Weather - sunny and warm all day, no wind.
Perfect weather for birding, we rose with the sun at 6am. We spent the first hour on the veranda watching the feeders before taking a wonderful breakfast on the terrace, it is so lovely to be able to sit outside for breakfast at 7 in the morning. Apart from a diverse range of birds including a stunning male Snowcap we also had mammal visitors to the garden. First a Common Opossum, then a Cotati and that was followed by a Brazilian Rabbit.
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| Blue-crowned Motmot - bad light=bad picture, sorry |
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Our first walk took up into the forest on agently climbing trail. We stopped to watch a couple or Flycatcher before walking into open areas where fruit trees had been planted. It was fantastic and most of the group agreed that it was our best birding yet. The young saplings in the field were full of birds with some very nice finds too!
A Golden-browed Chlorophonia was the star it is another regional endemic found only in Costa Rica and Western Panama. The male Blackburnian Warbler was superb whilst Golden-crowned, Mourning, Macgillivray's and Chestnut -sided provided a supporting cast.
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| on the veranda at Rancho Naturalista |
Eventually things went quiet and so we walked back into the forest, over the next 30 minutes we listed a few new species; Slatey-capped Flycatcher, White-ruffed Manakin and Roadside Hawk.
Before we returned to Rancho for lunch we stopped off at a nearby farm where a lovely garden was attracting some special birds. We were there for ten minutes before first a Black-crested Coquette and then a Snowcap turned up to feed on the flowers, what a fantastic way to end the morning.
The afternoon was anti-climatic except for our first river walk. We drove to the local River Mina where it was possible to see a Sunbittern. Well the first one we found was down to Anita, we had all walked passed the bird but a more vigilant Anita found a beautiful Sunbittern lurking in the shadows, amazing. We went on to find a nest with a sitting bird and even had the luck to see the chick under the adult, superb birding.
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| Sunbittern on the nest - in a tree 10 meters above the water |
We made a brief visit to the Tuis River where we found another Flycatcher species and we had great views of Bay-headed, Emerald and Silver-throated Tanagers.
Back at Rancho at 5pm we still had time to visit the 'hummingbird pools', these are a series of small shallow natural pools that form in the dry season along the course of a stream. For some reason hummingbirds love to go there to bathe, it was magical to see those tiny creatures hovering over the pools making tiny splashes as they dipped quickly in and our of the water.
One final thing to report - as I sit here on the terrace at 9pm when everyone else has gone off to bed I can hear several sounds coming from the garden and the forest. A Common Paraque is driving me mad with incessant calls, but a Common Potoo has just rendered its cascading call and a Mottled Owl began to deliver its two-note hoot.......... time for bed.
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