait out the rain. We were at 2,400 meters and seemed to be feeling the altitude, the track was very steep, but we quickly recovered.
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| View from our 'back' door. |
Video of trek:
https://youtu.be/hWcMTpEaRp4
After a while the rain eased a bit further so we loaded up with whatever we could carry – backpacks, some food, coffee etc and headed back down again.
We had coffee and waited a while longer admiring the cloud wreathed view from the ‘back’ door (which opened onto….nothing, maybe a planned veranda?) and then made another foray back up the hill again to get the rest of our supplies and gear.
It was all very exciting and adventurous and the bird list for the area very promising – if it would only stop raining.
It didn’t. It did ease after nightfall but continued to drizzle. It wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm and sweaty either – a contrast to the last week or so. We crashed early.
Birds: 233 Lifers: 180 Mammals: 16 Lifers: 15 Reptiles: 28 Lifers: 25
Day 21 Tuesday 18.7.23
We were up by 5.45, a grey dawn, but not raining. In fact the day turned out to be sunny and bright for the most part.
By 7 we were trudging up the slope to the car and spent the next couple of hours working slowly along the ridge back towards the main road, along the rough track we had come along the day before. It wasn’t flat, all uphill towards the road, but done slowly it was manageable!
We had Band-tailed Pigeons, Lesser Violetears, Rufous-collared Sparrows, Acorn Woodpeckers, Yellow-faced Grassquits and Long-tailed Silky Flycatchers.
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| Band-tailed Pigeon |
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| Collared Redstart |
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| Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher |
Our first lifer of the day was Flame-coloured Tanager, then Spot-crowned Woodcreeper, Brown-capped Vireo, Large-footed Finch, Flame-throated Warblers, and, finally, a female Volcano Hummingbird.
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| Flame-throated Warbler |
Also Sooty-capped Chlorospingus, Yellow-thighed Brushfinch, a very responsive Grey-breasted Woodwren, several Black-billed and Rusty-capped Nightingale-Thrushes, a Collared Redstart showing off, Mountain Elaenia and House Wren.
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Rusty-capped Nightingale-Thrush
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The camera was still groaning as the lens extended, but seemed to be holding its own and acting more like it should – maybe it had been the extreme humidity on the coast that had upset it? I held my breath and hoped, but used it sparingly, just in case.
We made our way home around 10.00 and relaxed for a couple of hours. As we did, casual observation produced the first Red-tailed Hawk of the trip and Slaty Flowerpiercer, but there wasn’t a lot happening around the cabin.
Video of the trudge down to the cabin;
https://youtu.be/hWcMTpEaRp4
Around 13.00 we dragged our tired asses out and headed down into the valley, threading our way along a very narrow, rocky, dirt track that zigzagged down a precipitous slope through the trees for the first part, but being rewarded for our efforts with Yellow-winged Vireo, Ochraceous Wren and a pair of Spotted Wood-Quail that scurried off squeaking in alarm with their yellow crests raised.
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| Ochraceous Wren |
We came out on a wider track and slowly descended to the river in the valley picking up White-naped Brushfinch for a brief view, Mountain Thrush, Ruddy Treerunner and Lesser Goldfinch and, at the bottom of the hill beside the boulder-strewn creek, another couple of Treerunners, Common Chlorospingus, Yellow-thighed Brushfinch and Torrent Tyrannulet. The birds weren’t in number, but the quality was excellent.
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| Ruddy Treerunner |
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| Yellow-thighed Finch - not a great photo, but the yellow thighs stand out in the darkest places! |
Then it was the slow, oh so slow, trudge back up the hill, stopping every couple of hundred paces to recover. We had a couple of, as yet unidentified lizards on the earthen bank – Green Spiny Lizard Sceloporus malachiticus. I liked his grumpy face - it reminded me of my grandson, Pat, when he didn't want to do something!
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| Green Spiny Lizard Sceloporus malachiticus |
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| Dun Skipper Euphyes vestris (I think!) |
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| Leonata Satyr Drucina leonata |
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| Narrow-banded Dartwhite Catasticta flisa |
We had managed to get a WiFi modem for $5US per day from the manager plus a couple of knives and forks….. but the signal was very weak and really wasn’t worth the money. The forks were more useful.
Birds: 250 Lifers: 193 Mammals: 16 Lifers: 15 Reptiles: 28 Lifers: 25
Day 22 Wednesday 19.7.23
We were up and out by 6.30. We drove back up the track to the main road and turned right, towards Cartago. We had noted a road on the way in, at a higher elevation than we were currently staying at, it had looked good for a walk.
We reached the track, turned off, parked up and started to walk slowly upwards. The habitat was quite different at this location and we walked for about 300 meters, reaching a final elevation of just under 4,000 meters.
There wasn’t much happening, but the sun was shining, the wind was pleasant and it was nice to be out of the forest for a change.
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| Small Dartwhite Catasticta theresa |
Then we were once again rewarded for our efforts. A shimmering golden-backed hummingbird shining in the sun as it fed on small flowers – Volcano Hummingbird – unfortunately didn’t stop for photos.
Further along it got even better when a pair of Volcano Juncos pottered alongside the road, ignoring us completely and providing crippling views. We had hoped for this bird here, so it was very pleasing – and I took in excess of 200 photographs (ultimately boiled down to 20 keepers) and a video.
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| Volcano Junco trail |
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| Volcano Junco |
Video
https://youtu.be/zxZiBzkjRGs
We felt we had gone high enough and started back down the track. Mr H heard singing in the bush beside the road and we stopped and waited and much to our delight had a Timberline Wren hopping through the thick undergrowth! A bird we had not expected to see, reportedly being very difficult. I didn’t even try getting it on camera as it was acting in a typical wren fashion, showing briefly and in part most of the time, but it was brilliant to add it to our life lists.
The only other birds we had along the track were a pair of Ruddy Treehunters and a Yellow-winged Vireo.
Back at the car we congratulated each other on our success and headed back down the main road stopping at La Georgina. It’s about the only café rest stop on the road and reputed to be good for birds.
We had Sooty Thrushes in the car park and sitting at the open windows while we drank our coffees we had Fiery-throated Hummingbirdsand Lesser Violetears coming to an, unfortunately empty, feeder. I have featured Fiery-throated before but who can resist photos like this! Just absolutely stunning.
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| Sooty Thrush |
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| Fiery-throated Hummingbird |
Outside we wandered around and had a Black-capped Flycatcher. We had actually seen one the previous day, but had had discussion regarding its identification – this view clinched it.
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| Black-capped Flycatcher |
We tried another side road that wound down the mountainside, mostly bitumen, but very steep and very narrow. There were lodges and hotel type places along its length and hence the (relatively) good quality road, but we saw very little and it was really difficult to find somewhere to pull in that wasn’t a passing place. The car made it back to the top but it was slow going in the steepest sections as I tried to find a balance between speed, the broken surface and the danger of oncoming traffic on tight hairpin corners.
Back home we had heard a Ruddy Pigeon calling several times from nearby trees but it had defeated our best efforts – we tried again and Mr H spotted it, eventually, sitting high near the crown. While looking for that we had had Acorn Woodpeckers, Flame-throated Warblers, a Yellow-thighed Brushfinch and a female White-throated Mountain-Gem to add to our list of Hummingbirds.
We settled in for a fairly long rest – after all we’re not getting any younger and the mountains were taking their toll. Our ‘rest’ broken only by Mr H’s sighting as he sat in the sun at the back door, of a male Lesser Goldfinch and, just as I lay down, 4 Swallow-tailed Kites soaring over the valley below – magic!
At 15.30 we walked back up to the entrance trail and wandered along it for 150 meters or so. It was fairly quiet but we did see Mountain Elaenia, a Large-footed Finch, Band-tailed Pigeon, soaring Swallow-tailed Kites, Flame-throated Warblers, Mountain Thrushes, Yellow-winged Vireos and Collared Redstart.
I know I have featured Collared Redstart before, but, once again, who can resist…
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| Collared Redstart |
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| Band-tailed Pigeon |
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| Mountain Thrush |
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| Yellow-winged Vireo |
The scenery was pretty spectacular – the clouds moving in over the valley below were a continually changing picture and emphasised the altitude.
Birds: 255 Lifers: 198 Mammals: 16 Lifers: 15 Reptiles: 28 Lifers: 25
Day 23 Thursday 20.7.23
We were up and out by 6.15, just trudged up the track to the road with our backpacks, dumped them in the car and went birding. We didn’t go far, we ended up sitting watching a couple of flowering bushes with Hummingbirds zooming in and out. We had at least one pair of Volcano Hummingbird, a couple of Fiery-throated, a Lesser Violetear or two and Snowy-bellied Hummingbirds.
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| Snowy-bellied Hummingbird |
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| Volcano Hummingbird (female) |
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| Mexican Silverspot Dione moneta |
We also saw another Large-footed Finch (responded very well, but no chance of a photo), Ruddy Pigeon, Slaty Flowerpiercer, Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher, Yellow-winged Vireo, a Varied Squirrel and Flame-coloured Tanager.
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| Flame-coloured Tanager (male) |
Then down to the cabin again, tidy up, clean up and carry the rest of our gear and food back up that hellish slope to the car.
We headed out at 8.15.
The first part down the mountain was fast, then slow as we got caught behind a convoy of trucks and other cars. After that it wasn’t too bad and we made good time overall. At one point we sat in the road for over 20 minutes while a mechanical digger cleared a small rock/earth slide and when we stopped for coffee shortly afterwards, we had a Yellow-headed Caracara perched up, somewhat distantly and a couple of big well marked Central American Green Iguana Iguana verde.
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Yellow-headed Caracara
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We reached Rincon at the head of the Gulf at 12.45 and had a cold drink while we waited for the Air BnB host. In the garden beside our table a small pond attracted a small, cute, Water Anole Anolis aquaticus
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| Water Anole Anolis aquaticus |
In the end we worked out where we were supposed to be and found our own way in. Basic, but good - separate bedrooms, large well stocked kitchen and a small but well shaded veranda to sit on and two, meter-long Central American Green Iguana Iguana verde strolled across the garden in front of us – I thought of my grandsons and how excited they would be to see – and try to catch – these big green lizards!
