My journey started at 02:45 on
the 4th when my wife drove to the bus station in Leicester to catch
a 03:35 bus to London Heathrow. The
coach journey was uneventful and after arriving and checking in at Heathrow I
had breakfast before heading for the departure gate. I met Richard Bashford, who was the
Naturetrek guide for the trip and by the time of boarding all members of the
group were present except for one whom Richard couldn’t find but was expecting
her to be on the flight.
The United Airlines flight
departed pretty much on time at 10:25 and we landed in good time at Newark, New
Jersey in the United States to catch our onward flight to San Jose in Costa
Rica. Although we had to collect our
bags passing through American Immigration all went smoothly and the missing
member of the group was also found.
Having had a pretty good
flight from the UK with United Airlines the next part of the journey was just
the opposite, with less leg room, which was compounded by having to put my hand
luggage under the seat and the landing was also a little hairy with the plane
bouncing around with the landing being quite heavily.
We were all glad to get out of
the airport were met by are local guide, Yehudi who then took us to our coach
where we met our driver for the trip Ramon.
We took about forty-five minutes to get to our overnight hotel the Hotel
Bougainvillea and were soon checked in and in our rooms.
I didn’t sleep too well and
woke several times during the night and on hearing an owl call went onto the
balcony to see if it was visible but without success. It turned out to be a Tropical Screech-Owl
but it remained a heard only for the trip.
I was awake before dawn on the
5th and was out in the hotel grounds with several other member of
the party before breakfast. It was
initially quite quiet but the birds became more active as the dawn progressed
and by the time we left the hotel I had recorded nineteen species but
surprising as it was my first trip to Costa Rica only four were new. They were Crimson-fronted Parakeet, Rufous-tailed
Hummingbird, Hoffmann’s Woodpecker and Melodious Blackbird.
After breakfast we assembled
outside and were introduced to our final two members of the party, Jill and
Patricia, from Australia. It took quite
some time to get away from the city and the traffic was quite heavy most of the
time and it was close to two hour before we stopped for a break at the Quetzal
Lodge.
There were a few hummingbird
feeders at the back restaurant and although there were plenty of hummingbirds,
they comprised of only three species, Green Violet-ear, Fiery-throated
Hummingbird and Magnificent Hummingbird and the only other bird we saw was a
Wilson’s Warbler.
Fiery-throated Hummingbird
Fiery-throated Hummingbird
Fiery-throated Hummingbird
Green Violet-ear
Green Violet-ear
Green Violet-ear
Green Violet-ear
Magnificent Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Female Magnificent Hummingbird
Female Magnificent Hummingbird
Female Magnificent Hummingbird
Wilson's Warbler
We eventually left the
restaurant and walked a short distance down the valley were we added our fifth
hummingbird of the day, a male Volcano Hummingbird. Other new birds included Mountain Elaenia,
Black-and-yellow Silky-flycatcher, Sooty Thrush, American Mountain Thrush and
Sooty-capped Bush Tanager.
Mountain Elaenia
Hummingbird feeder at the Quetzal Lodge
Volcano Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
It was soon time to move on to
our accommodation for the next two nights at Savegre as we needed to be there
in time for lunch.
It was 13:45 when we arrived
and Yehudi, our local guide, was concerned as there was a forest fire high on
one of the slopes. We learnt later that
it had been started by someone smoking some bees but it was proving difficult
for the fire fighters to access and was being seen as a significant
problem. Although it was still burning
when we departed a day and a half later another access point had been found and
they were thankfully getting it under control.
After some lunch and settling
into our rooms we went a walk through the lodge grounds and also alongside the
steam. There were hummingbird feeders
again present outside the restaurant and again there were Green Violet-ear and
Magnificent Hummingbirds but also Stripe-tailed Hummingbird, Grey-tailed
Mountain-gem and Scintillant Hummingbird.
A feeding table with bananas attracted a number of species and Clay-coloured
Thrushes, Blue-grey Tanagers, Flame-coloured Tanagers, a Summer Tanager and
Yellow-thighed Finch all made visits. As
we started to walk through the garden a Slaty Flowerpiercer provided some
excellent views but several Silver-throated Tanagers proved more difficult,
although I did get a decent view eventually.
As we moved through a more wooded area a Grey-breasted Wren and a
Ruddy-capped Nightingale-thrush were observed, although I missed the
nightingale –thrush. We stopped to view
and area that was exposed to the sun and we had Brown-capped Vireo, several
Tennessee Warblers, a Collared Whitestart and a Common Bush Tanager and as we
walked towards the river two Emerald Toucanets provided some nice views.
Magnificent Hummingbird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Stripe-tailed Hummingbird
Scintillant Hummingbird
Flame-coloured Tanager
Flame-coloured Tanager
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Slaty Flowerpiercer
Slaty Flowerpiercer
Slaty Flowerpiercer
Slaty Flowerpiercer
Acorn Woodpecker
Acorn Woodpecker
Acorn Woodpecker
Acorn Woodpecker
We crossed the stream and
began walking down stream and soon had both a Dark Pewee and a Black Phoebe and
after crossing the river again we were rewarded with a Black-billed
Nightingale-thrush and a Black-faced Solitaire.
After arriving back at the
lodge I spent some time birding in the grounds with Richard and added Paltry
Tyrannulet to our list and right at the death as the light was fading we found
a Ruddy-capped Nightingale-thrush on the steam.
During my first day we had
recorded fifty-eight species thirty of which were new birds. Other birds seen during the day were Rock
Dove, Red-billed Pigeon, White-winged Dove, White-collared Swift, Vaux’s Swift,
Common Squirrel Cuckoo, Great White Egret, Turkey Vulture, American Black
Vulture, White-tailed Kite, Swallow-tailed Kite, Acorn Woodpecker, Great Kiskadee,
Tropical Kingbird, Purple Martin, Southern House Wren, House Sparrow, Hooded
Warbler, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole and Great-tailed Grackle.
American Black Vulture
Great White Egret
No comments:
Post a Comment