From the sublime to the
ridiculous, yesterday was a total wipe-out and today we were blitzed by birds.
It was truly amazing this morning and one of our best birding sessions yet, we
met in the car park at 5:45am and were still there at 6:45am because so many
species were milling around. We got great views of some birds that had only
been glimpses before today and we added a dozen or so species to our list.
Red-headed Woodpecker was one of the first we had a dozen sightings of this
species. Then we found an Yellow-crowned Euphonia, Common Tody Flycatcher,
Piratic Flycatcher and a lovely new hummer – the Long-billed Star-throat.
 |
| Breakfast at Tamari Lodge |
A Streaked Saltator was next then
an American Redstart showed well, a Tropical Gnatcatcher was also nice to see,
the whole garden was buzzing with tanagers, orioles, warblers, flycatchers,
thrushes and honeycreepers, what a great time we all had. A short walk through
some secondary forest produced Lineated Woodpecker and we heard the
Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush but couldn’t lure it out from the dense scrub.
A Poro tree was absolutely full of birds, dozens of Baltimore Orioles were
joined by Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, the males of both of these species were
exquisite in their summer plumage.
Our breakfast was delayed but we
eventually dragged ourselves to the dining room which was open plan and we
could see the whole garden and some feeders where the stunning Speckled Tanager
and both Red-legged and Green Honeycreepers came to feed.
At 9:30am we got on the bus and
continued our journey to the Pacific coast. We arrived on the coast near
Quepos. We passed hundreds of hectares of Palm Olive groves before turning off
the Min road to drive through the palms to some open grass and rice meadows.
 |
| YELLOW-CROWNED EUPHONIA |
A very straight and long track
bordered the rice fields and we took this track on foot. A wide, water-filled
ditch fan alongside the track and this was full of birds, lizards, frogs and
butterflies. Again we were presented with a plethora of birds, many in song and
lots on the move. We quickly found Green Heron, American Pygmy Kingfisher,
Purple Gallinule, Green Kingfisher and a small party of Dickcissel. Then we
found several flocks of seedeaters with 3 varieties being listed, all the time
there were doves, vultures, hawks and egrets in the sky and perched in trees
and bushes.
Our walk ended a couple of hours
later, the bus picked us up and we made the short journey into Quepos where we
ate lunch and visited Roy’s art gallery. A quick look at the beach produced 3
ndw species Magnificent Frigatebird, Willet and Tricoloured Heron.
-
 |
| ROSEATE SPOONBILL, WOOD STORK AND GREAT EGRET' |
At 2pm we were on the road again
heading north towards Carara National Park and our lodge nearby. But first we
made a stop at the Parrita River. This tidal river usually holds many waders,
egrets and herons and even though it was high tide there were a lot species
there. Adjacent to the river there is a huge shrimp farm with many pools, some
are quite shallow which provides a haven for waders during high tide. It was
there that we concentrated our efforts, we quickly located small flocks of
‘peeps’ and larger shorebirds. Whimbrel, Grey Plover, Willet, Black-necked
Stilt, Least Sandpiper, Semi-palmated Plover and a Spotted Sandpiper were first
on the list. The waders were joined by Roseate Spoonbills, White Ibis, Snowy
and Great Egrets, Wood Storks and both Great Blue and Little Blue Herons. We
also found Lesser Scaup and Blue-winged Teal on the water.
In the trees along the road we
found Common Black Hawk, Crested and Yellow-headed Caracara as well as Orchard
Oriole.
Again we had to drag ourselves
away and continued northward, an unscheduled stop at the side of the road was
made to view a large pool in a filed, it was full of birds. Mainly storks,
egrets and herons (including the Bare-throated Tiger Heron), but also a few
species of waders. We added Lesser Yellowlegs, Western and Solitary Sandpipers
to our wader list and we saw our first Spectacled Caiman. The caiman was very
large and spent its time catching fish in this ever-shrinking pool which was
drying out rapidly. The Roseate Spoonbills looked fantastic in the afternoon
sunlight contrasting strongly with the ugly, dull Wood Storks.
A couple of Mealy Parrots and a
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher were also added to our list, both species were
sitting in middle distant trees. . Other sightings along the road included:
Scarlet Macaw, White-tailed Kite and last but not least Lesser Nighthawk. We
saw a dozen or so of these nightjars hawking insects above the track in the
final 2kms of our journey, a nice bird to end a great days birding. I haven’t
counted but we must have seen over 100 species today and added about 30 new
ones. Just counted it was 117 seen today.
No comments:
Post a Comment