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| View from veranda down the gulf |
It was stinking hot and humid – again. Possibly not as bad as the Caribbean coast but it was a close run thing. 30C and the sweat was just dripping off us. Even though we were right on the water there was no breeze – or very little – as we were in the gulf and still a fair way from the ocean. We sat and dripped and had cold showers, eventually driving to a local village to replenish supplies.
Back at home the bird life seemed to have become active as the worst heat of the day eased – yeah? Did it? I was just in my Speedos and Mr H in shorts. It didn’t seem much cooler, but we did see Cocoa Woodcreepers, Orange-chinned Parakeets, Blue Gray and Scarlet-rumped Tanagers, Black-striped Sparrows, Glossy Cowbird, Lesser Goldfinch, White-crowned Parrots a Golden-naped Woodpecker, but best of all, 4, then later 7, Scarlet Macaws flew past overhead. No chance to get bins or camera on them, but unmistakable huge birds with scarlet tail feathers – awesome sight!
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| Golden-naped Woodpecker |
We had dinner and then did the usual writing, sorting photos etc, until Mr H called me out to the garden and we found a Kinkajou Potos flavus high in a tree dropping chewed fruit on us.
Birds: 255 Lifers: 201 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 28 Lifers: 25
Day 24 Friday 21.7.23
We slept well, despite the 27 degrees overnight. The humidity dropped and it was quite pleasant.
At 5.30 it was still pleasant and after breakfast we headed out.
A few ks down the road there was a turnoff to Drake’s Bay – and a bridge over a medium sized river. We pulled in to check out the river and immediately had, surprisingly? Riverside Wren – a pair building a nest.
Looking upriver from the bridge we had a White-necked Puffbird – a bird I had wanted to see, but this one was very distant. 4 Scarlet Macaws flew overhead screaming as they do and we had two Spotted Sandpipers perched up on a boat a short distance downriver.
We met a quartet of local photographer/birders who were hunting for Yellow-billed Cotinga and told us that Fiery-billed Aracari had been just down the road – we headed that way and found a pair, high in a tree and heard a Pale-billed Woodpecker at the same location.
Back to the unsealed road to Drake’s Bay and we walked a couple of Ks trying to see anything that called. The road was medium busy and very noisy due to the rough surface. Birds were calling but seeing them was difficult. The forest on the non-river side was very dense and impenetrable. We did have Little Tinamou calling but no way we could get it out.
The only bird we did see along that stretch was a Slaty-tailed Trogon.
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| Slaty-tailed Trogon |
We chose to return to the car and head down the bitumen to Puerto Jiminez, the biggest village in the area, about 25kms.
Along the road we stopped for Smooth-billed Anis, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, a Green Heron, a brilliant Roadside Hawk, Cattle Egrets, Crested Caracara and Northern Jacanas in a field a farmer was mowing that were all either following or disturbed by his tractor.
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| Smooth-billed Ani |
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| Roadside Hawk |
Puerto Jiminez proved to be a dead end. It was probably the gateway to the Corcovada National Park for people who were booked in somewhere. There appears to be no road access – unless by 4WD or hiking, or by boat. We were a long way from the park itself and had no plans to go there, but there didn’t seem to be anything else of much interest in Puerto Jiminez and even all of the cafes bar one were closed. We went there for coffee and added a sweet syrup in lieu of sugar – it was served hot, the syrup that is. Weird, but tasty!
On the ‘beach’ front – a stone strewn stretch of muddy sand where the Great-tailed Grackles acted like waders - we had a Willet and another Spotted Sandpiper.
After coffee we headed home, it was stinking hot and humid again and we were feeling it.
We stopped off at another, smaller river bridge and went off road by foot to chase down a female Green Kingfisher.
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| Green Kingfisher (female) |
In this area of Costa Rica we had noticed a few palm oil plantations and hoped this wasn’t the start of an industry. We were moving along the edge of one such plantation to see the kingfisher and after we had seen it, had good views of Black-hooded Antshrike, Bright-rumped Attila, Golden-naped Woodpecker and very poor views of a Red-crowned Woodpecker. They were all in a patch of jungle that appeared to be surrounded by the palm oil palms. It was a good stop!
We got home around 11.30 to find 5 American White Ibis feeding on the beachfront at the end of the garden and later yet another Spotted Sandpiper showed up before the tide came in as we sat and sweated on the veranda.
In a tree just offshore we had a pair of Black-crowned Tityra for better views than we had had at la Selva and another Red-crowned Woodpecker! It was good to get views this time that we were both happy with.
After a while as thunder rumbled in the distance and a small breeze relieved some of the humidity we both took cold showers then lay down for a while - I spent the day in my Speedos - yeah, yeah, yeah, once seen, cannot be unseen, but, Jesus wept, it was humid.
I heard Mr H moving around a while later and got up to a pair of Scarlet Macaws that had chosen to land in a tree in the garden! Brilliant! I never did see the Great Green Macaws of Tortuguero perched up close when I had the camera so this was something I had been hoping for and took full advantage of possibly (?) a rare opportunity.
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| Scarlet Macaw |
Video
https://youtu.be/pVmhVjiVl5w
About half an hour later (around 15.00) it started to rain and a heavy downpour ensued with accompanying thunder – and the power went out.
It came back on a couple of hours later. We had spent the intervening time just relaxing as the rain continued to well after dark with the thunder rumbling in the distance and the lightning flashing over the mountains. It was much cooler and, apart from the rain, not humid – much more pleasant.
We drove to the village again and got some necessary supplies, then filled up with fuel – just in case. (24,309 colones = $67 Aus, 720/l = $2 Aus)
We ate out at a roadside café/restaurant a kilometre or so away on seafood chowder and rice and squid along with a strawberry smoothy for him and a pineapple one for me. Neither of us could finish the meal. (21,000 colones = $58 Aus)
Birds: 265 Lifers: 206 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 28 Lifers: 25
Day 25 Saturday 22.7.23
We were up and out before 6.30. It had stopped raining sometime during the night and the power had stayed on. It was a cooler, a little less humid morning, cloudy with occasional sunny spells. We drove a kilometre or so back towards San Jose (for clarity sake) and parked up on a dirt road, then walked up the track further, eventually down a very wet, sticky, red mud track into secondary growth forest.
It was generally very quiet although we did get both Little and Great Tinamous calling back, but no way they were coming out.
Having said that - there was a Yellow-throated Toucan showing well immediately we stepped out of the car and we had 6 Scarlet Macaws in a tree a few minutes later, so it was kinda quiet....
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| Yellow-throated Toucan |
A hummingbird took our attention and we spent some time trying to ID it, deciding in the end it was Charming Hummingbird – the obvious choice when looking at it simply. Sometimes its easy to over think the identification and confuse the hell out of it!
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| Charming Hummingbird (female) |
While we were playing for it, a Long-billed Hermit was attracted and hovered in front of us for a few seconds checking out the noise – that was pretty stunning, the LBH has a very long bill (!) and a long tail and is quite strikingly marked.
We didn’t see much else although we did hear distant Antbirds calling, although which species it was was difficult as all their calls are similar.
Back home and it was time to use the kayaks we had organised. One came with the house and Choco, the caretaker, had organised a second. (10,000 colones for the use of both - $27 Aus) They were sit upon style and very battered and, in fact, took on water while we paddled – pretty crap actually! But we set off along the mangroves, which were very low, with high hopes. Unfortunately those hopes were not fulfilled. In approx 90 minutes we saw one Little Blue Heron briefly, a flyby Green Heron and a couple of Spotted Sandpipers. The gulf waters were flat calm and almost entirely windless, it was an easy paddle but very hot exposed to the sun.
We rested afterwards as, again, it had become very humid and sticky with just a very small breeze taking the worst out of it.
Around 13.30 we drove down to the Drake’s Bay turnoff and river bridge and had a pair of Fiery-billed Aracaris in a tree over the road. Out on the bridge a Bare-necked Tiger-Heron flew past and we checked out a Southern Rough-winged Swallow on the wires.
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| Fiery-billed Aracari |
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| Southern Rough-winged Swallow |
We drove some way up the Drake’s Bay road – it was very rough and potholed – to explore a bit further, then turned for home again as 1. It was extremely humid 2. The air conditioning fan in the car was not working well, its been hit and miss for the last couple of weeks and 3. I had an important phone call to make to wish my 10 year old grandson a happy birthday.
We went out owling, but the road options were limited. Drake’s Rd – the rough, potholed road – was very busy and noisy. We drove the main road for 10ks or so but saw nothing except a dead rodent of some sort.
Birds: 269 Lifers: 209 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 28 Lifers: 25
Day 26 Sunday 23.7.23
We drove about 20kms back towards San Jose (again for clarity) and walked up a muddy track from the road. The main issue for us in this area was getting access to go habitat. There were no bitumen roads off the main road, just rough dirt tracks and this one we had hoped might be worthwhile. We had a small flock of Brown-hooded Parrots immediately on leaving the car, but other than that it was wasted hour or so walking in, up and down a very muddy track. We did see an ant ‘run’ which appeared to have been abandoned – there were cut pieces of leaves scattered along its length, but no ants.
Despite it being heavily clouded, the humidity was, again, intense and discouraged further walking in an area where the habitat was poor and no change in sight.
Walking back out, again near the car, we had Bananaquit, Blue Gray, Palm and Golden-hooded Tanagers and a Euphonia we failed to ID.
Driving back home we found a green snake on the road that had been hit, but was still alive. It turned out to be a Giant Parrot Snake Leptophis occidentalis although ‘giant’ seemed somewhat an exaggeration.
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| Giant Parrot Snake Leptophis occidentalis |
We continued on past home and down to the bridge and beyond to the village looking for anything different long the road and trying to find a coffee shop open. Neither eventuated, being Sunday morning possibly there was nothing open – and the birds weren’t too exciting.
We parked and walked back across the bridge and then explored a track into the riverine vegetation we hadn’t seen before. There was nothing much going on, but as we walked out with Mr H leading the way, a White-nosed Coati crossed the track in front of him.
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| Brown Longtail Urbanus procne |
Back on the road I played for a calling Black-hooded Antshrike and got a good response – they were very responsive but they were the very devil to see or photograph, I got lucky this time.
A few small Swifts flew high overhead – Costa Rican Swifts.
