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Red-throated Bee-eater

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

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

COSTA RICA - DAY 11. - FEBRUARY 18TH 2014


TRANSFER FROM SAVEGRE TO TALARI LODGE WITH STOPS AT PROVIDENCIA TRACK, BOSQUE del TOLOMUCO, PARAMO FOREST AND LOS CUSINGOS

It seemed that we saw more venues than birds today with lots of stops and not much to show for our efforts. We departed from Savegre just after breakfast and drove up the valley to the main road, after about 2km we turned onto a wide track called La Providencia  where we got off the bus to walk. We were in cloud, it was quite chilly and the light was bad. After about an hour we had very few species but two of them were new for the trip; slaty finch and Peg-billed Finch, other species seen were: Common Bush Finch, Sooty-capped Brush-Finch, Volcano Hummingbird, Mountain Eleania and a few tanagers.
GREEN HONEYCREEPER
 

We climbed back onto the bus and drove for a couple of hours towards our next destination. A quick stop at a small lodge called Bosque del Tolomuco was made to look at the hummer feeders that are dotted about the lush gardens. We noticed a distinct change in temperature as we alighted from the bus, it was very much warmer, we were now on the Pacific slopes on the eastern side of the country.

During our short stay we added three out of four of our target hummingbirds which is not a bad effort. Green-crowned Brilliant was the most common species seen, along with the Magnificent Hummingbird then our first new species was found when a Voilet-headed Hummingbird showed up then a Magenta-throated Woodstar turned up, this species is yet another endemic to Costa Rica and Western Panama. Finally we found a Stripe-tailed Hummingbird, this along with Scintillant Hummingbird and Green Hermit made up the total of our sightings at the feeders.

Other birds seen at this wonderful venue was Swallow-tailed Kite, Baltimore Oriole, Cherrie’s Tanager and a Rufous-breasted Wren, both of the latter two species were new for us.

Lunch was taken at a roadside restaurant which had a magnificent panoramic view and a couple of feeders which were very quiet, just a Stripe-throated Hermit and a couple of common tanager species were seen.

Our afternoon venue was a conservation area known as Los Cusingos, this where the famous ornithologist and author Alexander Skutch lived for over 50 years, his home remains untouched since his death and is now a museum maintained in his honour, it is a fascinating place to visit and well recommended.

Today the gardens and surrounding secondary forest were very quiet it took great effort to see even one bird! We waited a while before taking a circular walk in the forest, even then it was hard to find a single bird. We started well with a Red-capped Manakin then a single flycatcher was seen and we heard a few more species including an elusive Scaled Pigeon.

Back in gardens things started to move around 5pm, tanagers began to emerge and visit the feeding tables as did a Green Honeycreeper and a Blue Dacnis. A few warblers flitted about we saw Tennessee and Chestnut-sided Warblers, then a couple of Yellow-headed Caracaras appeared followed by a Roadside Hawk and a couple of hummers.

Roy our guide called us to the back of the buildings to watch a Grey-necked Wood-Rail and an Agouti walked by. So our great expectations of Los Cusingos were certainly dampened by the poor show of birds and no sign of Cotingas or Aracaris.

 
We drove to our lodge for the night at Talari where a lovely dinner was served and an early night was taken by the group.

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