Costa Rica Day Six: A walk down the road

Melodious Blackbird, Xandari Pacific Resort, Playa Esterillos Este, Costa Rica

Woke up early to catch the dawn chorus. Here it would be dominated by parakeet flybys, grackles, and kiskadees.

And no guide this morning. I would go exploring on my own. On the way to Carara the previous morning, we had spotted a lively heron and egret scene at a little brook up the road from the resort. A nice destination for an early morning stroll.


I was not disappointed. Here's a sample of what was there:

Bare-throated tiger heron (adult this time)


and our old friends, the great blue heron (immature)


White ibis (immature)


green heron and cattle egret


Of special note: this teeny tiny green kingfisher, actively plucking minnows from the stream


and a family of purple gallinules.



The area between the highway and the resort is all agricultural land, full of horses (for tourists) and cattle/cattle egrets, a nice change from tramping through the rainforest. Here I could check out some of the common local, (but exotic for me!) birds, including the groove-billed ani

(I would see its cousin, the smooth-billed ani during a short visit to Quepos)

the tiny inca dove, with its scaly appearance


and best of all, the gray hawk, tolerating a pretty close encounter.


On the walk back, I heard a song that made me stop short. Could that be an Eastern meadowlark? And wait, could that be a yellow-throated vireo? Listen for yourself. Dreams of Massachusetts meadows in June...

Costa Rica Day Five: Carara National Park

Fiery-billed Aracari, Carara National Park, Costa Rica

My third and final CR guided tour would be Carara National Park. Because the park was 45 minutes north and there are some security issues linked with parking near one of the trails, I hooked up (thanks to the diligence of the Xandari staff) with a local naturalist and a driver. This time the guide was Ronny, a student majoring in Environmental Tourism. He had just passed a final exam on trees (held on-site at Carara, with its stunning levels of biodiversity) and was eager to show me what he had learned--cool, as far I was concerned.

There are some amazing areas of primary forest left there.


Carara is host to one of the classic examples of ant-tree-bird symbiosis: between the acacia, a species of ants that lives in acacia thorns--which emerge and defend the tree from intruders with painful stings

and the ubiquitous rufous-napped wren, which nests there.
Here are some photos of the giant-sized wren taken in Xandari.



Ronny also provided a hands-on demonstration of the strength of the leaf-cutter army ant. (That's an ant holding that stick)


The birding was also pretty good, though we arrived too late to see the trogons. The best bird of the day was probably the royal flycatcher (see blurry photo below).

(It resisted displaying its incredible crown.)

Seeing (and hearing) a pale-billed woodpecker was also a highlight.


Because we had a driver (Maurice, who spend much of his time on the drive getting tutored in natural history from Ronny) we could also make stops on the way to Carara.

Here's a glimpse of a crocodile on the Tarcoles River.


Here's another glimpse at orange-chinned parakeets.


And chestnut-mandibled toucans (see the one hanging upside down)


And finally, the Scarlet Macaw, grievously endangered globally but a fairly common sight and sound in the area near Carara.


Complete list of birds seen on Carara tour:
Magnificent frigate bird, bare-throated tiger heron, little blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, cattle egret, great blue heron, green heron, tricolor heron, crested caracara, yellow-headed caracara, gray-necked wood rail, purple gallinule, inca dove, orange-chinned parakeet, scarlet macaw, groove-billed ani, blue-throated goldentail, black-throated trogon (heard only), ringed kingfisher, green kingfisher, fiery-billed aracari, red-crowned woodpecker, pale-billed woodpecker, plain xenops, northern barred woodcreeper, black-hooded antshrike (female), chestnut-backed antbird, royal flycatcher, rose-throated becard, blue-crowned manakin, rufous-naped wren, chestnut-sided warbler, northern waterthrush.

Costa Rica Day Four: Xandari Pacific Resort

Sunset Willet, Playa Esterillos Este, Costa Rica

And then suddenly we're at the beach. Actually, not SO suddenly. The drive from La Fortuna to our Pacific Coast destination took around 4 and a half hours, largely because Garmin was confused and thought we could hit the speedy new highway here

"turn right, onto highway"

and so we ended up driving the slow and harrowing but spectacular old road to the beach.

But then we arrived at the magical Xandari Pacific Resort and immediately relaxed. Here's a couple things spotted while eating lunch:

Bare-throated Tiger Heron (immature)


Friendly young iguana that came within a few feet of our table (it was eating leaves from decorative plants)



The chief pleasures of the beach here can be summed up as:

Magnificent frigate birds soaring overhead


A multitude of beach crabs scuttling around


Endless streams of brown pelicans flying up and down the coast


Rainbows


Sunsets


Here's a video version of the above. I've deliberately kept the pelican scenes long to let you see the undulating patterns formed by pelican flocks.

Costa Rica Day Three: Tabacon Grand Spa Thermal Resort

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, Tabacon Resort, Costa Rica

Tabacon is mostly about luxuriant relaxation but the resort maintains a lush tropical garden that attracts local songbirds and hummingbirds and the path to the hot springs spa is lined with fruit trees, particularly bananas. (This area is public, by the way, so even if you aren't staying at the resort you can park and check it out).

This is a great place to encounter chestnut-mandibled toucans. In the evening I watched as a pair sat high in a tree and alternated their VERY LOUD song. (Here's a taste of toucan song, though I wish I could have recorded the pair singing...)

During the morning they can be seen near the banana trees.

In fact, if you are lucky you might be able to catch one feeding at the banana tree. In the video below, I was super close but I knew it would probably fly away if I raised my camera to zoom in. Also in the video--a cooperative scaly-breasted hummingbird and a pair of crested guans in a tree just outside our room. I just missed filming a tree-top fight between the two of them!

Costa Rica Day Two: La Fortuna

La Fortuna Falls

After returning from the hanging bridges, my wife and I headed out to La Fortuna Falls, a breath-taking nature preserve not far from La Fortuna. Absolutely spectacular, and undersold, in our opinion, in the tourism literature. Expect to see back-packing college students swimming in the pool at the bottom of the falls...


On the drive back, pretty good looks (in the sun!) of some common but colorful local birds.
Here's Passerini's Tanager (see the red rump)

He was feeding with a group of black-cowled orioles


We walked around La Fortuna--our favorite of the small tourist towns we visited in Costa Rica--and ate lunch at the "Costa Rican" themed restaurant, La Choza De Laurel. They have banana feeders placed along the perimeter of the restaurant. This keeps the fruit flies contained and attracts a number of colorful (and somewhat noisy) bird species, including:
Orange-chinned Parakeets

(We enjoyed watching this couple on the wires outside the restaurant)


(And this guy INSIDE the restaurant)

Blue-gray tanagers



and the spectacular red-legged honeycreeper, which perched on a banana bunch right next to our table (see movie below).


After lunch we walked around the town. I looked for suburban nature while my wife searched for souvenirs.
Here's some of what I discovered.

Big brown squirrel (I haven't been able to track down the species--maybe gray-tailed)

Jesus Lizard (brown basilisk) on a tree right outside the town church


The ubiquitous great kiskadee


And the social flycatcher (I've been told Costa Rican's will often lump all these birds, along with the tropical kingbird, as pechos amarillos--"yellow chests")



Finally, a video version of the above, beginning with a common but surprising sight: a red-winged blackbird with a song I've never heard before. Also, a better look at the red-legged honeycreeper and footage of parakeet grooming.