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| Black-hooded Antshrike |
Video
https://youtu.be/DSAvwgGjOeY
From the bridge we had Spot-crowned Euphonia – possibly the same species of earlier in the day - and the pacific race of the Variable Seedeater we had been seeing around the area.
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| Spot-crowned Euphonia |
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| Variable Seedeater, pacific race |
Back home we relaxed the day away again, the humidity dropped somewhat and it was more comfortable. Choco the caretaker dropped by with two coconuts and chopped holes in the top so we could drink them – nice!
At 16.00 we ventured out again, checking the back of the mangroves in the hope of Mangrove Hummingbird. We had an invasion of Yellow-billed and Scarlet-rumped Caciques, then we headed down again to the bridge and river area.
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| Scarlet-rumped Cacique |
Mr H had noticed a side road that we hadn’t tried before. It wasn’t very long and ended at the river, but we had a good haul of species in the hour or so we spent there as dusk fell.
Red-crowned Woodpecker, Ruddy Ground Doves, Variable Seedeaters, Blue-black Grassquits, Bronzed Cowbird (~80), Ringed Kingfisher, American White Ibis, Grey-headed Chachalaca, Roadside Hawk, Orange-chinned Parakeets, White-fronted and Brown-hooded Parrots, Crested and Yellow-headed Caracaras, Scarlet Macaws overhead, Little Blue and Green Heron, Spotted Sandpiper, Grey-breasted Martin, Southern Rough-winged Swallow, Mangrove Swallow, Costa Rica and White-collared Swifts and on the way home a Purple Gallinule in a roadside swamp where we couldn’t stop, but luckily the traffic was light so…. It was especially good to see the Costa Rican Swifts low down insect hunting and get clear views of their rump – the earlier birds had been high and little detail seen.
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| Red-crowned Woodpecker |
Video
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| Scarlet Macaw flyover |
Only a three-lifer day, like the previous day, but obviously as time goes on, it gets harder to see new birds, regardless of location. I was very happy to have got photos of birds I had seen already but not on camera – and it was still working, groaning away.
Birds: 273 Lifers: 212 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 29 Lifers: 27
Day 27 Monday 24.7.23
We were up and out by 6.15, a warm, humid morning, clear skies, no wind, sweating already.
Down to the bridge and across to the side road we had explored yesterday.
We drove to the end where it met the river and walked a short way upriver along the gravelly bank. On a sandbar in the middle of the water a handful of Semi-palmated Plovers, a smaller handful of Least Sandpipers and a couple of Western Sandpipers.
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Semi-palmated Plover
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On the far bank a single Roseate Spoonbill was Mr H’s first lifer of the day.
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| Roseate Spoonbill |
Not much else different going on so we drove back towards the bridge checking the fields around it and found our next target – Red-breasted Meadowlark or Blackbird, a single bird perched up and singing in the nearby field - and my only lifer of the day.
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| Red-breasted Meadowlark |
There were also a threesome of Southern Lapwing – Mr H’s second view of this bird and much better than his only other sighting.
Back at the Drake’s Bay turnoff, we parked up and tried to get a Black-bellied Wren to respond – it did, but wouldn’t show, however, a Riverside Wren did show reasonably well, although in a dark patch of vegetation. The Wrens in Costa Rica are really nicely marked and this one was no exception.
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| Riverside Wren |
Enough already, we were sweating fit to shrink and headed home to pack up, tidy up and be on the road by 8.45.
The road north to Tarcoles was expected to be busy, being one of the main highways from San Jose to the southern border with Panama, but it went well. We were ahead of time and stopped for lunch at a roadside café. I had ‘Pinto and eggs in a cake’ which equated to rice and black beans (the Pinto bit), 2 slices of fried plantain – like banana really – and an omelette – the ‘cake’. The food was very good and the coffee even better. Total cost = 7,000 colones = $20 (both meals & 3 coffees).
Along the way somewhere a Wood Stork flew over the road - another lifer for Mr H.
Further on we stopped at a beach for a quick bird and a smoke for me.
Then we hit the traffic.
At 14.30 the traffic ground to a stop and for the next hour and 45 minutes we travelled the last 30 kms, more or less stop start continually. The air con fan in the car died completely and we had the windows open and prayed for a stop in the shade or a few minutes of motion to move the air. Incredibly uncomfortable, but after 7 and a half hours, instead of the predicted 4, we reached our destination, just north of Tarcoles.
We drove in a dirt road past fantastic looking private houses surrounded by high walls, security gates and manicured lawns to arrive at a steep dirt turnoff with three demountable-looking units staggered down the hillside. The manager, Henry, showed us into the top one and it was quite nice. Separate bedrooms, a large kitchen space and a sheltered veranda looking out across the valley.
We asked Henry if the traffic was always that bad? We understood him to say it was Independence Day. In fact it turned out that it was a holiday celebrating the partition or retrieval of the state of Nicoya – presumably from Nicaragua - in the 19th century that was the celebration and presumably everyone had gone to the beach and were on their way home, hence the massive logjam of traffic.
He took off and we found that only one light in the kitchen and the overhead fan in Mr H’s room, worked. The power points worked but there was no light in the hallway, the bathroom or my bedroom and my fan didn’t work.
We contacted the owner and they sent Henry back.
He fiddled around, blew up a circuit breaker, replaced it with another, found out it was my fan that was causing the short, blew up another circuit breaker, gave up and got me a floor fan, which was fine, and replaced the circuit breaker again.
He went away again.
We had some dinner then I thought I’d have a shower and a shave.
At the last minute I decided I’d wash my shirt first.
So I plugged the kitchen sink and washed the shirt in detergent we had bought specifically for clothes washing.
I was rinsing the shirt and emptying the sink when ‘BANG!’ I got an electric shock that almost threw me across the room.
Fuck! And I reached without thinking for my shirt on the edge of the sink – ‘BANG!!’, another shock, but my actions had carried the shirt off the sink onto the concrete floor.
‘JESUS CHRIST!’ I said ‘I got a fucking shock!’ And bent to pick up my wet shirt……..
And ‘BANG!!!’ got another shock - from the shirt lying on the floor!
Needless to say I dropped the shirt like a hot potato and vacated the kitchen quick smart leaving the shirt on the floor and the tap still running.
Mr H ventured in to see what was happening and God Bless him – ‘BANG!!!!’ he got a shock from the sink – always the supportive friend willing to share the pain – or just plain stupid – I’m not sure which.
We contacted the owner again and while we waited I rescued my shirt from the floor with a broom handle – it was OK once it was away from the kitchen - and turned the tap off with the same broom.
Henry re-appeared.
By this stage he must have started re-thinking his job options……
This time he just moved us to another unit and so we got everything out of the fridge and carried all our stuff back to the car, drove 50 meters and carried it all back in to the new unit.
I was just glad I hadn’t had that shower……
Man, this trip just doesn’t stop giving!
Birds: 279 Lifers: 213 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 29 Lifers: 27
Day 28 Tuesday 25.7.23
We were on our upper deck for breakfast by 6.
While there, Scarlet Macaws, Yellow-naped Parrots, Orange-chinned Parakeets, Rufous-naped Wrens, Streak-backed Orioles andHoffman’s Woodpecker kept interrupting.
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| Yellow-naped Parrot |
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| Orange-chinned Parakeet |
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| Streak-backed Oriole |
We had a Rose-throated Becard as a lifer, but only saw the female well.
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| Rose-throated Becard (female) |
A pair of Great Kiskadees also showed well. These birds are an everyday, almost all day occurrence and one forgets to take photos when they are so common.
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| Great Kiskadee |
The Rufous-naped Wrens were very confiding and investigated our kitchen area. Real characters.
Video
https://youtu.be/ZkTMIH83kBQ
It was worth being semi-electrocuted to get upgraded to a better-positioned unit, with views to the coast and mountains and easy access to a plunge pool. It also put us at just below canopy level so the birds were within easy viewing. An open air kitchen on the roof, so to speak, with bedrooms and bathroom below.
We decided to drive on down the dirt road from our ‘home’ and parked up at the end for a wander down to the riverbank. We had heaps of White-winged, Inca and White-tipped Doves along the track. Double-striped Thick-Knees in a field along with flighty Ruddy Ground-Doves, Variable Seedeaters and Blue-black Grassquits aplenty and Groove-billed Anis perched up here and there.
We found a Northern Tropical Pewee, a slightly boring, bland looking bird while 2 Muscovy Ducks and several Black-bellied Whistling Ducks flew by. A Grey-crowned Yellowthroat sat up well and Red-winged Blackbirds flew around the area. High overhead White-collared and Costa Rican Swifts soared across the sky and a Bat Falcon dived for prey.
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| Northern Tropical Pewee |
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Gray-crowned Yellowthroat
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Back to the car and we headed down to the coast. We were trying to find decent mangroves, but didn’t really come across any. At a creek mouth on the beach we had White Stork, Whimbrel, Willets, Grey and Semi-palmated Plover, Least Sandpiper and a Collared Plover. Out to sea we had a single Royal Tern – the first tern of the entire trip – Brown Pelicans diving and the odd Magnificent Frigatebird overhead.
By this time it had become very sweaty again – especially away from the beach breeze – but we drove back up the road a bit and walked along the edge of the mangroves anyway. We had a Yellow Warbler – Mr H identified it by song and we saw it briefly – a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron tried to pretend we couldn’t see it – they are actually almost a daily occurrence lately – and an Amazon Kingfisher perched up.
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| Amazon Kingfisher |
It felt like coffee time so we drove to a nearby village and got cool lemonade type fruit drinks and coffee before heading home for a break.
On the way we pulled in to fill up with fuel – 29,006 colones = $79 Aus. None of the petrol stations are self-service, there is always a guy to pump the fuel. The ‘guy’ this time walked around the car and indicated the rear right wheel was soft, when we bent down to look, there was a nail stuck in the tyre. He indicated the service bay and a cute female mechanic repaired the tyre quickly and efficiently. I tipped the guy for letting me know and paid the 3,200 colones (=$8.80 Aus) and got back on the road in 15 minutes. It couldn’t have happened in a better place!
Back home we hit the pool – it was very refreshing!
