It was transfer day today we moved from the warm, dry area of the higher Caribbean slopes where the temperature was around 20C to the lowlands where it was much warmer and a lot more humid.
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| White-necked Jacobin |
We met at 6am and went for a short walk around the gardens, the feeders were not as busy as the day before and the only new species we saw was a Variable Seedeater (a small black finch-type species).
We ate breakfast at 7am and by 8am we were all in the bus heading down the long steep drive to the valley bottom where the River Tuis is found. Along the way we stopped to look at more Variable Seedeaters and in doing so we found a few more species. First a Long-tailed Tyrant flew over us and landed nearby then a Common Toady flycatcher did the same. We then added a Social flycatcher to the day list.
At the river it took us ages to walk a 100 meters it was so busy with sightings, some of the highlights included: a fabulous Laughing Falcon, Yellow-margined Flycatcher and Gray-capped Flycatcher. our walk took us through some open meadows and short sections of woodland, the track climbed and dipped following the contour of the hillside and all the time the river was close by. We hoped for a sighting of Sunbittern but all we got in the river was a Black Phoebe.
The butterflies along this stretch of the river were out of this world, all shapes and sizes and all colours some of them were simply stunning. On the way back we found a mixed feeding flock of Tanagers and identified: Speckled, Golden-hooded, White-shouldered, Emerald, Bay-headed, Palm and Blue/gray tanagers. Alongside them we found a Slate-throated Redstart and a Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant.
We then drove back up the hill to the Rancho for lunch before setting off at 1pm for the lowlands. At 3:30pm we arrived at hotel Sueno Azul, after moving into our rooms we were off discovering the birds of the expansive grounds of the hotel.
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| The view from the Vista de Valle hotel restaurant |
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| Collared Aracari |
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| Blue-crowned Motmot |
A couple of large lakes and a river form part the grounds and it there that we spent most of our time. We found several herons, a couple of kingfishers and lots of Spotted Sandpipers. In the lakes we found grey-blue heron, yellow-crowned night heron, Anhinga and Neotropic Cormorant.
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| The odd looking Montezuma Oropendola |
Along one the tracks we found a lovely Rufous Mourner and we bumped into a tanager flock which held several species of tanager and a couple of Olive-backed Euphonia. We ended the day at the riverside watching egrets, herons and kingfishers which wrapped up another excellent day in this superb birding country.
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| Keel-billed Toucan |
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| White-winged Dove |
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| Thorntail |
ADDITIONS TO THE COSTA RICA LIST AND MY 1000-IN-A-YEAR LIST
253. Neotropic Cormorant
254. Anhinga
255. Bare-throated Tiger heron
256. Great Egret
257. Snowy egret
258. Yellow-crowned Night Heron
259. Roadside hawk
260. Swainson’s Hawk
261. Spotted Sandpiper
262. Pale-vented Pigeon
263. Ringed Kingfisher
264. Amazon Kingfisher
265. Laughing Falcon
266. Red-lored Parrot
267. Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant
268. Common-Tody Flycatcher
269. Yellow-margined Flycatcher
270. Eastern-wood Pewee
271. Long-tailed tyrant
272. Great-crested Flycatcher
273. Grey-capped Flycatcher
274. Prothonotary Warbler
275. Buff-rumped Warbler
276. White-shouldered Tanager
277. Speckled Tanager
278. Variable Seedeater
279. Yellow-faced Grassquit
280. Olive-backed Euphonia
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