COSTA RICA - DEC 13TH 2011

ANOTHER BEACH DAY! So I had to do my birding at 5:30am, it was overcast with a threat of rain, again. I drove to a recently cropped rice field just north of Quepos and adjacent to the Rio Paquito. First I drove to the banks of the river which held several species of birds: Lesser Yellowlegs was new for my list, a single bird joined a flock of Willet and Black-necked Stilts.


Two shots of the juvenile Bare-throated Tiger-Heron that I found very close to the main road in the rice fields.


Further along the river I scoped Tricoloured Heron (shown immediately below), a juvenile Little Blue Heron (all white), a Green-backed Heron, Spotted Sandpiper as I got a little closer to the bank I noticed some very large Crocodiles, no swimming today then? There were also two Southern
Lapwings on the sand spit - possibly the same two birds recorded on the 8th south of Quepos.


The Green-backed Heron, flew off and landed in a small tree, it posed perfectly for my camera.


Spotted Sandpiper, very common where-ever there is water.


Lesser Yellowlegs and Black-necked Stilt

In the rice fileds I got great views of a number of species from the main road which was quite a bit higher than the fields.

A juvenile White Ibis fed alone not too far away.

One small pool held the Bare-throated Tiger-heron as well as a family party of Northern Jacanas, the male is shown below.



Several Crested Caracara were stalking the rice filed and were quite unconcerned by my presence.



A Greater Yellowlegs is shown below, a bigger bird than the Lesser Yellowlegs, it has a longer and slightly upturned bill, very synonymous to our Redshank/Greenshank pairing.



A Snowy Egret, a juvenile again is shown below.


The rest of the day was spent on the beach and my usual lunchtime walk to the mangroves was rewarded with great views of the Amazaon Kingfisher shown below.