After an afternoon of rest we went out again – down the track from home, parked up and walked again down to the riverbank. We were reluctant to go on the main road as being a holiday the traffic was very heavy and very slow, similar to our long, dragged out end of trip the previous day. So we stayed off the main road.
Some of the similar stuff of the morning, additional birds – Streaked Flycatcher (lifer for Mr H), Turquoise-browed Motmot minus its tail racquets, Roseate Spoonbill, Blue Grosbeak, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Little Blue Herons, Neotropical Cormorants, Anhinga, Eastern Meadowlark and a Ornate Wood Turtle Rhinoclemnys pulcherrima. Feisty little dude!
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| Ornate Wood Turtle Rhinoclemnys pulcherrima |
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| Streaked Flycatcher |
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| Blue Grosbeak |
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| Eastern Meadowlark |
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| Yellow-crowned Night-Heron |
It was smokin’ humid and our shirts were literally sodden, there was no wind at all and it was just bliss to come back and hop in the pool for a cool off.
We sat down to have a glass of wine (from a carton) and prepare dinner – well, Mr H was doing the cooking, as, I am glad to say, he did every night – when a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl was calling from a nearby tree (we had seen one previously in Santa Rosa in daylight). We couldn’t see it, but it continued to call for some time before moving off to feed, presumably.
We had thought about owling, but, honestly, were just tired and drained and decided to give it a miss.
Birds: 290 Lifers: 218 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 30 Lifers: 28
Day 29 Wednesday 26.7.23
We had decided we would try a track in Carara National Park. The park main gates didn’t open till 8, but we had seen a side track on the main road that appeared open all hours and so at 6.45 we ventured in.
It was typical rainforest birding – frustrating and difficult. There were birds – numbers of Chestnut-backed Antbirds called and we got views of some very close, other birds called – Dusky Antbirds, Black-bellied Wrens, Short-billed Pigeons, Lesser Greenlets, White-tipped Doves and the like, but were impossible to pin down or see.
We did see Streaked Flycatcher, Hoffmann’s Woodpecker and Yellow-olive Flycatchers at one break in the low canopy and in a similar break had a Double-toothed Kite soaring overhead.
What sounded like a very localized shower of rain falling from the trees eventuated into a couple of Central American White-faced Capuchins, a monkey we had seen before outside the cloud forest reserve in Montverde.
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| Central American White-faced Capuchin Cebus imitator |
Trying to track down a calling wren we went off track a bit and found a Bicolored Antbird, which we saw quite well, if only brief views as it dodged in and out of the low vegetation. On the way back out we had a Turquoise-browed Motmot perched up. It was frustrating.
We drove back to the Crocodile Bridge. This was a bridge on the main road over the Tarcoles river where American Crocodiles were a tourist attraction – we suspected the local gift shop proprietors feed them to keep them there! There was work being done on the bridge which caused delays in the traffic, but didn’t deter the tourists. We had a coffee then joined the throng to look down on 8 reptiles hanging around below the bridge, presumably waiting for their next feed.
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| Crocodile Bridge |
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| American Crocodile Crocodylus acutus |
At the tourists outlets I bought a trio of t-shirts and wooden whistles for my grandsons. I always try to bring back stuff that makes a noise as it amuses them for a few minutes – and drives my son-in-law to distraction!
We did a u-turn and drove south to a road we had seen on the map which appeared to skirt the national park, thinking maybe birding would be easier along a road? Unfortunately there was road work being done and we decided that sitting waiting at a roadblock for an undetermined length of time in a sweaty car with no air-con wasn’t what we wanted to do, so turned back and again drove north over the bridge and turned left off another side road which wound across country to the coast, in the hopes of mangroves.
It took about an hour and the last two thirds was unsealed, but not difficult.
When we reached the beach and turned along to drive parallel, we had a Pearl Kite perched up nicely on the overhead wires.
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| Pearl Kite |
Both it and Double-toothed kite were listed as ‘rare’ in the Merlin app and, indeed, there were no other records of the latter in the area on E-Bird for several years.
We got to the end at the Tarcoles River again, on the opposite side of where we had been the day before, but there was no access to any mangroves.
Overhead we had at least 30 Magnificent Frigatebirds, along the beach another Collared Plover and 2 Sanderlings and offshore among the diving Brown Pelicans, another Royal Tern – possibly the same bird as yesterday!
By now it was very humid and we were drained again and very sweaty so drove home, had a dip in the pool and relaxed the rest of the afternoon away.
It started to spit rain around 4 and was still spitting when we put on our still damp, sweaty clothes and drove very slowly down the track from our place at dusk.
We had several Common Pauraques along the road sitting, as nightjars do in the middle of the track, then flicking up and flying around showing off their white wing and tail patches – pretty cool.
We tried for Black and White Owl, but got no response. We did see a probable Common Opossum up a tree but as luck would bloody have it, just as we did, a local showed up on his motorcycle and stopped to unlock the gate immediately below the tree the Opossum was in and we lost it. It either went in a hole or scarpered up the tree where we couldn’t see it – and he was the only person we saw on our outing….
We found a frog further along the road but have still to identify it. Other than that we had a quiet outing.
Birds: 294 Lifers: 221 Mammals: 18 Lifers: 17 Reptiles: 29 Lifers: 27
Day 30 Thursday 27.7.23
The plan today? Do the mangroves and then the rainforest.
We found our way to a ‘mangrove trail’ – or at least that’s what we were aiming for. We ended up walking along the bank of the Tarcoles river near the mouth, on the south bank, with an incoming tide and spent some of the time working literally through the mangroves until we reached a rough boardwalk and thus exited the area without having to battle the incoming tide on the way back.
We had a couple of targets in mind and were successful with one fairly quickly – Mangrove Vireo, quick, brief views as it flicked among the low trees. We also had a Yellow Warbler perched up – the mangrove subspecies with the brown head, common in Central America, non-existent in North America, apparently.
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| Yellow Warbler, (Mangrove subspecies) |
Further along, among low mangrove plants at the edge of the water, we had a couple of Short-billed Dowitchers (presumably Short-billed, because Long-billed don’t appear to come to Costa Rica very often!), Least Sandpipers, Willets, Whimbrel, American White Ibis, a Roseate Spoonbill, Little Blue Herons and a Tri-coloured Heron as a second trip tick from this group.
A hundred or so Brown Pelicans perched up on a distant sandbank and a load of Magnificent Frigatebirds swooped over the river and perched on a dead tree.
We also had a couple of Grey-crowned Yellowthroats and another Northern Tropical Pewee.
When we exited the boardwalk we could hear a Rufous-browed Peppershrike singing. It was somewhere high in a tree and it took ages before we spotted it – just in time to have it fly.
While looking for it a Lineated Woodpecker hammered away at a nearby tree – the second of the large black, red-headed woodpeckers in Costa Rica.
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| Lineated Woodpecker |
We walked back to the car via the laneways and drove to the main entrance of Carara National Park. It cost us $10 Aus each to enter and we followed the 4.5 km track as signposted.
It was a long, sweaty couple of hours with little to show for it in some ways. It was typical rainforest birding, walking for ages without seeing anything, then hearing some distant squeaks and still seeing nothing, until suddenly a bird, an animal or a lizard is on the track ahead or close by in the bush. Mostly nothing! I didn’t know if it was the season, the time of day (9.30-11.30) or just rainforest – I suspected largely the latter.
We heard Streaked Antpitta calling, quite close, but it wouldn’t show, which was frustrating. We had a Wedge-billed Woodcreeper and a Buff-rumped Warbler, a few Orange-billed Sparrows and a White-tailed Deer splashed away across the creek.
Finally, on our way back we had a Delicate Whiptail Chisbala pacifica cross the track, then pose nicely on a sunny log.
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| Delicate Whiptail Chisbala pacifica |
At a bridge over the shallow creek a Rufous Piha showed brilliantly – coming very close in its search for flies, ignoring us completely. If only all birds showed so well!
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| Rufous Piha |
We didn’t do anything for the rest of the day and it started to rain with the usual thunder and distant lightning that lasted into the evening.
Birds: 300 Lifers: 225 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 31 Friday 28.7.23
Another travel day. Time to move on once again.
Before we did though, a last foray down the track from home to the fields and riverbank below.
We didn’t see anything new, but when you say things like ‘there’s another Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, a Muscovy Duck out on the sandbank, two Yellow-crowned Night-Herons over there, a Black-bellied Whistling Duck on the right and a Little Blue Heron perched on the left’ and the only response is a grunt, while Scarlet Macaws fly overhead, you know you’re having a good time!
We had been seeing the Macaws every day, almost all day, flying around screaming and sitting up, feeding, in trees, but when this pair perched up in full view – once again, who can resist?
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| Scarlet Macaw |
Walking back up the laneway we had another stunner, a Lineated Woodpecker sat up and drummed. One of the two big, black red-headed Woodpeckers in Costa Rica, they are pretty impressive.
Video
https://youtu.be/uOSIDz0sfVU
Driving back up the track the OTHER large, black, red-headed woodpecker – Pale-billed Woodpecker - flew over the car and landed in a tree in front. A difficult angle but eventually he turned his head for a full view.
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| Pale-billed Woodpecker |
Back home, we packed the car and hit the road north by 8.15. It was a pretty straight forward run on the main road, but with the usual slow trucks and limited passing opportunities it took more than 4 hours.
We did turn off at one point at Chomes to try for Mangrove Hummingbird following an e-bird report.
The road down to the village on the coast was heavily potholed – pretty normal, but bad, bad, potholes - but the track we tried to get down to the mangroves was horrendous. It was verging on 4WD and we turned back rather than lose the rental!
We arrived at our new home at Nicoya in the center of the Nicoya Peninsula. It turned out to be a cabin, beside the owner’s house with one king-sized bed. Once we had advised the owner (an Italian with a Costa Rican wife) that we were ‘not a couple’, to put it delicately, they set up a separate bed for Mr H (his choice). It was very humid and hot and we spent the afternoon doing very little.
For me driving for 4 plus hours was tiring. Even the main road had potholes to avoid – I mean serious potholes – real freaking holes that would buckle a wheel or potentially blow out a tyre. On one bridge our lane was closed as another large hole had appeared in the middle of the bridge. I doubt I would have got the car out of that hole if we’d driven into it! The police were in attendance and everyone just waited their turn.
