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THE PROGRAMME FOR SPRING 2018 IS NOW ON MY

WEBSITE BUT HERE IS A PREVIEW



Jan 2nd - 5th - Somerset Levels

Jan 7th - 20th. - Sri Lanka. £1850

Feb 16th - March 3rd Costa Rica - full

Mar 20th - 30th Morocco - 10 nights. - full

April 2nd - 9th - Andalucia migration tour. - full

April 10th - 18th - Coto Donana & Extremadura - £950 - 2 places

April 19th - 27th - Coto Donana & Extremadura - £950 - full

April 28th - 5th May. - Lesvos - full

May 6th - 13th - Portugal - £950 - 4 places

May 15th - 22nd - Northern Greece - full

May 23rd - 30th Bulgaria - £850 - 4 places

May 23rd - 30th - Andalucia birds and butterflies - £850

May 31st - June 7th. - Extremadura and Sierra de Gredos - £950

June 12th - 20th - Pyrenees and Picos de Europa - full


FLIGHTS NOT INCLUDED IN THESE PRICES



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Red-throated Bee-eater

Red-throated Bee-eater
join us for a fantastic tour of The Gambia this November

Thursday, February 14, 2013

FEB 13TH - COSTA RICA DAY 13


 CARARA NATIONAL PARK

We assembled at the car park at 6am for a stroll before breakfast. A calling owl got our attention before we set off anywhere. The Ferruginous Pygmy Owl was sitting in the tree above us, very nice too. Then we found a pair of Torquoise-browed Motmots, they posed for the cameras for a while. Several Scarlet Macaws flew over and two of them landed in a small tree right next to the Car park, click-click went the cameras. A couple of White-fronted Parakeets flew over and they were new for our list.

The only other new birds for the trip were a flock of Costa Rican Swifts flying high over the lodge complex. We settled down for breakfast at 7am before setting off at 8am for our morning birding session at Carara forest.

Carara is one of the Costa Rica’s most famous birding sites and the most northerly site found on the South Pacific slopes. It preserves some 5000 hectares of primary forest and offers two well maintained trails both of which are easily accessible. We took the ‘river trail’ and spent 3 hours walking through dense forest with open areas and finally wet sat by a large overgrown pool. It took a while to find any birds but eventually we caught up with a prized species in the shape of the Royal Flycatcher, it was found near it’s hanging nest just a meter or so off the trial, a great bird but you never see it with its crest erected.

A Common Potoo was another super find and our second one of the trip, this one was much nearer and it opened it eyes to look down at us. Boat-billed Herons showed well at the pool, they sat in their usual roost. The ant-birds and ant-shrikes took up most of our time and attention on the trail, they were hard to see and took some finding at times. But it was the Orange-collared Manakin that got most of the praise and applause. These little gems were coming down to a ‘lek’ area (a small area where they had cleared the leaf –litter) and where the males performed their courtship dances and displays, fantastic little birds.

At Lunchtime we drove towards Tarcoles and took a delicious lunch at a beach-side restaurant whilst watching many sea-birds. At one stage we counted 82 Magnificent Frigatebirds whilst many Brown Pelicans sat on the water.

After lunch we took as second trail into the Carara forest, it was now very hot and after 30 minutes of walking we hadn’t seen a single bird. So we decided to return to the lodge and use the swimming pool and relax for the rest of the day.

At dusk the sky filled with Scarlet Macaws flying off to roost and many Lesser Nighthawks came out hawking insects, the sky turned red as we watched a beautiful sun set over the pacific ocean. The end of our 13th day, just two more to go and we still need 40 new birds in order to reach our 400 target.

ADDITIONS TO THE COSTA RICA LIST AND TO MY 2013 YEAR LIST


455. Double-toothed Kite   
456. Mangrove Cuckoo
457. Ferruginous Pygmy Owl
458. Costa Rica Swift
459. Long-billed Hermit
460. Ruby Throated hummingbird
461. Charming Hummingbird
462. Cinnamon Hummingbird
463. White-fronted Parrot
464. Yellow-naped Parrot
465. Black-hooded Antshrike
466. Dot-winged Antwren
467. Dusky Antbird
468. Royal Flycatcher
469. Rufous and White Wren
470. Turquoise Browed Motmot
471. Bairds Trogon

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