Friday, 6 December 2024

Costa Rica for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 5 - 8th November 2024

A very early attempt for the Crested Owls resulted in hearing them very well but they stayed at a fair distance while Pauraque sung again in the gardens.  The Collared Forest Falcons started up while there was just a glimmer in the sky but likewise remained out of view.  However there was plenty to see pre-breakfast with a group of Brown-headed Parrots up in one of the bigger trees and Red-lored Amazons squawked around in multiples of two. 

I know my landscapes often make the weather look wonderful but it was often short lived

Brown-headed Parrots

White-collared Manakins wing snapped  and the trees behind the lodge held Yellow-throated and Philadelphia Vireos, Baltimore Orioles, Slaty-tailed Trogon, both Toucans, Swainson’s Thrushes, Wilson’s Warblers and Northern Bentbill and we could hear Barred Antshrike and Black-striped Sparrows singing from the gardens.

Yellow-throated Toucan


Would not want to fall into this tree


A tatty White Hawk flew over and spooked some Orange-chinned Parakeets. A shout from in side of ‘SNOWCAP!’ had us scampering back inside and there below us around the one patch of Verbena was a gleaming, shiny almost pink bumble bee of a bird with that luminous white crown.  It zipped around for just over a minute before the inevitable Rufous-tailed HB saw it off.  Thankfully we were all there to see this gem of a bird.  The last time I was here I missed one by looking at the wrong bush…

Snowcap - it was still early!



Time to go once again and wend our way across toward the Nicaraguan border and the CaƱo Negro. We stopped couple of times along the road on the way out and had a particularly productive 20 minutes at the Rio Celeste bridge (where there were still no Fasciated Tiger-Herons) and with blue skies and warming temperatures there were raptors to be found.  Five Double-toothed Kites were up high interacting and were joined by Broad-winged and Short-tailed Hawks, Turkey, Black and two adult King Vultures, a squealing Bat Falcon, immature Red-tailed Hawk and a low Great Black Hawk. Superb stuff. Ramon was trying his very best to find us an Ornate Hawk-Eagle!



Great Black Hawk

Great Black Hawk

King Vulture

Down the road a ways we found three individual Laughing Falcons and an obliging pair of White-tailed Kites along with Roadside Hawks and our first Grey Hawk of the journey.  It was looking set to become a raptor day.

White-tailed Kites

White-tailed Kite

White-tailed Kite

White-tailed Kite


Further short stops added Blue-Black Grassquits performing their little jump display, Variable Seedeaters and a pair of Yellow Tyrannulets that were in some vines with Black-throated Wrens, Golden-hooded and Passerini’s Tanagers.   A ploughed field on the other side of the road held a pair of goggle-eyed Double-striped Thick-knees.  They always feel so much taller than our own European species.

Keel-billed Toucan



Double-striped Thick-knee

Yellow Tyrannulet

A dead palm on the outskirts of a village had a fine male Lineated Woodpecker which even let us get out and scope it. Meanwhile a Green Iguana looked out from the hollow top of the tree.  The regular parakeets and parrots were seen in the villages along with the usual flycatchers, Grey-breasted Martins and Blue and White Swallows.

Lineated Woodpecker

Lineated Woodpecker

Groove-billed Ani

Groove-billed Ani










The long bumpy track ensued and of course as soon as we reached the tarmac the Hotel de Campo entrance is just 50m up the road.  It was seriously hot and sticky but at that stage at least it was not wet.  The birding continued en route to the rooms with our first look at the dapper Spot-breasted Wrens one of which was devouring a very skinny cricket.  

Spot-breasted Wren

Spot-breasted Wren - feelers sticking out of the bill!


The water level of the lagoon was far higher that I had seen on my previous visits and with no shallow margins there was little to see bar a few Neotropic Cormorants and Great White Egrets but the gardens on the walk back up to the rooms added Grey-headed Doves, Streak-headed Woodcreepers, Common Tody Flycatchers and a smart male White-collared Manakin.