Most of the roads were single lane, no divider, no hard shoulder. Sometimes there was a passing lane available, which, after an indeterminate time, closed out and the traffic in the inner lane were directed back into the outer lane. The problem with this was a lot of car drivers and small truck drivers sat in the outer lane, requiring passing on the ‘inside’. Most of the big trucks used the inner lane to let faster vehicles past, but it did require some creative driving at times when ‘underpassing’ a slower vehicle and the lane suddenly ran out. It required constant concentration on the traffic ahead and the road in front. Cars turning left in a lot of cases, had nowhere to go, so everyone had to come to a stop until the vehicle had turned.
The local population used their hazard lights a lot to either warn on-coming traffic of an issue on the road ahead of them or to warn cars behind them that they were either turning left or coming to a stop at the end of a tail of traffic. Sometimes they didn’t indicate a right turn at all, but then that’s common the world over.
Overtaking was possible of course – even on double yellow center lines. Everyone seemed to do it when the occasion demanded so I followed suit. Generally the roads were not heavily trafficked, there were straight stretches with legal passing dotted lines, but often an overtake on a double line was necessary – and no one seemed to worry too much about it. No one I saw slowed down – I believed it was just advice of an oncoming junction or potential for people crossing the road. Some schools – especially on side roads – had speed bumps at each end and a 25 k/h speed limit when kids were around – which was all fair enough.
All in all I hadn’t found the driving too difficult – just tiring, requiring constant vigilance and little time to just relax and drive. It was a nice rarity when I had an open road, no one in front and a reliable surface, sat at 90 k/hr and enjoyed the drive.
Now we’re starting the 5th week of the campaign. It has become more challenging to see new birds, as I mentioned before. We’re trying to target the birds we haven’t seen more specifically. In Nicoya this was difficult. There were much fewer new birds available and most of those were listed as rare or at least ‘uncommon’ in the Merlin app – and the book. We expected our last week in Monteverde to be a bit different – there were a lot of birds we could try for there, but in Nicoya – not so many.
Birds: 300 Lifers: 225 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 32 Saturday 29.7.23
We got up later than normal and took a short stroll down to the creek behind the house. We had a couple of Red-throated Becards, but little else.
Breakfast was part of the deal and the host provided fruit, yoghurt and fried eggs. While we ate, a couple of nicely marked up Variegated Squirrels chased through the trees in the garden.
After breakfast we headed out and drove to Samara on the coast – about 45 minutes.
It was a tourist type place with little going on in this, the down season. We drove away heading north as the only option, but the road was very rough, the usual potholes and continually twisting and turning to avoid the bad sections and we gave up, turning off to get back to the bitumen road and thus back towards Nicoya. We filled up with fuel again on the way – 23,000 colones - $64 Aus.
Turning right before Nicoya, we headed south and stopped for good coffee at a café owned by two Dutch immigrants called Happy Days, then on to Barra Honda, a small national park.
We had found that if the national park was not in a predominantly tourist area, access and facilities were pretty poor. Either Costa Ricans don’t visit national parks much or the authorities prefer to preserve the wildness by discouraging visitors. This park was no exception. The road in was pretty chopped up and the road from the information center – where we paid $24 US for access – was a steep, low range, 4WD track. I didn’t try taking the car up, instead we walked the road for a couple of ks, birding. It was very quiet and I amused myself by taking photos of the butterflies along the way.
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| Hecale Longwing Heliconius hecale |
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| Iphicleola or Confusing Sister Adelpha iphiceola |
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| Poecile Checkerspot Chlosyne poecile |
Regarding butterflies on this trip.
Generally speaking I have not taken the time to take many photos – about 20 species so far only – and have made no effort to ID them. Due to the lack of time to wait for the insects to land – there has been so much going on bird-wise – I had focused only on the bigger insects and more colorful ones, and only when they made themselves available quickly. Several big, colourful butterflies have cruised past - bright blues and oranges in the main - but haven’t landed anywhere close which has been frustrating.
We had a few Lesser Greenlets calling, saw Banded Wrens and a pair of Chestnut-capped Warblers but that was it until I spotted a dull, plain bird perched up over the road with building material and, after some discussion and repeated viewing as it went back and forth – identified it as a Greenish Elaenia.
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| Greenish Elaenia |
It was very humid. I had taken my shirt off and hung it off my belt and the sweat just ran down my face, chest and back. It wasn’t super hot and we were partly shaded most of the time, but, God, it was humid. My shirt was just a sodden mess and the waistband of my shorts wet to halfway down my ass.
We headed home after a couple of hours of pretty fruitless effort and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out. From the shade and the hammocks we had Barred Antshrikes, Long-billed Gnatwren, calling Long-tailed Manikins, Stripe-tailed Hermit and Rufous-tailed Hummingbird briefly visited the feeder hanging from the eves, Yellow-Green Vireo and, of course, Greenish Elaenia again! I spent the time in my Speedoes – yeah, yeah, I know, but it was the most comfortable I could get.
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| Yellow-green Vireo |
Around 17.00 the thunder started again and we anticipated rain. It had been like this most days, incidentally, the thunder and sometimes lightning, rumbling and flashing overhead. Its quite impressive really, but with little or no wind, so damage seemed minimal.
The rain started by 17.30 and continued well into the evening denying us the possibility of owling. Several large toads appeared but were not immediately identified. Looked suspiciously like Australian Cane Toads.... and were !
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| Cane Toad Rhinella horribilis |
Birds: 300 Lifers: 225 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 33 Sunday 30.7.23
We were up at 5, had our own breakfast and hit the road by 5.45.
We drove south, our intention being to explore towards the southern tip of the peninsula. The roads were fairly quiet, once we cleared Nicoya, and good quality.
We stopped for coffee somewhere near San Lucas, then pulled in beside a series of shallow clay pan type ponds – possible a fish farm of some sort. We had American White Ibis, several Yellow-crowned Night Herons, Spotted Sandpiper, Double-striped Thick-knee, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and a handful of Black-necked Stilts – a trip tick.
Beside the ponds a small short track led down to the foreshore – a muddy expanse not unlike Dublin or Moreton Bay on a smaller scale. There were Whimbrel, Willets, Semi-palmated Plover, Western Sandpipers and more Stilts, Ibis and Egrets.
In the mangroves behind the beach we found Northern Beardless Tyrannulet and our ‘lifer for the day’ – Northern Scrub Flycatcher.
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| Northern Scrub Flycatcher |
We drove on finding 15-20 kms of amazing perfect, road before reaching Paquera where the road suddenly turned to complete shit with deep treacherous potholes, an amazing contrast to the surface 100 meters before the town – really weird.
We continued on, getting as far as Montezuma Beach.
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| Montezuma Beach, Nicoya Pen |
We had hoped to drive the circuit, but the road beyond the beach turnoff was unsealed and I didn’t fancy driving all the way back to Nicoya on dirt, so….. we turned around and drove back the way we had come.
We stopped in Paquera for a late breakfast/early lunch. I had ‘Huevos con rancheros’ which literally translates as ‘eggs with ranchers’. It was two fried eggs smothered in a tomato based oniony type, slightly feisty, sauce – quite nice actually, along with two small tortillas. The waitress had asked me if I wanted ‘something or tortillas with it’, not recognizing what the ‘something’ was I just said ’tortillas, por favour.’ Mr H had a rather plain tortilla with a bland mayo type sauce, we both had fruit milkshakes and I had a coffee con leche – total cost 8,000 colones = $22 Aus.
Heading on we drove the very good 15 km stretch of road again and got home around 13.30, about 7 hours driving and about 300 kms, give or take, including stops of maybe an hour. It was a big driving day with little birding. I admitted to be a bit knackered and Mr H said he felt it too – mostly from hanging on for dear life as I drove…….
We soaked in the creek when we got back and I sent a video message to my No 2 grandson (defined by age) for his 6th birthday. By 15.00 the thunder had started again overhead.
It didn’t rain for long, in fact, and at 18.30 we took a walk up the track from the house – only 50 or so meters - and played for Northern Potoo. The owner had described hearing several birds around a few weeks before and sure enough within a minute we had at least 3 birds, one of which perched up on a high stump for a clear view. We had arranged for the hosts to provide us an evening meal, Italian style, at 19.00 so we were a bit restricted on how long we could spend out so satisfied ourselves with the Potoo. The meal was really nice and we crashed soon after doing the log.
Birds: 306 Lifers: 228 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 34 Monday 31.7.23
We were up and out by 6 with no breakfast initially. We had organised for the host-provided breakfast at 7.30 so we wandered the local tracks until then. We saw nothing new – in fact it was very quiet – but a small range of previously seen species.
After breakfast we headed out and drove numerous roads trying to find good habitat. It was difficult and not very successful. However, we did have two Great Black Hawks overhead circling at Vulture height which was a nice addition to our lifer list. We had already seen numerous Common Black Hawks but this one was less common and less confiding.
We came across a group of Mantled Howler Monkeys Alouatta palliata over the road at one point and the large male was very vocal and obliging, despite the regular passage of motorbikes and vans. We have heard them every day at some stage – in the distance, but have only seen a few at close range. These were very cool and almost f,f,f,f,friendly?
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| Mantled Howler Monkey Alouatta palliata |
Video:
https://youtu.be/V3j8Q19sT6s
We called a halt to our travels at around 11 and drove back to Nicoya to enjoy the air conditioning, coffee and burgers at the only Mackers in town. Filled up with fuel again - 28,000 colones = $78 Aus.
Our Air BnB
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Kitchen area
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| 'Our' cabin is up the steps |
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| Our dining and relaxation area |
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| Our shared bedroom - with Mr H's blow up bed |
Back home we sat in the sultry heat and then the Long-tailed Manikins started to call again so we walked 20 meters into the forest, set up the speaker and within a couple of minutes a pair descended from the canopy and we got great views – and a few (188) photos - before leaving them in peace. Surprisingly this Manikin is a canopy dweller and very difficult (in our limited experience) to see well. We had had them badly in Santa Rosa NP three weeks previously and I had hoped for better views – and finally got them! It took them a while to come low enough to get on camera and, as always, its difficult against the light with a black-headed bird. Stunning little birds with an enchanting tail. I think they were confused as to why one of their species would be so low!
