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Rich Hoyer on the conclusion of his tour, Costa Rica in March



April 14: Rich Hoyer on the conclusion of his tour, Costa Rica in March

Our final days on the Caribbean slope starting at Arenal volcano continued to be full of enriching experiences, fascinating and beautiful species, and spectacular scenery. We couldn’t have had better viewing conditions of the volcano from our rooms at Arenal Observatory Lodge, which was also very birdy.


Arenal volcano

The fruit feeders there were swarming with bold Montezuma Oropendolas and several tanagers, and the purple porterweed hedges hosted half a dozen hummingbirds including gorgeous White-necked Jacobins and shockingly red-footed Bronze-tailed Plumleteers. This Common Tody-Flycatcher was busy building a nest in a shrub next to the walkway immediately in front our rooms.


Common Tody-Flycatcher

We then moved over to the Sarapiquí region, where we first spent most of a day at La Selva Biological Station. Among the birds, we were fortunate to see three Great Tinamous and even a Slaty-breasted Tinamou right beside the trail, teased in a pair of Black-headed Tody-Flycatchers, succeeded in discovering a day roost of a Vermiculated Screech-Owl, and had a wonderful time with a most cooperative pair of Chestnut-colored Woodpeckers.


Chestnut-colored Woodpecker

La Selva is always full of amazing plants and critters, amongst which we saw Strawberry Poison Frogs, a huge, silver-backed Savigny’s Orb Weaver, a bullet ant, a stunning Glorious Blue Skipper, and a roost of Honduran White Bats in their leaf tent, looking like what our local guide called furry marshmallows.


Glorious Blue Skipper

 
Honduran White Bats

Our second day was divided between the lush foothill forest of Braulio Carrillo National park and the vibrant grounds of our lodge. The trail at Braulio was rather quiet for much of the morning, but we eventually stumbled into a terrific mixed flock with many tanagers and furnariids, found two elusive manakins – White-crowned (for the second time in 11 years) and White-ruffed, delighted in the incomparable song of Nightingale Wren, and got very lucky to find the scarce and easily overlooked Lattice-tailed Trogon, our seventh trogon of the tour.


Lattice-tailed Trogon

Just before we left Braulio, Ricardo, our amazing driver and spotter of birds and wildlife showed us a Brown Vine Snake that had been hunting lizards on the park’s chain-link entry gate for an hour while we had been on the trail. We were lucky that it was still there.


Brown Vine Snake

On our hotel grounds of Sueño Azul, we took a couple strolls in different directions, seeing our only Sunbittern, both Bare-throated and Fasciated Tiger-Herons, a beautiful White Hawk, and a Gartered Trogon, our final and eighth (!) species, the most common and widespread of all that had surprisingly evaded us until now. Ricardo joined us for these walks, spotting one of the biggest surprises of the tour, a Pinnated Bittern sitting still in a clump of grass in one of the several ponds on the property.


Pinnated Bittern

We concluded the tour at La Paz Waterfall Gardens, where we were reacquainted with cloud forest birds such as Slate-throated Redstart, Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush, and the haunting songs of Black-faced Solitaire. The hummingbird feeders were also a hit, giving us excellent views of male and female Green Thorntails, a spritely hummingbird that comes to feeders in only a few places.


Female Green Thorntail

I’m already looking forward to next year’s tour from March 4-18.

Posted: April 14, 2016