Not sure on this lizard yet

Streak-headed Woodcreeper


We were soon back out on the road and on the long bumpy road that would take us to Medio Guesso.  It was so green and wet this time and roadside stops proved most worthwhile a good selection of the regular herons and egrets, Anhingas and best of all a monstrously huge Jabiru – a species we missed last time.



Green Heron

Jabiru


Jabiru


Amazon and Ringed Kingfishers were dotted along the telephone wires with TKs and we had one particular marshy area where the wild rice was fruiting and found Morelet’s and Variable Seedeaters, Thick-billed and the impressive top heavy Nicaraguan Seedfinches.

Leafcutter Ants amongst some cow bones!

Monarch


Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Red-winged Blackbirds and Red-breasted Meadowlarks were perched up on the tops and Northern Jacanas switched between chestnut to lime yellow when they took flight. A solitary Giant Cowbird was chased off by several TKs.

Our raptor day continued with several more Roadside Hawks before adding seven Harris’s Hawks including three perched up in the same dead tree.  They soon moved on and were replaced by two dapper Bat Falcons who wanted to utilise the same lookouts.  We had joked about the chance of adding Northern Harrier and then I spotted a steadily moving but familiar shape heading high and south. Ta dah!  One ringtail in the bag and another Costa Rica tick for me to boot. Another followed shortly afterwards with two American Kestrels on the wires.  Jose said that this was one of their regular spots.

Harris’s Hawks

Harris’s Hawks

Bat Falcons

Bat Falcon

Bat Falcon

Northern Harrier 

Northern Harrier 

American Kestrel


Western Cattle Egrets



The sky had begun to dark and the rain soon arrived just in time for our arrival at Medio Guesso. We had a great little boat ride as usual but the persistent precipitation and grey skies did not quite give the experience I was hoping for the crew with damp birds all around and with higher water levels, not the numbers I had imagined.  





Saying that we were still very fortunate finding a variety of Rallidae with a pair of diminutive Yellow-breasted Crakes (not taped by the way!), seven trilling White-throated Crakes, Common and Purple Gallinules and an obliging Sora.  There were mot too many herony things but we did end up with five damp Pinnated Bitterns and a single male Least Bittern.  A Pied Billed Grebe was a good find and looked huge alongside the Least Bittern. Hundreds of Western Cattle Egrets and a few Little Blue Herons were off to roost and flocks of Blue-winged Teals flighted in as an early dusk fell.



American Purple Gallinule

Sora

Yellow-breasted Crake


Blue-winged Teals

Least Bittern

Western Cattle Egrets

Pinnated Bittern


There were only a few Ringed, Green and Amazon Kingfishers and most were sheltering from the rain and a flighty Fork-tailed Flycatcher looked particularly bedraggled as it flew along the river.  There were raptors too with Black-collared Hawk and a soggy Snail Kite that looked very miserable.  That bill is amazing. The weather precluded us getting many small birds other than a few Red-winged Blackbirds and a singing Olive-crowned Yellowthroat that did the decent thing and popped up on top of the flooded grasses.  Pale-vented Pigeons were congregating in the odd bigger trees too roost but we could not find Night-Herons of any species.


 Green Kingfisher and umbrella

Green Kingfisher 

rough Snail Kite

We returned damp but happy with the species haul and kept our fingers crossed for the journey back where we hoped to find some Owls and Potoos by torchlight as we bumped along.  The rain grew steadily heavier making lamping for eyeshine even more difficult but we stuck to it and Jose did the business on the right hand side with an American Barn Owl, Striped Owl, two Black and White Owls and a distant Common Potoo but all I managed to find on the left were lots of spider eyes and the occasional bovine!

American Barn Owl

Striped Owl


Striped Owl - Jose Pablo Castillo

It had been another long day but we had experienced 26 birds of prey and somehow not been defeated by the deteriorating weather.  Sleep came easy.