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| Long-tailed Manikin |
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| Ruby-spotted Swallowtail Heraclides anchisiades |
At 14.00, as predicted, it started to thunder and rain sporadically again.
It didn’t rain too heavily or for too long and so after dark we went out to play for nightbirds.
We started right behind the house with Spectacled Owl as the owner had said he’d seen a couple of them a few weeks before.
We got no reaction.
So we walked up the track 50 meters to where we had had the Northern Potoos the previous night and managed to lure one bird in that perched up very well and called back. This time I had the camera.
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| Northern Potoo |
We tried multiple owls with no response then called in two Common Pauraques that landed on the track and chirruped back.
Back home and we were tidying up and preparing to do the log when a Spectacled Owl called from behind the house – had obviously taken some time to respond. However, frustratingly, we could not see it in the heavy bush.
I have just discovered that 86,450 people have watched a video I put up last year of Elephant Seals on South Georgia! 86,000 hits!! People must have little to do!
Birds: 306 Lifers: 228 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 35 Tuesday 1.8.23
Another walk before breakfast in the immediate area produced nothing of interest – even less than the previous day. After breakfast we drove to a large bridge over the river semi-separating the peninsula from the main body of the country. ‘Semi’ because one could drive around further north, but this was the main road from San Jose etc
We parked up in the car park beside the western side of the bridge and immediately had a pair of perched up Spot-breasted Orioles.
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| Spot-breasted Oriole |
We were looking for mangroves – again – and found a track through the tall mangroves beside the bridge, but saw nothing in the hour or so we spent perspiring heavily in the humid atmosphere.
From the bridge itself we added three trip ticks – Black-crowned Night Heron, Tri-coloured Heron and Great Blue Heron all feeding on the exposed sandbanks or edge of the river, along with Great and Snowy Egrets, Green and Yellow-crowned Night Herons.
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| Northern Tropical Buckeye Junonia zonalis |
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| Mexican Fritillary Euptoieta hegesia |
We tried another couple of roads that might have led to mangrove habitat, but found nothing useful.
One of the problems we encountered was finding access to good habitat. It was there, but getting at it was very difficult.
We decided, once again, to head home and as we did we were hit by a very heavy thunderstorm of rain. Driving slowed for safety but it did help wash the car!
We stopped at Mackers for air con and coffee before picking up some meat and vegies and, at home, washing our clothes properly in a machine for the first time.
The rain drizzled on and off all through the afternoon while Thicket Tinamous called from just outside the ‘compound’ but refused to show themselves.
We tried for Spectacled Owl in the evening but got no response.
Birds: 311 Lifers: 230 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 36 Wednesday 2.8.23
Our last day in Nicoya. We headed northwest after breakfast in search of habitat Mr H had identified about halfway to the coast at Playa Flamingo.
Along the road a hawk flew low and I turned back as soon as I could. We managed to find the bird soaring briefly and identified it as a Harris’s Hawk – a lifer for Mr H and the first of the trip.
Trying to access the small roads that led to what appeared to be ponds and woodland proved difficult – every one was gated. It appeared as if the whole area had come under the control of a single corporation? The few farm buildings appeared deserted and/or abandoned.
We eventually found an unsealed track in the back way, drove in a couple of Ks, abandoned the car and walked a further couple of Ks.
We didn’t see much. The highlight was a White-nosed Coati that stepped out onto the path in front of us! He wasn’t overly concerned, but didn’t stay long enough for photos. Pretty cool, cause it was quite a big animal, medium dog size with a long tail and to have it just appear in front of us in daylight was a great experience.
We were looking fairly specifically for a couple of Ground-Doves and Scrub Euphonia which had eluded us to date. We didn’t find any or either and ran out of track at a second gate. The only Ground-Dove we did see was a Common Ground-Dove.
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Common Ground-Dove
I took photos of butterflies along the way some of which appeared to be congregating on Coati shit – or at least that’s my story – and some frogspawn in a rain puddle on the track that looked like melting ice cream. |
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| Foam-frog sp spawn |
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| Common Spurwing Antigonus erosus |
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| Many-banded Daggerwing Marpesia chiron |
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| Orcus Checkered-Skipper Burnsius orcus |
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Yucatan Cracker Hamadryas julitta
(Note: This identification is pending advice from the Butterflies of North America website. It appears to have only been recorded on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and my ID may be incorrect) |
We drove on to Playa (beach) Flamingo and found an air-conditioned coffee shop with excellent coffee at horrendous prices, then turned back and headed home via Tamarindo which wasn’t very exciting either. We stopped off at Mackers again for a burger lunch and cold drinks before getting home around 14.30. The thunder and rain started again just before 16.00.
The rain continued into the evening.
Birds: 311 Lifers: 230 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 37 Thursday 3.8.23
We got up, had breakfast provided by the host, packed the car and left. It was pretty good to know we were leaving the humidity and sweat of the lowlands for the last time.
It was a relatively easy drive to Monteverde along generally OK roads – just the last part as we approached the town, all uphill, where the road degenerated into the potholed bitumen we had travelled a couple of times before. It was like coming home.
We found the Air BnB, well placed a few hundred meters from at least 3 sites we wanted to bird and 3 kms from the entrance to the cloud forest reserve. Filled up with fuel - 17,000 colones =$48 Aus.
It was a three storied building and we had the unit on the top floor with a narrow balcony overlooking the road below, but, more importantly, at canopy level for the surrounding trees. It wasn’t ready when we arrived so we wandered around the area checking access details, exact locations and prices for the birding sites. We had an excellent cup of coffee in Santa Elena, which was the small village we had stayed near last time. Both it and Monteverde itself are more or less part of the same and almost joined being very close to one another.
At 14.00 we gained access and found the property to be everything an Air BnB should be. The kitchen was well stocked with appliances (electric kettle, toaster, gas burners, full set of cutlery and kitchen bits and pieces). This may sound ‘well, uhhh duuuh’ but we had found most of the places we had stayed had been lacking in one thing or another – or, in fact, several things, and it was really nice to find somewhere for our last week that had everything and it worked!
We settled in and spent the afternoon relaxing in the warm, dry heat and cool breezes and watching from the balcony as Masked Tityra, Sulphur-bellied and Social Flycatchers, Yellow-crowned and Yellow-throated Euphonias, Grey-headed Chachalacas, Clay-coloured Thrushes, a female Red-legged Honeycreeper, Red-billed Pigeons, Brown Jays and a Variegated Squirrel visited the trees within sight.
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| Masked Tityra |
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| Grey-headed Chachalaca |
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| Social Flycatcher |
It will be interesting to see what we actually get from this location in the coming days.
We planned to spend the next 7 days at this spot, before heading to San Jose for our last night then home.
Birds: 311 Lifers: 230 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 38 Friday 4.8.23
We got up at 5, intending to start early at the ‘Rachel & Dwight Crandell Reserve’. Unlike the other reserves this one is apparently open 24x7 and is free – apart from a requested donation.
However, the wind was blowing a gale and it was spitting rain so we went back to bed.
The wind continued all day, making birding almost impossible so after breakfast and a hang around we drove to Santa Elena and spent some time wandering the souvenir shops buying take home stuff, had a coffee and bought some supplies.
At 14.30 the wind had abated somewhat and it was bright and sunny so we walked the 400 meters or so to the entrance to Rachel & Dwight’s place and walked the trails for a couple of hours.
It wasn’t too bad, although we didn’t see much of anything after the first 100 meters. In that first bit we had a singing Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush which was nice.
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| Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush |
Just afterwards we had an Olivaceous Woodcreeper, a fleeting glimpse of a Central American Agouti Dasyprocta punctata and a pair of Nine-banded Armadillos Dasypus novemcinctus foraging about 30 meters away – difficult to see in the thick brush.
Their size, colour (lightish grey) and long tail made us re-think the Armadillo we had had at Poas. It, now, seemed to have been smaller and darker and the tail shorter. It was possible it had been a Northern Naked-tail armadillo Cabassous centralis, but at the time we had assumed it was a Nine-banded. The Northern Naked-tail is much rarer and less often seen, but it did seem to be a different animal and now that we had better views and a more comprehensive understanding we re-thought that original identification. At the time it had been on the side of the road, at night, and it had been a wild scramble to park the car, get out and run back shouting something along the lines of ‘That’s a f……g armadillo!’ – as you can imagine.
Reflection after the fact is a great thing and it would have to remain as ‘one that might have got away’.
Other than that we only saw one Collared Trogon in the rest of the walk. Admittedly it was a bad time of day and the wind was still blowing across the canopy something awful, but we didn’t see anyone else on the trails and it was probably worth another visit at a better time – especially as it was ‘free’.
Birds: 312 Lifers: 231 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 39 Saturday 5.8.23
We woke to the wind and a thin rain at 5.30, so, again, went back to bed. It had rained on and off overnight with some thunder and lightning and the situation hadn’t changed much from the previous day.
At 8.30 after breakfast, we headed out anyway and walked the Rachel & Dwight Crandell Reserve again. We had contemplated paying into the Cloud Reserve but were reluctant to pay a high price when the conditions were so poor and we still had a few days in hand.
Before we left we had a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher and a Yellow-bellied Elaenia from the balcony.
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| Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher |
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| Yellow-bellied Elaenia |
Along the road we had a perched up Grey-headed Chachalaca and a couple of Cabanis’s Wrens. Once on the track we had a singing Orange-bellied Nightingale-Thrush at the same spot as the previous day and following it up we had a White-eared Ground-Sparrow and a Golden-crowned Warbler – the latter fairly briefly.
We continued on up the track seeing nothing until we heard a Three-wattled Bellbird calling.
It was a strong call, indicating the bird was fairly close. So far we had only seen very distant female birds – and very poorly at that, so we were pretty keen to see one up close.
We spent about 20 minutes on the track using playback to encourage it to move and trying to see it through the waving trees and lower canopy. It didn’t move, just kept calling from the same hidden spot. We decided to go off track and spent 20 minutes or so stalking it through the relatively thin bush, trying to be quiet on the dry leaves and twigs underfoot and the entangling vegetation and dry branches littering the floor.
