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| BREAKFAST THE FIRST MORNING |
Our group was finally fully
assembled after last night’s arrival of the last 6 members. We all met up at
5:45am at the reception area for our first official birding trip of the tour.
We walked the grounds again and found many of the same species that we recorded
yesterday with the addition and omission of a few. The Hoffman’s Woodpecker
showed well again as did the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl and the beautiful Baltimore
Orioles. We added Boat-billed Flycatcher, Greyish Saltator, White Hawk,
Groove-billed Ani and Rose-throated Becard to name but a few.
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| ferruginous pigmy OWL |
During breakfast we also found
Keel-billed Toucan, what stunner that bird is. At 9am we packed our cases onto
the bus in readiness for our trip to the Caribbean slopes. About 1 ½ hours into
the journey we stopped at the roadside to look at a Bat Falcon which was
perched in its regular roost, nice bird. Then we drove a short way to the
entrance of Braulio Carrillo reserve. We had climbed up from the Central valley
heading eastward and were a few hundred meters above sea level, Braulio is a
National Park of some 50,000 hectares (118,000 acres) and consists of mainly primary
forest.
We spent 3 ½ hours on one single
trail which loops around one small section and it was full of birds, we were
luckily enough to bump into 2 or 3 feeding flocks that held lots of species. We
soon got overwhelmed with new birds flitting past at a fast rate of knots but
we several accomplished birders in the group and soon many species were pointed
out. Black-faced Grosbeak, fed with a number of tanagers, the Blue and Gold was
one of prizes. A couple of Euphonias were found with the next group, we saw the
Olive-backed and Tawny-capped varieties.
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| RUFOUS-NAPED WREN |
One super bird and a lifer for
most of us was the Brown-billed Sythebill, It is a woodcreeper with the most
curved bill you may ever see. Other flocks held, Lesser Greenlet, Plain Xenops,
Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Black and White Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, Olive
Tanager, White-shouldered Tanager and a couple of good finds the Black and
Yellow tanager and the Tawny-crested Tanager. We also found Trogons, Motmots,
more woodcreepers and warblers, it was a superb walk and we really had to drag
ourselves away for lunch.
It was quite late in the
afternoon when we finished lunch so we had to press on to our next lodge but we
did make a couple of short stops before we arrived there. The first stop was at
the roadside where we look over a large expanse of grassland, we were hoping
for Nicaraguian Seedeater, but found only Passerini’s tanager, Blue-black
Grassquit and Variable Seedeater. In the distance we saw a very large mixed
flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, Groove-billed Anis, Grackles and Cpwbirds.
Next we pulled onto a track which
led us near to the reserve at La Selva, we stood watching several large fruiting
trees in search of Great Green Macaws. It wasn’t long before one turned up,
calling loudly, it was huge. Whilst there we also found another Bat Falcon, a
Laughing Falcon and to our great surprise and delight five Scarlet Macaws flew
in, they looked fantastic in the afternoon sunlight, we also found several
parakeets, a couple of parrots and at
least 5 Chestnut –mandibled Toucans.
Our last stop was an impromptu one
to look at more grassquits seen at the side of the track, but the stop it soon developed into much more
as new birds appeared in all directions! We watched from the bus as a heavy
downpour began, but we had fabulous views of a Hooded Warbler bathing on a
large leaf just after the rain-shower. We also saw another species of
woodcreeper, our first Social Flycatcher, a Black-striped Sparrow which was
tracked down as we followed its wonderful melodic song, did I really say that
about a sparrow!
The light began to fade, and fast,
so we jumped back onto the bus and drove the few kilometres to the Salva Verde
Lodge. After settling in we drove into
the local town to sample local food in a lovely restaurant.
To date we had seen 114 species
with some very special sightings in the bag.
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