Finally we spotted it sitting on a bare branch below the canopy, but still swaying in the wind. It was a male and called persistently, but the calls were spaced several second apart and it always seemed like it would be gone any minute.
However, it sat up well for prolonged views – initially only of its arse and back with occasional views of the wattles as it turned its head, so I moved a short distance to get a better angle and to get photos and video of this bizarre bird. I thought it was possibly the weirdest bird I had ever seen!
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| Three-wattled Bellbird |
Video:
https://youtu.be/b0gU5aF1O0Q
We were well pleased with the experience and it, frankly, made my day.
We continued on the track and spent the next two and half hours walking quietly and slowly, but saw very few birds. Rainforest birding is really tough and the wind and occasional cloudy rain didn’t help. We did have a couple more Golden-crowned Warblers, but didn’t see anything apart from a flick here and there and we had one Yellowish Flycatcher for very poor views that were almost untickable.
On the way out we met the first independent birders we had seen since the Dutch guy at La Selva. A young couple, also Dutch, who had travelled from Antarctica all the way up through South America and were heading off to Brazil in the near future. Wow – we were jealous!
We had Chestnut-capped Warbler, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, Palm Tanager and a Buff-throated Saltator near or around the entrance.
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| Olivaceous Woodcreeper |
On the walk back I took photos of several butterflies feeding on purple flowers in sheltered areas and we had Stripe-tailed and Blue-vented Hummingbirds in the same situation.
Made me wonder if walking the tracks in the forest was really worth it!
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| Stripe-tailed Hummingbird (male) |
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| Stripe-tailed Hummingbird (female) |
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| Broken Silverdrop Epargyreus exadeus |
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| Falcate Skipper Spathilepa clonius |
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| Thoas Swallowtail Papilio thoas |
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| Two-barred Flasher Astraptes fulgerator |
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| White-angled Sulphur Anteos clorinde |
We stopped for a coffee (two lattes for me) before heading home.
Incidentally the camera, although still ‘groaning’ as the lens extended, was working almost normally again. I could only conclude the extreme humidity of the Caribbean coast had affected its performance.
Late in the afternoon a trio of Red-legged Honeycreepers appeared in ‘our’ trees. These are most often canopy birds so to see them well at eye level was another pleasure. Unfortunately the light wasn’t the best, but the blue male with the red legs was still a stunner.
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| Red-legged Honeycreeper |
Birds: 314 Lifers: 233 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 40 Sunday 6.8.23
We were up at 5, determined to do the Cloud Forest Reserve come wind or rain.
We had both, conditions for the first three hours were atrocious. Around 10, the rain stopped almost completely and the sun came out, but the wind continued mercilessly.
Parking at the reserve was very restricted. One could park down the road about 2kms in the official parking area – and pay about 2,500 colones ($7 Aus) and maybe walk in or maybe there was a shuttle bus? However, there was limited parking along the sides of the road for the last 100 meters before the reserve – and that was what we planned to do. We were the first car there at 6 so we had no problem.
It was spitting rain as we wandered the road, initially, waiting for the reserve to open. We sat for a half an hour or so in the free access Hummingbird café area just outside watching Lesser Violetears, Purple-throated Mountain-Gems, Violet Sabrewings and Stripe-tailed Hummingbirds come to the feeders.
The cost to enter the park was $25US each so we wanted to make the most of the day. Mr H even packed himself a sandwich while I settled for a banana.
Outside the ticket office just before it opened a party of 4 Azure-headed Jays moved through the trees.
We set off along the Sendero Nuboso believing it to be a quieter track. Most visitors used the main central track, the Sendero Camino.
Within a hundred meters or less we had Highland Tinamou right beside us and the track.
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| Highland Tinamou |
A note here re the photography – it was really difficult. The light was very poor for most of the day and the undergrowth horribly thick. The camera struggled to focus in the dim light and trying to get the subject clear of the surrounding vegetation and sitting still long enough tried my patience – and limited skills.
We walked the complete Nuboso, then back along the Camino, turning off at Sendero Wilford Gordon and back to the entrance at 11.15.
Along the way we hit a couple of bird waves and had some individual luck.
We saw a good number of Grey-breasted Wood-Wrens, Costa Rican Warblers, Ruddy Treehunters and Common Chlorospingus.
We had singles or small numbers of Bananaquit, Northern-Barred Woodcreeper, Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush, Black-faced Solitaire, Lineated Foliage-gleaner and Smoky-brown Woodpecker.
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| Black-faced Solitaire |
New species included Black Guan, Red-faced Spinetail, Spangle-cheeked Tanager, Buff-fronted Quail-Dove, Golden-browed Chlorophonia and Chestnut-capped Brushfinch.
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| Black Guan |
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| (A rather blurry) Buff-fronted Quail-Dove |
It was tough birding! The rain came and went, never heavy, just a thin cloudy drizzle. In places the wind was whipping the trees into a frenzy but we found some sheltered spots and, at times, we had birds. There was a lot of walking and seeing/hearing nothing in between. A lot of the smaller birds were high in the canopy and darting around feeding making identification difficult and trying to get each other onto something new challenging!
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| Klug's Clearwing Dircenna klugii |
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| Large Groundstreak Arzecla sethon |
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| Rayed Sister Adelpha meanthe (I think!, very worn) |
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| Unidentified snail sp |
At 11 we exited and had a coffee and a sit down in the hummingbird café (Café Colibri), then re-entered the park (it was a day pass) and went at it again along the main Camino and back via Nuboso again until 14.15. With more than 7 hours spent birding in the park we felt we had got our money’s worth for one day.
We walked to the car and, as you would know it, had another bird wave at the car – Spotted Barbtail showed really well and a couple of Plain Antvireos put in an appearance.
Back home and we relaxed for the rest of the day while Mountain Elaenias, Masked Tityras, Grey-headed Chachalacas and Green Honeycreepers hung out in ‘our’ trees.
Birds: 324 Lifers: 243 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 41 Monday 7.8.23
We planned to go to the Children’s Forest or Reservo Bajo del Tigre, a few hundred meters down the road. We believed it opened at 8 and were there on the dot. It turned out it actually opened at 7, but no one else had entered so we were the first on the tracks anyway. Cost = $17US each.
We set off along the Sendero Murcielago and ran into a small bird wave within 100 meters or so. There were Long-tailed Manikins calling and we had a couple of quick glimpses. Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrushes were singing and Rufous and White Wrens, Chestnut-capped Warblers and a White-eared Ground-Sparrow showed up. We also had a White-throated Thrush and during our 3 hour walk had a couple more, but they were quite elusive – for thrushes – and difficult to see in the clear.
Another 100 meters or so and a single Black Guan showed quite well.
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| Black Guan |
Further along the track there were several Three-wattled Bellbirds calling and I got a few more pictures and video of this incredible bird – much easier than the previous day.
The track was rough and largely downhill on the outbound leg. We had been told that the Sendero Jaguar was very steep and it was. We only went halfway down then turned back as the forest was very quiet and we had seen nothing for sometime.
Back along Sendero del Mono and we had another bird wave that started off with Golden-crowned Warblers, followed by Rufous and White Wrens, an Ochraceous Woodcreeper, a Slaty-throated Redstart, good views of a Rufous-browed Peppershrike and fleeting glimpses and lots of calls of Rufous-breasted Wren.
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| Golden-crowned Warbler |
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| Slate-throated Redstart |
We spent more than half an hour with this bird wave, using some ‘encouragement’ to attract them in for better views until they moved on and so did we.
Not far from the information centre we were looking at White-eared Ground-Sparrows and White-throated Thrushes again – or at least trying to see them – when a Central American Agouti Dasyprocta punctata walked through the bush in front of us.
We had given up on the thrushes and started to head out when I spotted a White-nosed Coati Nasua narica digging in the leaf litter 20 meters away. It was a brilliant view and experience and humorous at times as, due to its poor eyesight, it didn’t see us, until suddenly it did! Then it scurried away a few meters, climbed a tree, then decided we were not a threat and returned to digging, only to again get freaked out and climb another tree!
Video
https://youtu.be/U6sUDkViyUA
Just then it started to rain quite heavily so we abandoned our walk and hurried to the information centre where I bought Leenders Pocket Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica ($29US) before heading back out to the road and stopping for coffee in Stella’s of Monteverde.
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| Sisamnus Dartwhite Catasticta sisamnus |
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| White-dotted Satyr Forsterinaria neonympha |
We spent some time on the balcony watching our trees. It had turned into a grey, dull, wet day but the birds kept coming. We had the ‘usual’ Social Flycatchers, Blue Gray Tanagers, Clay-coloured Thrushes and Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers, then a Tropical Kingbird showed up, followed by the local Mountain Elaenia. Then a surprise – a Piratic Flycatcher sat up well for close inspection and a short time later a Mistletoe Tyrannulet – only our second – made a brief but welcome appearance.
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| Blue Gray Tanager |
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| Mountain Elaenia |
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| Piratic Flycatcher |
We went to the shops for a few last supplies and take home stuff, then back to the balcony again. This time it was a Cabanis’s Wren. We had seen loads during our trip, but they had always eluded my camera – but today, at last, I got the little sucker on ‘film’.
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| Cabanis's Wren |
Birds: 327 Lifers: 246 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 42 Tuesday 8.8.23
We got up at 6 to a calm, cloudy morning.
Our usual local birds were in the trees – Grey-headed Chachalacas, Piratic, Sulphur-bellied, Social and a Boat-billed Flycatcher/s, Clay-coloured Thrushes, Brown Jays, Blue Gray Tanagers and a Blue-vented Hummingbird and were joined by a brief two Keel-billed Toucan visit and a pair of Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers.
Our plan was to walk a couple of roads through forested areas, one of which we had walked on our first morning in Monteverde back at the beginning of our campaign.
We parked up and walked the dirt road. It was the entrance road to a ‘park’ advertising extreme sports and was quite busy with staff and visitors.
We didn’t see a lot but did get great views of a quartet of Northern Emerald Toucanets.
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| Northern Emerald Toucanet |
We also had Golden-crowned and Chestnut-capped Warblers, a Crested Guan, Squirrel Cuckoo, Yellow-throated Euphonia and White-eared Ground-Sparrows and we heard and then saw a couple of Montezuma’s Oropendolas, our first on this, our return visit to the area. We heard but could not pull out a White-breasted Wood-Wren, one of our remaining target species.
We tried another road, but it was even busier, to another adventure park, so gave the roads away, went home, had a coffee, then walked up to Rachel & Dwight Crandall’s Reserve again.
We had three Lesson’s Motmots perched on the fence outside, looking like they were starting to moult.
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| Lesson's Motmot |
In the reserve, although we didn’t walk very far, we had two Central American Agoutis, Northern Barred and Olivaceous Woodcreepers, Brown Jays and a Slate-throated Redstart.
A White-breasted Wood-Wren was singing and after a long wait and careful encouragement, we managed to get a brief, but satisfying view of the little bugger.
We headed home after about 90 minutes and I took some photos of butterflies along a flowery hedgerow while just nearby a female Violet Sabrewing perched up beautifully.
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| Violet Sabrewing (female) |
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| American Lady Vanessa virginiensis |
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| Brazilian Skipper Calpodes ethlius |
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| Clavipes Sphinx Aellopos clavipes (Hummingbird Hawk type moth) |
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| Clysonymus Longwing Heliconius clysonymus |
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| Harmonia Satyr Hermeuptychia harmonia (Again, I think! Very worn) |
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| Pale Sicklewing Achlyodes pallida |
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| Two-barred Flasher Astraptes fulgerator (Again) |
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| Aegithus meridionalis, a species of Fungus Beetle |
Back home, Mr H watched the trees while I downloaded photos. He called me out a couple of times to see stuff and on one occasion we had a female Golden-Olive Woodpecker perch up for a short period. Our second lifer from the balcony! I took photos of some of the birds that showed up... - it really was a great spot smoking, drinking coffee, relaxing, birding! We've had at least 27 species from the balcony.
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Greyish or Cinnamon-bellied Saltator
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| Clay-coloured Thrush |
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Yellow-throated Euphonia
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It started to rain heavily around 14.00 – we hoped it didn’t last as we planned a night spotlight and a visit to the cloud forest the next, our last full, day.
It rained all afternoon with a cold wind and things looked pretty hopeless. However around 18.00 it stopped and 45 minutes later we drove up to Rachel & Dwight’s place again. We parked up and walked in seeing nothing in the trees or on the ground.
We stopped at the ‘entrance’ to the walk itself, a few hundred meters up the hill and had some success, at last! A Mottled Owl responded very quickly to the ‘encouragement’ and ‘woofed’ back at us until we finally found it perched up not that far above us.
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| Mottled Owl |
I took photos then we left him in peace. We drove up to the entrance to the cloud forest reserve but saw nothing along the road. One of the issues we have had for night spotting has been finding a quiet, preferably bitumen, road to drive slowly along. The main roads are bitumen, but busy and the side roads predominantly unsealed and rough – and busy too. However, we were happy with this night’s outcome.
Birds: 329 Lifers: 249 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 43 Wednesday 9.8.23
Our last day dawned, dull and breezy. After breakfast we headed up to the cloud forest and parked up the same way as the previous visit. We were the first car. We hung around watching for birds – very little – and the Central American White-faced Capuchin and Central American Spider Monkeys move through the trees around the centre. Mr H got a senior discount – so this visit cost us $20 US each.
We were the first people on the track, but in the end it was a disappointing morning. The weather was OK, a bit misty at times, medium windy, and the track was very busy after 9.00 with groups both guided and unguided. We didn’t meet any other independent birders.
Our targets were anything with a ‘bill’ in its name – Sharpbill, Spadebill, Bentbill or Flatbill. We saw none. We walked the main central trail right out to the Mirador or Lookout, then back via the Nuboso trail.
We only had one bird wave of about 10 minutes – Costa Rican and Golden-crowned Warblers, Spotted Barbtail nestbuilding, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, Spangle-cheeked and Silvery-throated Tanagers and a single Red-faced Spinetail.
At one point along the track we heard a call we thought was a Trogon, but it eventuated as a pair of Buff-fronted Quail-Doves that walked almost up to us in the bush, then crossed the track in front of us. We also saw a single Highland Tinamou, thanks to a non-birding couple who had spotted it first. At other points we had a Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush, three Slaty-backed Nightingale-thrushes briefly and poorly, Common Chlorospingus a few times and a family party of Azure-hooded Jays that I got crappy photos of and we saw more Spider Monkeys a couple of times.
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| Azure-hooded Jay |
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| Central American Spider Monkey Ateles geoffroyi |
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| Crisia Mimic-White Dismorphia crisia |
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| Vicina Clearwing Oleria vicina |
We stopped off for a coffee on the way home, filled up with fuel (23,300 colones = $37 Aus) and then relaxed the afternoon away and packed in preparation for departure.
Late in the day while watching our trees we had a selection of birds - one new one from the balcony was a White-throated Thrush, a bird we had found difficult to see well at the Children's Forest.
This was the 196th bird species I managed to capture on camera on this trip.
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| White-throated Thrush |
Birds: 329 Lifers: 249 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 44 Thursday 10.8.23
We got up and had breakfast, then finished packing and cleaning.
Just after 8 Mr H suggested we walk the short distance to a lookout point over the valley below. We did that and sat looking at the view that extended to the Gulf of Nicoya.
Black and Turkey Vultures and Vaux’s Swifts soared overhead and Mr H picked up a raptor that we watch soar at distance and eventually came close enough for us to ascertain it as a Short-tailed Hawk.
We headed home and left at 9.15.
It was an easy enough drive by Costa Rican standards; we used a faster toll route from the coast to San Jose but still had slow kilometres and standstill moments. We stopped off and had the car washed – 5,000 colones = $14 Aus – and reached the car hire company in San Jose at 12.30.
The car hire place let us leave our luggage and we walked 50 meters to a Denny’s for lunch.
After we had eaten we collected our luggage and got a cab to our overnight B & B – the same place I had stayed 6 weeks ago.
Our overall travel in Costa Rica - about 5,000 kms.
Birds: 330 Lifers: 250 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
Day 45 Friday 11.8.23 - Day 47 Sunday 13.8.23
We had breakfast at 7, then Mr H went for a walk in the neighbourhood, which I declined.
We got a taxi at 8.15 and at 8.30 were queuing for our respective check-ins.
That all went well and we progressed through security for a long wait. Mr H’s flight was at 12.30, mine at 13.30, but because neither of us had been able to check-in on-line, we needed to be sure it was all good at the airport – especially as I got given window seats on every leg. I had wanted one on the San Francisco/Brisbane leg, but to get them on all the flights? Seemed too good to be true.
We sat it out, reading etc, until Mr H departed, and shortly afterwards I boarded my flight to Houston.
It had been showing as ‘delayed’ all morning and I was obviously concerned given the experiences I had had on the way to Costa Rica, however, the desk clerk assured me the plane would leave ‘just a few minutes’ late.
It did, about 10 minutes late and we made up most of that time in the air so that we landed in Houston pretty close to the expected time – 18.00 local.
My next flight – to San Francisco – was scheduled to depart at 19.40.
Then we had to sit on the freaking tarmac for 10 minutes till the airport cleared a gate for us.
So it was 18.30 before I actually left the bloody plane. We’d lost any time we’d made up.
I knew those window seats were a mirage.
I hustled through the airport for what seemed like miles until I hit Homeland Security. This is where the rubber hits the road. Photographs, sometimes fingerprints, questions, interrogation. Everyone has to go through this even if just in transit.
I managed to queue jump about 150 people by simply ducking under the strap barriers and explaining that I had a pending connection.
I got to the head of the queue and the woman directing the incoming passengers to different queues looked at my details and said I should make it to the boarding gate in time – boarding closed at 19.25.
I asked a young couple with two kids in front of me if I could go before them, they said OK, but the single guy in front of them wasn’t having any – even though he explained he had missed his flight already – go figure, sharing the pain maybe?
19.00 I got through Homeland Security, questioned, photographed……
I hustled again down to the baggage area, collecting a trolley on the way, grabbed my check-in bag and ran with it to the bag drop off for the rest of the flights.
A woman there scanned my boarding pass and said ‘you should hurry’ – yeah, like tell me something I DIDN’T know.
I hustled down numerous corridors and up escalators and ….… arrived at airport security.
19.05 Long queue, at least 100 people in front of me and no way to get past barriers.
I gave up.
I figured there was no way I was going to get through this in time and shuffled forward inch by inch dreading the next 48 hours and wondering what the hell I was going to do? Visions of the 18 hours I spent in Doha airport in February forming in my head.
Laptop out. iPad out. Boots off. Belt off.
Laptop in. iPad in. Boots on. Belt on.
19.25. Boarding closed.
19.30 I hustled as fast as I could to the gate anyway and the attendant was still there. She nearly had a coronary when I jumped up in front of her, but, give her her due, she reacted straight away and we both RAN, literally, RAN, down the tunnel to get me onto the plane just as they closed the doors.
The window seat held firm and I even had an empty seat beside me.
The flight went OK, landing in San Francisco at 21.00 local time.
The last leg was scheduled to leave at 23.55.
I walked more miles to the departure gate – it was, as always, right at the far end of the terminal – below an outdoor terrace where you couldn’t smoke? What’s the point? Sit in the sun? Smell the jet fuel? What is the point of an outdoor area if you can’t smoke?
And the closest coffee shop thing was closed........
We boarded around midnight and were airborne 45 minutes later. I had the row to myself with a window seat so it was quite pleasant to stretch out and sleep for at least part of the thirteen hour plus flight home.
We landed on time at 6.40 and proceeded through customs, duty free and bag collection at a slow pace, finally emerging at 7.50 to get an Uber home.
Birds: 329 Lifers: 249 Mammals: 17 Lifers: 16 Reptiles: 32 Lifers: 29
27.8.23
Oxley
Went for a walk, rather than serious birding, but saw a few things anyway. The track was very busy at 7.30 on a Sunday morning, the usual joggers, walkers, kids, dogs and a few birders, one group in particular of about 20 people clustered around the Professor.
Nothing super special – highlights for me:
A pair of Black-shouldered Kites hunting the field along Wagtail Way, out to the ponds.
A group of Red-browed Finches near the ponds and
4 Pink-eared Ducks at the ponds.
Usual birds along the track itself - I was out of there by 9.
